Perfect Superstar

Chapter 179 - Crowdfunding Goes Online

Startingfrom the arrest of Wang Bin on the 17th to the short three days until the 20th,the domestic entertainment industry experienced a storm of baptism. Severalstar artists, that participated in the gathering of this senior, were picked outand some of them were even taken away by the police to assist in theinvestigation. Their reputation and future were completely ruined. (TN: Seniorhere is Wan Bin, in case anyone got confused)

For a time, peoplein the industry were in a state of panic, and even all kinds of publicity andhype stopped.

And on InspurBlog, it simply a place with bad people running wild. All the Big V's and SmallV's and speculators were stirring up troubles. Gossips and rumors were everywhere,resulting in many innocent artists to be attacked.

AlthoughBeijing Satellite TV is not an artist star, it was also attacked.

In fact, theattack on Beijing TV was not too unjust, because as early as half a month ago,the officials revealed that big stars such as Wang Bin and Chen Fei'er had beeninvited to the National Day Party, and even made an exclusive interview forWang Bin in a program.

Who wouldhave thought that Wang Bin would take the wrong path!

And althoughthe Official V of Beijing Satellite TV soon announced that they had canceledall cooperation with Wang Bin and replace his performance, the impact hasalready been made.

This was becausethe media revealed that Wang Bin’s drug abuse didn't start in just a day or two.it started a long time ago.

As a localsnake in Beijing, did Beijing Satellite TV really knew nothing about this? (TN:Local snake - powerful entity)

Knowing thesituation and inviting Wang Bin to attend such an important party, isn't thisencouraging the bad atmosphere in the circle?

Some peopleeven accused Beijing Satellite TV of kicking Wang Bin when he was down.

In fact,most of these questions and accusations were groundless, but this is the caseon the Internet. Unreasonable people stillneed some reason to stir up trouble, let alone people deliberately stirring uptrouble, and this made Beijing Satellite TV a little passive.

However,Beijing Satellite TV wasn't a vegetarian either and soon launched acounterattack in terms of public opinion. (TN: Not a vegetarian – not to betrifled with)

First, theirofficials refuted those false rumors on their blog. Also, they advocated the self-disciplineof stars in the entertainment industry.

At 8 pm onthe 21st, when the storm caused by Wang Bin gradually began to calm down, theOfficial V of Beijing Satellite TV posted an official leak video on its InspurBlog.^[1]

The contentof the video was very interesting. It was the rehearsal scene of the NationalDay Party in the T1 Studio on the afternoon of the 17th.

And theprotagonist of the video was precisely Lu Chen!

The OfficialV showed two scenes from the rehearsal. The two scenes were Lu Chen singing eachversion of “I Love You China”. They also launched a prize votingcampaign for all bloggers in the post.

The contentof the vote was very simple - which of the two theme works with the same titledo you prefer?

Finally, theOfficial V said that the audience's choice will determine which of the versionof the song Lu Chen will sing at the National Day party!

Anyone witha discerning eye knew that this blog post was definitely part of BeijingSatellite TV's crisis public relations. The aim was to divert people’sattention from Wang Bin, or at least showed that he is not involved withBeijing TV anymore. (TN: Crisis PR – Relevant strategies and managementactivities in response to the crisis)

And this wayof diverting attention is not offensive, and it is very interesting.

As a result,Lu Chen’s two works aroused the curiosity and attention of many people, and thenumber of clicks and comments rose rapidly.

At 8:24,Chen Fei'er forwarded the post and commented that she voted for the secondsong!

In additionto Chen Fei'er, there were a lot of people in the industry who forwarded the postand commented. With the help of the officials, the topic was quickly hyped. By10 pm, the number of votes actually exceeded 200000+!

The mostexcited ones were Lu Chen’s fans.

In Lu Chen'sblog support group, Lu Family Army's group V, the comment area has been blownup.

Fans whosupport Lu Chen have all praised the official leaked videos of BeijingSatellite TV.

“LuChen is very mighty!”

“Ourfamily's Little Chen is getting more and more powerful. Both songs are verygood. I didn’t expect him to write theme works!”

“Thefirst song doesn't count as a theme song, does it? The pop element on it isobvious. I have nothing say on the second song. I'm convinced!”

“ChenFei'er said that she liked the second song, and so did I.”

“Is LuChen going to replace Wang Bin? We must watch The National Day Party of BeijingSatellite!”

“Must watch+ 1!”

“Whatis Beijing Satellite TV? Lu Chen will definitely go to CCTV Spring FestivalGala in the future!”

“Lookingforward to that CCTV Spring Festival Gala.”

Comparedwith ordinary fans, the evaluation of many people in the industry was much moreprofessional.

ChenGuodong, who once wrote the splendid blog article “Silent Majority”for Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me", praised in his blog: “LuChen’s achievements in original folk songs are already well known. I didn’texpect him to write such wonderful theme works. The rich melody music is reallyadmirable.”

“Regardingthe voting on Beijing Satellite TV. I'm embarrassed to say that even afterthinking about it for a long time, I still haven't made a choice.”

