Huayu: A master director who debuted as a singer

Next comes marketing. How do we convince those vendors and provincial distributors that this album can sell? Otherwise, they won't stock it no matter how cheap it is.

It's mid-July now. Once I've completed the formalities, started producing the tapes, and everything is ready, it will be around September.

September, the start of the school year. It's when students' wallets are fullest and they're most eager for new things.

Zheng Hui plans to find several key middle schools in Guangzhou, such as Zhixin Middle School, Guangya Middle School, and Guangdong Experimental Middle School.

You can either approach students at the school's broadcasting station directly, or buy something for the teacher in charge of broadcasting.

It doesn't need to be much, just a few hundred dollars, or you can throw in a few boxes of cassette tapes.

There was only one request: play his songs during lunchtime and after school in the afternoon.

"Stubbornness," "My Sky," "A Child's Heart Chasing Dreams"...

Once these songs are played over the loudspeakers on campus, the lyrics and melodies spread among students like a virus.

"What's the name of this song?"

Who sang it?

"That was awesome!"

At the same time, Zheng Hui would spend a hundred or two hundred yuan to take care of all the small shops selling stationery, snacks, and cassette tapes near the school gate.

I gave the boss a demo tape, paid him a small amount of money to buy the rights to play it on the stereo, and also resold some tapes on his behalf.

The students heard the song once at school, and then heard it again when they went outside the school gates to buy snacks and pen refills.

And they have it in stock, six to eight yuan a plate. Should I buy it or not? Definitely.

Once these stores become popular, the owners of nearby audio-visual stores will find that this tape sells out extremely quickly.

They get the goods from Zheng Hui for four or five yuan each, and they will definitely ask the next-level wholesaler if they have any stock and if they can get the goods at a lower price.

Who do wholesalers contact? They contact the stalls and general agents in Guangzhou Audio-Visual City.

At this point, Zheng Hui can start promoting his products to the owners of those large food stalls.

As long as they've seen or heard of it, know how popular it is at school, know how low its wholesale price is, and know it's genuine, they don't need to worry about getting caught.

They would wave their money around and beg Zheng Hui to ship the goods; this is how the end-user forces the channel to ship.

A week later, in Guangzhou, Zheng Hui, carrying a briefcase, once again walked into the building of the Swan Publishing House.

On the second floor, in the distribution department, Director Liu saw Zheng Hui enter and said, "Little Zheng, you're here."

Director Liu took a brown paper file folder from the drawer and handed it to Zheng Hui.

"The game license has been issued, and the approval process went very smoothly. The provincial bureau is very supportive of this kind of inspirational theme, and it gave us the green light all the way."

Zheng Hui took the file folder and opened it. Inside was a film with a barcode printed on it, and below it was a string of numbers: ISBN…

There is also a "Company Letter for Reproduction of Audio-Visual Products".

This was the birth certificate for legally producing audio-visual products in this era. Without this certificate, no legitimate CD or cassette manufacturer would dare to accept an order; doing so would be considered illegal publishing and could lead to imprisonment.

"By the way, you need to fill in the specific print run number."

Director Liu pointed to a blank column below the authorization form: "Although we are co-publishing and bear our own profits and losses, we still need to report this data to the provincial bureau for record-keeping."

Zheng Hui's pen fell on the column for the number of copies commissioned.

1, followed by six 0s.

1

After finishing writing, he handed the letter of authorization back to Director Liu for stamping.

Director Liu took the paper, glanced at it, and her hand froze in mid-air.

She leaned closer to look: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions.

Director Liu looked up at Zheng Hui: "Xiao Zheng, did your hand slip and you wrote two extra zeros?"

One million cassette tapes? What does that even mean?

Although the record market is still relatively prosperous, a new artist's first album usually only has an initial print run of 20,000 to 30,000 copies, at most 50,000 copies.

Those who dare to print 100,000 boxes for the first time are all second-tier singers who already have a reputation and a fan base in the industry.

