Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 210 The Album of the Same Name
Currently, An Xiaoxi is not signed with Sony's Little Days headquarters, but her self-titled ancient-style album "An Xiaoxi" was released a full year ahead of schedule.

Although the pre-production of this album took a lot of time, the actual production process was extremely fast.

By the end of July, Hu Xiaobei and An Xiaoqian had finished recording the entire album and even had the energy to shoot music videos for the songs.

The album contains twelve songs, three of which, including "Waiting for Your Return," "Human Fireworks," and "Qi'ao," are related to the Condor Heroes.

The other songs are derived from Chinese language textbooks or classical Chinese poems.

Examples include: "Song of Everlasting Regret", "Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River", "Like a Dream", "The Ballad of the Pipa", "Ballad of Mulan", "The Mountain Spirit", "Jiang Cheng Zi", "Slowly, Slowly", and "On the Love of Lotus".

In 2005, the cost of producing a beautifully made, officially licensed album was around 5-10 yuan just for materials and packaging.

Of course, this includes high-quality CD cases, as well as beautifully printed lyric books and covers.

Hu Xiaobei and An Xiaoqian never considered making money from this, so they held nothing back when producing the album. In addition to ensuring rich content, they also added many extra photos and posters.

Even so, the material cost of the album itself alone has reached ten yuan.

This does not include publicity and promotion, music production, lyrics and music copyright, MV shooting, and An Xiaoxi's singer fees.

Okay, these costs don't need to be calculated, since there are only two producers, Hu Xiaobei and An Xiaoqian.

Such high costs have resulted in the persistently high ex-factory price of deluxe edition albums by popular domestic singers.

The price usually supplied to retailers is around 25-40 yuan, while the retail price is around 40-60 yuan.

For example, Wang Toutiao's album "Live In Beijing Fly Higher" is priced at 48 yuan, and Ba Wanghong's "Heroes of the World" deluxe edition album is priced at 58 yuan.

There are also some albums by well-known singers or musicians, as well as original imported albums and vinyl albums. Due to their higher cost, the price for retailers is around 100-200 yuan. These are very few.

However, the price of pirated copies during this period was extremely low; you could usually buy an album that retailed for 40-60 yuan for only 5-10 yuan.

For the vast majority of students, a difference of a few dozen yuan is not a small amount.

An Xiaoxi's self-titled album was produced entirely by Hu Xiaobei, making it a family-run business.

The cost only needs to be considered for the material packaging fee of ten yuan per album, as well as the publicity and promotion expenses.

Therefore, the album's factory price was set at 20 yuan, while the retail price was 28 yuan.

This funding will be handled by "Qianbeifeng Entertainment," which has not yet been registered. "Qianbeifeng Entertainment" will be funded by six months of ringtone revenue from the song "Waiting for Your Return."

Although An Xiaoqian's song is not as popular as the top-ranked songs, its download numbers are still quite impressive.

In just six months, it brought "Qianbeifeng Entertainment" an after-tax income of 380 million RMB.

Of this, 200 million RMB will be used for the production of the self-titled album "An Xiaoxi", which is the initial release of 20 albums.

This number is quite significant for An Xiaoxi, who is releasing her first album.

It should be noted that at this time, JJ Lin had already accumulated considerable popularity based on his previous works, and the initial release of his new album "No. 89757" was only around 30 to 40 copies.

Jay Chou's "November's Chopin" only had an initial print run of around 50 copies.

The album typically takes 1-3 weeks to produce, so it is expected to be released around An Xiaoxi's birthday.

The remaining 180 million RMB of "Qianbeifeng Entertainment" will be used for album promotion.

Hu Xiaobei's planned publicity campaign was for An Xiaoqian's 18th birthday celebration.

Many things seem to have their own inevitability; after going around in circles, they eventually return to the starting point.

The reason for considering holding this coming-of-age ceremony is that it was the best choice after taking into account many factors.

First, although online rumors have been gradually defeated by the money offensive, they still had a certain impact in the early stages.

