Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

To say that the most obvious change that Shirakawa Electric portable CD players have brought to the record market is that more and more record companies pay attention to CDs.

In the past, everyone observed this brand-new music medium with the intention of watching the excitement, or waiting for the reaction of the first person to eat crabs afterwards.

Now Warner Pioneer, who was the first to test the waters, told them that the CD seems to be doing much better than expected.

The initial score of 80,000 copies is not something that any singer can achieve.

According to the normal deduction law of record market sales, the sales volume of this CD single is likely to exceed 500,000 copies within six months, and it is expected to touch the ass of 600,000 copies.

A sales volume of 600,000 is definitely an explosive achievement. Even the top artists may not be able to guarantee sales of 600,000.

Now only in the early 1980s, 300,000 can be called a big sale.

The record market at this time is different from that in the 1990s, when it sold millions of dollars at every turn, and the gold content of 300,000 yuan is already very high.

But now it is only a newcomer who has achieved this achievement, let's not talk about how much its popularity and marketing have played.

The industry generally believes that Shirakawa Electric's CD player is one of the important factors. In addition, the low price of CD records is also the most intuitive reason to attract people to buy.

A piece of vinyl usually sells for around 3,500 yen, and Sony's CD album has dozens of pieces of music, and the overall price is 3,800 yen.

But Shirakawa Electric did not rush to fill up the disc with songs, even though it can store 74 minutes of music in total.

Shirakawa Electric's requirement for Warner is a single, in addition to an A-side song "Second Love", there is also a C/W song "镜の中のJ".

That's all the songs on this record, which is less than 8 minutes long, which is less than 10% of the CD's total capacity.

This seems a bit wasteful to ordinary people. After all, the cost of a CD is fixed at 20 or 30 yen, regardless of whether it is full or not.

In order not to waste such a large capacity, and to show the world its super duration, Sony packed 74 minutes of music at once.

Because of the increase in content, the price will naturally increase, so Sony set a price of 3,800 yen for it.

Compared with vinyl, the price is only 300 yen higher, but there are a lot more songs.

In comparison, the price seems to be a bargain. After all, the price is not much different, but the music that can be enjoyed has increased.

However, Baichuan Electric did the opposite. He ignored the super long capacity of CD records, and he only played the songs he wanted to play.

The same goes for a big drop in pricing, the retail price is 1,500 yen, and it is 300 yen cheaper to buy a CD player package.

The neon people who have listened to music for so many years have never enjoyed such a low record price.

However, the sound quality of CDs surpasses that of cassettes and vinyl, without any background noise.

With such stark contrast, why not buy a CD and try it out?

So Akina Nakamori's third single has a super high initial record of 80,000 copies.

So at the price of 1,500 yen, will the record company make a profit?

There is no doubt that profit is inevitable.

The record cost of less than 30 yen alone guaranteed the record company's profit.

The pressing price of CD factories generally does not exceed 200 yen per piece. This is because the CD has just emerged and the production process is not fully mature, so the "high price" is charged.

When the technology improves in the future, the cost of CD will continue to decrease, and the selling price will also drop accordingly.

But even if the pressure price of 200 yen is removed now, the record company can take about 54% of the remaining 1,300 yen.

Then the record store takes another 30%, publishers and producers 10%, and the rest is owned by the songwriters and singers.

Among them, as a singer who only sings, the lowest score is less than 1%~

In short, the record company can get at least 700 yen for the entire CD record.

After removing the fixed production fee and publicity fee, the rest is a net profit.

Compared with the previous vinyl, there may be a little less in hand. But not too much, after all, the cost of vinyl is high.

However, record companies saw future business opportunities from CDs. This kind of compact record is very cheap!

Cheap price is the best-selling weapon.

Not only are CDs cheap, but CD players are also cheaper than vinyl players.

From a long-term perspective, whether in terms of price, sound quality, or portability, the market for CDs must be broader than vinyl.

That being the case, is it possible to test a little bit and start to try the CD market?

So under this idea, not only Sony Records, but also Universal, EPIC, JVC and other record companies began to plan to release their own CD records.

Among them, overseas record companies are the most active, and their attitude towards accepting new things is far more optimistic than Neon's local companies.

After all, there is Akina Nakamori's single first, and everyone is eager to sell 80,000 copies in the first week.

Under such an atmosphere, before the second week has passed, some record companies have already announced plans to release CD records in the future.

Of course, if the speed is the fastest, it must belong to Warner Pioneer.

At the end of October, Bai Chuanfeng brought his assistants to the Warner Pioneer headquarters near Beiqingshan, Minato District.

I came here today to talk about this cooperation with Warner, and I was also invited by its executive director Naoto Chida to visit.

Just entered the gate of Warner Pioneer, except for the reception staff here.

Naoto Chida, the executive president, who is also the president Sang, also stood in the front lobby to greet him.

"Chida-san, you are too polite. This cooperation can achieve such results, which is the result of everyone's concerted efforts.

