Chapter 684 The Current Situation of the Recording Industry in the Mainland

Why is Yin Jun's first factory in the mainland a tape recorder factory?

The boy didn't do it on a whim, he had planned it long ago.

The purpose is simple, he wants to find a way out for the singers in Xiangjiang.

Xiangjiang is still too small to accommodate so many singers. Once their foreign markets are cut off, these singers will obviously have to die.

To be honest, Yin Jun doesn't particularly care about singing.

In his previous life, his main focus of work was film and television variety shows, where he devoted the most effort and emotion.

But it is undeniable that if there is no music in a person's life, it will reduce a lot of colors.

After all, you can't watch movies and TV all the time, but you can always listen to music.

Therefore, Yin Jun has also listened to too many golden songs, and there are more than 300 music played in loop on his computer alone.

When a person has listened to these more than 300 songs for five or six years, basically Yin Jun can sing them all.

The songs of Xiangjiang and Baodao singers accounted for 80% of the songs in Yin Jun's playlist.

After 2008, when computers were networked almost all over the country, and even Jay Chou's records couldn't sell more than 1 million copies, in fact, records and tape music could already be declared dead in China.

After 2015, thousands of smartphones emerged one after another, and when almost every young person over the age of 18 in Huaguo had a smartphone, the physical record industry couldn't do it.

Only in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, where copyright protection is good, can the "miracle" of an album selling millions of copies happen.

In Huaguo, being able to sell hundreds of thousands of times on online cloud music is already at the level of a big singer.

So basically starting in 2008, if a singer wants to make money, he either participates in variety shows, or participates in commercial performances, and finally holds his own concerts.

The risk of holding a concert is even greater. Apart from Zhang Xueyou, Wang Fei, Jay Chou, Eixun Chan, Jolin Tsai, Andy Lau, etc., other powerful singers may not have many places to buy your account.

As long as the performance contractor loses money for a few consecutive concerts, your reputation will drop rapidly, and no one will invite you to hold concerts anymore.

It is also the most cost-effective for variety shows and commercial performances.

The appearance fees of variety shows have been rising year after year, and the remuneration for participating in a season ranges from hundreds of thousands to several million to tens of millions, which is almost crazy.

Commercial performances are also very reliable. If you are famous, you can easily ask you to sing a song for 200,000 or 500,000. If you run across the country, you can easily get 10,000 to 20,000.

but!

Yin Jun always felt that it was a kind of sadness for a singer to rely on this to make money.

But this is an impasse.

Before Huaguo has not developed to a certain stage of civilization, piracy is absolutely an unavoidable problem. Yin Jun can think of ways to prevent movie piracy, but for low-tech things like CDs and tapes, You don't have much ability to block it.

Especially in the era of the Internet and smart phones, no one can prevent the spread of pirated music.

Therefore, if a singer wants to survive and continue to make his own music, he must rely on the above-mentioned means to support himself.

For example, Xue Zhiqian, in order to continue singing, opened a hot pot restaurant, started a small business, sold real estate... etc., and all the money he earned was used to make music.

Only when you have money can you continue to make music.

Without money, what music ideals do you still talk about?

This fact is very cruel, but the singers have to face it.

However, Yin Jun, with 40 years of experience ahead of this era, is not completely helpless in this era when there is no Internet at all.

There is one and only one way.

Lower the price.

Take the music tapes popular in the 90s as an example. Xinghua Bookstore and regular audio-visual stores sell them for 10 yuan a disc. The effects, covers and lyrics list are all very good.

The effect of the pirated tapes at this time was at most only 60% of that of the genuine ones, but their price was 6 yuan, or even 5 yuan.

And the people who pirated the version are quite thoughtful, and often make some kind of selection, which is to gather all the good songs of one singer, or gather the good songs of seven or eight singers—especially the latter one. Kind of, this is absolutely impossible to do with the genuine version.

In the 1990s, not to mention that the students did not have much money in their pockets, even the adults had a salary of around 300-500 yuan. The difference between 10 yuan and 5 yuan was still very big.

As a result, pirated tapes accounted for at least half of the sales.

But in this era, singers basically still have enough to eat.

Well, it can only be said that I am full, because most of the food is divided up by the three major groups, and only a little is left for the singer and the record company he belongs to.

Huaguo Record Corporation, Huaguo Recording and Video Publishing House, China Video Audiovisual Publishing House, and dozens of local audiovisual companies under them have formed a huge network, and they have arranged for all genuine records, tapes and CDs. .

Domestic private record companies are better, at least 20-30% of the income.

