Huayu: A master director who debuted as a singer

As Zheng Huigang pushed open the door to President Wang's office, President Wang stood up from behind his desk: "Little Zheng is here, please sit down, please sit down."

He walked around the desk, personally pressed Zheng Hui down onto the sofa, and made him a cup of tea.

Seeing President Wang's unusual enthusiasm, Zheng Hui roughly understood that the music videos must have had an effect.

"President Wang, you look radiant! Is there some good news?"

President Wang did not answer directly, but instead picked up a document from the table and handed it to Zheng Hui.

"Take a look at this first, and then sign it."

Zheng Hui took it and saw that it was an audio-visual product reproduction commission contract.

The client was his Zhuhai company, and the printing company was the copy factory in Panyu. The number of copies ordered was clearly written as "1,000,000".

Another million boxes.

Zheng Hui looked up, his eyes filled with doubt.

"President, this..."

He remembered the last order of two million boxes. The approval had just come through, and the factory probably hadn't even started full-scale production yet. How come another million boxes came in?

President Wang chuckled, pulled a fax sheet from a pile of documents on his desk, and pushed it in front of Zheng Hui.

"Take a look at this, and you'll understand."

The fax paper had the words "China Central Television" printed on the header.

Below is the title of an official letter: "Letter Regarding Application for Use of Song Music Video Works".

The gist is that CCTV's sports channel saw the promotional MV for the Asian Games submitted by the GD Provincial Sports Bureau and believed that its content was positive and uplifting, the music was inspiring, and it was highly consistent with the spirit of sports.

Therefore, we sent a letter to Swan Audio-Visual Publishing House, hoping to obtain the free use rights to the music videos of the four songs "Stubborn", "I Believe", "Chasing Dreams with a Pure Heart" and "Fly Higher" for use in the Asian Games promotion, special reports and related programs.

Zheng Hui was a little surprised after watching it. He knew that this mashup MV would be very good, but he didn't expect the effect to come so quickly and so powerfully.

"President, being on CCTV means the cassette tapes will sell even better?"

President Wang raised his voice: "Of course! What is CCTV? You go in a Santana and come out a Mercedes. It's the largest platform in the country!"

Your songs were broadcast on the provincial TV station for a week, and they sold like hotcakes throughout Guangdong. Now you're going to be on CCTV, just imagine what that means!"

He picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it, and took a satisfying drag.

"Your two million boxes haven't even left the factory yet. Just by releasing the music video in Guangdong, I'd dare ask you for another three hundred thousand boxes."

Once CCTV broadcasts it, orders from all over the country will flood in like snowflakes. Three million boxes? I'm afraid we won't have enough to sell!

"Don't worry about the money. The two million from last time is enough as an advance payment for the total three million boxes. When Xinhua Bookstore or those stall owners come to you for more goods in the middle or end of the month, you can pay the rest. The company trusts you."

Zheng Hui nodded. This was indeed the best way, saving him the trouble of going to Macau and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to transfer Hong Kong dollars in.

President Wang pointed to the new contract for one million boxes.

"Of course, out of these three million boxes, our publishing house is supposed to take one million. This restock is essentially giving them all to us. You have no objections, right?"

"No objection, I'll follow the president's arrangements." Zheng Hui answered readily; he was more than happy if Swan wanted it. As for the four major stalls, two million boxes would be enough for them to sell for a while, and they could place more orders if they found it insufficient.

President Wang was very satisfied with Zheng Hui's attitude and continued, "I'll talk to Xinhua Bookstore about it later. Just based on the golden brand of the CCTV promotional song, I can get them to sell at least 400,000 boxes."

The rest, I'll distribute to education systems and partner organizations in other provinces; I have no trouble selling them.

After signing the papers, Zheng Hui was about to get up when President Wang pressed him back down.

"Don't rush off, there's still something to do. Your music video being broadcast repeatedly on CCTV's sports channel is just the first step."

If the response is particularly good, they will definitely invite you, the original singer, to appear on television, perhaps at a gala or something. You need to be mentally prepared beforehand.

"Perform on CCTV?"

"Yes. They definitely won't call you directly; they'll send a letter through our publishing house or the provincial government. You'll have to be on standby at any time. Once you receive the notification, you might only have a day or two to prepare before you have to rush to Beijing."

Zheng Hui thought about it and realized that this was not a problem for him.

"No problem, President. I can leave anytime; a day or two should be enough for me to prepare."

His control over his body is such that even if you asked him to go on stage immediately, he wouldn't be nervous, let alone for a day or two.

"That's good." President Wang nodded and changed the subject.

"With cassette tapes selling so well, have you ever considered releasing a CD?"

Zheng Hui's heart skipped a beat; he hadn't really thought about this before.

"President, do you think this is appropriate? If so, how many should we produce? After all, CDs are much more expensive than cassette tapes."

He naturally threw the question back at the old hand in front of him, saying that when it came to understanding the market, ten of him couldn't compare to this seasoned veteran.

After considering for a moment, President Wang said, "Two hundred thousand copies. Let's produce two hundred thousand copies to test the waters first. You can pay the difference later when the tapes are sold."

He looked at Zheng Hui and began to analyze why this number was chosen: "Your cassette tape sales have now exceeded one million, which means you have a very large fan base. With CCTV giving you another push, it's only a matter of time before the remaining two million tapes are sold."

"However, your songs are mainly sung by students and young people. These days, a genuine CD can easily retail for fifty or sixty yuan. Although your songs are popular, they are mainly sung by students and young people. Not many people in this group own CD players or high-end audio equipment."

"Buying your CDs is mostly for collection or as gifts. I'm even worried that I won't be able to sell all 200,000 copies and will end up with a lot of unsold stock."

Zheng Hui listened attentively and felt that President Wang's analysis made a lot of sense: "Okay, President, then let's do as you say and produce 200,000 CDs first."

As for VCDs, neither of them mentioned them.

Four music videos on a VCD is too simplistic. Nobody will buy a disc just to watch four music videos.

There are cassette tapes and CDs for listening to music, but four music videos can't fill the capacity of a single DVD.

After finishing their business, President Wang remembered something and mentioned it again.

"Oh, right, Xiao Zheng, there's something else I need to tell you."

"Recently, many people have called the publishing house, wanting to invite you to do commercial performances."

"But back then you weren't very famous. You only had a voice on the radio, and you only had one song in the top 20 of the hot song charts. The prices offered by those bosses weren't high, mostly a few thousand dollars, at most ten or twenty thousand, so I turned them all down for you."

President Wang chuckled, his expression disdainful: "A few thousand yuan? That's like throwing money away to a beggar. You're practically a sales superstar now. Once the CCTV promotion starts, your value will skyrocket. If you accept this price now, there'll be no way to raise it later."

By the way, you need to seriously consider the commercial performance thing now.