Huayu 2009: Who should we call the Heavenly King?

Oasis Recording Studio.

"Congratulations, Ayan."

Early that morning, sound engineer Li Jun congratulated him with a smile, and glanced at Hu Yanbing beside him.

"Ha ha."

Shen Yan immediately understood his meaning and added fuel to the fire.

"Brother Jun, we can record this song later, or why don't you fight Brother Bing first?"

"Go away, go away, stop being so poor."

Hu Yanbing raised his hand and punched him.

"So what if you got 12th place? It's not like you reached the top. If you're so capable, why don't you beat Wang Fei?"

"Hmm."

Shen Yan pondered for a moment and then said.

"Shall I give it a try?"

It's not that there's no chance for Gan Wangfei.

cough cough.

They were discussing Baidu MP3's Top 100 New Songs, which is considered a bit fairer than the charts on radio stations and music platforms.

It ranks MP3s based on Baidu search volume and number of listens, and then ranks them according to an algorithm.

Updated daily.

of course.

New songs can also top the charts.

Even though Baidu has implemented a deduplication mechanism, there is a daily limit to the number of times a single user can search or listen to the same song.

but.

Those singers with strong fan bases will still organize activities to boost and manipulate the charts.

For artists who came from competitions like Super Boy and Super Girl, there are dedicated ranking groups on Baidu Tieba, and the process is very well-established.

Shen Yan also has fans helping him to boost his ranking. Last night, Nazha even called him to boast: Yan Meng has now built 10 ordinary groups of 200 people each and 5 super groups of 500 people each.

This time, almost all the fans who admired the looks of the celebrities mobilized, with nearly four thousand fans participating in the ranking campaign.

Their operating procedures are very consistent.

First, search on Baidu using keywords such as "Shen Yan", "My Song", "New Album", and "Main Song".

Keep searching and refreshing the page.

Then, use the same phrase to jump to Baidu MP3 search.

Finally, everyone clicked to listen to the audio, maximizing the data output.

They didn't know the daily limit for the number of attempts Baidu allowed, so they just kept listening.

Some fans who don't have computers at home even went to internet cafes to participate in the rankings.

While taking credit, Naza also reported that someone in the core fan group suggested "fundraising" to boost the rankings.

Hire professional online trolls to use proxy IPs to inflate search and listenership numbers in bulk.

In the past few years, the wave of talent shows in China has swept across the entire internet, and the gray industry of manipulating rankings has long formed a complete industrial chain.

These online studios have dedicated server rooms, customized ranking manipulation software, and update their technology in real time according to the rules of each platform.

Upon learning of this proposal, Shen Yan immediately called off the idea of ​​raising funds to manipulate the rankings.

Then, he wrote a thank-you letter by hand.

To be fair, fans of this era are quite adorable.

Even though Shen Yan had the soul of someone in their thirties, he was still moved by this sincerity.

In the letter, besides thanking his fans for their support, he also made a clear statement.

There's no need to raise funds or stay up all night to boost rankings; it's completely unnecessary. Studying well and living a good life are the most important things.

If you have a bombshell song and still want to rely on its popularity, wouldn't that be a waste of all those songs?

The number one song is "The Smiling Angel", right?

It's dry!

"Brother Yan, I've done the math, and you have a pretty good chance of reaching the top."

On the other side, Zhang Dandan, who was staring at the computer leaderboard, suddenly spoke up.

"Look, Wang Xinlin's 'Heart to Heart' is a hit, and before that is Lin Junjie's 'Back to Back Hug,' whose fans don't really boost the charts."

"Li Shengjie, who ranked second, and Xie Anqi, who ranked seventh, did not organize their fans to manipulate the charts."

"The only ones left are Hou Xuan, Li Yuchun, Chen Chusheng, Zhang Liangying, Wang Fei, and Yan Ge. As long as your later songs are released one after another and the popularity rises, you have a real chance to reach the top."

"Your intelligence work is quite meticulous," Shen Yan joked with a smile. "You even know which sites are participating in the rankings and which aren't?"

"It wasn't all my doing."

Zhang Dandan chuckled.

"Yan Meng has fans who infiltrated other artists' fan groups, and they've found out a lot of their activities."

