HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 331 [331] The First Chinese Male Singer to Enter the International Market, the Voice of China Resounds Throughout the World
First, there's China: 151023 tickets sold on the first day, Taiwan 92002, and Hong Kong 43200.

This time, the price is uniform worldwide. An EP with only four songs sells for 75 yuan and 125 yuan, which is more expensive than the albums of pop stars such as Jay Chou, Elva Hsiao, and Wang Leehom.

With piracy further eroding the market, and English songs being a niche genre in China, the sales figures are entirely due to the support of Qi Yuan's die-hard fans.

Overseas, "22" performed very strongly, selling 98100 copies on its first day in the United States.

The Japanese record market, though smaller than the American market, combined with the film "The Bouquet," created an extraordinary effect.

Many viewers who watched the movie also bought an album, and it sold nearly 16 copies on its first day.

Warner Bros.' marketing department predicts that once "22" gains widespread acclaim in the United States, its sales in the US will inevitably surpass those in Japan.

The reason why Japan's sales surpassed those in the United States on the first day was simply because Qi Yuan had maximum exposure in Japan, but not enough exposure in the United States.

To date, Qi Yuan has never gone to the United States for promotional activities.

In South Korea, the rumors surrounding Ki Won and Lee Jung-hyun led to 5.5 orders placed on the first day.

The remaining regions have approximately 2.5 cases in Canada, 4.9 in the UK, and around 10 in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, and other countries combined.

The total sales on the first day across all regions worldwide approached 70 copies.

The entire Warner Music Taiwan team was incredibly excited; they were practically bursting with excitement.

The fact that overseas sales far exceeded domestic sales proves that Qi Yuan's EP is very popular overseas.

The early ranking campaign also resulted in great success.

Zhou Jianhui, who was in charge of Taiwan, immediately approved a large sum of money for the propaganda department.

Spend money, spend money like crazy, let the whole country know how brilliantly Qi Yuan's English EP has achieved.

[May Qi Yuan's first English EP be a global bestseller, making him the first Chinese male singer to break into the international market!]

Qi Yuan declares to the world that the era of Qi Yuan has arrived.

Foreign media were equally astonished by the sales figures of "22"!
[Chris Qi, a musical prodigy from the East, the Jackie Chan of the music scene!]

[A mysterious Eastern musician has conquered the Canadian music scene?]

Hong Kong media.

[A sensation on the international music scene! May the king descend upon us, dominating sales in Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea!]

A mainland state media outlet commented: 'The voice of China resounds throughout the world!'

Qi Yuan simultaneously made headlines in various countries, becoming a focal point in the music scene worldwide.

……

The Chinese internet exploded.

"Holy crap! Qi Yuan's EP is selling this well? 70 copies a day. I went to the store on the day it was released and found that the standard edition was going to sell for 75 yuan, so I gave up."

"Warner set a globally uniform price, but don't just look at the price! For 75 yuan, you get a lot of stuff, like posters, introductory cards, lyric books, stickers... a whole bunch of stuff."

Qi Yuan never performed abroad. To avoid his songs being popular but him not being, Warner Music included a lot of information about Qi Yuan in their standard edition package to help international fans remember him.

The deluxe edition comes with even more freebies, such as badges, light sticks, water bottles, mouse pads... a whole bunch of stuff.

These gifts all have Qi Yuan's photo or name printed on them.

"700,000 tickets, at a uniform global price (excluding the deluxe edition), even if we calculate based on the lowest standard edition price of 75 yuan, Qi Yuan is making over 50 million yuan a day?"

"You can't calculate it like that. The 50 million is just the sales revenue; Qi Yuan definitely won't actually receive that much." "Damn! Qi Yuan is getting more and more outrageous. I could accept that his last single sold 50-60 million over two months. This time, he sold over 50 million in one day! I run a small shop near an elementary school, and my daily revenue is only a few hundred yuan! Damn it!"

"Could one hundred million really be just a small goal for him?"

……

Even renowned Chinese directors like Jiang Wen, Zhang Yingmou, and Feng Xiaogang couldn't hold back their emotions after seeing the newspapers.

Damn it! This is outrageous! They put in all their effort to make a movie and it only grossed 30 to 40 million, while Qi Yuan's EP sold over 50 million in a single day. Is there any justice in this?

Zhang Yingmou felt it was a bit of a pity.

It's a pity that Qi Yuan only used music to break into the European and American markets. If Qi Yuan had made movies and broken into the European and American markets like Jackie Chan, why would he need to hire Li Lianjie? Wouldn't it have been better to hire Qi Yuan?
……

Sony headquarters in the United States.

Li Wen's agent, Jason Morey, complained: "Who is Chris's agent? Who was in charge of reviewing this EP? Anyone who made sure this EP was released should be fired without hesitation!"

Jason Morey felt sorry for him.

Who taught you to release records like this?

Do you Warner Music guys even know how to make money?

The quality of those four songs, plus six more songs of average quality, could make for a high-quality masterpiece album.

How much does the EP cost? Warner Bros. prices the standard edition at $8.99 and the deluxe edition at $12.99.

Wouldn't it be better to expand it into an album? Based on the normal album pricing of singers, the standard edition is $18, the deluxe edition is $25, and if there's an even more expensive deluxe edition, how much money would they make?
Warner, if you don't know how to play the game, just say so. Sony will fully compensate Chris for his breach of contract, and we'll even give you an extra $100,000 to treat all your employees to coffee.

Hearing her agent's complaints, Li Wen was incredibly surprised!
Qi Yuan's momentum in entering the European and American music scene this year is much stronger than hers last year.

Last year, she was almost taken away from the company because her album sales plummeted. She was brought back to life by a single written for her by Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan wanted to enter the European and American music scene, and she could clearly feel how powerful those songs were.

"You're Beautiful" and "Baby" have topped the charts on radio stations in several states, including California, Texas, and New York. At the city level, even more stations have reached the top spot.

The deluxe edition's "Sugar" debuted relatively late, appearing on radio after the EP was released, and it had already started charting.

According to predictions from Sony's headquarters marketing department, both "You're Beautiful" and "Baby" have the potential to debut in the top 30 or top 20 of the Billboard charts, and even the top 10 is possible.

"Free Loop" climbed to number 67, driven by three new songs.

When Billboard changes its charts next week, all four of Qi Yuan's songs may make it onto the charts.

Even the top superstars in the Western music scene would find it difficult to achieve this, and this is the era of physical records.

Looking back 20 years, it's possible that top pop stars might have all their songs from a single album making it onto the Billboard charts, but the prestige of the Billboard charts will have diminished considerably in 20 years.

Even if you brought Michael Jackson back today, you couldn't get every single song from one of his albums into the Billboard Hot 100.

Of course, this is an EP with only four songs, which is different from an album with ten songs.

Top-tier superstars can release an album and have four or five songs chart simultaneously, and six or seven is not impossible.

What decent person would cram ten hit songs into one album? That's a waste of money, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better to split it into two or three albums and slowly make money from it?

If Qi Yuan releases an English album in the future, he can't possibly cram all his trump cards into one album, right? Probably not, right? Li Wen, at least, doesn't think so.

(End of this chapter)