I became a music industry godfather by writing confidantes.

Chapter 166 Suppress it

"What do you mean by 'suppressing' the manuscripts? They're already full. I've already finished writing my manuscripts, and you're telling me you only want more rigorous ones now?"

'

On February 23, at 8:30 a.m., in Chengdu, a thousand miles away, a man with the Weibo ID "Old Cat Who Loves to Eat Humpback Whales" was arguing with a middleman.

He suffered from acute gastroenteritis last night and was up half the night, so he didn't finish the manuscript until this morning.

On the other end of the WeChat conversation is a donor known as "Middleman," who is responsible for connecting major music companies and music critics.

After a while, the other party suggested, "How about trying a more rigorous manuscript? The payment is negotiable; we can add 2000 on top of keeping it under control."

95

2000?

Old Cat laughed in anger. Did he care about 2000? He was willing to risk his reputation without even considering who his target was this time.

Yang Du!

Having just won two Feitian Awards before the Lunar New Year, and now receiving 11 Golden Bell Award nominations, spanning both mainstream and pop music circles, is this kind of unconventional singing so easy?

As for suppressing Yang Du's "Life is Like Summer Flowers," Lao Mao felt that this was the limit he could do as a professional music critic.

Now the other party is still not satisfied and actually wants to commission a more rigorous manuscript?

In the music industry, "keeping things under control" and "being stricter" are unspoken rules.

Music critics also need to make a living. It's an open secret in the industry that they take on some commissions from music companies and write a music review.

However, commissioned articles do not equate to mindless criticism or praise. They must be substantial, well-reasoned, and supported by evidence. Those who aim to grab attention or engage in baseless hype fall into the business of marketing accounts.

Serious music critics have their own set of rules.

"Suppress it" means writing the music review normally, but lowering the score in the final rating stage and conclusion.

For example, a single that could have scored 9 points could be downgraded to 8.5 or 8 points, or a single that could have scored 7 points could be downgraded to 6.5 or 6 points. If enough music critics are involved in the lobbying, they can work together to downgrade a single's rating from excellent to good, and subtly influence the listeners with this rating.

As for the explanations, they usually say that expectations were high, but the result did not meet expectations, it was not surprising enough, and it did not break through compared with previous works. Ordinary people can't find fault with it.

Similarly, there's also the matter of awarding bonus points.

A stricter approach would be different, representing a client's explicit request for a negative review.

Old Cat might have accepted the role if it were anyone else, but this time it was "Life is Like Summer Flowers," Yang Du's first single after transitioning to a singer.

Does he even care about his reputation anymore?

Are you even going to care about my career anymore?

There is a common misconception that music critics who frequently receive sponsored content are all paid to do things and have no moral bottom line.

In fact, quite the opposite is true. The more a music critic is willing to make a living, the more they care about maintaining their reputation and professionalism.

To put it bluntly, they make a living by selling their authority, professionalism, and objectivity. Once their reputation is ruined, they won't get any more work, and their accounts will be useless.

Therefore, sustainable development is of particular importance.

Admittedly, posting a highly controversial negative review and having it trend on social media for a day or two can generate a lot of traffic, but this is tantamount to trying to catch fish out of a dry rut.

Only those who don't make a living from music reviews can say whatever they want, dare to write and post anything, and yet music companies still have to support them.

Seeing that Old Cat hadn't agreed yet, the other party sent another message.

"Add another 1000."

""

Upon seeing the message, Old Cat's throat involuntarily bobbed.

The other party gave too much.

A music review is at most 2000 words, but this time the client was generous and offered 8000 after some negotiation, and now the price is 11000.

The old cat shamefully fell for him.

11000 was enough for him to live a very comfortable life in Chengdu.

It's just a bad review, right?

With the right strategy, it's not impossible.

Old Cat had a lot of ideas pop into his head. He didn't talk about Yang Du's lyrics, music, or singing skills, but instead picked out some abstract concepts and creative ideas to criticize.

For example, the core of a song may be too immersed in the personal world and lack social value, or the form of the arrangement may outweigh the content.

As long as it's self-consistent and logically sound, giving it a negative review occasionally is understandable.

There are several colleagues in the industry who take a sharp-tongued approach and specialize in generating negative traffic, but over time, their value has diminished, and no one is willing to spend money on public relations anymore.

Old Cat was originally ready to take the order, but when he thought of Yang Du's current momentum and the official endorsement and hidden power behind him, he suddenly realized that he was being very pragmatic and decided to follow his heart.

It's not worth it. Someone of Yang Du's caliber is someone they can't just casually try to extort.

"Forget it, I'm not taking your commissions anymore."

Old Cat closed the chat window and saved a screenshot of the chat history.

Work must be documented.

Suddenly, the old cat had an idea.

"What if I abandon the darkness and embrace the light? Ugh, I'm clearly ending my undercover operation."

With these chat screenshots, is it possible to make contact with Yang Du?

You know, Yang Du is now a rising star in the music industry. If you can get on the Qiuniu Studio's good side, wouldn't you be guaranteed to get first-hand resources for any albums produced by Yang Du in the future?

Jingcheng, Jinshi Recording Studio.

At noon, Yang Du received a message from Yuan Xiuqing while he was eating.

"This morning, our public relations department detected some unusual activity online. Several of the dozens of music critics we are closely monitoring showed signs of being pressured by the authorities."

"Did you give 'Life is Like a Summer Flower' a bad review?"

"No, not at all," Yuan Xiuqing said. "But the scoring criteria were quite strict, and they only picked out conceptual and abstract questions. The overall evaluation was significantly lower than the level the work should have been at."

"As for those who gave negative reviews, we've investigated them all. They're all relatively insignificant music critics with limited influence."

Yang Du understood; this was a typical case of lowering the score: "It must be Yun Ge's doing."

"This morning, a music critic finally contacted me after going through several rounds of intermediaries. He frankly admitted that a middleman had approached him last night to commission an article, requesting that he write a more rigorous piece."

Yuan Xiuqing continued, "This afternoon I plan to contact Jinshi and spread some word, partially blurring out some of the screenshots he gave me, to warn those music critics who are still observing."

"Okay," Yang Du said. "Also, contact Jinshi again and remove all the music critics we've collected who have been PR-smoked from the whitelist. From now on, any album listening sessions I'm involved in producing will have encrypted resources beforehand, so they can forget about getting them."

2

"Okay, I'll take care of it right away."

Yuan Xiuqing naturally knew what this meant.

For singles, it's one thing, but for albums, music critics usually attend listening sessions a while in advance, or receive encrypted listening invitations a few days in advance, so that they can publish their reviews as soon as the album is released.

Once removed from the whitelist, these privileges and media access will disappear, meaning they will only be able to hear new songs when the album is released, just like ordinary netizens.

Without even firsthand music reviews, can they still be considered authoritative music critics in the long run?

Especially given Yang Du's current popularity and influence, not being able to get the first music review resource for an album produced by Yang Du is tantamount to having one's commercial value halved.

After a few times, these music critics were rendered useless.