Chapter 45 "Liao Liao"

Liao Liao's recording suddenly became smoother.

She hadn't been able to complete the recording of "Wild Flower" for more than four consecutive days before, but after a short confrontation with Huang Yueqin, she seemed to have suddenly found a feeling. So, on the same day, she completed the recording of the three songs "Wild Flower", "Perseverance", and "Cheers Friends" in one go!

The next day, the recordings of "My Hometown of Passionate Love" and "Unfinished Love" were completed!

On the morning of the third day, with the completion of the recording of the new song "Desert" written and composed by Cao Zhan, the recording stage of Liao Liao's first album officially ended!

And now, her album has a total of eleven new songs, plus the previous single is also planned to be included in the album, so this album has twelve songs.

The available recording time for both sides of a tape is about 45 minutes to 60 minutes. If necessary, it can be extended to 75 minutes at most without affecting the reading speed and quality. The theoretical storage time of a CD is also about 60 to 75 minutes.

Therefore, an album can theoretically contain up to 17 to 20 songs.

But in reality, there are very few albums released with more than 15 songs.

The first is to take care of tapes. After all, although the sales share of CDs has gradually increased in recent years, tapes are still the absolute mainstream. Once tapes are extended to more than 60 minutes of playing time, the weight of tapes will inevitably be overweight. The impact on the quality of the reading sound is minimal, but it still has some impact after all.

The second is due to the consideration of production costs. After all, one more song will require a lot more expenses, from writing lyrics, composing, arranging, to recording accompaniment, to occupying the recording studio, and after going to the production plant. The increase in billing by the listenable length of the album...these are all adding to the cost.

The third is to consider the market sales. Once the cost increases, the pricing will naturally go up. Although the audience may not care much about the additional one or two yuan for the favorite singer and song, but it is also an album, and if you sell it even one yuan more expensive than other albums, it will affect consumers. Perception, which directly affects sales.

Because in market sales, the sales figures of hardcore fans and fans are always just the basis. If an album wants to sell well, if a movie wants to sell well, if a book wants to sell well, the most important thing is to Find a way to reach out to the outsiders outside of the hardcore fans and professionals!

Therefore, as a convention, the number of songs in an album is probably between eight and twelve, among which ten songs are the most common.

However, after two days of careful consideration, Liao Liao finally convinced producer Zhao Meifeng that her new album would have twelve songs.

Because the five songs that have been recorded before, as well as the last single, must be recorded, each of the five songs written by Li Qian is Liao Liao's favorite, and naturally they are indispensable. As for Cao Zhan's "Desert", although its quality did not reach Cao Zhan's true height, it was everyone's shot after all, not to mention that he wrote the song according to Liao Liao's voice characteristics, so although the quality of the song is only It can be said to be above average, but it is very suitable for Liao Liao to play.

So... keep it all!

However, it is not a problem to keep all twelve songs, and it is not a big problem if the price is slightly higher, but which one is the title song is a big problem!

According to Liao Liao's thinking, it is natural to want to make "My Hometown of Passionate Love" the first hit, and "Persistence" as the second hit, or "Wild Flowers" is also fine. But this idea didn't even wait for Mr. Zheng to be in front of him, it was directly killed by Zhao Meifeng!

In her words: The second title can be "My Hometown of Passionate Love", but the first title must be "That Summer"!

"That Summer" is a song that Liao Liao has recorded before. It is an urban love song, but it is not Zhou Mo's style of love song. It is about a relationship, very warm, and Liao Liao likes it very much. , Zhao Meifeng also likes it very much, even in her opinion, this should be a song that can help Liao Liao gain popularity and thus increase the sales of the album!

Objectively speaking, if there were no songs that I got from Jinan later, it would be no problem to use this song as the first title. When there were only those six songs before, even Liao Liao thought so, But now that she has "Perseverance", "Wild Flowers", and "My Hometown I'm Passionately Loved", she is not afraid of ignorance or comparison, of course she is a little bit reluctant.

But... Zhao Meifeng is the producer of this album after all! So in the end, Liao Liao realized that it was not an easy task to persuade her, so he had no choice but to give in and agreed to follow the company's earlier publicity plan.

Once the two title songs are determined, one of the hundreds of photos taken before will be selected as the cover and a few as the inner color illustrations of the lyrics page. This album belongs to the producer and the singer. Even if it's over.

The following pricing, production, and packaging are all the company needs to do. The publicity and rankings before listing are also mainly in charge of the company's publicity department. Liao Liao only needs to cooperate with the other party's work and participate in some radio stations Music programs and TV variety shows, and then keep singing, singing, singing, interviews, interviews, interviews... that's it.

Of course, there is one more important thing before it is actually sent to the production workshop.

That is, audition sessions within the company.

All singers, producers, senior managers of Changsheng Records in Beijing, as well as lyricists, composers, arrangers, producers, music critics, etc. who maintain friendly relations with the company, as well as relevant personnel involved in the production of the album, will Received the notice in advance, if you have time and mood, you can come to the listening room of Changsheng Records and enjoy the new album played on the top-level speakers, which is a fresh taste.

