A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 2 Future Prospects

The guest room wasn't large; it looked slightly bigger than a standard business room.

There were two beds, one of which was piled high with all sorts of letters and tapes. In the corner was a desk and filing cabinet, with a large CRT computer on the desk and a printer next to it—"This is our Magic Stone Records! Haha! Sit down! Please sit down!"

Lin Jianlu thanked him and sat down in a chair.

The group quickly began exchanging demos of "The First Tear"—these two people, especially Chang Pei-jen, could be perceived in just a few words as idealists.

Pure, intense, focused.

gushing.

He was clearly excited to receive a submission of the caliber of "The First Tear". "In my personal opinion, Mr. Lin, your song 'The First Tear' clearly has some commercial ideas and is a bit pop-oriented, but that's okay. We at Moyan Records don't just make things with a humanistic touch. We need pure rock like Dou Wei, Zhang Chu, and He Yong, and we also need pop-rock like Mr. Lin!"

He gestured animatedly, not allowing anyone to interrupt him. "In the few years I've been in mainland China, I've deeply felt the richness of its cultural soil. There are always melodies that move me, showing that mainland music is not stagnant, but rather full of vitality! But conversely, mainland rock music does tend to lean more towards a more humanistic approach, a bit retro. I think this is indeed due to a lack of exchange with our counterparts outside the mainland!"

"But Mr. Lin, your song 'The First Tear' is clearly different. Although the accompaniment in your demo is only guitar, I can still feel that it is very mature, and it has a very mature style and tone of commercial rock and pop rock! This is very good, and it is an indispensable part of rock music!"

"You know Zhao Chuan, right? 'I'm Ugly But I'm Gentle' is his work. I've seen a lot of pirated tapes of his selling here in the capital, and they're selling very well. He's from Rolling Stone! He's pop rock!"

"And there's Wu Bo, whose best-selling album last year, 'Wanderer's Love Song,' was produced by our Moyan Records! Don't let our simple appearance fool you, we also have a company and office building in Taiwan!"

"Oh, by the way, Mr. Lin, the recording quality of the demo you sent doesn't seem to be very good. Could you please sing 'The First Tear' live again? Xiao Xue and I would love to hear you sing it in person."

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you. This is Xue Zhongding, the manager of Rock Records' branch in the capital. Rock Records is the parent company of our Moyan, so we are colleagues. He's the one who called you yesterday."

Lin Jianlu stood up, shook hands with Manager Xue Zhongding very solemnly, and then said, "Of course. But... you've all heard 'The First Tear,' so let me choose another song!"

"Oh? It seems you have prepared quite a few works. Please! Please!"

When you're selling goods door-to-door, you naturally need to showcase your products thoroughly.

So Lin Jianlu pulled the guitar case from behind her, took out the guitar, put it on her back, tested the strings briefly, and immediately started singing, "If those two words hadn't trembled, I wouldn't have realized how much I was hurting. No matter how I say it, it's just breaking up. If I have no expectations for tomorrow, holding hands is like traveling, through thousands of doorways..."

As soon as Lin Jianlu opened his mouth, the two people opposite him were immediately stunned.

Zhang Peiren's brows furrowed immediately.

The approach doesn't seem quite right.

However, as she listened, the knot between her brows slowly dissipated, especially when she heard the chorus—she turned her head and exchanged a glance with Xue Zhongding, both of them looking somewhat surprised.

"This is... a very typical pop song! A great love song!"

After Lin Jianlu finished singing, his lyrics, music, and guitar skills were clearly on full display, and he also demonstrated his singing ability and timbre to a considerable extent. Zhang Peiren, on the other hand, seemed a bit conflicted, and his words became somewhat hesitant, "Mr. Lin, are you not planning to go down the rock route? Are you going down the pop route?"

"Yes. That's the plan for now."

Lin Chien-lu, on the other hand, seemed remarkably composed. "I'd rather sign with Rock Records and release an album that leans towards pop music." — Otherwise, with so many songs to choose from, she wouldn't have opted for a song that's clearly pop-oriented, and is actually made by Taiwanese musicians, called "The First Tear."

He's just testing the waters.

If, for various reasons, the Rock Records, which specialize in rock music, don't think much of him, what if the Rolling Stones do? Or what if the Rolling Stones don't think much of him, but the Rock Records do?
Of course, this is almost the best-case scenario we could have imagined!
Firstly, as the parent company, Rolling Stone does indeed have a branch in the capital, and there is a person in charge there. Secondly, it is clear that both Xue Zhongding, the manager representing Rolling Stone, and Zhang Peiren, the representative of Moyan, have their eyes on him.

The choice then immediately falls to them.

