Perfect Superstar

Lu Chen’sbright eyes slowly swept across the faces of all the people present.

One of themis Lu Chen’s relatives, some are friends, some are former colleagues, and someof them are originally his fans.

Because offate, everyone is now sitting here together and has formed a small team.

No matterwhat career or job they used to do, everyone now is a young newcomer breakinginto the entertainment world. They lacked sufficient experience and strength,and are full of confusion about the future.

What made LuChen confident was the unity of this team!

Now thestudio was like a budding seedling, though still very fragile, but the rootsand stems supporting the tender leaves were flexible and full of vitality. Evenin the face of being rolled by boulders and the baptism of storms, there isstill the strength to persist.

He wasfearless.

“Infact, everyone thinks the problem is too serious.”

Lu Chen saidwith a smile, “We don’t need to beat anyone. As long as the album hits theshelves, it will be a success, and we don’t need to work hard to compete withothers for the sales list. The key is to recover the production cost.”

“Ourproduction cost is very low.”

Theproduction cost of “You Who Sat Next To Me” was so low that mostpeople in the industry can’t imagine it.

Generallyspeaking, the production cost of a complete album with qualified or evenexcellent quality ranges between hundreds of thousands to millions, and it isnormal to exceed more than one million yuan. Adding in the publicity expenses, itcan reach to 3 to 4 million yuan.

And theproduction cost of “You Who Sat Next To Me” is only 100,000 yuan!

All 10 songswere written by Lu Chen himself. He didn’t need to spend a cent to buy songsfrom others, which first saved at least a hundred thousand or even hundreds ofthousands of expenses.

It is normalfor a songwriter with a good reputation to ask tens of thousands of yuan for asong.

Secondly, interms of composition, accompaniment and recording, Lu Chen didn’t choose afirst-class production unit in the industry, such as Tianzhi Workshop, but choosethe unknown Nirvana Studio.

This savedhundreds of thousands more!

According toLin Zhijie, the music director of Flying Stone Records, the real value of thealbum produced by Nirvana Studio for Lu Chen should be worth between 200,000and 300,000 yuan. He picked up a great bargain.

Theproduction cost of 100,000 yuan is only equivalent to the price of an ordinaryadvertising space on QQ Music website for 10 days!

Adding theadvertising fee, the total cost, excluding labor, was only 200,000!

According tothe contract signed by Lu Chen Studio and QQ Music, “You Who Sat Next ToMe” will be sold as a whole album and not in singles. The price forordinary members is 10 yuan per piece and 20% discount for VIP members.

The sharebetween Lu Chen Studio and QQ Music is 50-50, with each side taking half.

Even if theprice is all in accordance with the VIP price, as long as 50,000 copies aresold, the cost can be recovered, and the excess is the net profit.

Such aprofit margin is something that Cui Zhengzhi, Zou Bei or Ling Xiaoxiao could notcatch up.

They’ve spenttens of millions of yuan on advertising for their albums, plus the productioncost. They have to sell at least 400,000 to 500,000 copies to break even, whichis a sales performance that would be impossible to achieve unless they cheat.

Of course,whether it is Cui Zhengzhi, or Zou Bei or Ling Xiaoxiao, the companies theyhave signed cannot expect to recover costs by selling albums online, but itwill be mainly through the artists’ commercial performances, advertisements, periphery,and so on, that they could make a profit.

Therefore,the goals of the two sides were different from the beginning.

Lu Chen’srequirements were not high. He will be very satisfied as long as the cost isrecovered, and the reputation of the album spread out. As long as his position andappeal in the circle increased, there are plenty of opportunities to makemoney.

So, Lu Chen didn’tneed to compete with them, much less spend money to gamble with them.

(TN: In asense, that he will not play the same game they’re playing, with all the moneythey throwing out, hoping they will win in the end.)

“Wejust have to do our own thing!”

Lu Chen saidto everyone, “No matter how strong he is, what does it have to do with CuiZhengzhi’s album being on the shelves on the same day? Our goal is 50,000sales, and if we reach 50,000, we already won!”

“50,000is a piece of cake...”

Li Mubaisaid dismissively: “There are more than 50,000 members in Lu Family Army,more than a million fans in the live broadcast, and there are still 5 millionon Inspur blog!”

Lu Chensmiled and shook his head. Besides the die-hard fans on the Lu Family Army, itis completely unknown how many fans from the streaming site and Inspur blog canbecome paying customers, especially since the number of passer-by fans in Inspurare great.

His Inspurblog has more than 5 million followers. It has met the basic requirements ofbeing a big V account, but majority of them are passers-by. Many of them were attractedin the last two blog battles, and were not really fans.

Expectingthese passer-by fans to buy his songs would be too naive.

Of course,with the support of Lu Family Army’s die-hard fans, 50,000 of sales volumeshould be no problem.

Comparedwith the online sales on QQ Music, Lu Chen actually paid more attention to therecord albums, which has more appeal.

Ring!

Just then,Lu Xi’s cellphone on her desk suddenly rang.

She pickedit up and checked it, then turned on her computer: “Xiaomei said she had amessage for us to see.”

Sister ChenXiaomei worked as a receptionist in Lu Chen Studio. In her spare time, she alsohelped Lu Xi search and browse the news on the Internet, especially the gossipnews and inside information in the entertainment industry.

She has nowsent a video link to Lu Xi’s QQ.

“CuiZhengzhi...”

Lu Xiclicked on the link and turned the computer screen around for everyone to see.

