Wang Works in the recording studio
"She drove the neighbor's Toyota, chasing the sunset..." "Let's learn cat calling together, meow meow meow together..." The popular music on social media rotates like a gust of wind, and the two songs "Loveless Front Alliance" and "Learning Cat Calling" once created billions of views on short video sites, but now they have almost been forgotten, and every day a new pop song appears, replacing the last one.
Wang Jiacheng analyzed some systematic laws from this. For a long time, as a musician, he has been suffering from "good music not being disseminated". Around 2018, he found that short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin were the best carriers for music dissemination. "Make a short video, can that be without background music?"
He has a set of methodologies for using short videos to disseminate music, divided into 5 cycles - the first step, in cooperation with film and television commentary bloggers, as a background music delivery; the second step, according to the style content of the music, cooperates with different styles of cover bloggers, this step will produce several cycles of communication cycles, from a specific cover cooperation to a national cover song; the third step, interactive activities on short video websites, such as #Turn Fan Challenge#, with the classic action of "Mountain and River Order", with OST "Tianwen", triggering the participation of the whole people. As soon as the fan turned, the music sounded:
"Ask the immortals, ask who has to get away / Young children, old people."
In fact, this approach has also been successful. Whether online or offline. When "Mountain and River Order" was broadcast, the song "Tianwen" continued to be the first place on the music app hot list for three weeks. Then opened the "Mountain and River Order" concert, at the request of fans, opened for two consecutive days, more than 10,000 tickets sold out in 14 seconds. Simultaneous online concert, 68 yuan tickets, 1.5 million people watch online.
Concert tickets alone made "Jiayou Music" founded by Wang Jiacheng earn 100 million. Investment institutions came to the door with the wind, and the valuation of "Jiayou Music" was 1 billion. The music company is less than three years old, and Wang Jiacheng is proud: "I dare to say now that the market share of 'Jiayou' in the OST field is definitely the first." ”
Some music industry media comments: The strong liquidity of the OST directly opened up the situation for the entire industry, capital, talent, and more and more attention are projected on this field. The complete business chain it presents is also a testament to the enormous potential of the sector: once successful, it will be a market of the order of 100 million yuan.
Wang Jiacheng's musical career stumbled and stumbled, and he floated and sank several times. Participating in "The Voice of China" and forming the "Mushroom Brothers" group with Zhang Yanfeng was a brief moment of scenery for him, "For a few months, I really felt that I was a first-line artist."
Mushroom Brothers (Left: Wang Jiacheng)
Now Wang Jiacheng has neat short hair, a black short-sleeved T-shirt with black shorts and white sneakers, and a silver cross pendant hanging from his neck. Turned from an artist to become "Wang Zong". He was busy, slightly tired, but in good spirits. After talking for a few hours, as long as it comes to the OST project of the "Mountain and River Order" that has just been busy, when it comes to music, when it comes to the music industry chain being planned, Wang Jiacheng is very interested, and occasionally even dances with his hands. Wang Jiacheng took the opportunity to become "Wang Zong" to regain the initiative of music.
Be an entertainer pure, but distressed. "There is no initiative, the brokerage company says whatever it wants." Propaganda is a big problem, looking back on the past, Wang Jiacheng still frowned and sighed, "More than 20 years in the industry, on large and small platforms, wrote songs of all sizes." I found that in addition to good content, the promotion platform is important. For example, the song was good but the platform was bad, and the song quickly disappeared. But maybe once on the "Voice of China" program, the song is on fire."
"That musician can't always be on a variety show!" Wang Jiacheng shook his head, "So what to do?" ”
In 2016, riding on the start of the music copyright industry, Wang Jiacheng established "Dream Jia" to do copyright business, and the result was a loss. At the end of 2017, Wang Jiacheng went to the cinema to see "The Predecessor 3", and the others cried a mess, and he discovered new possibilities for music. "I found out that after the movie, someone was shaking and searching for songs in the movie." Wang Jiacheng thought, "This is a very good way to push songs!" Wang Jiacheng has been looking for ways to let people actively spread music, and the film and television OST has found a direction for him.