Since we have a choice, of course we'll sign with Rolling Stones—rock music doesn't make money! At least not in this day and age, in mainland China, or Hong Kong, or Taiwan.

The famous band BEYOND, whose members are revered, admired, and adored by countless people throughout history, why did they choose to go to Japan to make a living when they were in Hong Kong, where records sold the best? To put it bluntly, they had reached their limit in Hong Kong. They had captured almost all the market share that rock music could get, and they still couldn't make much money!

And so, sadly, he died far from home...

Lin Jianlu even vaguely remembered some information he had learned in his previous life. It was about Zhang Peiren's Magic Rock Records, a sub-brand of Rock Records, a top record company in the Chinese music scene, which was dedicated to rock music. They had even successfully launched the so-called "Magic Rock Three Heroes" in Hong Kong, which was known as a "rock desert." However, their albums never sold well, and they went bankrupt shortly after the turn of the millennium.

To put it bluntly, it's still not profitable. So, even if you're singing rock, you have to sing pop-rock and love songs!
Pop music, being an absolute mainstream genre, has a large enough market that allows it to make a lot of money even with rampant piracy!

However, it's hard to say how strong the music industry is these days, but the legitimate market is definitely weak. In Lin Jianlu's half-month trip to the capital, apart from Xinhua Bookstore, almost everything sold elsewhere was pirated. If the capital is like this, what about other places?
Making music in mainland China is also not profitable.

So if you want to make money, you have to make pop music, and you have to make pop music in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Then... Rolling Stones.

This is almost the best option for this era.

Because neither UFO Records nor PolyGram Records have branches in mainland China...

As a time traveler, Lin Jianlu didn't have any grand ambitions. He believed that his country would definitely become prosperous and strong in thirty years, so he just needed to seize the time to make some money and then live a comfortable life as a wealthy man.

Not making profits and not evading taxes is the best support for our motherland!

…………

Upon hearing that Lin Jianlu had come specifically for Rolling Stones, before Zhang Peiren could even speak, Xue Zhongding took the initiative to interject, "Mr. Lin, how many pieces like those you just heard, or 'The First Tear', have you prepared?"

Lin Jianlu turned to look at him, "Ten poems!"

Xue Zhongding clapped his hands, his face beaming with excitement.

Chang Pei-jen continued to agonize, "Mr. Lin, the two songs you've presented so far already feel quite complete and mature to me... Do you have any other rock music works?"

Then keep singing!

Even before waking up on the train, Lin Jianlu had already considered her future.

Everyone has their own expertise, and singing is the only thing I'm good at, so I'm considered a semi-professional. With the added advantage of time travel, it should be much easier for me to make a name for myself than in my previous life. But apart from that, I probably won't succeed at anything else.

If you can make money relatively quickly, you could invest in internet companies and earn some initial public offering (IPO) shares.

That's enough for me—I have no ambition. The little rough edges in my life have been smoothed out by ten years of living in Beijing. All that's left is to quickly settle for "small fortunes" so I can enjoy the weariness of life, like planting flowers, growing grass, and fishing.

In the 1990s, you could stop once you earned ten million.

Even if you can't get a taste of the early days of an internet company, there's nothing to regret. Back in the 1990s, ten million was enough to buy two or three buildings in the capital—you didn't even need to speculate on real estate. Buying and selling, wasn't being a landlord the best thing ever?
"I'd rather you be completely cold-hearted, so I can forget you completely; I'd rather you be heartless, so I can give up completely; I'd rather be heartbroken only once than be heartbroken day and night; I'd rather you be completely cold-hearted, please don't say it again..."

"Cold to the End"

It falls under the category of pop rock, but it's clear that it has a stronger pop flavor.

In 2025, this song was considered an obscure one, but Lin Jianlu sang it quite a few times. However, when he sings it in front of professionals now, he will consciously pay attention to restraint and try to sing it as standardly and correctly as possible.

The exaggerated, halting, and wailing style of folk singing might look great for a live stream, but it's not suitable for recording an album. For professionals, you need a professional singing style.

They didn't even need to finish singing; just by looking at the expressions of the two people in front of them, they knew they had it all figured out.

Halfway through the song, Zhang Peiren's disappointment was already evident: he had clearly come to understand that although Mr. Lin was perfectly capable of writing and singing rock music, he actually preferred to make pop music.

After another song was sung, the two of them fell silent for a moment.

Then Xue Zhongding chuckled, seemingly about to speak, but before he could open his mouth, there was a sudden knock on the door. "Old Xue, Old Zhang, open the door quickly, who's here?"

Dear readers, the new book is finally here!
I have no other goal than to successfully write 150 million words!

Please support me by reading further and give me more votes!
Xiao Dao thanks you!

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(End of this chapter)