Planting spies among each other is a basic practice in fan circles, and as Shen Yan's assistant, Zhang Dandan's job is to help manage the fan group.

but.

Although Zhang Dandan had an "appointment letter" from Tangren, she joined Yanmeng too late, and her prestige was not as good as Nazha's, let alone those big fans who spent money.

The so-called spending money only involved organizing a few small offline gatherings within the same city; there was no cross-provincial support activity.

"You go ahead with your work, I'm going into the studio to record."

After saying that, Shen Yan went into the recording studio. He had been in the recording studio every day for the past five days, and had finished recording "The Ordinary Road", "Bubble" and "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky".

Three songs in five days isn't fast, but it's not slow either. Actually, Shen Yan could have done even faster, mainly because it was his first time collaborating with Li Jun and Hu Yanbing.

There's also a break-in period when recording songs.

Today, for example, their recording went very smoothly. They finished recording "Boy" in half a day, and in another half day, they also finished recording "Mercury". Tomorrow, they just need to record a few more instrumental pieces.

"Brother Yan, Brother Yan."

At 2:30 a.m., Zhang Dandan suddenly rushed over, shouting.

"The rankings have been updated! You've made it into the top ten, ranking ninth. Lin Junjie has become the goalkeeper!"

Zhang Dandan's excitement is understandable; the top ten of Baidu MP3's new song TOP100 are the "golden recommendation slots".

Because Baidu MP3's homepage only displays the top ten new songs.

The same pattern was followed in the Weibo trending topics: only the top ten were displayed. Once you entered the top ten, it meant you were in the sight of more people.

After all, not everyone will click the "More" button to enter the secondary page; the vast majority of ordinary netizens will only scan the first ten pages.

"You've worked hard these past few days, so I'll give you a day off tomorrow."

As he spoke, Shen Yan offered a reminder.

"However, K-jie is treating us to dinner tonight, remember to come."

"Thank you, Brother Yan!"

Upon hearing that there was a holiday, Zhang Dandan cheered. She had been exhausted over the past few days, staying up late every night with her husband.

Ordering and picking up takeout are her jobs.

While Shen Yan and the others were recording songs, she was also busy interacting with Yan Meng's fans online and gathering information.

On the way back, Zhang Dandan handed in the fruits of her labor for the day.

"Brother Yan, here's the information I gathered during the day. Take a look."

"Yes, that's good."

Shen Yan looked down and quickly flipped through the documents; they were all publicly available data.

Last month, Lin Junjie, Hou Xuan, Hu Yanbing, Zeng Yike, Chen Chusheng, Xie Anqi, Wang Xinlin, and Top Combine all released albums.

According to the data compiled by Zhang Dandan, only four albums truly became wildly popular.

Lin Junjie's "100 Days", Hou Xuan's "Baby Face", Zeng Yike's "Forever Road", and the famous Leo are all included in this album.

The last one is Chen Chusheng's "Winter Goes, Spring Comes," and the title track "Singing Love Songs Alone" has recently seen a surge in popularity.

As we entered 2010, Xu Song released his second solo album, "Seeking the Fog".

This album contains many hit songs, including "Admiration", "Luzhou Moon", "Single Journey" and "Gray Avatar", all of which are from "Seeking the Fog".

but.

Xu Song is currently not signed with a record company and has no behind-the-scenes team to support him. Even though his songs are of high quality, they are nowhere to be found on various charts.

Only the song "Admire" made it into Baidu MP3's Top 100 New Songs, and even then, it ranked quite low.

25th place.

After a while, the car arrived at the hotel, and Shen Yan had finished looking at the forms that Zhang Dandan had prepared.

Overall, the Chinese music scene around 2010 was mainly dominated by four groups vying for supremacy.

The first wave consists of the superstars and rising stars who debuted during the golden age.

The second wave consists of singers who came from talent shows.

The remaining two waves consist of online singers and hit songs like "Making Mistakes" and "Love for Sale".

As for new singers who debut through traditional record company channels, there aren't any!

not a single one!

It's not that record companies don't promote new artists, but that all the new artists who follow this old path are swept away by the tides of time.