OST has also experienced several degrees of floating and sinking. Film and television OST (Original Soundtrack), usually translated as "film and television soundtrack", refers to the music of a movie or TV series including soundtrack, interlude, opening song, ending song, and theme song. Once upon a time, the film and television drama OST created a classic that was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people again and again. More than ten or twenty years ago, the OST prelude to Taiwanese idol dramas could pluck the heartstrings together, and street shops broadcast the soundtrack of "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" and "Love Deep rain".
It was once forgotten, but in recent years, with the launch of film and television dramas, OST has returned to the vision of the capitalists. Dong Dongdong, the music creator of "Ode to Joy 2", once said in an interview with the media, "At that time, TV dramas were not so intensive, maybe only 50 a year, and now there are 50 a month, so their attention is not the same, they hope that your songs are representative and can be circulated."
Around 2016, a number of music companies focusing on film and television drama OST emerged in China, such as the hearing era of OST "Light Chaser" who worked on "Summer Solstice" OST, the running monster that made "Calories", and the burning music of "Ancient Sword Qitan 2" OST.
On the QQ music platform, the average daily audition volume of film and television OST has accounted for 14.26%, and the cumulative sales of film and television OST digital albums have also achieved a leap from 0 to 24 million in one year, accounting for 11% of all digital album sales.
Wang Jiacheng then established "Jiayou Music" in 2018, focusing on film and television OST. Starting from the production of the interlude "Paranoid Dream" for Stephen Chow's "The King of New Comedy", "Jiayou Music" has successively produced OST for film and television dramas such as "Captain China", "Xibao", "Mr. Monster", "I am waiting for you in Beijing", "Storm Dance" and so on.
OST of the movie "Captain China",
Singers such as Mao Amin, Alan and Hu Xia sang
Domestic film and television drama producers do not attach much importance to music investment. Wang Ka-shing, who has studied some industry data, said: "In the international film industry, especially in the United States, the budget for music production generally accounts for 5%-10% of the total production investment of the filmmakers. For example, with an investment of 100 million, the budget for music production can be 5 million to 10 million. The domestic piece is not even 1%, once it exceeds 1%, everyone still thinks ah ah why is it super? Too high. ”
After communicating for most of the day, the other party is often only willing to agree to invest more money in music promotion, but it is unlikely to increase production costs. "It's a big problem, and it costs money to make music. Miyazaki's films and Hisaishi's music cooperation is so good, dozens of people's orchestras stay by the sea for two months, watching the score every day to create, and having to spend a lot of money. ”
Wang Jiacheng even met some filmmakers who directly told musicians, "Just do it, don't go online." When encountering this kind of thing, Wang Jiacheng was very headache, he said: "We are serious about doing this, the budget of the film side is not enough, we even lose money to do it." I will even tell the filmmaker, although you gave me 5 yuan, but you can see what the effect of 10 yuan is, next time I hope you give me 15 yuan. He hopes to occupy the OST market first, and then make up for the lost money through other commercializations, "but you can't cut corners and do this thing."
"Mountain and River Order" became a hit, and Wang Jiacheng now summarizes it as a favorable time and place, but it is obvious that this is inseparable from his momentum of seriously "doing things".
At that time, Wang Jiacheng ran to the crew and came up with 30 sets of plans, which impressed the producers of "Mountain and River Order" and obtained the opportunity to produce "Mountain and River Order" OST. "I know that the drama will be on fire when I watch the nude film, and I don't worry about the promotion of the music at all." It's about getting the music right. He said that he had a martial arts complex, and at that time, he especially liked the nude film "Mountain and River Order" without special effects, and felt that the fight scene was very exciting.
He thought to himself: In the past, we had very classic songs such as "Sword Like a Dream" and "A Laugh in the Sea", why don't I think of any songs with martial arts feelings now? He then decided to make a modern version of "Sword Like a Dream", which was popular all over the streets. Doing the song "Heavenly Question", Wang Jiacheng wanted to show the taste of bloody rain and wind in the rivers and lakes, and superimposed new musical elements that young people liked.
He quickly seized the opportunity of social networks to actively promote music. "We can say that we are the only company in the industry with its own short video music marketing team." Jiayou Music has spent a lot of money researching the logic of short video marketing. "Music creates a better atmosphere for short videos, and at the same time short videos add music traffic, which is a win-win situation." Facts have also proved that this matter is indeed true. Wang Jiacheng said.
