Huayu: Traffic is king

Chapter 195 Though there be millions, I will go.

"Jingyi, it's been a long time."

As soon as she arrived at the company, Wu Qian greeted Gu Jingyi with a big smile.

This "top employee" rarely comes to the company due to scheduling conflicts.

This time, he came to discuss the production of the new album. The album he promised to make, which focuses on short video dissemination, is now in urgent need of completion.

This year, Yin Fu failed to gain a decisive advantage in the battle for market share against Man Jiao.

As the advertising and marketing expenses continue to increase, the growth brought about by the new user acquisition expenses is becoming increasingly slow.

The executives at YinYue are getting impatient and are urging the new album to be released again.

Huace originally planned to release it after February next year, so that it could be released in time for the 2019 music awards ceremony.

It's an unspoken rule in the industry that albums released at the end of the year are also selected in the year's rankings.

How could they possibly manage to secure a particularly good award in just one month?

Moreover, the first thing they did was ask for an outrageous 12-song full album.

Are you kidding me? Our own artist is still working on his first official album. It also has 12 songs, all written, composed, and arranged by him alone.

How could Gu Jingyi possibly manage two albums at the same time? Is he some kind of superman?!
When Zhao Qinghuan, the CEO of Huace, saw the album selection that Gu Jingyi had offered him, he was genuinely surprised.

The 12 songs are included in this collection. Judging from the song titles, they represent a diverse range of styles.

"Jingyi, you really have a lot of energy."

Although I don't quite understand, I'll just praise them first.

Given Gu Jingyi's current popularity, even if she sings a children's song...

His fans, known as "Jingfei," would also directly support him on the charts, pushing his songs to the top.

The name Gu Jingyi is now a trendy symbol.

"Time can only be squeezed out, Sister Qinghuan. No matter how much energy I have, it's not as much as a vacation. How about you give me a break? Three days is fine, five days is fine too."

Gu Jingyi looked at Zhao Qinghuan with a smile, his face full of playful glee.

"Haha, the idea has a good starting point, but I suggest you don't start it."

Zhao Qinghuan's lips twitched, effectively shutting down Gu Jingyi's words.

She had her assistant contact the marketing department directly via internal line, preparing to listen to Gu Jingyi's new album and offer suggestions.

Actually, these things are all symbolic. Even if Gu Jingyi really released a children's song, he would still release it anyway.

Gu Jingyi casually wrote a song called "Calories" for the OST of the movie "Hello Mr. Billionaire" and submitted it.

Originally, Zhao Qinghuan asked Gu Jingyi to write this song for the company, to see if it could be used as an OST single for the still-in-progress drama "Next Stop is Happiness".

After seeing these lyrics, I was completely stunned.

At that time, "Hello Mr. Billionaire" was also looking for OST singles in the market, and this project was originally prepared by Tencent specifically for Rocket Girls.

When Tencent approached them and heard about the demo, they immediately agreed.

These days, even being a "rustic" person is still having fun.

The song, with lyrics and music by Gu Jingyi, and being the first OST for Rocket Girls after their formation, along with the box office success of "Hello Mr. Billionaire," swept across major charts except for Gu Jingyi's singles.

The industry further divides songs into "Gu Bang" and "Fei Gu Bang". All songs on the "Gu Bang" are in the Top 10 of various music charts.

The results for Milkball Sen's mini-album, released at the end of last month, are in: 2.7 million RMB in digital album sales on QQ Music, breaking the record for domestic group digital album sales.
Their debut album received diamond record certification, making them the first Chinese entertainment group to achieve diamond record status upon debut.

The two lead singles written by Gu Jingyi immediately jumped to the top 1 and 2 on the QQ Music charts, far surpassing the new songs from EXO and BTS released at the same time.

Although Idol Century did not release any physical albums, the various companies of the limited-time group could not reach an agreement on the revenue sharing of physical albums.

