China Entertainment 1997

On December 31, 2014, which happened to be the second day of winter, Cao Xuan’s album was released worldwide.

Beijing, Excellence Bookstore

Old Xu Tou walked out of the breakfast shop and walked slowly to the front of his store. He opened the rolling shutter door. The store was equipped with a heater. Although it was a bit stuffy, it was warm.

Opening the door to let in some air, Old Xu Tou boiled a pot of water, then made some tea, and sat leisurely behind the counter watching TV.

Zhu Yawen and Zhou Gongzi co-starred in "Red Sorghum".

This TV series can be regarded as a waste of money. It invited Mr. Zhou, and the salary for one person was 40 million.

This does not include the copyright fee from the original author Mo Yan and the director fee from director Zheng Xiaolong.

You know, Mo Yan just won the Nobel Prize for Literature two years ago. It was even said that this TV series was to a certain extent just to ride on other people's popularity. The copyright is naturally not cheap. It is said that it cost 10 million.

Zheng Xiaolong is also the director of the super hit "The Legend of Zhen Huan" a few years ago. He is one of the most popular directors in the field of TV dramas. This time he is working with Mr. Zhou again and is rumored to have received 10 million in director's fees.

These three expenditures alone are as high as 60 million, plus other miscellaneous costs. Although they have not been announced to the public, they are estimated to be less than 200 million, not much different.

This TV series, which was produced almost without any cost, achieved pretty good ratings, but it did not become popular.

It is worth mentioning that the drama "Red Sorghum" made Zhu Yawen famous.

In fact, Zhu Yawen was not bad before. He became famous in "Crossing Guandong" and has been starring in the leading role.

If most of them are the main theme of the Republic of China or period dramas, the image positioning has been defined, and they have never been on the path of mainstream traffic. The popularity is not low, but the popularity is mediocre.

And this time, whether he is acting with Mr. Zhou or appearing in Mo Yan's works, he has gained a lot of exposure.

The agency behind the film also seized the opportunity and used Yu Zhan'ao's charismatic character and Zhu Yawen's previous tough guy line to create a "walking hormone" character for him.

Not to mention, in the era when pretty boys and young men are popular nowadays, although the tough guy style is going against the trend, it is still a different approach.

After all, not everyone likes that kind of fair and feminine handsome guy, and the market for tough guy style is not small.

The people are established, Zhu Yawen has no shortage of food, and when the popularity of this little fresh meat passes, the mainstream aesthetic trend of the audience changes, and the current disadvantages will become advantages.

The world is all-encompassing and the situation is unpredictable.

Everyone has a deck of cards that belongs to them, and it depends on how well they can play it.

There is no doubt that Zhu Yawen met an extremely professional and excellent team that played the cards in his hand that were not very good in a clear way and helped him figure out the development direction for the next few years.

Old Xu Tou really likes watching this TV series, especially the scene in Gaoliang, which makes him feel a bit like a teenager.

Just as he was watching happily, two young men came in and said hello to him.

"Boss, I heard you sell albums here?"

"Sell it to whomever you want."

Lao Xu nodded, stood up calmly, and led the two of them to the shelves against the wall on the left side of the bookstore.

Unlike other bookshelves in the store, the two shelves against the wall on the left do not hold books. Instead, they are filled with music albums and CDs from movies and TV shows. The top shelf even has tapes and vinyl records.

If someone knowledgeable can even recognize it, many of the records on the shelf are classic records from ten or even twenty years ago.

This is actually not surprising. The predecessor of Joyo Bookstore was Joyo Video Store, which was mainly engaged in audio and video products in the 1990s.

Later, with the decline of the record market and the rise of the Internet, video stores almost had no way to survive. Lao Xutou managed to maintain it for many years, and finally officially changed his career in 2011.

Even for a bookstore, the business is actually average. The main revenue is still the sale and rental of students' extracurricular exercises and novels/comics.

Fortunately, the store was bought by him in the early years, so there was no major expense such as rent. Even if the business was not good, he would not lose money.

Lao Xutou didn't point to this shop to make money. His wife passed away a few years ago and his son also moved out. He was bored at home, so he deliberately found something to do for himself and earn some grain by the way, so as not to harm his children and grandchildren.

It is precisely because of this that, in addition to running a bookstore, Old Xu Touleng also retained the business of audio and video products.

If the bookstore can still make some money, this is completely useless.

Nowadays, the record market is extremely sluggish, and fans tend to prefer online albums. Even if they want to collect physical albums, online shopping is so developed now that they can place an order directly and wait for it to be delivered to their door without having to run around looking for a physical store.

Not to mention TV and movies, you can watch them online as you go, which is much more convenient than CDs.

Therefore, except for a small group of old customers, no one comes to the store to buy or rent CDs. The existence of this business is more to satisfy Lao Xutou's feelings and thoughts.

Because of this, Lao Xutou was a little surprised to see two new faces coming to the store to buy an album today.

"What album do you want?"

"Do you have Cao Xuan's new album?"

"Yes, but it's genuine and expensive."

Nowadays, there are very few genuine audio and video products sold offline, and most of them are pirated. Old Xu Tou made a special point.

