DAEYTT ## Chapter 015: Monthly Rankings and the Loneliness of Eating Hot Pot Alone
The Good Voice program team returned to Jiangsu-Zhejiang TV to prepare for the blind auditions scheduled for the following week. The new season had already begun large-scale promotional activities. Numerous online video platforms started featuring pre-show advertisements.
"Ten years to sharpen a sword, the strongest contestants yet, the most popular and professional mentors, the grandest world-class competition..."
"Genius students from the four major music academies clash with underground powerhouse independent singers..."
"Blue Star's first world-class singing competition, where the best voices from around the world collide. Who has the world's best voice?"
These promotional slogans were being hyped up crazily on various platforms. The topic of Wang Qian and Su Feier's titanium straight man video quickly got buried. In just half a day, no one paid attention to it anymore. However, Wang Qian still gained some music-loving fans.
"Ordinary Road," "Once You," and "Alive."
These three songs started to show signs of becoming popular on Tengfei Music. After a day of minor recommendations, the data for all three songs saw significant improvement. All of them entered the monthly chart for original songs by independent artists.
Wang Qian didn't go to his restaurant. He spent the day at home organizing the things he had to deal with next: debut, The Voice, and his tentative career as a singer. He wrote page after page of information on his computer, planning his debut strategy.
In the evening, Wang Qian refreshed the Tengfei Music backend.
"Once You": 50,126 plays, 42,890 downloads.
"Ordinary Road": 58,078 plays, 54,745 downloads.
"Alive": 48,145 plays, 41,680 downloads.
The data for all three songs had increased significantly. Although it was hard to find the text recommendation on the page, the boost in numbers was substantial.
"Ordinary Road" ranked tenth on the monthly chart for original songs by independent artists.
"Once You" ranked fifteenth.
"Alive" ranked nineteenth.
All three songs were in the top twenty on the independent artist original chart. Wang Qian looked at the number one song, "The Sound of Waves" by a singer named Yuexia Langren, presumably a stage name. The song had 890,850 plays and 74,700 downloads, with a play-to-download ratio of about 12:1.
This was actually normal. Wang Qian checked the top ten songs, noting that most had a download ratio between 10:1 and 20:1, which was relatively high. Most others had a ratio between 20:1 and 50:1. His three songs, with a nearly 1:1 ratio, were a rarity.
Moreover, among the top fifty songs, only Wang Qian's had a small text recommendation. Other original songs had better promotions and small-scale marketing efforts. Independent artists typically had limited promotional budgets, unlike professional singers whose companies invested heavily in large-scale marketing across the internet, resulting in data reaching millions.
Independent artists remained a niche circle. Wang Qian glanced at the overall monthly chart. The top song was by Li Qingyao, with 13 million plays and 1.3 million downloads. Impressive! Wang Qian shook his head, not looking further at the overall chart.
He opened Weibo, frowning at the comments. It seemed many people were trying to stir up trouble.
"Trash, still pretending to be a gentleman! Shameless self-promotion."
"Three original songs with nearly 1:1 paid download ratios. If you're going to fake data, at least make it believable. This is obviously fake!"
"Gentleman Qian? Ha, more like Fake Qian!"
"Very successful marketing. The hot pot restaurant is booming, and the three songs are popular too, but something seems off about the data..."
Wang Qian felt slightly helpless. Where there are people, there's trouble. The entertainment industry's troubles are especially abundant and complicated. Was someone unhappy with his success or deliberately stirring up trouble?
## Chapter 015: Monthly Rankings and the Loneliness of Eating Hot Pot Alone
"I just want to quietly be a hot pot restaurant owner and make music. Why do you have to push me?"
Apart from those who came to criticize and stir up trouble, there were also many genuine fans of Wang Qian's music who spoke up to support him.
"Have you listened to the boss's songs? Are you just talking nonsense here?"
"Seriously, the boss's songs are really good. I listened for less than ten seconds and downloaded them."
"It's normal for good songs to have a high paid download ratio, isn't it?"
"Haha, seems like Moonlit Man feels threatened and is inciting fans to cause trouble for the boss."
Moonlit Man?
Wang Qian saw this comment and searched for Moonlit Man's Weibo. Upon entering, he quickly found a post from Moonlit Man over an hour ago. There was a screenshot comparing the data of Wang Qian's three songs.
"This is really terrifying. I've been making original songs for over five years, and this is the first time I've seen data being faked so shamelessly! Even my idol Zhou Tianwang's new song doesn't have as terrifying a paid download rate as yours. Can you please fake your data with a little more integrity?"
Moonlit Man had over seven hundred thousand followers, making him one of the most popular independent artists. This Weibo post directly called out Wang Qian.
As a result, many of Moonlit Man's fans went to Wang Qian's Weibo to criticize him.
Wang Qian remained calm, not feeling angry but rather thinking of solutions.
Entering his own Weibo, Wang Qian calmly posted a message: "If being too outstanding is a crime, then I might be unforgivable."
"Fake data? I don't think I need to! My data looks good because people like my songs and are willing to pay to download them. What's wrong with that?"
"The problem lies in the fact that I've encroached on your territory! So, don't talk about righteousness and don't label me. From now on, every one of my songs will have this kind of data. If you can't handle it, then don't play the game!"
"It's funny, I had a bit of inspiration and wrote a new song today. Tomorrow night, I'll release another new song on Tengfei. Stay tuned!"
Click, send.
As soon as it was sent, this Weibo immediately caught the attention of many of Wang Qian's fans.
"Supporting the boss! The boss's songs are the most heartfelt ones I've heard in the past ten years. That Moonlit Man's songs are just pure rubbish!"
"Does Moonlit Man even deserve to be compared to the boss? Let him write a song that matches 'Ordinary Road' before talking."
"Love 'Once You.' Looking forward to the boss's new song."
"The boss is mighty! Another new song?"
"The boss, is it time for a new song now?"
"Downloaded all three songs. Hurry up!"
Buzz buzz buzz...
The phone vibrated.
Wang Qian picked it up and saw that it was Tang Feifei calling, so he answered.
"What's up?" Wang Qian asked directly.
Tang Feifei whispered, "Boss, did you abandon someone outside? They've come to the restaurant looking for you."
Wang Qian frowned. "What mess is this? Who abandoned whom?"
Tang Feifei said quietly, "There's a very beautiful girl. She came yesterday to get a membership card but couldn't get a seat, so she sat opposite the restaurant waiting for you until we closed. Today, she came again, ate hot pot alone, and then sat there, just staring at our restaurant."
"What did you do to make her chase you here?"
Eating hot pot alone!
So lonely!
Wang Qian frowned.
NEXT