Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 593, Section 591: Distribution Channels Are King

At seven o'clock in the morning, the air on Wangfujing Street was bitterly cold, but the queue in front of the Guangying World Audio-Visual Flagship Store had already stretched all the way to the street corner.

The group consisted mostly of young people in their teens and twenties. They were stamping their feet and breathing out white vapors, but their eyes were fixed on the glass door that had not yet been opened.

A girl with a ponytail took out her mobile phone, glanced at the time, and said to her companion, "They should be opening soon. I heard that they only have 500 tickets available today."

“We’ll definitely be able to buy them,” his companion said, pulling his down jacket tighter around himself. “Light and Shadow World is Shengying’s own store, so they’ll definitely have the best stock. Plus, my cousin works there, and she said they delivered two thousand tickets last night, not just for today.”

A murmur of discussion arose within the group.

“You can buy it not only here,” a bespectacled boy in the back row interjected. “The internet cafe near my house can also order it, but you have to pay an extra five yuan for delivery.”

"You can buy albums at internet cafes now?"

"You didn't know? A lot of internet cafes are cooperating with Shengying now. They can sell game cards for 'Legend of Mir' and also order albums and movie tickets. The 'Speed ​​Internet Cafe' downstairs from my house received 300 copies of 'Chasing Dreams' yesterday, and they sold out completely."

This conversation repeated itself in the cold wind of a December morning.

Young people may not understand the complex business layout behind it, but they can feel an unprecedented convenience—the things they want can always be found in the place closest to them.

At 8:00 a.m. sharp, the glass door opened on time.

The store had already been set up.

A huge poster for "Chasing Dreams" took up an entire wall, and Zhang Hanyun's clear smile stood out under the lights.

On the booth, album CDs were neatly stacked in a pyramid shape, next to which were matching posters, photo albums, keychains and other peripheral products.

"I want two! And one more poster!"

"Three! I bought them for my roommate!"

"Do you have any autographed copies? I'm willing to pay extra!"

A new queue formed at the checkout counter, where the staff worked efficiently, scanning barcodes, collecting payments, and bagging items.

The store manager calculated the real-time sales data—eighty-seven tickets had already been sold in fifteen minutes since the store opened.

His phone vibrated; the regional manager had sent a message: "The first batch of 500 tickets at the Wangfujing store is expected to sell out within an hour. We have already transferred 800 tickets from the warehouse, which will be delivered before 10:00 AM. Make sure to restock and maintain order."

The store manager replied, "Understood. Merchandise sales are good, and more than half of the posters have been sold."

This is just a microcosm of the more than 800 Light and Shadow World stores across the country.

From Harbin in the north to Shenzhen in the south, from Shanghai in the east to Chengdu in the west, the same scene is playing out in different cities at the same time.

This distribution network, which started with the "Movie World" audio-visual store at Beijing Film Studio, has expanded over eight years into a nationwide sales network.

It not only sells audio-visual products, but also deals in movie merchandise, books and magazines, and most importantly—Tencent game points cards.

Since its launch in 2001, "Legend of Mir" has quickly become a market sensation, and the Light and Shadow World has become the game's primary physical point card sales channel.

The nationwide store network allows players to buy game time right at their doorstep, and this convenience, in turn, strengthens the channel's customer traffic.

But Sheng Ying Group's strategy doesn't stop there.

Each of the Cinema World stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou is equipped with at least two computers with internet access, connected to the "Maoyan Cinema" online seat selection system.

Customers can check movie schedules, select seats, and book tickets here.

The massive cash flow and customer data generated by game point card sales have given this channel network greater bargaining power with upstream content providers.

For example, with the release of "Chasing Dreams" today, Sheng Ying Group was able to request priority scheduling from the production plant, priority delivery from the logistics company, and even have the printing plant rush to produce posters and merchandise overnight.

This is the power of distribution channels.

……

At nine o'clock in the morning, another sales model was in operation at the "Legend Internet Cafe" in the university district of Beijing.

On the display shelf next to the cashier, the album "Chasing Dreams" is placed in the most prominent position.

A boy who had just finished playing games all night walked over, rubbing his eyes: "Boss, an album, please."

"Twenty-five." The shopkeeper took one down from the shelf. "Add five yuan if you want a poster."

The boy paid and opened the album's inner pages.

Inside were CDs, lyric booklets, and a beautifully printed autographed photo—though not an original, it was far better made than a pirated copy.

"You guys have pretty wide-ranging services here," the boy said casually.

