Why bother writing songs? Fast forward to the "Don't Laugh Challenge"

Chapter 63: Deep Account Management, Xia Shen Live-Streams Songwriting?
"Some truths are just hurtful and unpleasant to hear. The market decides everything, not the practitioners. The reason why the Chinese music scene is in such a terrible state today is because no one listens to good works, no one eats good food, and then someone brings up a bunch of complaints, which are then devoured by others."
Isn't Xia Shen convincing enough? Now, "Wealth from All Directions/Cause and Effect" and "Great Ambitions" are being universally criticized and deconstructed online? While being criticized, the data still surpasses 200 billion, right? What's the story behind this data?

"Bullshit! That's just a fallacy. What do you mean by saying that serious content can't become popular? That's impossible. If the work itself is good enough, I don't believe it can't become popular. Isn't Cai Zhiyin a perfect example? His new song is so good that it helped him wash away the humiliation he suffered and even get back on his feet!"
Ultimately, isn't it just a matter of not having enough talent? If you have enough talent, and your work is truly good, you won't have to worry about not getting ahead.

"Zhao Xiao, aren't there plenty of good works that no one wants to produce? Now, those people you used to say emerged from the millennium, those who struggled out of the battle of gods, go and find out what the numbers are for their new albums, how many people have listened to them."
Moreover, is it possible that Cai Zhiyin himself is a controversial figure with a lot of online traffic? He already has a lot of topics to discuss, so you don't need anything else. Just add a tag that can be related to him and you can get millions of views. Isn't that enough to prove anything?

Besides that? Let me ask you, how many people in China listen to Soul? There are plenty of Soul songs every year that are better than Cai Zhiyin's new songs. In fact, his Soul song is relatively easy to accept, with a simple melody and no high barrier to entry. But what about those seasoned musicians who specialize in Soul? How many people listen to them? Can they afford to make a living? No.

The problem remains the same: if it weren't for Cai Zhiyin singing it, and if Cai Zhiyin didn't have a powerful company and large capital backing him, do you think any other musician, let's not even talk about someone as far back as Xia Shen, would have been able to become popular?

"Dude, you're not thinking that Xia Shen is really that good, are you?"

"This is hilarious! Singing karaoke in a villa and they're trying to piggyback on 'Deadman'?"

"Is it possible that if you had just paid attention to the producer information of Cai Zhiyin's new song, you would have seen who was credited?"

"Holy crap, Xia Shen's fans are fantasizing again. How can someone who can write a song like this be the same person as 'Great Ambitions'? That's ridiculous. Stop thinking nonsense. They are two different people. I have friends with inside information. This producer Xia Shen is just a pseudonym for a senior producer. He has absolutely nothing to do with the Xia Shen who sings karaoke in your villa and makes those tacky pop songs."

Then there were a bunch of people agreeing below.

"Brother, you've got it. I've ordered it."

"Protect our heroes?"

"Brother, if you dare to tell the truth, remember to turn off private messages."

"These brainless fans of Xia Shen really don't know their own brains. They dare to associate anything with their master. They're no different from Koreans. Why don't they just say that the universe belongs to them? It's hard to believe."

"Here comes the tough guy again, isn't he? Just use diodes and that's it! Just use rolling knives, if I think it won't work, it won't work! Hahahaha!"

"But Xia Shen's album has 200 billion plays, which really made Chinese people look good abroad. This time, Xia Shen is really being listened to by foreigners. Foreigners are really listening. I'm in Xinxiang, and I hear Xia Shen's songs even when I'm in a taxi. Do you know how outrageous that is? It has shocked the world."

"It's true, especially the choreography by F5. Everyone is dancing to it now; it's really become a global phenomenon."

"200 billion views worldwide! Industry insiders have already estimated that these songs will bring Xia Shen at least 1.2 million yuan in revenue. This is a real windfall; you can't deny it even if you don't want to."

"Times have changed, you can make money from any kind of history now, hahaha!"

"1.2 million? Who are you trying to fool?"

"That's an understatement. Aren't there plenty of cases in the entertainment industry where people live off one song for a lifetime? Xia Shen has basically secured his retirement with this."

"Anyway, that's my opinion. If Xia Shen really wins this Golden Melody Award, I will never pay attention to this stupid award again."

"The current top ten songs are just random stuff from the sidelines."