However, the fact that fan-made merchandise generated over 5000 million RMB in sales still proves MilkPaoSen's strong commercial value.

Although "MilkPaoSen" only appeared together in 3 of the 9 tracks on this album, it was ridiculed as "PPT music".

However, "Good Things," directed by Gu Jingyi, still went viral through short videos featuring musical notes.

Gu Jingyi's aria in the song includes the line, "You are the only one, I think about it."

"I'm so sure, good things. One kiss after another, good things."

"I've loved you so much that I've lost my sense of reason; romance is about being addicted, unable to let go of the good and the bad."

The 27-second chorus part alone contributed tens of millions of views to the short video.

This song has only been performed on stage a few times, in just two shows.

One performance was on "Happy Camp," and the other was a live version sung by the team during a live broadcast.

Gu Jingyi contributed memorable scenes such as "covering ears and closing eyes" and "shirt button popping in slow motion".

The TikTok trending topic "Gu Jingyi's 3-second ear-covering and eye-closing kill scene from 'Good Things'" swept across international websites. Related fan-made videos and influencer imitations easily garnered over a million views.

His "shirt button popping open" during the live stream version even boosted sales of Dior products by 300%.

Thanks to Gu Jingyi's popularity in Europe and America, this digital album, which was criticized as a "PPT album," actually broke into the Billboard World Albums Chart Top 50 and remained on the chart for two weeks.

41st place in the first week, 76th place in the second week.

The original version did not make the list; it only gained popularity in Europe and America due to Gu Jingyi's previous work, "Butter."

This is a historic breakthrough achievement for Chinese boy groups. Even in K-pop, it's a remarkable achievement for any boy or girl group to have their album sales enter the "Top 100" of the Billboard Global Albums Chart. They would be showered with praise and accolades by the Korean media.

The Chinese entertainment media has become numb ever since Gu Jingyi started making music.

The astonishing achievements of each song have garnered widespread applause and praise within the Chinese entertainment industry.

Of course, in these press releases, many media outlets unanimously used euphemisms to describe "Milk Foam Forest".

After all, anyone with a modicum of judgment knows who the "easy-winner" is and who the "true god" is.

However, Gu Jingyi didn't think much of it, since Zhang Yixing had also appeared on the Billboard 200 album chart.

"Dream Never Falls in the Rainforest" sold over 20,000 copies in its first week, reaching number 21 on the Billboard 200 album chart. This not only set a record for the best performance by a Chinese singer at the time, but also marked a breakthrough for the first time for a Chinese artist.

Zhang Yixing's album remained on the charts for two weeks, ranking 21st in the first week and 181st in the second. Whether these album sales were due to genuine hype or manipulation by fans is something those in the industry know very well.

After Chris was criticized for buying his way onto ITnues' charts, he immediately pulled Zhang Yixing out to gain attention.

Although it's unethical, it indirectly confirms that Zhang Yixing's credentials are questionable.

Regardless, he was the first idol to go abroad.

Regardless of the process or the outcome, Zhang Yixing's attitude was perfect.

At the time when the controversy was raging, Gu Jingyi and Cai Xukun liked Zhang Yixing's indignant post: "It's normal that no one knows you since you just debuted on Migo. For those who don't know you, I'll try to make you know me through my music. Sharing happiness is worse than enjoying it alone. Seeing you on the stage is worse than seeing you on the charts."

However, he was also very curious as to why Zhang Yixing didn't post on foreign websites but instead on Weibo, a platform visible only to her followers in China.

He was backstage at one of Zhang Yixing's concerts in China, after he had been a guest performer for Zhang Yixing. During a casual chat, he asked about his doubts.

Zhang Yixing, who had just been talking eloquently to Gu Jingyi, blushed. He stammered, "Jingyi, you may not understand. After all, I am Chinese, and I value harmony. When I'm abroad, I represent the image of China. Posting on Instagram could easily cause misunderstandings or over-interpretations, so I can only post it domestically."