"It's for everyone's convenience." The shopkeeper pointed to a corner of the internet cafe while giving change. "You can even try out a free trial over there. If you like it after listening, you can buy it later."

Five computers in the corner were specially set up as a "music listening area," and each one was equipped with a lot of headphones.

The room was full of people, and the screen displayed a playlist of songs from the song "Chasing Dreams".

This "internet cafe sales + trial listening" model is a key part of Shengying's channel expansion strategy.

With the popularity of "Legend of Mir," the number of internet cafes across the country surged from a few thousand to over 100,000 within three years.

These places attract China's core young consumer group—who are not only gamers but also the most eager audiences for music, movies, and entertainment content.

Through Tencent, Shengying Group signed cooperation agreements with thousands of large chain internet cafes.

Internet cafes can resell albums without needing to stock up, as Sheng Ying handles all distribution. They take a 15% commission on each album sold.

For internet cafe owners, this is an extra source of income with almost zero cost; for Shengying, it means a vast end-user network that directly reaches target customers.

Especially in third- and fourth-tier cities, traditional audio-visual stores have limited coverage, but internet cafes are springing up everywhere.

Through this network, an album can reach county-level cities within 24 hours of its release and townships within 48 hours.

Subsequent statistics showed that sales through internet cafes accounted for 28.3% of the total sales on the first day.

……

At 10:00 AM, at the recording site of Hunan TV's "Music Never Stops".

In the studio, Zhang Hanyun, wearing the same white dress she wore at the press conference, was singing "My Dream".

The stage lights were soft, and a beautifully edited music video clip was playing on the big screen—multi-angle footage of her performance at the album launch, which, after post-production processing, was even more beautiful than the live performance.

The audience swayed gently to the rhythm, and many had tears in their eyes. Most of these viewers were fans recruited by the program team through "Maoyan Community," with selection criteria including activity level, loyalty, and spending history.

They're not just here to watch the show, but to participate in a meticulously designed interactive experience.

In the control room, the director stared at the monitor: "After this episode airs, sales will increase by at least 20%. With Enlight Media's own artists on their own show and all the promotional resources available, the effect is just different."

“Not just this one,” the producer said, flipping through the schedule. “She has segments on both ‘The Same Song’ and ‘Happy China Tour’ this week. ‘Chinese Music Chart’ has listed her as a ‘Featured Artist of the Week’ and will be on the charts for four weeks.”

"Chinese Music Chart" is a music chart program launched by Enlight Media in 2003. It publishes a list every week based on data such as record sales, radio airplay, and audience votes.

It quickly became one of the most credible rankings in the industry because its data sources are transparent: sales data comes from sampling statistics from Light and Shadow World, radio broadcast data is obtained in cooperation with more than 50 mainstream music radio stations across the country, and audience voting is conducted through SMS and "Maoyan Community".

On the surface, the list is entirely data-driven.

In reality, as a data provider and program producer, Enlight Media has too many ways to "optimize" the results within the rules.

Increasing the frequency of a song's play on partner radio stations, guiding topics and polls on the "Maoyan Community," and even adjusting the sample weights of sales statistics—these operations all operate in a gray area, yet are enough to change rankings.

For "insider artists" like Zhang Hanyun, allocating resources to them is a predetermined strategy.

According to the promotional plan, "My Dream" will chart for four consecutive weeks, aiming for the "Top Ten Songs" at the end of the year.

And this process itself is the best form of publicity—every Saturday night during prime time, audiences across the country will see the song's name and ranking changes on television.

……

At 1 p.m., at the Shengying Group Data Monitoring Center on the ninth floor of the Jingxin Building.

This 200-square-meter room is filled with screens that display real-time sales data from various channels, media exposure statistics, and online discussion trends.

A dozen data analysts sat at their workstations, staring at the constantly fluctuating numbers.

"Total sales through offline channels have exceeded 80,000 units," a female analyst reported. "Of these, 53,000 were sold at the Light and Shadow World stores, 21,000 at internet cafes, and 7,000 at other retail outlets. There are also 30,000 online pre-orders awaiting shipment."

"What about piracy?" the project leader asked.

"It's here." Another analyst pulled up a map with a red dot on it. "At 10 a.m., market inspectors in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and other cities reported that they had discovered pirated CDs of 'Chasing Dreams'. They were poorly printed, had poor sound quality, and were priced at ten to fifteen yuan."

This was expected.