“If onlyfrom the characteristics of theme works, there is no doubt that the second songcrushed the first one, but the first one combines theme and pop music very welland is full of bold and innovative spirit! “

He said: “Ilike both of Lu Chen’s works very much. If possible, I hope to be on the stageat the same time, but that is obviously impossible, so I did not choose fromthe two.”

Chen Guodongdidn't choose. However, the number of people voting for their preferred song onthe blog was getting more and more.

The resultwas Lu Chen's second “I Love You China” beat the first “I Love YouChina” by a wide margin of 72.89% to 27.11% within the specified votingtime of 2 days.

And hiscreative talent and singing ability have been praised by the vast majority ofpeople. Through this wave of publicity and hype of Beijing Satellite TV, thenumber of his blog fans has exceeded 6.5 million!

As a result,Lu Chen’s reputation inside and outside the circle has risen to another level!

Takingadvantage of this trend, Lu Chen solemnly launched the album crowdfunding plan,which has been delayed for more than half a month, on Inspur Blog.

Get theonline crowdfunding operational while there is a good opportunity!

Except for afew individuals, the word crowdfunding was a strange word to people all overthe world, so Lu Chen specifically explained what crowdfunding model is in hisblog post, along with a website address.

Clicking thewebsite address will redirect the user to the crowdfunding website.

For LuChen’s fans, they may not care about what crowdfunding is, or the meaning ofthe word, nor do they want to know the meaning and market value of the crowdfundingmodel.

What reallyaroused the interest of fans was that Lu Chen was finally going to release CDrecords!

Although itis said that after entering the new century, the domestic and internationalrecording industry has been declining year by year.

Up to now,online sales have become the focus of album releases. Even the judging standardfor [Gold Records] and [Platinum Records] include the sales data of musicwebsites, but the meaning of real records is still very different. (TN: Realrecords - physical records such as CD.)

It’s easy torelease an online album or single, but it’s not easy to produce a CD record.

The firstreason is production cost. CDs cost much higher than the no-cost audio data.Then the cost and difficulty of selling and distributing them are higher thanthat of websites. Except for big stars, it is difficult to earn back the cost.

There aremany singers, in order to push their appeal, will launch CD records, but salesdata are often very bleak. They are completely losing money. They are doingsomething beyond their own ability*. (TN: *Original Chinese idiom: to swellone’s face up by slapping it to look imposing.)

Many CDalbums are half-sold and half-given away, or given back to fans as gifts, andsome are smashed in their hands.

Therefore,although there are countless singers who dream of producing a CD record andachieve [Gold Records] or even [Platinum Records], only a few can really do it.

Forentertainment agencies, unless they support an artist at any cost, they willnever dig a big hole for themselves. This is especially true for agencies withtight cost controls.

But thismarket still exists!

Releasing CDrecords was a plan that Lu Chen had long thought about. He didn't want to dosomething beyond his own ability and make a fool of himself, and spent hundredsof thousands just to push his appeal. So, the crowdfunding model was the bestchoice.

The successof online sales of his album "You Who Sat Next To Me" has also greatly boostedLu Chen’s confidence.

Hisfundraising goal for this album is 500,000 yuan!

There are atotal of four support options.

The firstitem: 1 yuan (10,000). There will be a raffle and one winner will be selected,the prize is a notebook computer. (TN: there are only 10,000 of this item) (Theitem might be a raffle ticket?)

The seconditem: 15 yuan (no limit). Supporters can get a genuine CD of “You Who SatNext To Me”.

The thirditem: 100 yuan (1,000). Supporters can get a CD and commemorative poster signedby Lu Chen, 16GB USB, key chain, and a limited set of metal nameplates customizedby Lu Family Army support team.

The fourthitem: ¥188 (1,000). Supporters can get 2 CDs and commemorative posters signedby Lu Chen, 64GB USB, notepad, key chain, and a limited set of metal nameplate customizedby Lu Family Army support team.

As it wasthe first crowdfunding, Lu Chen didn't make the project too complicated, onlyfour support options.

Frankly, he wasn'tsure about the album crowdfunding, and he didn't know if he can succeed andachieve his pre-funding goal of 500,000, and then successfully release hisfirst CD record.

However, thearrow has already been fitted on the string. Whether the online crowdfunding canbe a hit depends on this first crowdfunding project. (TN: The arrow has been fittedto the string - there's no turning back now.)

In order toachieve the best promotion effect, in addition to vigorously promoting it in thelive broadcast room, post bar, and QQ group, Lu Chen also @ all the famous Vaccounts that he knew, such as Tan Hong, Chen Fei'er and so on.

Fortunately,Lu Chen’s fans were still very interested in the album crowdfunding project.After he officially launched the online crowdfunding, the number of visits tothe site and member registrations has gradually increase, and are getting moreand more.

Then thefirst supporter appeared. He chose the first item. The first support was 1yuan!

1 yuan, thiswas the first sum of money received by the online crowdfunding.

Although itlooked very pitiful, it indicated that a new business financing model hasofficially stepped on the Internet stage!

It startedwith an album.

No matterwhether the final result is a success or a failure, Lu Chen has the feeling ofmaking history.

___________

TN: I'm notsure if "official leak video" is the correct term here as a leak video usuallycomes from other sources, but since the leak video came from them, then it's anofficial leak video? If anyone knows the proper term pls. write it in thecomment section.^[1]

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