But I would like to congratulate your company, there will be a newcomer with unlimited potential emerging in the music industry. "

"Haha, it turns out that the cooperation with Shirakawa Electric is definitely an extremely wise choice." Naoto Chida has been studying and working overseas in his early years, and he did not return to Neon until recent years.

He is the helm of the neon branch appointed by Warner headquarters, and he is the foreign capital faction in the internal faction.

Because he has lived overseas all year round, his personality is much more enthusiastic and cheerful than that of Neon people.

Also because he has been influenced by the purest capitalism, he also pursues the principle of profit.

The previous gambling agreement between Shirakawa Electric and Warner Pioneer was signed under his suggestion.

At this moment, Naoto Chida warmly shook Bai Chuanfeng's hand, "Also, speaking of this newcomer, someone just wants to thank Bai Chuan-san."

As soon as he finished speaking, a girl wearing a scarf emerged from the crowd.

When she held a bouquet and laughed, her front teeth stood out, and she looked a little silly.

Hey, who is this fat girl? Bai Chuanfeng looked at the girl who came forward with some curiosity, secretly wondering.

"Bai Chuan-san, thank you so much for your care. I will work harder in the future and never let down the love of Bai Chuan Electric."

After speaking, the girl sent the bouquet in her hand forward, then bowed her head, keeping this posture motionless.

Uh, Bai Chuanfeng seems to know who she is.

When she reached out her hand and was about to receive the flowers from the other party, the girl suddenly seemed to think of something, raised her head and said quickly, "By the way, I am Akina Nakamori, please take care of me!"

The outstretched hand paused slightly, and Bai Chuanfeng couldn't help laughing. But soon he took the bouquet naturally and bowed politely.

"Please keep working hard~"

"Hay!" Akina Nakamori responded crisply.

Handing the flowers in his hand to the assistant beside him, Bai Chuanfeng turned his head and exchanged greetings with Naoto Chida beside him.

To be honest, he almost didn't recognize this future queen just now, why is Akina Nakamori so fat at this age?

Bai Chuanfeng thought about it again in his head, that face with baby fat didn't look like it had grown.

Well, at this point, it is still my own little Huya, which is cuter.

I don't know if this pair of "old enemies" will have fateful entanglement in the future, but Bai Chuanfeng is too lazy to take care of these things.

He doesn't want to get involved in the entertainment world, especially the women's affairs, which is not what he is good at.

But when it comes to Little Huya, she has ignored herself for two days.

As for the reason, it was because of the fat vegetable in front of him.

The things here...forget it, let's talk about it later~

Seeing the backs of Shirakawa Kaede and Chida Naoto leaving, Nakamori Akina returned to a dazed look.

"Manager Sang, this Bai Chuan-san is so young, why does he look like a student~"

"Mingcai, keep silent!"

Not to mention the murmurs behind him, Bai Chuanfeng has already chatted with Chida Naoto about the future of the CD market.

"I have to say that Shirakawa-san's vision is admirable, and the CD player is likely to become the mainstream device for people to listen to music in the future.

What's more convincing is that Shirakawa's portable CD players are really good, and Sony's big ones are good, but unfortunately they can't fit in a backpack. "

Naoto Chida highly praised Shirakawa Electric's move to miniaturize the CD player.

Since the Walkman came out, people have become accustomed to and prefer this way of listening to music anytime, anywhere.

It is convenient, privacy-oriented, and looks very technological in appearance. The public has no reason not to like it.

Even in Naoto Chida's view, the burden of popularizing CDs in the future will fall on Shirakawa Electric.

As for Sony... Chida felt they were too conservative and not aggressive enough.

"By the way, about Warner's next CD, Shirakawa-san, where are you..."

Bai Chuanfeng smiled, "Our pressing fee will always be 3% lower than Sony's. Please rest assured Chida-san about this."

"That's great." Naoto Chida nodded in satisfaction.

The cost of CD records is very low, and the cost of pressing the disc is also very low. But capitalists will never stop moving forward in pursuit of interests.

Next month, Shirakawa Electric's optical disc factory in Chiba will be put into operation. Since then, Neon has added another optical disc manufacturer.

Now that the optical disc factory is about to go into production, isn't it the right way to pull orders for yourself?

Relying on the pleasant cooperation before, it is natural that Warner is Bai Chuanfeng's first target.

However, because of the existence of Sony, if Warner wants to hand over the order to itself, a price discount is essential.

A 3% discount, for tens of thousands of records, can undoubtedly save a lot of cost.

After receiving practical benefits, Chida Naocai let go of the CD records of other Warner Pioneer artists and handed them over to Shirakawa Electric to suppress them.

Warner Pioneer not only has Nakamori Akina, but also older and bigger artists.

Such as Chuck and Asuka, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sachiko Kobayashi, Kenko Wada, and Kaoru Kaoru, one of the five beauties of enka.

Their fan base is even bigger, and the number of discs released each year is also a huge number.

Now that Akina Nakamori has tested the waters, Warner Bros. has made up its mind to release more CDs next month.

"By the way, is Bai Chuan-san interested in the record business?" Suddenly Chida Naoto's words caught Bai Chuanfeng by surprise.