Of course, if the singer is a big name, there will be many people attending the audition meeting, whether it is for the purpose of supporting the audience or because they are really curious and looking forward to the new album. In addition, it's better not to expect any irrelevant people to join in the show.

Liao Liao is not a big name. Although the single she released before has a good reputation, it is hard to say that just one single can make those music critics look forward to the point where they need Baba to come to Changsheng Records to try it out.

Plus those who have no time, plus those who are not interested, plus those who are not in Beijing, plus those who don’t bother to come to listen... Wait, in the end, the people who came to her album audition are actually limited to the ten or so people .

Three executives headed by Mr. Zheng, and the company's troika: art director Du Xiaoming, art deputy director Zhao Meifeng, art deputy director and manager of the brokerage department Sima Jie, two recording engineers, manager of the publicity and distribution department, and deputy manager , Deputy Manager of Production Department, Liao Liao, and Huang Wenjuan.

The professional-level listening room, which cost more than one million yuan, is absolutely amazing. But just as a sound that usually sounds good is easy to be full of flaws once it enters the recording studio, the more professional the audio equipment, the stronger the amplification ability: the advantages are amplified, and the disadvantages are also amplified.

In terms of voice alone, Liao Liao is very stable, almost impeccable.

But the content of the album, that is, the songs, made the manager and deputy manager of the Publicity Department couldn't help but whisper to each other.

After playing the album for more than forty minutes, Mr. Zheng stood up and said, "The conference room next door, let's have a meeting."

When he arrived at the meeting room, Mr. Zheng knocked on the table and said, "Tell me, what do you think?"

The deputy manager of the production department is here to make up the numbers. He just needs to go back with the production plan after the meeting, so he doesn't need to speak. The two sound engineers and Huang Wenjuan are not eligible to attend the meeting. Besides Liao Liao, there were eight other people in total.

The deputy manager of the distribution department spoke first, and she said: "The style of this album is fairly unified, but if I remember correctly, there are actually three light rock songs in it... I don't know music, but I know the market, so... I It is recommended that the company adopt a more conservative strategy to arrange publicity and distribution, and try to hit the list first."

The manager of the distribution department nodded, "It's a bit dangerous. In the past, many light rockers have been thrown to death. However, I think this album still has bright spots. Liao Liao's voice is one, and the two title songs are also one. The song " "That Summer" is the first hit, not bad! When it is released, I agree with Lao Zhang, it's better to be conservative."

This meeting is the one that sets the tone before going public, and the distribution and publicity department naturally has the most say. After they finished speaking, an executive nodded directly, "I agree. Let's go with the guarantee first? The tape is 200,000, the CD is 20,000, and the vinyl... I remember the vinyl of Liao Liao's last single. The sales are pretty good. Although the vinyl has been around for a few years and is about to be phased out, there are still a group of enthusiasts who like it. Therefore, I suggest that more vinyl be issued... 3,000 copies, right? Mr. Zheng, what do you think? ?”

President Zheng nodded, then turned to look at Art Director Du Xiaoming, "Old Du, tell me?"

Du Xiaoming habitually touched the braids on his back, and no matter how many people were in the meeting room, he took out a cigarette and lit it, saying, "It's average! I guess...it's no problem to get a gold record. No matter how high... I’m not as good as Meifeng when it comes to female singers! Liao Liao was brought by her, and this album is also made by her, let’s focus on her ideas!”

Hearing what he said, Zheng Changsheng's face suddenly became a little ugly.

He made it clear that he didn't like this album!

If it were another female singer under her banner, Zhao Meifeng would fight back no matter what at this time, but at this time, she felt that even if she fought back, she couldn't come up with any good reasons—even she herself felt that this The album is not a small risk!

So, when Mr. Zheng Changsheng looked over, she thought for a while and said, "Let's mainly look at the two title songs. I think this album is still of a good standard. I can't say how the market will react, but The quality of the album itself must be excellent!"

Mr. Zheng nodded and looked at Sima Jie.

Sima Jie hesitated for a moment, then said: "Perhaps... the spring of light rock has come? Hehe, I think ha, those light rock songs by Liao Liao are quite interesting! We can't say whether the spring of light rock will come or not, But at least, this album, I don’t think it’s too much of a hit, with a guarantee of 500,000 copies, it’s not hopeless to strive for a platinum record!”

Zheng Changsheng nodded, then lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked up at Liao Liao, "Liao Liao, talk about it yourself, and estimate the sales of this album."

From the moment he entered the listening room, Liao Liao's face showed no expression at all. After entering the conference room, he kept his head down, not knowing what he was thinking. Hearing Zheng Changsheng calling her, she raised her head and said a little stiffly, "I'll follow the arrangements of the leaders, and I'll listen to Mr. Zheng!"

Zheng Changsheng narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard this. But he quickly laughed again, thought for a while, and said, "Okay, let's go according to what Lao Zhang said, and go in a relatively conservative way of thinking, um, on the production side, go according to the plan Mr. Liu just said Arrangement, the album will be released in the first ten days of August, and the specific promotion and release will come out with a plan from the publicity department. We wish Liao Liao's first album of the same name "Liao Liao" a big hit! That's it, the meeting is over! "