HDIEUMDBTSB Chapter 57: Thank You for Once Liked Me
Volume II: The Road to Fan Base
Chapter 7: Thank You for Once Liked Me
"Over twenty-two million IDs?" Pang Pu, as the host, instinctively asked.
"It's been a beautiful journey," Chuzhi said. "With the support of over twenty-two million little fruits in the past, I won the championship of 'Future Son,' so I could become famous."
Pang Pu didn't feel much, but Wei Tongzi knew too well. Since the scandal erupted a few months ago, the fan group had split internally, the company played dead without any PR, and a quarter of the fans unfollowed, with another quarter turning from fans to haters. Simply put, more than half of the people misunderstood Chuzhi.
To be blunt, the ones who cursed Chuzhi the most were two types of people: keyboard warriors from Zaun and the broken little fruits who turned from fans to haters.
Do broken little fruits even match? Match keys, match a few? Wei Tongzi was so excited, partly because she used to be a fan, but unfollowed Chuzhi a few months ago during the defamation stage, not providing support to her idol, and blaming herself.
"But—" Wei Tongzi had so much to say, and Chuzhi could see it.
He said, "Life is like a train heading to the grave, there will be many stops along the way, and it's hard for anyone to accompany you from start to finish. When the one who accompanies you is about to get off, even if reluctant, you should be grateful and then wave goodbye."
Starting with Hayao Miyazaki's words.
Jelly was professional enough, shooting against the wall, getting close enough to see the tiny account names.
"Twenty million little fruits are like a forest, sheltering me from the wind and rain, so I haven't been harmed by the outside world at all. Even if halfway through, because I'm not good enough, you no longer like me, I'm immensely grateful for the support and favor you once showed me."
Facing the live camera, Chuzhi paused and continued, "Thank you for once liking me, and I especially like the self that you liked."
A master, this is a master! The admiration in Pang Pu's mind was like a flood of the Yellow River, unstoppable. At the same time, faint sobbing came from beside him. Pang Pu turned his head to see Wei Tongzi, who couldn't hide her tears. Everyone knew that hosts were professionally trained, and if they couldn't hold back, they wouldn't break down in front of the camera.
"There's another little trick." The next second, Chuzhi turned off the lights in the singing room. Because the singing room had no windows and no natural light sources, it was pitch black all around.
Before Jelly, Pang Pu, and Wei Tongzi could process the darkness, their gaze was drawn to a faint glow. The ceiling was arranged with IDs in a circular pattern, each letter printed in a special silver-white ink cartridge, emitting a cold white tone when the lights were off.
There were over eight million IDs on the ceiling, emitting a cold white light, resembling a sky full of stars overhead, a galaxy dancing in circles—"The Milky Way wants to turn, a thousand sails dance; the human world curtain hangs with care." Magnificent!
For a moment, Pang Pu and Wei were illuminated into stakes by the starlight.
The camera, the camera, Jelly scooped himself up, aimed and shot, always remembering that there were many Little Mang Friends in the live room.
About a dozen seconds later, Chuzhi turned on the lights again, and Pang Pu, Wei Tongzi, and Jelly still felt a bit unsatisfied.
"The reason I chose the singing room is that singing is my beloved hobby and also the career I rely on for survival. The singing room is the most important place for me," Chuzhi said. "I will always remember that over eight million fans on Weibo have never abandoned me. They gave me trust and were the starry sky that supported me through the most difficult roads."
Wei Tongzi felt a little jealous at these words. She was jealous of the little fruits on the ceiling. Of course, this feeling was soon dissipated because, according to this statement, she should be one of the twenty million fans, in other words, she was too.
"Let's start arranging the music." Chuzhi sat in front of the keyboard.
Pang Pu requested, "Teacher Chu, can we film these IDs? Use them as behind-the-scenes footage later, because I believe your fans, as well as Little Mang Friends, would like to see them clearly."