Using short videos to do music marketing has a very thorough logic, and they have figured out about 5 cycles. First, analyze the musical style and crowd preferences. Then, according to the classification of film and television industry talk, cover singers, etc., go to short video social networking sites to put different types of accounts. This part of the cover may take several cycles. For example, if the original version is a disco, someone covers a jazz version, someone sings a cappella version, and there may be another rock version. Then you don't know which version suddenly catches fire, becomes a hit, and then cycles up.
Then launch interactive activities, "Mountain and River Order" OST publicity period, they launched a "turn fan challenge", using the theme song "Tianwen" to do card point music, organizing the participation of talents, and then the head blogger with the waist blogger, the waist blogger with the public users, the formation of social topics, there are the whole people to participate.
Wang Jiacheng said frankly: "If you don't understand this logic, whether a song can be fired is the same as buying a lottery ticket; but if you understand, then grab a content and a content is fire." At the same time, he also believes that the secret of music to become popular is of course not only in marketing, content is very important, which is to guide the public on the basis of good content, so that the public can quickly like, quickly participate, and quickly pan-entertainment.
He always sighed: "To tell the truth, many musicians are also very bitter now, a song production fee may earn thousands of yuan, one or two thousand, but the actual commercial operation is good, tens of millions are possible." I hope that in the future, I can help more good musicians and let their works come out quickly and be known. ”
Wang Jiacheng's road to making music is not smooth.
At the age of 13, he left home alone to attend art school. At the age of 21, he participated in the "Happy Male Voice" to sign a contract with Tianyu Media, but he did not wait for the opportunity to make music with peace of mind, and was forced to find a way out of himself and squeeze in the subway for 3 years as an office worker. It was not until he was 27 years old that he participated in "The Voice of China" and waited for the exit, he and Zhang Yanfeng, a good brother of the art school, formed a "mushroom brother" group, and adapted "Eyelash Bend" in the style of rural blues, which was well received and once spread all over the country.
In the 2013 season of The Voice of China,
The Mushroom Brothers eventually finished third in the Yu Chengqing team
Wang Jiacheng's hometown is in Siping, Jilin Province, and when he was a teenager, he went to Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, to attend the Xiaoxiangyu Hope Art School. This is a closed art school, students can only go out once or twice a year, founded by Xiao Xiangyu and her husband, the granddaughter of Yu opera master Chang Xiangyu, the school spirit is strict, every year, about 10% of the students can qualify for the Spring Festival Gala stage.
He was disobedient as a child and often caused trouble. However, he accidentally showed professional talent, turning over the head and backflips to be the best in the school, ranking first in the overall ranking. So he got the opportunity to participate in the Spring Festival Gala. The Spring Festival Gala stage was star-studded, and Wang Jiacheng saw the star artists gathered for the first time in his life, and the idea of being an artist came to mind. He said that at the end of the Spring Festival Gala, he wrote in his diary: Before the age of 30, I must let the people of the whole country know me!
At art school, Wang Jiacheng met Zhang Yanfeng. They both grew up together in school and both loved music. The two bought a broken guitar together, passed cards to each other to listen to Jacky Cheung's songs, and sang and studied music together. The two could not sing at the school party, secretly climbed over the wall out of the school to participate in the Shanxi fan ring competition, and won the first place in the province.
Later, it was all the way to the race. In 2003, the National College Student Singer Grand Prix, Chen Sicheng was the first, they were fifth; in 2004, the National Young Singers Television Grand Prix; in 2007, Happy Male, Zhang Jie, Chen Chusheng participated in the session, they were all the first all the way through the barrier, Wang Jiacheng and Zhang Yanfeng were also blinded: Are we so cattle? The scene was very hot, and the last two took the fifth place in changsha and signed a contract with Tianyu Media for 7 years.
But then it did not usher in a highlight moment, Wang Jiacheng still thinks of those days and feels that it is "like a nightmare", "always a painful memory", and is not willing to recall. After signing the contract, he entered the "waiting for death" period. He said: "The operation of the agency is much the same, the resources follow the head artist, and the others just wait and wait...
In the process, he and his partner Zhang Yanfeng each tried to find a way to make a living, and the partner sold barbecues and clothes. Wang Jiacheng went to work at a music company under the Music Writers Association.
