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

Compared to the mixed fortunes of the overseas record market, the mainland Chinese record market is truly a dismal sight.

Almost all record stores closed this month, and almost all album releases were postponed to October.

Many people in the industry are lamenting that if things continue like this, the record market will collapse.

Some organizations also predict that record sales in mainland China this year are likely to be only 30% of last year's.

Seeing this situation, Bi Xiaoshi could no longer sit still.

They went directly to find Song Mo together with Xu Yuan.

Song Mo was a little puzzled when he saw Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan coming to find him together.

"Teacher Bi, Teacher Xu, is there anything I can help you with?"

Bi Xiaoshi cut to the chase: "Xiao Song, as you've seen, the record industry is in a complete mess, and everyone's albums are being postponed. I discussed it with Lao Xu, and we're wondering if you should also postpone your album until October, until things improve a bit?"

Song Mo leaned against the headboard of the hotel bed, the Hainan sunshine shining brightly outside the window. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Professor Bi, I saw the news. Experts say that the situation should be under control by June. We don't need to postpone it until October; mid-June will suffice."

Bi Xiaoshi was taken aback: "Mid-June? Who knows if we can control it by then? Besides, even if we can, after what happened, everyone's tension won't be easy to ease, and publicity will still be a troublesome matter."

Song Mo knew very well that this matter had basically ended in June, and during this period, no singer dared to release an album, so it could be said to be an excellent window of opportunity.

Later generations have said that Jay Chou's "Ye Huimei", released on July 16, was the savior of that year. Why is it called the savior?

On the one hand, "Ye Huimei" won the annual sales champion that year, and on the other hand, no big-name singers rushed to release albums during that period.

While everyone was watching and waiting, Jay Chou directly and publicly announced the release of "Ye Huimei," which achieved amazing results.

That's why popular singers and groups like Sun Yanzi and S.H.E. dared to release albums in August.

This led to a rebound in record sales in the Chinese music scene in the second half of the year.

However, Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan were unaware of these circumstances; they only felt that Song Mo was far too audacious.

Song Mo continued, "So this time, I have to change my strategy of focusing on big cities for the promotion of my new album. The early promotion will start in small and medium-sized cities. The control measures in small cities are not as strict, and many small cities have already begun to return to normal life."

Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan nodded in agreement as they listened to Song Mo's words.

Song Mo's point is indeed valid, and it's also a consensus within Ocean Butterflies Music to start promoting new singers from smaller cities.

Lin Junjie's new album was originally going to follow this route as well. They had previously planned more than 20 small and medium-sized cities for Lin Junjie, but because they were stuck in Hainan, and the control measures in small and medium-sized cities were also very strict recently, they had to give up.

However, no matter how reasonable it was, the risks were still too great, and the two wanted to persuade Song Mo to think it over again.

Song Mo continued, "Moreover, the June lull is a really good opportunity. First of all, the competition will be much less intense. And as long as we can successfully build a reputation in smaller cities, we can go back to big cities for promotion in June and July. By then, big cities will have fully reopened. After being cooped up for so long, everyone is feeling restless. Maybe there will be a wave of retaliatory consumption. At that time, my album will definitely be able to ignite the market with its reputation."

He looked at Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan with a determined gaze, and the two fell silent.

Bi Xiaoshi thought for a while, then frowned and said, "Are you so sure things will be over by June?"

Song Mo smiled and immediately used An Ming as a shield, "Brother An's information is very clear, and didn't small and medium-sized cities already relax restrictions some time ago?"

Having spent so much time together, the two knew about An Ming's background, so they had no doubts when Song Mo said this.

Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan exchanged a glance, and Bi Xiaoshi immediately made the decision: "Okay, then let's start preparing in mid-June."

At this moment, Xu Yuan spoke up, "By the way, regarding the album cover, as we discussed before, they sent over three designs. Have you seen them?"

After they finished filming the music video a while ago, they immediately started preparing the album cover, and Song Mo took a lot of photos at that time.

Bi Xiaoshi then contacted several design companies, asking them to come up with cover designs for Song Mo's first album.

The album is titled "Brush, Ink, Paper, and Inkstone: Eighteen Martial Arts." Bi Xiaoshi's brief to the design company was very clear: it should have Chinese elements, but not be old-fashioned.

Song Mo also received several drafts, none of which she was very satisfied with. Some were too flashy, and some were too plain. After discussing it, they decided on a direction: to stick to minimalist design.

Since the album title is "Pen, Ink, Paper and Inkstone: Eighteen Martial Arts", the design goes against the grain and will be more eye-catching.

Finally, the cover was decided to use a dark gray background, like the color of an inkstone.

The top and bottom edges of the cover have a white line, like the blank space on rice paper.

The white lining at the top is printed with the titles of twelve songs.

The white lining at the bottom features the Ocean Butterflies logo and album title.

The middle part is naturally Song Mo's portrait. These days, new singers' albums must feature a human face; only in this way can they establish a concrete image in the minds of fans.

Now it's up to Song Mo to choose one. He has already looked at all three designs, and he personally likes the first one quite a bit.

Xu Yuan and Bi Xiaoshi also thought the first album was good, but the new Chinese style album was indeed a bit too avant-garde, and they were worried that fans wouldn't be able to accept it.

With the cover finalized, Xu Yuan and Bi Xiaoshi then began preparing the album's promotional plan.

Time flies, and it's already May.

The rollout of ringback tones has begun in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Zhejiang, but the news barely caused a ripple.

Everyone is so stressed about the lockdown that no one cares about ringback tones.

However, Anming couldn't sit still any longer after learning that the ringback tone pilot program had started. During this time, he contacted many online singers and reached cooperation agreements with most of them.

These days, online singers have very limited ways to monetize their music. If someone is willing to buy a license and the revenue sharing ratio is decent, they are generally willing to cooperate with Ink Dot Studio.

He immediately found Song Mo, who was picking up seashells with Liu Yifei.

Everyone is stuck in Hainan for a while now, not because they can't get out of Hainan, but because they don't know where to go.

Hainan has been reopened for some time, but the situation in major cities is still not relaxed. They can't go back to Beijing and can only continue to stay in Hainan.

Bi Xiaoshi and Xu Yuan, on the other hand, had already gone to East China and Central China to prepare for the promotion of Song Mo's album.

Whether it's printing posters or producing master tapes, there are a lot of troubles right now. Fortunately, Ocean Butterflies is handling all of these, so Song Mo can now relax and be a hands-off manager.

Therefore, during this period, he would often take Liu Yifei to the beach to go beachcombing. In those days, development in Hainan was limited, so you could still find quite a few things by going beachcombing.

Liu Yifei has been playing wildly lately. Without her mother's control, her true nature has been unleashed. She likes to prank Song Mo and An Ming all the time, which makes An Ming constantly complain to Song Mo, demanding that Song Mo give him back the obedient and sensible little sister he used to know.