Foreign companies and Hong Kong moss companies do not have any right to sell their own products except for the authorization to share or sell them out.

They are also powerful enough, no matter what big star you are, the price fluctuates very little, basically it is 1-5 million an album buyout, love to sell, I don't care if they don't sell.

In terms of the sharing method, if you sell 10 million tapes, you can quote at most 1 million tapes to others, or even 200,000 to 300,000 tapes.

That's why it is said that those in China can barely eat enough, and those from overseas and Hong Kong can only eat some leftovers when they come to China.

The most typical example is that once Ren Xianqi said that his first album "The Heart Is Too Soft" in the mainland became popular all over the country, and the original and pirated versions sold more than 100 million copies, but he didn't get a penny.

Not only did he not get it, even the record company got less than 5 million.

The three major companies in Huaguo earned hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

Even more exaggerated, if the album is too famous and the support is too high, I want to release it, but the price can’t be negotiated, and you don’t give me the authorization, then I will transcribe and sell it myself, regardless of you

cow?

That's it, you can't control it yet!

Because the Huaguo government will not accept such complaints and accusations, these companies are state-owned enterprises, you can't do anything about them!

This is what happened in the 90s.

However, it is now 1980, and the situation is somewhat different.

First of all, the Huaguo Audio and Video Publishing House was established in 1984, and the China Video Audiovisual Publishing House was established in 1986. Now only the Huaguo Records Corporation is in operation. The "opponent" to deal with is Much simpler.

Then, the 1980s was actually a very simple era.

People in this era, except for those who don't know it, don't have a strong awareness of piracy.

The other several severe crackdowns have also frightened those who want to commit crimes. The phenomenon of large-scale piracy of audio and video products has not yet occurred.

And from a technical point of view, these bumpkins, without the help of people from Xiangjiang and Baodao, would not be able to make a pirated version.

In the 1990s, unscrupulous businessmen from Baodao and Xiangjiang introduced technology and equipment, and pirated tapes spread rapidly.

As for the pirated discs that entered China in large quantities, they were originally produced in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and other places, and they were all made by businessmen from Baodao and Xiangjiang. ——They are also smart. It is illegal to produce locally, so they moved to other places to do it. It's just that after the mainland people master the technology, they will lose their share in the pirated version market.

It is precisely because of these conditions in the 1980s that Tiangemei was born. Female Li Lingyu bought five or six million tapes, Fei Xiang sold tens of millions of tapes, and the little girl Zhu Xiaolin sold more than 2 million for a children's voice album. Disc feat.

Of course, the fact that these people's albums sell well has nothing to do with them.

Li Lingyu's rewards were only tens of thousands of dollars each time, and Zhu Xiaolin's reward was less than 10,000 to 20,000 per album. Only Fei Xiang, an overseas compatriot, got more, because he was afraid of sparking international controversy.

wait a minute.

Do you think Li Lingyu's tens of thousands of dollars was a lot in the 1980s?

In the 1990s, it was only 10,000 to 20,000 to buy a house in a small city!

The absolute value of this money is really a lot!

But do you know how much tapes sold in the 80s?

Beginning in 1979, cassette tapes entered China from Japan and Xiangjiang, and quickly became popular.

But the price is really not as cheap as you think.

Domestic singers, such as Li Lingyu, Jiang Dawei, Cheng Lin, Mao Amin, etc., cost about 20 yuan a plate.

Those famous foreign singers start at least 30 yuan a plate, and the most expensive 40 yuan a plate is also available!

Are you scared?

Such an expensive cassette tape is more expensive than a genuine CD after 2000!

But people sell so expensive!

In this era where Phoenix 18 bicycles can be sold for 168 yuan, which is comparable to people’s two-month salary, and Panasonic TV dares to sell more than 3,000, which is equivalent to the average person’s five-year salary, the price of a mere tape is so low. what can you say

Don't buy it if you don't have money!

But in fact, even if it is so expensive, if a singer's album sells for hundreds of thousands or millions of copies, it is still the same as playing.

After all, people's spiritual life is too empty in this era, and listening to music is one of the best ways of entertainment.

However, how much does this tape cost?

If you do not count aspects such as copyright authorization, do not give songwriters a share, etc., the production cost of a tape is about 1 yuan.

Then the head office of the record company came out to increase the price once, the record branch companies in each region increased the price once, and the major distributors also increased the price once, and after such a rollback, it became a high-priced product of 20-40 yuan!

In many remote small counties, people's monthly salary is not even 40 yuan!

The various expenditures of the bloated state agencies, coupled with the monopoly without competition, have created such a strange and crazy situation in this era!