On a hot day in Changsha, he took the bus with his backpack on his back and listened to at least 100 pure music songs every day. Then tell the manager of the hotel and the mall what to choose for the background music, how to use the music to improve the comfort of the guests, and the distribution is particularly detailed. What kind of music is suitable for the corridor, what kind of music should be put in this hall and that hall, what kind of people should listen to, what music should be played at different times at 8:30 in the morning, 12:30 noon, and 3:00 pm... The monthly salary is 3000 yuan, which has risen once, mentioning 3500 yuan. Wang Jiacheng just helped people pick background music and deal with the copyright issue of 7788.
"Looking back now, although it was painful, it was this experience that changed my view of music. Listening to a lot of non-human music, I realized that the essence of music comes from the emotions expressed by the notes. Wang Jiacheng now thinks carefully, feeling that the painful days have unexpectedly brought great gains, and when returning to popular music creation, this experience has helped a lot, "In the past, I listened to popular songs, I felt that pure music was tall, I couldn't understand it, and I found that some people could feel love and feel the atmosphere conveyed by the music itself without lyrics."
The step-by-step days made Wang Jiacheng almost give up music. With a little savings from that job, he bought his first car with a down payment of 30,000 plus a credit card. In 2012, he switched to Ding Shaohua as an agent, which can be said to have given him the first taste of the sweetness of life. He suddenly found that answering the phone and making calls to help Ding Shaohua contact work could earn 20,000 yuan a single. "Before this was released, I couldn't earn 20,000 a month!" Wang Jiacheng said.
The next year, in 2013, when the second season of "The Voice of China" was preparing for him to participate, he initially refused, on the grounds that he "didn't want to move the nest" and "it was so good and stable". Later, the program team came back and asked him to participate with his good brother Zhang Yanfeng, and Wang Jiacheng decided: Ok, then come on!
He is very good at seizing opportunities and doing something not only seriously, but also planned and planned. In order to participate in the "Voice of China" program, he temporarily put down his brokerage work and did some analysis before writing a song rehearsal. Wang Jiacheng thought at the time: "The first season of The Voice is particularly good at singing, can sing and dance, and has a high pitch. Take this route, and we're buried in it. Everyone is singing songs of bitterness and vengeance, we have to sing happy songs, and we must adapt the bitter and vengeful songs into happy songs, country blues style, so that everyone feels that there are actually many aspects of life, which can be reversed. ”
Wang Ka-shing says he is a "music creator who thinks" and does not "get carried away.". He has a sensitivity to business and has made an analysis of himself: "I know that the first has to be unique; the second is to play a style that our brothers are good at, and after many years of cooperation, we can return to a seamless harmony state after practicing for two months, and improvise at any time; the third is to let the audience and let the director like us, so choose a happy musical attitude." ”
This direction is indeed very successful, after the end of the good voice, there was a period of time when the "mushroom brothers" received a lot of endorsements, performances, TV stations, reality shows continue to come to invite, the two began to have enough food and clothing, the state is much better than before. Wang Jiacheng felt that "for two or three months, I felt that I was already in the state of a first-line artist."
Being an artist is very pure and enjoyable, and Wang Jiacheng remembered that he used to only do one thing every day. At most, the two discussed and discussed, how this song can be popular, what actions on the stage are handsome, liked by fans, and how to talk about things clearly and interestingly during interviews.
At that time, they were all very passionate about creation, thinking that every song had possibilities, and the money was basically invested in the promotion of the song, but they found that there was no effect, like a bottomless pit, deep and bottomless, unable to find logic.
And being an artist is very passive, always being led by the agent, and there is no way to fight for it. Wang Jiacheng was very distressed, "Sometimes the company feels that you don't seem to listen to the agent today, so well, rest for two months and let others come." This kind of thing makes me feel particularly uncomfortable." He kept thinking, "If there's a company like this that can help me solve the publicity problem, it's solving the fundamental problem."