"Don't worry, we've specifically inquired about it. If it's not genuine, we won't come here."

The two of them smiled and touched the package of "Cao Xuan" with admiration. They bought 5 copies in one go before paying and leaving.

The albums of "Cao Xuan" are positioned according to specifications, and the prices are also different.

The regular CD version is 88 yuan, and the hardcover version is 128 yuan. The latter has many more gifts and the picture and sound quality are better.

There is also a digital album, which can be added to your account for 20 yuan to listen to forever, or you can buy each song individually, with prices ranging from high to low.

Strictly speaking, this price is not cheap, but Cao Xuan has no intention of making money.

The album prices of Xiao Zhou, Lin Junjie and some so-called top-tier albums are probably within this range, and some are even more expensive.

With Cao Xuan’s celebrity status + the gimmick of the last album + generous gifts and good album hardware quality, this price can be said to be the conscience of conscience.

Lao Xutou has had a lot of "deals" with Cao Xuan. Since Cao Xuan's debut, he has sold more than a dozen albums.

Based on his professional experience, Cao Xuan's album pricing is definitely the best among popular singers. Most of the time, it is set at a lower market price range to satisfy the genuine needs of the vast majority of fans as much as possible.

Cao Xuan's sales of genuine products in the domestic market where piracy is serious are unparalleled, and this "profit-giving" move has contributed most to his success.

Many people say that Cao Xuan's albums are cheap, so there are more talents buying them, but Lao Xutou is more willing to understand that Cao Xuan is considerate of his fans, and everyone will support him more.

In any case, Lao Xutou was very happy after making a small profit just after opening.

Just as I was about to go back and continue watching TV, before I could sit down, another person came in at the door and opened his mouth to buy "Cao Xuan".

"I bought quite a lot."

Old Xu Tou muttered, and the visitor smiled: "I have been a fan of Cao Xuan for ten years. This is my last album. I will collect a few copies as a souvenir."

"Too."

Old Xutou understands this idea. This time, he scored 100 copies of the "Cao Xuan" album in one go, which was almost unimaginable in recent years.

The store's audiovisual business has very low sales. In the past, even if it was a new album by a singer of Cao Xuan Xiaozhou's caliber, he would only dare to buy one or twenty copies, and then it would depend on the situation.

As for other singers, not to mention, three or four are the best. Basically, they buy as a platter, take a look at the popular songs of the month, and then put together a few dozen to place an order.

This time I took in so much in one breath, which was actually Lao Xutou’s inspiration.

During his more than ten years of shop opening, he watched Cao Xuan grow up. Even Cao Xuan contributed a lot to support his family and own the shop. Old Xu also had a friendship with him and wanted to support him in the end.

He owns a video store and usually has many friends who like pop music. He thought that if he couldn't sell it, it would be decent for Cao Xuan to give it away.

If it didn't work out, he would collect it himself. Although he was not rich, he could have dozens of records without breaking his bones.

Thinking in his heart, Old Xutou still neatly picked up the goods for the visitor.

This person came prepared and took 10 of them in one go. It seems that in addition to collecting them, he may also have the idea of ​​giving them away.

Cao Xuan's retirement is now known to the world, and the accompanying album has also become a hot topic. In addition to fans, some followers also like to join in the fun, thinking about getting the album and posting it on WeChat Moments.

Invisibly, this makes it more difficult to purchase the album, and many people regard it as a good gift for relatives and friends.

Old Xu Tou, who didn't expect the business to be so smooth, was in a good mood and had already started thinking about buying something delicious to improve his meal at noon.

Unexpectedly, several groups of customers suddenly came in at noon, buying "Cao Xuan" by name.

Now Xu Lao Xu was a little curious.

He understands the one or two waves of customers who can't wait to shop online and pick up the goods directly from the physical store, but it's a bit strange that so many customers come to his store in one day.

After questioning, the results he got made Lao Xu almost pull off his beard.

"Both Taobao and JD.com are sold out. It is said that we can only make reservations now, and the ready goods are waiting to be allocated. The goods will not be shipped until noon tomorrow at the earliest, and it may not be available yet. We were in a hurry, so we rushed to the physical store. "

Sold out!

Old Xu Tou was in a trance for a moment. This was such a familiar and unfamiliar word. Back then, he had witnessed Cao Xuan's albums being sold out several times.

I thought that with the current inventory and market size, I would never hear this word again, but I didn’t expect to encounter it again in my lifetime.

Old Xu Tou felt a little emotional and excited.

Cao Daguanren's popularity remains the same as before. Records were sold out at their peak, but they are still available in the era of online shopping. He has simply violated the laws of market development by himself.

Not long after Old Xu was happy, he suddenly slapped his head, and several waves of customers bought more than half of his goods at once.

According to this trend, none of the 100 albums will be left at most tomorrow. He has to stock up more quickly, otherwise he is afraid that other physical sales points will seize the opportunity.

Unfortunately, since the video store was converted into a bookstore, this was the first time he called to ask for urgent stocking up.

It feels like I have returned to the old Xu Tou more than ten years ago, leaving all the Buddhist mentality behind. I am more energetic at this moment than when I was watching the Sorghum plot on TV...