Chapter 49 Distribution Channels After reading the information sent by Hong Zhengtai, Jin Shiming expressed his satisfaction. This girl named Cheng Xiao was born in 1998, which makes her age suitable for the new girl group. Judging from the photos and videos, her appearance is quite good, with the exquisiteness of a Barbie doll, which is completely enough to serve as the face of the team. In addition, Cheng Xiao has been practicing Chinese dance since she was a child and has won many awards, so her dance foundation is absolutely solid. Even though KPOP's sword dance and Chinese dance are two completely different styles of dance, dance, to put it bluntly, is about intuition, movement, rhythm and form. Jin Shiming has a lot to say in this regard. Influenced by his mother, he learned many different types of dance, covering a very broad range. Except for some dance styles that have strict requirements on body posture or are not very suitable for his own style, he learned all the mainstream dances very quickly. On the one hand, although there is some talent involved, Jin Shiming has a good memory and strong physical coordination. Basically, as long as he has watched a story twice, he can cover it almost perfectly. On the other hand, it benefits from solid basic skills. As the saying goes, the simplest way is the best. Basic skills are like the internal force in martial arts novels. As long as the internal force is trained to perfection, then you can make rapid progress in practicing any martial arts secrets.
Therefore, Jin Shiming was not worried at all whether Cheng Xiao could practice the sword dance well. To put it another way, even if she cannot compete for the position of main dancer, she is more than qualified to be a lead dancer and will not be a drag in dancing. However, Jin Shiming feels that the singing skills would be a bit tricky. According to the information provided by Hong Zhengtai, Cheng Xiao has never been exposed to vocal music, let alone speak Korean. In just one or two years, it would be difficult for her singing skills to reach average level. In order to prevent this situation, Jin Shiming had already made preparations, such as reducing Cheng Xiao's personal part in the first few years of her debut and letting her take charge of some parts that did not require much singing skills. Once enough stage experience has been accumulated, singing skills will naturally improve over time. Then, slowly giving them more opportunities to show their skills will allow fans to have a sense of accomplishment in witnessing their idol's growth process. As for another "foreign line" candidate, Saito Asuka, in Jin Shiming's opinion, her problems are undoubtedly bigger! The idol industry in the island country is obviously taking a completely different path from that in the peninsula. Peninsula idols focus on "uniformity", while island idols focus on "thousands of faces". Rather than singing and dancing abilities, the island country values idols’ personal charm more. The core output lies in the “story”, which is a youth story that grows together with fans and allows fans to be highly involved. In such an environment, one can imagine Saito Asuka's business capabilities. Fortunately, Jin Shiming made arrangements last year for Saito Asuka to receive corresponding training at Park Meili's company in advance, otherwise she would have been a pure amateur. But even so, Jin Shiming had no doubt that Saito Asuka would be the last among the trainees for quite a long time after coming to BD Entertainment. However, in the idol industry, sometimes it’s not all about professional ability. Otherwise, why are those vocal teachers and choreographers who are better at singing and dancing unable to make their debut? When Saito Asuka participated in the filming of the MV for "Unrequited Love", Jin Shiming noticed certain qualities in her and had a feeling that this girl would become famous sooner or later. That's why Jin Shiming took great pains to make arrangements and almost decided to make Saito Asuka one of the debut members of the new girl group. To put it in a metaphor, Saito Asuka is the sharp arrow that Jin Shiming envisioned to enter the peninsula market. With her, the group will definitely not lack attention and fans, at least in this small island country. Jin Shiming's requirements for Saito Asuka are not high. As long as she can meet the passing standards and not drag the team down too much, then thank God. Large groups certainly have a lot of trouble, such as allocating song parts, designing dance routines, balancing popularity within the team, etc. These issues are much more complicated than those of small and medium-sized groups, and one move can affect the entire group. But correspondingly, large groups also have their advantages. For example, it is easier to hide individual "slacking off" members, and if a song has few parts, they can use the excuse that there are too many members to divide the parts.
Due to their limited professional abilities, Cheng Xiao and Saito Asuka will inevitably have fewer opportunities to perform in the team. If they were local members of the peninsula, they would most likely become the team's iron backs. But they are foreign members, backed by the two major markets of China and the island countries, and have a group of loyal fans. In this way, the popularity within the team will be in a relatively balanced state, and there will not be an obvious top-heavy situation. Of course, the actual operation process will definitely not be as easy as it seems on paper, and all kinds of unexpected emergencies will arise. However, as long as there are no problems with the general planning, we can just take it one step at a time and adapt to the circumstances. …… With the last two pieces of the new girl group in hand, Jin Shiming can finally spare some energy to deal with other matters. The physical album of the first of his four albums, "Spring", has been completed. In addition to the version for the peninsula, Jin Shiming also specially prepared a special version for fans in mainland China. The exclusive version not only has a different album cover, but also has different peripherals included. Most importantly, the exclusive version also comes with a Chinese song that is not included in the Peninsula version. According to Jin Shiming's previous research, Bandao's album sales channels in mainland China are quite disorganized, with various problems arising one after another. Premium charges and slow logistics are commonplace. Selling inferior products as good ones and being intercepted by customs also happen from time to time. Some products simply run away with the money. It is better to find a shopping agent to purchase on your behalf. After consulting several album distributors, Jin Shiming decided not to indulge these people and directly bypassed them and built his own distribution channel for mainland China. Unified delivery reduces logistics costs, and there are no middlemen to make a profit from the price difference, ensuring that mainland fans can avoid detours and buy albums safely and securely at the most affordable price. Jin Shiming has no control over how other companies release their albums in mainland China, but at least he plans to release all the albums produced by BD Entertainment himself. If the company was not too small now and he was afraid of affecting the chaebol, Jin Shiming would even want to take over the entire album production process. From top to bottom, we produce and sell everything in one go. Only in this way can we avoid being strangled by others in the future. There are many people in the mainland who have money but lack connections. As long as Jin Shiming shows his desire to cooperate, he will not be afraid that no one will follow him. Fortunately, Jin Shiming was rational enough to know that before he became stronger, if he was too eager for quick success and instant benefits, he would either be cut off from the peninsula or become a worker for mainland capital. We must eat one bite at a time. We should first build up the distribution channels in the mainland, and it will not be too late to plan other things later. (End of this chapter)
