Chapter 164 - Collision

　　Internet inChina began to sprout in the late 90s and flourished after entering the newcentury. Up to now, it has become a trillion-level huge industry, which can becalled one of the pillars of the economy.

　　The adventof the Internet era has also profoundly changed the economic pattern of theworld, which has had a great impact on many traditional industries, and manyindustries have declined or even disappeared.

　　The recordindustry is one of them.

　　Whenportable audio music players were developed and integrated into the smartphone,the traditional record industry entered an irreversible decline, and manyrecord companies have transformed themselves into new entertainment media.

　　In the 80'sand 90's, singers can make a lot of money from a big-selling record. Now, thenew generation of idol artists still makes records even at a loss, just for thesake of appeal and promoting popularity, and then get back the cost throughperipheral products, advertising endors.e.m.e.nts, notices and performances, etc.

　　Therefore,online sales have become one of the main business channels of entertainment brokeragecompanies, such as QQ Music, NetEase Music and other big music websites, whichis an important battlefield for singers and artists.

　　Moreover,the sales performance of the four domestic music websites is calculated throughalb.u.m sales, resulting in the new era of [Gold Record], [Platinum Record], [DiamondRecord] and [Crown Record]!

　　Online sales+ actual sales of more than 100,000, through places certified by Chinese Music a.s.sociation,can get the [Golden Record] achievement!

　　When salesvolume reached 500,000, it is [Platinum Record] and when it reached 1 million,it is [Diamond Record].

　　As for thehighest honor [Crown Record], the sales volume requirement is 5 million!

　　The musicwebsites certified by the Chinese Music a.s.sociation include QQ Music, NetEaseMusic, Pop Radio and Voice of China. The physical store that is certified tosell CD is only limited to Xinhua Book Company, and online sales on Yibao arenot included in the list.

　　The reason whyYibao is not included is very simple. The sales results on Yibao was very easyto alter, due to the cost of doing so was very low, and it was impossible forthe Chinese Music a.s.sociation to require a behemoth like Yibao to cooperatewith itself, so it simply gave up.

　　As for thefour major music websites and Xinhua Book Company, although people can alsospend money to alter the sales, the cost was much higher.

　　Therefore,the authority of China Music a.s.sociation certification is the highest in China.

　　Every Monday,the Chinese Music a.s.sociation will publish the top 50 domestic record sales onits official website, as well as the list of certified Golden, Diamond, andCrown Records!

　　For mostsingers, getting the [Golden Record] was enough to make them proud.

　　And amongthe criteria for judging a first-cla.s.s singer, a [Platinum Record] isessential.

　　As for thereal superstar, the target has always been [Diamond Record]!

　　As for [CrownRecord], it is now a type of miracle that may come by chance but not sought. Infact, even [Diamond Record] often take a long time to acc.u.mulate, unlike in thepast, where millions or even several of millions of sales can easily beachieved.

　　The free andsharing spirit of the Internet has resulted in cultural piracy of film, musicand literature that can never be eliminated.

　　The mainreason why people were not optimistic about the online sale of Lu Chen’s firstsolo alb.u.m, “You Who Sat Next To Me”, was apart from strong rivals, wasthat the songs in the alb.u.m can basically be found on the Internet, and manynetizens have heard all of them, and the desire to buy it naturally greatlyreduced.

　　September 8,at 7:00 pm, his alb.u.m went on sale on QQ Music online.

　　At the sametime, Cui Zhengzhi’s “Provocation” also went on sale!

　　A lot ofpeople were paying attention to the sales of these two alb.u.ms and the showdownof the four singers.

　　Zou Bei’s alb.u.m“Blooming Flowers” was in the lead. It was 4th in the list. Currentsales are 70,000+. (TN: She is in the lead, among the four of them, and 4th onQQ Music.)