"Of course, no problem. I said when I joined the program, there's nothing that the audience can't know, and everything can be filmed," Chuzhi promised.
"Thank you, Teacher Chu." Pang Pu gave Jelly a look, and all the spare time without filming was recorded.
"Now let's enjoy Teacher Chu's arrangement of the new song 'Burning Liver,'" Wei Tongzi redirected the topic.
"'Burning Liver' must start off aggressively. For the prelude, I'll use the keyboard to give it a bit of an electric rock flavor, so let's choose a more intense synthesizer sound." Chuzhi didn't seem to think his approach was particularly romantic for the fans and easily moved on with the topic.
The practice room is equipped with a Yamaha Genos, which has 1,700 built-in instrument sounds and over 200 types of arpeggios. It can use external sampling through YEM to easily create arrangements for pop music, jazz, and Chinese-style music. With 76 keys, Chuzhi can handle it well, treating the keyboard more like a synthesizer than just a musical instrument.
"Next, the guitar and bass come in."
While the synthesizer sounds require no technical skill, Chuzhi feels a bit rusty playing the guitar and bass. He didn't know how to play originally, and even though he practiced for a few hours after returning home a few days ago, he lacks practical experience.
"I can only say I can barely use these instruments, not very familiar with them," Chuzhi admitted, though his lack of familiarity is in comparison to those instrument virtuosos. To the average viewer, he completes the melodies on the guitar and bass smoothly without errors, recording them into the keyboard.
"Let's listen to the intro. Hmm... something seems missing."
"Add some drum beats."
"The melody in the chorus needs to be clearer."
...
About two hours later, the arrangement is complete.
"I absolutely love the melody! I'll definitely buy three copies of the album: one to listen to, one to keep, and one to hang up as decoration," Wei Tongzi exclaimed.
"Buying three copies of the album..." Chuzhi calmly said, "I've decided that all my future albums will be free. Once the album is produced, including the MV, it will be released on online music platforms. This way, Little Fruits can save a few bucks to treat themselves to another lemonade."
"?"
"?!"
Whenever there are question marks, obviously it's not Pang Pu with the problem, nor is it Wei Tongzi.
Pang Pu's first reaction was whether the guest was talking nonsense, but looking over, Chuzhi's expression was calm. Whether this decision was carefully considered or not was unclear, but it definitely wasn't impulsive.
"Teacher Chuzhi..." Wei Tongzi wanted to dissuade her idol from such a loss-making behavior.
"I know Tong Tong is also a Little Fruit, but this is my gratitude and feedback to them. It can't be refused," Chuzhi cut off Wei Tongzi's follow-up with a sentence. In the era when physical albums weren't selling, digital albums were only a few bucks each. How much could you earn? Take the top streamer on Earth for example, the sales of Kui Kui's "YOUNG" reached 70 million soft sister coins. After splitting with the music software platform, and then sharing with the company according to the contract, after taxes, it's around 30 million. Chuzhi is currently in debt, so he's not qualified to say "just" before 30 million, but you have to look further, from a business perspective, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. First of all, the fans will definitely be more loyal, and will be more supportive when spending money on endorsed products and peripheral products. Look at Wei Tongzi's moved expression, the peripheral products will sell out directly. Secondly, the biggest benefit of free distribution is that non-fans can listen to it without spending money, expanding the fan base among non-fans. Loyal fans mean higher endorsement fees and appearance fees. Adding a few more appearances or endorsements will earn more than what's made from album sales. Many people may wonder, why don't other top streamers follow suit? Well, if the songs of top streamer stars are free, would you listen to them? If it's not of good quality, it won't attract non-fans, so it's better to cut a wave of fans. Look at the live broadcast room, with over twenty-two million IDs in the practice room, and the permanent free distribution of albums in the future, it wouldn't be accurate to say that the live broadcast room exploded; it's more like the live broadcast room lagged! Lagged!
NEXT