I became a music industry godfather by writing confidantes.

Chapter 011 An Uncivilized Parachute Arrival

On the third night after Tao Cheng accidentally liked a post, a meeting was taking place at the headquarters of Century Music on the other side of the city.

Century Music, along with Jinshi Music, is one of the three major music giants in China.

In the main seat of the conference room sat a young woman with a cool and aloof demeanor. She was Sun Qingning, a rising female singer currently being heavily promoted by Century Music.

Her agent, Yuan Cheng, was chairing a meeting: "Regarding the actions taken against Tao Cheng in this public relations crisis, each department should review the progress."

A young man with glasses flipped open his tablet and reported to his supervisor: "Qingning, Brother Yuan, the first set of downgraded plans has been fully rolled out. We've contacted familiar marketing accounts and are stirring up trouble."

"Currently, public opinion is mainly being guided in two directions by us: either mocking Tao Cheng as a seemingly intellectual middle-aged woman who secretly enjoys reading melodramatic novels."

"Either we stick to the argument that she's lying and using the release of a new song as a shield to cover up her lowbrow tastes, and then just throw out some shoddy, half-finished product to fool her fans."

The woman with glasses pushed up her lenses and chuckled, "In the entertainment industry, it's not that we're afraid of you being bad, it's that we're afraid of you being unsophisticated. Once the 'Auntie Zhiyin' label is firmly welded into the public's mind, brands that are extremely particular about their image will basically have to avoid her for endorsements."

Yuan Cheng nodded slightly: "Well done. Keep it up, buy a few more marketing accounts, we have plenty of budget."

Another person added, "The second plan to praise her to death is also progressing steadily. We have professional trolls pretend to be Tao Cheng's die-hard fans, raising expectations for 'Flammable and Explosive' on Weibo and various music forums, and exaggerating her behavior of reading articles late at night to find emotions as a fanaticism for art."

"Netizens' emotions are the easiest to manipulate, and everyone's expectations for her new song have already been raised. Even if she finally releases a song that would normally score 80 points, the high level of anticipation could backfire on its reputation."

A few soft laughs rang out in the conference room.

That's how the war in the entertainment industry is; it's never fought with gunpowder.

"Not enough!" Sun Qingning said, her voice carrying a hint of ambition beyond her years.

"Not enough?" Yuan Cheng was taken aback. "Qing Ning, just say what you're thinking."

"When Century Music signed me, they invested so many resources, intending to make me the first post-00s pop diva and the number one new generation artist. Now the music market is sluggish, there is a serious shortage of singers in the industry, and the young generation that can compete with me are, at most, Tao Cheng from Jinshi and Tang You from Yunge."

It's quite interesting that Tao Cheng's fans call themselves "Oranges," Sun Qingning's fans are a homophone of her name, "Lemon," and Yun Ge Tang You's fans are "Pomelo." These three new generation female singers are all represented by the "Orange Family," making it a veritable fruit war.

"To stand out in this chaotic battle, simply relying on online trolls to drag others down in the mud won't work. Negative PR can only trip her up once; I want to crush her completely!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Cheng revealed a very satisfied smile.

In this fickle world, having ambition isn't scary; what's scary is having ambition but lacking the matching intelligence and drive.

Sun Qingning has a clear understanding of priorities and a well-defined purpose; she knows that the song is the ultimate battleground, which is commendable.

"Qingning, I understand what you mean. We need to launch a public relations campaign and also release a new song to target her."

As a senior agent at Century Music, Yuan Cheng has an excellent understanding of the production cycle of a single.

Let's do a simple backwards reasoning.

Yuan Cheng got up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and drew a timeline.

"Since Tao Cheng claims that she is looking for emotions, it means that the lyrics, music, arrangement and accompaniment of 'Flammable and Explosive' are likely finalized and are currently in the vocal recording stage."

"Voice recording, conservatively speaking, will take her half a week. Audio editing, mixing, and mastering are all meticulous tasks that cannot be rushed, so let's say a week to a week and a half. Plus, there's the subsequent platform integration, review, and pre-launch promotion..."

He drew a heavy red circle at the end of the timeline.

"It's mid-May now, and this song won't be released until early June at the earliest. Considering their current pre-release promotional pace..."

Yuan Cheng said confidently, "Tao Cheng's seemingly chaotic PR campaign is actually going with the flow; they're definitely aiming for June!"

"Tao Cheng is releasing a summer single!"

In the pop music scene, the summer season in June, July, and August has always been the most competitive.

It was only after the second decade of the millennium that the music market was sluggish; otherwise, all sorts of superstars would have released songs in droves, and it would have been impossible for a few new generation artists to make June their home turf.

"Don't worry." Yuan Cheng stopped Sun Qingning from saying something. "The company values ​​you very much. In fact, last week, I applied for a budget from the higher-ups and spent a lot of money to hire a senior producer in the industry to tailor a single for you."

"According to the plan, this song was originally aimed at the summer, with the goal of dominating the major music charts in June."

"Since Tao Cheng is also eyeing June, let's hold back for now and wait for her to announce the release date of her single before we go up close and give her a good talking to, and teach her a lesson."

Just as Sun Qingning's expression softened and a fierce fighting spirit ignited in her eyes, preparing for a major showdown with Tao Cheng in June—

"Bang--!"

The conference room door was suddenly pushed open.

Sun Qingning's female assistant rushed in, sweating profusely, clutching her phone tightly, her face showing an expression as if she had seen a ghost.

"What are you doing?" Yuan Cheng frowned, his face darkening, and he snapped, "So reckless! Can't you see we're in a meeting? First day at the company? Don't you even know the rules?"

The entertainment industry's biggest taboo is staff members who aren't steady enough. This assistant usually seems quite clever, so why is he acting so recklessly today, like he's lost his soul?

Fortunately, everyone in the conference room is from Century Music; otherwise, Sun Qingning's reputation would also be affected.

The assistant swallowed hard, his voice trembling, and hesitantly raised his phone.

"No...no, Sister Qingning, Brother Yuan! Tao Cheng...Tao Cheng...she released a new song!"

The conference room fell into a sudden, deathly silence.

"What did you say?"

Yuan Cheng's expression froze instantly, his voice rising eight octaves in disbelief as he exclaimed, "A new song? It's only been less than 72 hours since Tao Cheng liked it, wasn't she still recording?"

"Recording, mixing, mastering, platform review... three days? Do you think Jinshi Music produces singles like a printer?"

The assistant was almost in tears: "It really...it really happened! Both Tencent and NetEase Cloud Music gave it a huge banner recommendation on their homepages. Tao Cheng's Weibo also had a link to it."

Sun Qingning took out her phone, opened the Penguin Music app, and saw a large banner for Tao Cheng's single prominently displayed on the homepage.

The cover features a minimalist, dark color scheme with five large, scarlet characters that appear to have been scorched by flames: "Flammable and Explosive"!