Gu Jingyi simply smiled at this, but he understood perfectly well what was going on.

This is the idea of ​​earning foreign exchange while simultaneously gaining domestic recognition.

He did not comment on this behavior, but he also gave up the idea of ​​getting to know Zhang Yixing better.

An artist, an artist who wants to break into the international market.

What kind of person would back down as soon as there's a rhythm, and only vent their frustrations in a way that's "visible to fans"?
Top stars need top stars' vision and ambition. Chris is indeed one of the "Four Top Stars." But Zhang Yixing is also one of the "Four Returned Sons," although initially his popularity wasn't as high as Chris's due to his looks.

However, she gained exposure through the variety show "Go Fighting!" and received promotional press releases from Yang Chunzhen. After achieving some success in music, she also gained further recognition as the initiator of "Idol Producer" in 2018.

This year, Zhang Yixing's popularity is really no less than that of Chris, whose popularity has been declining.

I don't understand what he's afraid of. Has he been suppressed for so long that he doesn't even dare to resist anymore?

Gu Jingyi smiled on the surface, but after returning home, he immediately ordered Huace to retaliate against all of Zhang Yixing's marketing materials promoting "Master Gu".

Are you kidding me? This talent show lasts for over four months. The trainees spend less time with the celebrity mentors than with the amateur mentors. In fact, the amateur mentors spend far more time actually guiding the trainees.

The production team just won't show it on camera...

Among the celebrity mentors, those who actually provide the most guidance are vocal mentor Li Ronghao and dance mentors Cheng Xiao and Zhou Jieqiong.

Zhang Yixing? He basically just served as a kind of "mascot"...

Chris didn't drag Gu Jingyi into this mess because Gu Jingyi's new album was released just one week after Zhang Yixing's "Dream Never Falls in the Rainforest".

With a simple release, Gu Jingyi achieved the 7th place on the Billboard 200 album chart.

The digital album "Butter" topped the domestic sales charts, with Zhang Yi previously holding the number one spot. "MilkPaoSen" came in second, and Chris third.

Currently, the top spot on the digital album chart is held by Gu Jingyi's mini-album "Like the Wind," followed by the American-themed single "Butter," and third by Nai Pao Sen's mini-album "To The Nines," which benefits from Gu Jingyi's influence.

It really is true that "there are thousands of lists, and my name is on every one of them."

This is equivalent to Gu Jingyi going to participate in a competition and single-handedly taking first, second, and third place in the league.

We also need to send a bunch of press releases to the runners-up, encouraging them to keep going. Let's work together to make the pie bigger and look forward to their performance next year.

Looking back on this year, if we were to say what has changed about Gu Jingyi...

That's probably because he's become a bit too arrogant, like a top star!

Don't be fooled by the many idols who have returned to China and are marketing themselves under the banner of making music and becoming "leading figures in Cpop".

But only two of them have actually made a splash overseas.

One is Zhang Yixing, and the other is Wang Jiaer.

Zhang Yixing was the first to try, and Wang Jiaer continued to break Zhang Yixing's records afterward.

The record for the highest-ranking Chinese album on the Billboard 200 chart is now held by Jackson Wang. His new album, *Magic Man*, debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200.

But for now, sorry to say, the record will be set by Gu Jingyi; Wang Jiaer and Zhang Yixing are only fit to be "lookers-up" and "light chasers."

After this Douyin hit album is completed, Gu Jingyi will release another official album to officially challenge for the position of top male singer.

He's going to try his luck outside; it would be a waste not to take advantage of such outstanding achievements.

China is rich in talent, with numerous singers.

However, almost all of them developed their careers domestically. Even those idols with K-pop experience, like Lu Han, only had their popularity concentrated in Asia.

Venturing into Europe and America is imperative; though there are millions of people against me, I will go.

There's no need to go too far; being a singer backed by streaming services like BTS is perfectly fine.

(End of this chapter)