Huayu 2002, I'm going to dominate the music scene!

The ratings for "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" climbed steadily, reaching a peak of 26% in Jiangsu and Shenzhen.

It became one of the most anticipated TV dramas of early 2003.

The media's initial harsh criticism has turned into rave reviews. The Yangcheng Evening News commented: "Su Youpeng, Jia Jingwen, and Gao Yuanyuan have joined forces to create a brand-new image of Zhang Wuji, Zhao Min, and Zhou Zhiruo, perfectly portraying their heroic spirit and tender emotions."

In the second week of the rising ratings for "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", one evening, Song Mo, An Ming, and Liu Yifei were already in front of the TV early.

Today I'm not here to watch "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber," but rather "The Story of a Noble Family" on CCTV-8's prime time slot.

That's right, Song Mo watched Liu Yifei's debut film at An Ming's insistence.

As CCTV's opening drama of the year, and with Chen Kun and Dong Jie, two rising stars, starring in the lead roles, this drama naturally attracted a lot of attention.

When the theme song "Dark Fragrance" started playing, An Ming hummed along for a couple of lines, only to be glared at by Liu Yifei.

"Stop humming, it's starting," Liu Yifei said.

Chen Kun as Jin Yanxi, Dong Jie as Leng Qingqiu, and Liu Yifei as Bai Xiuzhu all made their appearances.

I must say, these people are quite pleasing to the eye.

Chen Kun's Jin Yanxi exudes the air of a noble young master. Meanwhile, Dong Lianhua possesses a beauty tinged with brokenness.

As for Bai Xiuzhu, played by Liu Yifei, she wore a Western-style dress, had curly hair, and her chin was slightly raised, exuding the arrogance of a rich young lady.

Song Mo glanced at the screen, then turned to look at Liu Yifei. Bai Xiuzhu on the screen was completely different from Liu Yifei on the sofa.

One is a spoiled and willful rich girl, and the other is a little girl who keeps stuffing snacks into her mouth.

After watching for a while, Song Mo secretly commented: Her acting was very immature, and her lines were a bit stiff, but her face was really beautiful. Moreover, she portrayed the haughty air of a rich young lady quite naturally.

"What do you think?" Anming asked him.

"The costumes, props, and sets are impeccable, and the plot is excellent. This is destined to be a hit in terms of both critical acclaim and viewership. Our friend who's always eating snacks and turning into a pig has good taste; he's picked a great show."

Upon hearing Song Mo's words, Liu Yifei, who was about to eat potato chips, kicked him fiercely, but still put the chips down.

Song Mo's prediction came true once again. After its premiere on CCTV-8, "The Story of a Noble Family" quickly sparked a nationwide craze for watching the show, achieving outstanding ratings.

It achieved an astonishing average viewership rating of 7.68%, breaking CCTV-8's viewership record for the past two years.

Although people remember Dong Jie and Chen Kun more, Liu Yifei, a newcomer, also left a deep impression on the audience.

Liu Yifei herself didn't seem to care much about it, since Song Mo and An Ming treated her the same as always. In fact, An Ming even cut off her snack supply at Song Mo's urging.

If we let her eat this again, her mother will probably go crazy when we get back to Yanjing.

By mid-April, the situation had become increasingly serious, and controls were becoming increasingly stringent.

In many places across the country, people are not allowed to enter or leave freely; shopping malls are closed, and the streets are deserted.

People were stuck at home, bored out of their minds, and the internet became their only outlet.

Major portal websites and BBS forums saw their highest traffic ever.

Tianya, Mop, and Xici Hutong are all filled with bored people.

Some people argue in forums, some forward jokes in QQ groups, and some sing covers of the latest popular songs at home, record them, and upload them online.

Amidst this surge in online traffic, "Mice Love Rice" ushered in its second wave of promotional frenzy.

This time, Anming didn't need to arrange for sockpuppet accounts to bump the thread, nor did he need to deliberately create topics.

With people stuck at home, they need something simple to relieve their anxiety. Songs that are catchy, easy to remember, and easy to hum along to, like "Mice Love Rice" and "Two Butterflies," naturally attract the attention of countless people.

Many people who had never heard these songs before remembered the name Ink Dot Studio for the first time.

Along with songs like "Two Butterflies" and "The Pig Song," which were produced by Ink Dot Studio, they also became instant hits.

Seeing this, many online singers began to label their songs as produced by Ink Dot Studio.

Suddenly, a large number of hit songs on the internet were produced by Ink Dot Studio.

Seeing this situation, An Ming couldn't sit still any longer and quickly went to find Song Mo.

"Everyone is using our studio's name without our knowledge, and the quality varies greatly. Isn't this damaging our reputation?"

Song Mo didn't have any good solutions to this situation either.

This wasn't the future; people didn't have much awareness of copyright, and no one could do anything about it—even if they wanted to sue someone, they couldn't.

After thinking for a moment, Song Mo said, "We can't control them now, let them be. Every cloud has a silver lining. Although they've misused our brand, it's also a form of publicity for us. Also, during this time, you can look at some popular online songs and ask them for authorization. We can be more generous with the revenue sharing. The ringtone pilot program will start soon, so we need to have as many song resources as possible. When we go to negotiate cooperation, with the support of our Mo Dian Studio brand, I think it will be much smoother."

His idea was simple: since you want to use our Ink Dot Studio's brand, why not just authorize it to us? Package the songs together, and we'll have more leverage in negotiations.

Moreover, Song Mo has been spending a lot of time online lately. He discovered that after his early withdrawal from songs like "Mice Love Rice" and "Two Butterflies" became hugely popular, many new online songs that didn't exist in his previous life have appeared online recently, and these songs are also quite popular.

He estimates that it was because of his own actions that more people witnessed the power of online songs, which prompted many people to join the ranks of online singers and subsequently release a number of new works.

In other words, Song Mo truly changed the history of online song development.

When An Ming heard Song Mo say this, he nodded. He actually had the same idea. After all, the number of online songs that Song Mo gave him was limited, and most of them had already become popular. People are fickle, and recently many online songs have shown signs of rising to prominence. It would be most appropriate to acquire the license now.

While online songs were flourishing, the offline record market was in dire straits.

Lin Junjie's "Music Voyager" was originally planned to be released overseas in March and in mainland China in April, but now it has to be abandoned.

Fortunately, his albums are performing well in overseas markets, and in the past few days, new media outlets have been praising Lin Junjie as the next Asian pop star.

As for who the real pop king is? That's right, at this time, it's still Jay Chou.

Besides newcomers like Lin Junjie who chose to go all in by releasing an album, other singers who originally planned to release their albums in March, April, or May, such as Elva Hsiao, Lu Yi, and S.H.E., have all postponed their album releases.

Compared to singers whose releases were originally scheduled for April or May and were greatly affected, Jolin Tsai's "Magic" released on March 7th was not significantly impacted.

Sales in Taiwan are currently soaring, and many musicians in Taiwan have predicted that Jolin Tsai will make a remarkable comeback with this album.

It's worth noting that she's been sidelined for two years due to a contract dispute, which is undoubtedly a nightmare for a young singer.

The album's huge success has truly surprised everyone.

Some people have already started labeling Jolin Tsai as a rising star, believing that she is about to be qualified to compete with Elaine Sun and Elva Hsiao.