A million copies printed on the first day? That's a number only the Four Heavenly Kings would dare to dream of when releasing a new album!

Moreover, they only dared to print so many if it was released simultaneously throughout Asia.

The young man in front of me has no fame, no company, no publicity, and hasn't even been featured on radio charts.

They want to print a million boxes right off the bat? Isn't that insane?

Director Liu advised, "Xiao Zheng, I know that you young people are energetic and have dreams, which is a good thing."

However, doing business is not gambling. The cost of copying and packaging those million tapes alone would be a huge sum of money.

If it can't be sold, it's just a pile of waste plastic, and even scrap collectors won't want it.

Listen to your older sister's advice, print ten or twenty thousand boxes first to test the waters. If they sell well, we'll print more. The molds are all there, we can print anytime, it won't take more than a few days.

She meant well. She had been in the industry for twenty years and had seen too many young people who took their family's money to pursue their dreams of becoming stars, only to lose everything in the end.

One million boxes—if we lose that, that's over a million dollars in real money.

Zheng Hui said sincerely, "Director Liu, thank you for your kindness, but I've done the math. I'm confident I can sell this million boxes. Besides, my sales strategy is to distribute them cheaply; if the quantity isn't enough, the price won't be low enough to expand distribution."

Looking at Zheng Hui's determined eyes, Director Liu knew she couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she sighed and said, "Fine, since you insist, I won't stop you. But there's a problem."

"The processing fee for one million boxes, even at the most favorable price in the current market, would still be around one million. Are you able to pay that amount?"

Although our publishing house can help you contact a copy factory, they require payment before starting work. Especially for such a large order, the machines won't start operating without a 50% prepayment.

She suspected that Zheng Hui was trying to get something for nothing, or that he simply didn't know how deep the water was in this situation.

Zheng Hui reached into his bag, took out the file folder, untied the knot, pulled out the proof of funds issued by the Macau branch of the Bank of China, placed it on the table, and gently pushed it in front of Director Liu.

"Director Liu, this is my bank statement from the Bank of China in Macau, showing a deposit of HKD 1.2 million."

Once the contract is signed, I'll immediately take it to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to apply, and the money will be transferred in very quickly.

Director Liu took the paper.

Bank of China Macau Branch.

This is to certify that Mr. Zheng Hui (ID number…) has a deposit of HKD 1,200,000.00 in our bank account. This fund is in a state of availability.

The document was signed with the bank's official seal and the bank manager's signature.

HK$1.2 million was a huge sum of money in 1998, and more importantly, it was foreign exchange.

Although Hong Kong has returned to China, the Hong Kong dollar is still considered a foreign exchange in mainland China.

The country's foreign exchange reserves have exceeded the $100 billion mark, but that's the country's money. For businesses and publishing houses, being able to generate foreign exchange or attract foreign investment is still a huge achievement.

"So...you're planning to pay for production costs in Hong Kong dollars?"

Zheng Hui nodded: "Yes, after I sign the contract with the manufacturer, I will take the contract and this certificate to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to apply for the remittance of this money. Does this count as foreign investment in the cultural industry?"

Director Liu's expression turned serious; this was no longer something that a mere distribution department director could decide.

A print run of one million boxes is part of the publisher's annual target.

The inflow of one million Hong Kong dollars involves the Ministry of Finance's foreign exchange settlement.

"Please wait a moment." Director Liu dialed the phone number of an acquaintance at the Bank of China in Guangzhou.

"Hello, is this Old Chen? This is Old Liu from the White Swan Hotel. I need you to verify something. I have a credit certificate issued by the Bank of China in Macau... Yes, the number is..."

A few minutes later, Director Liu hung up the phone.

"The bank has confirmed that the format and numbering are correct."

Director Liu placed the proof of funds on the table: "Xiao Zheng, this business is huge, I need to report to the president. Please sit here and have some tea, don't leave."

After saying that, she picked up the authorization form with the number one million filled in and quickly walked out of the office.