New Music Industry Watch original article, unauthorized refusal to reprint
Author | Nine fish
Most of the post-90s are not unfamiliar with the name of Wang Rong, whether it is "I am not Huang Rong", which was popular all over the country at that time, or "Little Chicken and Chicken", which was later ridiculed, behind this name, there are specific masterpieces to support the memory point.
Unexpectedly, when she heard the news of Wang Rong again, she had become a signed artist under Bai Xiaobai - the first singer case in China to be signed by Internet celebrities was also born.
On October 26, Wang Rong participated in the opening activities of Bai Xiaobai E-commerce Company
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > reverse signing to break down barriers</h1>
In the Chinese music scene in 2004, Jay Chou released "Qilixiang", Lin Junjie released "Jiangnan", Jolin Tsai sang "Rewind", even if it is sixteen years later today, it can still be said that it is a year of "immortal fighting". In the same year, Wang Rong, with the album "I Am Not Huang Rong", won the "Top Ten Golden Melodies Award in the Mainland" of the Southeast Hit Chart.
That year, Wang Rong entered the public eye as a mainstream singer. And that is also the identity that many Internet celebrities want to fight for.
Let's talk about another protagonist of the incident, Bai Xiaobai, whose Baidu entry shows that he has three identities: Internet celebrity, actor, and singer. It is also true that Bai Xiaobai not only has tens of millions of fans on the short video software, has participated in the movie "Super Waste", and has also released the original song "You Say Break Up Like This", including "Finally We Were Not Together" released last year, and the comments received on the music platform are also close to 50,000.
Even a few days ago, when Bai Xiaobai appeared at the "One Thousand and One Nights" party of Jiangsu Satellite TV, there was a screen brushing type of "old iron" to help.
Bai Xiaobai's performance received a lot of bullet screen support from the audience
Interestingly, at the same party, there was also a hot search for #Let Zhang Shaohan sing alone. The reason is that Zhang Shaohan and Mengran Miya sang "RainIng All The Way + Teenager" together, but Mengran Miya's singing voice seemed weak under the contrast of Zhang Shaohan.
The issue of "whether there is really a wall between Internet celebrities and singers" has once again been turned over. Putting the two things together makes this "reverse signing" even more interesting: while the two protagonists of the event are trying to win each other's identities, Bai Xiaobai, who represents the internet celebrity group, exists as the dominant person/boss.
After all, even if a strong singer like Tan Weiwei, who has released an album and sung solo, sang in the finals in a professional music program like "Singer", and has been recognized by fans and the music circle, in the Weibo that shares the story of the new album production, he still can't help but sigh at the end of the article "envying traffic singers".
Behind this "envy" is the helplessness of mainstream artists to the rules of market traffic distribution: because it is no longer a believer in quality, nor can it represent the preferences of most music fans, but it has divided more than half of the market share.
Therefore, the "Wang Rong signed Bai Xiaobai" incident may be a new way for music practitioners to survive.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the "DIY" approach to survival</h1>
In the current mainstream music scene, there are few singers who release physical albums, coupled with the opening of major music platforms and short video platforms to ordinary users to upload music, in terms of quantity alone, the output of music works has far exceeded the demand of the market. Compared with the previous issue of "how to make a high-quality musical work", it has also been quietly switched to "how to sell a song".
Survival has become the primary task of music practitioners today. In particular, independent musicians.
From the article "Independent Musicians Under the Impact of the Epidemic" released by Media in September this year, it was pointed out that globally, musicians who did not sign with any record labels generated $872.8 million in production in 2019, an overall 32% more than in 2018, but among the 346 independent musicians surveyed, 64.2% of independent musicians from all over the world can earn less than $10,000 a year from music, and the overall average annual income is only $8,079.
This, to some extent, affirms the strong momentum of independent music on a global scale, but also disproves how difficult it is for independent musicians to make a living from music alone.
Of the data collected, online music revenues make up 28 percent of the revenue streams of these independent musicians. Because of the impact of the epidemic this year, even the income of offline performances, which account for 18% of the share and is second only to online revenue, has been greatly reduced, and their sources of income have fallen more on music distribution, music teaching, foreign sponsorship, and even other part-time jobs, and most people need four or five sources of income to maintain their livelihoods.
Even so, only 18 percent still think it's important to sign with a record label, and 44 percent think it doesn't matter if you have it or not.
Obviously, signing a record company is no longer the first choice for independent musicians to survive, and they generally believe that the openness and support of online platforms have built a completely autonomous publicity environment. More than half of the respondents said they have always implemented self-marketing through online platforms, but in fact, 40% of the population has not spent a penny on it, and less than 20% have experience working with brands or event organizers.
In the wake of the pandemic, more than half of respondents have cast a net to find platforms for collaboration, and they may have retreated because of unequal treaties on some platforms, but now they have also chosen to compromise; one-fifth of the population has found new sources of income through online performances, but more people have spent a lot of time on music creation, distribution and social media interaction.
It can be seen that for music practitioners, "survival" has become a path that can be opened up by "DIY".
However, from the perspective of effect, most people seem to be forced by reality to catch up, not only lack of experience, but also easy to cause loss of rights and interests due to emergency medical treatment; although most of the resources are currently shared, keeping up with the industry changes to make timely adjustments is the key to "survival", but simply being alone is not enough to cope with changes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > coexistence is the trend</h1>
Before there was Jay Chou who was asked to sing "Learn to Cat Call" at his personal concert; then there was a singer-songwriter of the Million Network Divine Song "Leaving People Sad", who played and sang himself while holding a guitar at the "Children of Tomorrow" competition site, but did not even know what the 6th chord hua Chenyu said; even Tengger put on a flower shirt and sang "Mangsang".
These uneven quality online songs seem to have been pushed into the mainstream, but the market data loudly negates: No, these songs are themselves the mainstream. But does that really have to be a bad thing?
When musical works gradually become a carrier of play, when the threshold of singing and composing drops again and again, when singers are signed "reverse" by Internet celebrities, we should all begin to think about whether this is a change in the market or the demand of the market.
After all, every emerging form is the most easily criticized in the early stage, and at this time, it is not only the voice of criticism, but also the action that can cut professionalism into the real world.
Internet songs from the opening of the era of national networking, to now has been ten years, the output and reception of the crowd has gradually stabilized, industry demand and market share has long exceeded the pre-Network era, Internet celebrities and singers, the combination of these two identities, has become one of the undeniable industry trends.
Traffic without professionalism is short and meaningless, and what is the difference between professionalism without traffic and self-cultivation? Wang Rong's signing of Bai Xiaobai is the first case in the domestic industry. Some people say that this is the counterattack of Internet celebrities, and some people say that this is the industry wind turning the rudder.
The boss of some Internet celebrity incubation institutions believes that there are still unattainable barriers between real head Internet celebrities and first-line singers. After all, Wang Rong is no longer a popular singer, and choosing such a cooperation method is just an example.
But we may wish to wait and see what kind of sparks can be collided with this industry-experimental cooperation.
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