In 2016, Wang Jiacheng founded the music production company "Dream Jia". He wants to follow his own direction and get the initiative. He worked as an entertainer and as an agent and understood the business logic of the music industry. He believed that "I can do this better than they do". Wang Jiacheng said: "I am an artist, I understand what artists are thinking in their hearts, artists need protection; I have also been an agent, and I am confident in business logic that I can do better." I made up my mind and said: You wait, I must surpass you when I open a company! ”
The start-up didn't go well. The music copyright business could not find a way out, Wang Jiacheng acted as an agent to produce more than 1500 songs in a year, but the industry was sluggish, and almost lost all the money. "If no one listens to songs, there is no money to earn," Wang Jiacheng summed up a lesson. He knows that many musicians are just as distressed and helpless, but everyone basically can only sit at home and wait, the song is not hot to see Providence, Wang Jiacheng does not believe in "waiting", he said: "This is not OK." ”
Depressed for many years, Wang Jiacheng was very sensitive to music promotion and desperately taught himself. Then summarize the law and optimize the law. "In the end, I found that short videos are the most effective way to do this."
Around 2018, he began to study music promotion and marketing more systematically. Once, when I was watching a movie in a movie theater, after the screening, Wang Jiacheng found that several people around him immediately took out their mobile phones and shook them, searching for the music that appeared in the film. He suddenly felt as if he had been hit, and his heart rejoiced: "This is a very good way to push songs!" Let people actively spread, a lot of music promotion, in fact, passive transmission. ”
Wang Jiacheng really loves music, and he feels that "the world will not stop as long as there is music." Any scene is inseparable from music, many things in life are invisibly transmitted in the way of music, and people have not reacted to it. He gives the example again: "Music is the decompressant of the spirit. There are only a few kinds of decompressants in life, love, alcohol, music... Music is absolutely indispensable to life. ”
He said: "So how much commercial space do you think music has?" ”
When people's awareness of paying rises, people are willing to pay for spiritual needs. In fact, China's music industry is indeed growing. The volume of the entire music industry is growing at a rate of more than 10% per year. All the projects in the entertainment sector, movies, TV series, games, and animations, are inseparable from music. Life scenes such as restaurants and hotels are also inseparable from music. These are all opportunities for music commercialization.
The volume of China's music industry is currently about 300 billion. Music copyright accounts for about 20%, and others include live music, education... Musical talents are emerging, and songs are also getting more and newer things, which are all opportunities in the market.
Wang Jiacheng sees a broad prospect, and he is planning the music industry for his company. From the line of music copyright, the entire industrial chain has now developed, film and television OST, music marketing companies, music live teams, artist management companies... The "Mountain and River Order" concert is done by their own music live executive team.
"Dream Jia" incubated in "Jiayou Music" that specializes in film and television OST. And set up a music marketing company "Bottle", but also set up a special artist agency "Unicorn Times", do hip-hop labels, signed singer-songwriters, Wang Jiacheng also made a special "eggshell plan", intends to sign 100 music newcomers, now there are about 20.
Most of the signed artists are newcomers, and they are mainly singer-songwriters. Wang Jiacheng plans to support these people who can create and sing, "These people have a strong musical energy, and once they have a good opportunity in the future, they can shine." The artist's artistic life cycle is longer, which is a very important element."
A music factory belonging to Wang Jiacheng is being built, and in his vision, it will be a perfect closed loop: the artists signed by the company can participate in the production of film and television OST in the future; and OST brings strong exposure to musical works, which can be seen as film and television dramas giving music a hard and wide opportunity; film and television dramas themselves have high requirements for singers, and high-quality musicians can empower songs and enhance the commercial value of OST and film and television dramas. This is good for the future development of musicians.
He said he knew music couldn't be completely distorted by commercialization. Therefore, Wang Jiacheng gives musicians enough space to express what they want to express and produce good ideas. "Music comes from the creator's own feelings, understanding of life and emotions, which cannot be diluted by business, otherwise the music will deteriorate." In the future, he plans to support musicians to develop truly independently, to open studios and operate independently.
Wang Jiacheng said openly: "As a musician, I really didn't make money before I opened a company. Now, he's wondering if he can get the company to contribute a little bit to the industry as a whole. He felt, "If you can make musicians make money, I think the industry will get better and better, and the blood of this industry will circulate."
Being an artist and a businessman has its own advantages and disadvantages, and Wang Jiacheng prefers his current self. In a way, he took back the initiative. Can take the initiative, can compose music, and can continue to sing. He still wants to return to the days of pure music, focusing on writing songs and singing, behind his entire music ecological chain, not worried about whether it can be promoted, "that will be the thing I enjoy the most in the future."