The internet is already buzzing with arguments.

However, the main situation is the boycott of Xia Shen, which has reached an unprecedented level of intensity with the huge success of his new album.

The trending topics on Douyin, Kuaishou, and Weibo kept appearing one after another, maintaining an extremely exaggerated level of popularity.

However, it was basically a situation where Xia Shen's fans were outnumbered and the resistance was too strong, even with the participation of fans from the rap community.

After all, the audiences of almost all mainstream music genres are now ganging up on Xia Shen.

Xia Shen and Visual Effects Culture were naturally aware of this situation.

For Xia Shen, his feeling was simple: there was absolutely no life in the world.

Because he had actually seen the reaction and the bills.

Spotify's revenue, combined with its domestic revenue, totals a whopping 180 million! Even after deducting the staggering taxes and the company's share, he would still have 70 million left!

This single piece of data is enough to dispel all unhappiness.

Although the company also received a large share, a full half.

However, Xia Shen did not feel that the company's division of assets was wrong.

To put it more bluntly, if he didn't have a record company, would he have been able to release this album?

No, he will not. In fact, he will continue to struggle in the quagmire of his high-quality songs failing to gain market recognition.

It was the result of the company's planning proposal, Lao Chen's suggestion, and a large amount of money invested in operations. The company was actually taking a big gamble, but it won.

In Xia Shen's view, the company should rightfully have a share.

He is not an ungrateful person; he can distinguish who did what and who brought him what.

Ultimately, he never imagined he could earn so much money in his life.

So what if you see a bill covered in zeros and get yelled at?
It doesn't matter anymore.

He didn't offer any opinion.

After all, he had been around for so long, seen a lot of people he should and shouldn't have seen, and had come to understand some things.

For example, people's listening habits and tastes are not influenced by others.

Actually, if you say something else, some people might follow suit, which is good.

But listening to music is different; listeners get what they want to hear.

This is inherently a very subjective thing.

Including him, he is a professional, some technically demanding musical genres, some complex things with a high threshold for appreciation, very musical.

Actually, he couldn't understand it either.

For example, he couldn't accept the death metal and black metal that Qi Yixiang liked in the dormitory; he could only accept lighter types such as industrial metal and symphonic metal.

He knows this kind of music is awesome, with high artistic and technical content, but he just doesn't like it. What can he do about it?
Can you say that he doesn't know how to appreciate things?

No, if you ask him what's so great about this kind of song, what makes it so great, he can explain it to you clearly.

But if you ask him, "Do you like listening to this?"

Xia Shen would tell you that he would never listen, he just thinks it doesn't sound good.

That's the logic. Music, as an art form that can quickly reflect people's emotional state, is inherently emotional and subjective.

Or to put it another way, music itself should be subjective.

Therefore, the audience can argue amongst themselves, but as a professional, he knows the ropes, while he doesn't.

The audience, the listeners, the readers are always right!
This is an ironclad rule! This is the truth!
No matter what you say, if someone doesn't like your song, it's useless. It's like something they can't accept; if it's just something they can't hear, no matter what you say, if their mind tells them it's bad, then it's bad.

This is determined by DNA.

Just because some people like cilantro and others can't, does that mean you have to criticize them?

That's not the case.

If a professional actually did that, he wouldn't be far from death.

Then, Xia Shen decided to reduce his activities during this period to lie low for a while, and then wait until the lottery results were announced a week later to win the prize.

After all, with so much criticism, he felt that too much negative attention was not good and would backfire. So he decided to keep a low profile, and also to be low-key when receiving the award.

However, when Old Chen found him, he said something else entirely.

It's the same old story, one he's practically memorized.

"Don't think I don't understand music, but I do understand traffic! You have so much traffic now, don't waste it, go live, bro!"
Your account already has 70 followers even without any management. If you start managing it, it'll take off! Go live! Live stream songwriting! The best time is now, before the giveaway ends, when the traffic is at its peak!

Xia Shen: "!?!?!?!"

No, all I did was record two videos of you drunk and climbing over telephone poles? And you're trying to kill me?

In this situation, are you trying to kill me?

(He finally made it, I'm so happy! Also, some songs can only be sung live because the sweetness level is just too high, the full songs can't be played. The direction isn't like traditional live-streamed stories; everything is for the sake of the plot.)
(End of this chapter)