The piracy rate in China's audio-visual market has long remained above 80%, and legitimate manufacturers have long since learned to survive in the cracks.

But Sheng Ying Group was well prepared this time.

The first is the pricing strategy.

The official album is priced at 25 yuan, which is 10 to 15 yuan more expensive than the pirated version. However, it includes a poster, a printed autographed photo, a 32-page lyric booklet, and a raffle ticket—prizes include a guitar autographed by Zhang Hanyun, tickets to the national finals of "Super Girl," and 100-yuan vouchers for the Guangying World shopping mall. These added values ​​cannot be provided by the pirated version.

Secondly, there's anti-counterfeiting technology. Each genuine album has a unique anti-counterfeiting code printed on its inner page. Customers can log in to "Maoyan.com" to verify its authenticity and participate in a second lucky draw after verification. This not only combats piracy but also drives traffic to the website.

Third, and most importantly, is the speed of distribution channel penetration. In many third- and fourth-tier cities, pirates used to profit from information and time differences—genuine albums took a week or even longer to reach the local market, and they used this gap to sell pirated copies.

However, now, through the logistics system of the film and television industry and the network of internet cafes for resale, Shengying Group can distribute its products to major cities across the country on the day of release and cover county-level cities the next day. The window of opportunity for piracy has been greatly compressed.

"How are the data results after the music section of Maoyan.com went live?" the team leader asked.

"We went live at 10 a.m. and have already received over 500,000 visits so far," the technical lead reported. "The 'Chasing Dreams' special page has over 20,000 favorites, and the songs have been listened to over 300,000 times. The music review section already has over 3,000 comments with an average rating of 9.1."

The screen displays the page design of "Maoyan Music".

It borrows from the IMDb model, with each album and song having its own page where users can rate, write reviews, and create playlists.

The right side of the page displays real-time data: number of listens, number of favorites, number of ratings, and number of comments.

“We plan to introduce a professional music critic mechanism,” the technology lead continued. “We will invite music academy professors, senior music editors, and well-known music critics to join, and their reviews will be marked with a ‘professional certification’ label. At the same time, we will develop an algorithm to balance professional evaluations and public opinion to generate a comprehensive score.”

This is the deeper strategy: to establish an authoritative evaluation system for Chinese-language music.

When Maoyan Music's ratings become the industry standard, and its charts become the yardstick for measuring success, this platform gains the power to define "good music."

Ultimately, the power to speak will translate into commercial power.

……

Six o'clock in the evening, the backstage dressing room of Hunan TV.

Zhang Hanyun's hands trembled slightly as she looked at the sales report handed to her by her assistant.

Eighty thousand tickets—and that's just for the first day, not even counting the thirty thousand tickets already pre-ordered and awaiting shipment.

She recalled what Gao Yuanyuan had told her on the day she signed the contract: "The company will give you the best resources, but how far you go in the end depends on yourself."

Now, resources are truly pouring in like a tidal wave.

Throughout the day, her name appeared on television programs, radio broadcasts, music store posters, internet cafe displays, website homepages... almost every media channel she knew was talking about "Chasing Dreams".

Sales figures prove that these resources were not wasted.

"Mr. Gao just called," the assistant whispered. "Sales on the first day should easily break 100,000, which is a very good result in the current market. He told you not to put too much pressure on yourself and to focus on preparing for tomorrow's book signing."

……

After recording the show.

Back at the hotel.

Zhang Hanyun turned on her computer, connected to the internet, and logged into the newly launched "Maoyan Music".

Her album page has a high rating of 9.1, and there are already more than 3,000 reviews.

She scrolled down the list one by one...

"My Dream reminds me of my senior year of high school, when I carved the universities I wanted to attend onto on my desk. Although I didn't get in, those days of striving so hard for my dream still bring tears to my eyes when I think about them now." — User "Flying Against the Wind"

"Zhang Hanyun's voice is distinctive; it's not the kind of sweet voice that's deliberately trying to be cute, but rather has a slightly husky and stubborn quality, making it very suitable for singing inspirational songs." — User "Music Wanderer"

"The arrangement could be richer; it's a bit thin right now. But the lyrics are really good: 'Facing the pain, I entrust all the dreams in my eyes to time.' This line is etched on my desk." — User "Arrangement Enthusiast"

There were also criticisms: "The melody is a bit formulaic, and the chorus could be handled with more layers. However, as a debut album for a new artist, it's above average."

These genuine feedbacks made Zhang Hanyun feel more at ease than any press release or flattery.

(End of this chapter)