Huayu: Starting from an Unemployed Male Model

The story of the Hegemon-King and Consort Yu took two days to film, and then it was urgently edited into a music video. There are still two days left until October 1st, so we can finish it by working overtime.

In terms of editing, Wei Jun handed over his suggestions to the editing team. He now needs to discuss song promotion with Yang Hua. Thanks to the success of "The Wind Rises", Wei Jun's new song can obtain more traffic resources from major music platforms more easily.

The song "The Wind Rises" achieved remarkable success, accumulating over 100 million plays across the internet in three months, attracting 300,000 to 500,000 new users to QQ Music and 200,000 new users to NetEase Cloud Music.

According to industry channel assessments, the exposure of "The Wind Rises" reached more than 6000 million potential music fans across the entire network, with an estimated conversion rate of 0.7%-1.2% on average.

After its release, "The Wind Rises" not only attracted new users, but also increased the average daily listening time of existing users from 45 minutes to more than 60 minutes, making it one of the fastest-growing songs during the same period.

Among them, about 45% of QQ Music's retained users activated the "play continuously for more than 7 days" mode in the same month, while more than 53% of NetEase Cloud Music's active users entered the community to write comments and create playlists through songs.

Wei Jun single-handedly achieved nearly half of the quarterly KPIs for the two major music platforms. The only regret for the two music platforms was that the song was played for free, otherwise it would have increased their revenue, such as song sales revenue and GG revenue.

When the operations managers of the two major music platforms saw how good the data was, they immediately approached him, demanding to permanently buy out the copyright of the song, with the highest offer reaching 68 yuan, but Wei Jun refused.

Now that major platforms have learned that Wei Jun is preparing a new song, they have all come to him, demanding to buy the song's copyright and broadcast it exclusively.

The methods are numerous and varied, including giving gifts, blocking people's doors, and inviting senior figures in the music industry to endorse them.

In 2016, the industry was undergoing a transformation from "free lunch" to "paid legitimate content," which led to two different levels of the "price" of a song.

First, there is the "primary market" where the platform buys songs from copyright holders/singers. Newcomers with record companies have no bargaining power. Their main income comes from the record company's revenue sharing. In other words, the income from a song is shared not only with the platform but also with the record company, and only then does it go to the artist.

Independent musicians typically use agents, with licensing fees ranging from 3 to 8 yuan.

If it's top music stars like Jay Chou or Wang Leehom, who have deep strategic ties with the platform and huge bargaining power, Jay Chou alone could earn hundreds of millions in copyright fees.

Some top-tier singers, such as Xue Zhiqian and Zhang Jie, also have bargaining power, but they are a level below Milk Tea Lun.

2016 was a breakout year for Xue Zhiqian's career. He was extremely popular, and the hit show "The Actor" further boosted his fame.

However, he promised that the songs would never be charged, so the song "The Actor" alone caused him to lose tens of millions of yuan in revenue. Fortunately, he can monetize his music through other means, such as variety shows and commercial performances.

Secondly, there are user-end prices for listeners to pay for songs. The price for a single song is around 2 yuan, while a monthly membership costs 8 to 12 yuan. Digital albums are priced from ten to twenty yuan each, for example, Jay Chou's "Bedtime Stories" is priced at 20 yuan.

As for potential breakout stars like Wei Jun, the platform won't offer him a "bargain price." Instead, it will adopt a cooperation model of "revenue sharing + guaranteed minimum + tiered conditions," and then use high-quality resources to secure the partnership.

However, Wei Jun refused. He still chose to release his second song for free on all platforms. Firstly, the song and music video were not suitable for payment. Secondly, he was also learning from Xue Zhiqian, which was to release songs in the early stages to generate hype and then reap the rewards by releasing an album later.

Copyright cooperation failed, but cooperation in publicity and promotion was possible. Wei Jun's team invested a sum of money in publicity, securing resources such as the QQ Music platform's splash screen, homepage focus image, pop-ups, and promotion to top various authoritative charts, as well as strong algorithmic support.

We secured top-tier recommendations on the NetEase Cloud Music app's homepage banner, new song updates, and official playlists, with official accounts such as the Cloud Village editors posting recommendation updates.

There are also music integration projects such as homepage recommendations on the Kugou Music APP, new song premieres, traffic-driven promotions on its subsidiary "Fanxing Live", and participation in "Chuangku Sound Factory" in collaboration with the Chevrolet Trax team.

Of course, we will continue to cooperate with Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and Tieba to promote the song and strive to make it available across the entire internet after its release.

Wei Jun roughly estimated the cost of the second new song. He was shocked to find that it cost more than double that of the first song.

The main expense was the filming cost of the two music videos, including labor, location, food, props, costumes, etc. The quality was much higher than that of the first music video.

The second major expense is advertising and promotion costs, which fully utilize available funds and platform support resources.

Sure enough, the money came quickly and went quickly.

After discussing the publicity with Yang Hua, "Touring Beijing" was ready to start its pre-release promotion. Wei Jun's only remaining task was to work on the storyline of the duet version of the music video. Meanwhile, the Republic of China version of "Enemy" was ready to go, and Li Lin had already arrived in Beijing.

......

October 1, Huairou Film and Television Base, Beijing.

Wei Jun, dressed in a black robe, looked sad as he looked down at the master who had raised them and taught them skills. Beside him was Li Lin, dressed in a white embroidered dress, her eyes filled with tears.

The two actors played the roles of Chen Qiaotou and Chen Xiangkou, respectively. The plot involved the Japanese army entering the city and committing arson, murder, and looting. Their master was shot several times while trying to help them get tickets to leave the city and was in critical condition.

"Bridgehead, alleyway, Shun'an, it'll be leaving in a couple of days... It's a pity I won't be able to drink this cup of wedding wine..." The driver shakily pulled out two boat tickets.

"Master, let's go together." Li Qin said, tears streaming down her face.

The master gently raised his hand, made a theatrical gesture in the air, and then passed away.

"Click, that's a pass." Shen Ao's voice came through the loudspeaker.

Wei Jun helped up Wang Chao, an extra: "Master Wang, thank you for your participation."

Master Wang Chao was specially invited by Li Lin from the opera school to help out. Although he didn't charge a fee, Wei Jun couldn't help but show his appreciation when filming wrapped up. He gave him a big red envelope, bought him round-trip airfare, and arranged a private car to pick him up.

It's better to give money than to owe someone a favor.

Wang Chao said with a smile, "I'm very grateful to you all for being able to have the chance to act. I especially thank Xiao Lin for inviting me to participate."

Master Wang Chao has a role in the story, mainly teaching the young male and female protagonists opera skills. He will perform and teach opera on the spot, which requires a certain foundation in opera.

As for the actors who played the male and female leads as children, Wei Jun found two child stars: the male was Han Haolin, who later played "Little Fan Xian" in the TV series "Joy of Life," and the female was Tao Yixi, who later played the young Suzhen in the TV series versions of "The Legend of Qin" and "The Legend of White Snake."

The two children are young, but they act quite well.

Han Haolin, in particular, is talented and hardworking. He has starred in many popular dramas and his future is brighter than a light bulb.