The sourceof the video is the Inspur Entertainment Channel. The content is an exclusiveinterview with Cui Zhengzhi by a Weibo reporter.

Inspur isone of the largest web portals in China. It has two major resources: Inspur Blogand Inspur Games. Therefore, Inspur Entertainment Channel has a great influencein the entertainment industry.

However, itis not easy to get an exclusive interview with Inspur, unless one has genuinematerials, otherwise, one must be prepared to take out money, which is also animportant part of publicity and hype.

On the27-inch HD screen, Cui Zhengzhi was confidently talking to the microphone of theentertainment reporter.

The InspurEntertainment reporter asked, “Mr. Cui Zhengzhi, I heard that your firstsolo album will be released soon, right?”

Cui Zhengzhisaid with a smile, “Yes, it will be released on QQ Music on the 8th ofthis month. You are welcome to subscribe and buy.”

Cui Zhengzhiis 20 years old, 2 years younger than Lu Chen. He first worked as a trainee inSouth Korea’s KG Agency for 3 years, and then returned to China to make hisofficial debut.

In theprevious year, he participated in the “Super Male Voice” competitionof Xiangnan Satellite. Cui Zhengzhi won second place. He is good at singing anddancing and has a strong Korean star temperament, so he is loved by manyteenage boys and girls.

InspurEntertainment reporter: “So what is the style of your album?”

Cui Zhengzhireplied without hesitation: “Passion and enthusiasm can make everyone’sheart beat faster. I wrote four of the ten songs myself. I believe it will notdisappoint everyone!”

The InspurEntertainment reporter said with a smile: “Everyone says that you are avery talented singer-songwriter, and as far as I know, Lu Chen, the winner ofthis year’s "Singing China", will also release his debut album on QQ Music onthe same day as yours. Do you feel any pressure?”

Hearing the InspurEntertainment reporter’s obviously provocative question, everyone finallyunderstood why Xiaomei sent this interview video to Lu Xi to see.

“Nopressure!”

Cui Zhengzhismiled confidently and said, “Lu Chen is a very good singer-songwriter,but I am better than him, and my album is better, so the winner will inevitablybe me!”

“He’scrazy!”

Chen Xincouldn’t help saying, “He’s not putting Brother Chen in his eyes.”

Li Mubaiclenched his fist: “This guy...”

Cui Zhengzhiwas truly crazy, and it’s not that he was generally confident, but it was as ifthis was his personality.

But in theeyes of the fans, Cui Zhengzhi was sincere and not hypocritical, and what he saidwas not false.

But it wouldbe a big mistake to think that he doesn’t have a thought-out plan.

This newartist who returned from South Korea knows how to look at the food under thepot, and he will act very modest when it is time to be modest. (TN: To look atthe food under the pot (看锅下菜)-that’s what it says. I’m guessing this means to know who the opponent is andhis capabilities.)

As for LuChen, it is obviously not the object of his modesty.

The InspurEntertainment reporter obviously likes this topic very much, and further asks:“Why are you so sure? Several songs in Lu Chen’s album have good reviews.”

Cui Zhengzhinodded and said: “The songs he wrote are good, but they are really out ofdate. They belong to the nostalgic style of the 80’s and 90’s, and I know whatsongs young people like me really like!”

“F*ck!”

When LiFeiyu heard this, his lungs was about to explode with rage: “He’s tooshameless!”

Althoughwhat he said is right, he was actually directly stepping on Lu Chen’s feet. Anyonecould hear the sarcasm in his words.

It would beokay if this was said to others in private, but saying this during a publicinterview is too disrespectful. Not to mention Li Feiyu, Li Mubai and the others,even Lu Chen knitted his brows.

Even clayfigurines have three points of anger! (TN: Meaning even the most honest personwill get angry if push too far.)

What kind ofman would he be if he is still indifferent when he is trampled on his head?

Lu Chen isnot a ninja turtle! (TN: Ninja Turtle, an internet slang, which means someonewho endure the things that upset him.)

Chen Xiangsaid angrily, “I used to like him, but now I know he’s so repugnant!”

Lu Xi saidwith a sullen expression: “He is deliberately hyping the topic.”

After aperiod of study and research, this big sister has a basic understanding of allkinds of hype tricks in the entertainment industry. What Cui Zhengzhi and the InspurEntertainment reporter were doing was a two-man act. She can see at a glance.

This kind ofhype method is very carefully controlled.

But it wasunbearable!

The key isthat Cui Zhengzhi was not afraid to say that he has full assurance that he canbeat Lu Chen in sales volume.

If too manyof such promotion goes down, it could kill Lu Chen’s reputation.

The winner willnot be condemned, and the fans will only praise!

Lu Chensuddenly smiled and said, “It’s seemed that not taking this seriously isout of the question, sister. Then let’s spend some money on internet hype. No,it’s publicity!”

Lu Chendidn’t want to spend too much money on the promotion of this album, but now hehas changed his mind.

Lu Xi’s eyeslit up and said, “Do you have any good ideas?”

Lu Chensaid, “Let me think about it first...”

His eyeswere fixed on the high-spirited Cui Zhengzhi on the screen, and there was alittle coldness in his eyes.

Since youwant to fight, let’s have a good fight!

____________

TN: By the way, Inspur blog is like Weibo. (Thanks to the guys/gals at Foxaholic for this!)

TN: If yousee any mistakes or you didn’t understand parts in the chapter, please write iton the comment area. I will immediately address it. Thank you!

But if youare reading this other than in my site, I will not be able to read yourcomments.