Therefore, the An and Liu families began to exert their efforts, and "Today's Talk: Rumors Fly Easily" was released at the same time. However, An Xiaoqian was not greatly affected during this period and had fewer unnecessary troubles.

For example, a disabled person who sold height-increasing knee braces to defraud unsuspecting people was caught by the authorities due to a sudden incident, and his fraudulent activities were uncovered, leading to his imprisonment.

Secondly, holding a grand coming-of-age ceremony for An Xiaoqian meets the needs of publicity and promotion. It can not only demonstrate strength but also deter villains, making it the best choice at present.

Although the so-called petty scoundrels have already been deterred by the lawyer's letter, it doesn't stop them from being deterred once more.

Actually, the album follows the path of Huaxia Publishing House and Xinhua Bookstore system, so whether or not there is this coming-of-age ceremony promotion is irrelevant.

But Hu Xiaobei was happy to do so and didn't want her to miss out on a grand coming-of-age ceremony because of his own reasons.

Besides, she earned the money for her coming-of-age ceremony herself, so she shouldn't be smeared because of it later, right?

In addition, Hu Xiaobei made her directly turn down advertisements for casual wear, eye drops, beverages, and shampoos.

They have enough money to make from the stock market; there's no need for them to take on these advertisements. It's a waste of their time and could easily lead to problems.

Instead of wasting time on this, you should focus on making good movies.

The series "Dialogue Between Masters of the Past and Present" alone will require at least 24 episodes to film. As the main character who appears throughout the entire series, An Xiaoqian will hardly have any free time.

Although August may seem like a quiet month, it is actually quite busy.

An Xiaoqian's 18th birthday celebration, the release of her self-titled album, and the preliminary preparations for "Dialogue with Masters of the Past and Present" all took place during this period.

All the album-related matters have been completed, and now we're just waiting for production.

The pre-production preparations were not complicated. The team was the same as last time, and the actors were roughly selected. All that was needed was to arrange a group audition.

Actually, if Hu Xiaobei wanted to save trouble, he could have simply decided on all the actors beforehand.

However, with the popularity of "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Times: Illuminating China", the "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Times" series has become a highly anticipated project.

Although An Xiaoqian's role in the drama is irreplaceable, "The Legend of the Grandmasters" has 24-48 main characters in each episode.

Don't be fooled by the fact that it's just a single episode featuring the main character; it's incredibly good and has a very high production value!
This project not only received strong support from the government and was heavily promoted by CCTV, but also attracted many veteran artists and actors.

Although the series has fewer episodes, it has a long broadcast period and is broadcast to audiences nationwide, resulting in a huge impact.

These advantages alone are enough to attract the attention of top celebrities.

Moreover, the series is well-produced and the finished product is a classic, with each episode featuring an outstanding main character.

Who wouldn't be tempted by such an opportunity to both increase their fame and hone their acting skills?
Who isn't watching with bated breath?

These days, actors still care about their image and have some acting skills; they still have some pursuit of art and the path of acting.

Even some of the "pretty face" actors are extremely disgusted by the labels they are given and wish they could consider themselves as talented actors.

Furthermore, it is rumored that Hu Xiaobei is skilled at training actors. He not only has the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, making mediocre actors shine, but also teaches actors according to their individual characteristics, significantly improving their performance level.

As a result, more actors and companies wanted to use connections to get in.

Unfortunately, Hu Xiaobei has always stayed at the Beijing Film Academy and doesn't socialize with people in the industry.

Even if actors from the Beijing Film Academy wanted to take advantage of their proximity, the school blocked them from doing so.

In light of this, Hu Xiaobei issued an announcement through the company: Apart from some pre-selected roles, most of the roles in The Grandmaster Chronicles will be auditioned on August 6-7.

Once the announcement was released, the company's phone lines were practically constantly ringing.

Fortunately, they have three companies, all located in the same place, and each company has hired two employees, which is enough to barely manage.

(End of this chapter)