At a little past seven, Jiang Shu and Zhang Yuanying leisurely arrived at the inner venue.
"57... 59... Here." Zhang Yuanying held the concert ticket and came to the middle seat of the second row, saying to Jiang Shu beside him.
Sitting next to them was a couple, with the girl on the outer seat, a "JJ" sticker still on her face.
Jiang Shu glanced at her and then spoke.
"Xiao Yuan, you sit inside."
"Yes~" Zhang Yuanying responded and sat down close to the girl.
The concert seats were very compact, basically people sitting shoulder to shoulder.
After Zhang Yuanying sat down, she took off her mask, and Jiang Shu also took off his mask.
The girl on one side looked at Zhang Yuanying's exquisite face with curiosity, then whispered to her boyfriend, "This girl is so beautiful!"
The boy also looked at Zhang Yuanying upon hearing this.
"She is indeed very beautiful, but not as good-looking as you."
"Get out of here!" The girl playfully slapped the boy, but the smile on her face showed that she was pleased.
A combination of handsome men and beautiful women will attract attention wherever they are, and there were undoubtedly many beautiful women at the concert, but those as stunning as Zhang Yuanying were still a minority.
The surrounding audience was waiting for the time, and when they saw Jiang Shu and Zhang Yuanying sit down, they all cast curious glances.
However, fortunately, among these people, no one seemed to recognize this hot second-generation top K-pop artist.
"The venue here is so big," Zhang Yuanying said, holding the camera up to herself and looking at the stage with admiration.
"This show can seat fifty or sixty thousand people," Jiang Shu said after looking around.
"Wow!" Zhang Yuanying exclaimed, "I wonder when we can also hold a five-thousand-person show like this."
"Don't worry, I'll let you hold one this year," Jiang Shu said with a smile.
He had held IZONE back for almost a year, and it was time for them to monetize through concerts.
As everyone knows, concerts are the fastest way for artists to make money.
And fans are also happy for artists to make money through concerts, as they can also see their idols and listen to live performances.
Of course, the prerequisite is that you can truly sing and have representative works; otherwise, relying solely on fans, you won't be able to hold many concerts.
Many fans and artists haven't understood one principle: singers who can hold many concerts at once never rely on their fans, but on genuine music.
Take Jay Chou and Lin Junjie, who are the most fan-centric among the 'Zhou Wang Tao Lin' (Jay Chou, Wang Leehom, David Tao, Lin Junjie) in Chinese music.
Jay Chou's concerts are always packed. Besides the scramble for tickets by his fans, there's also the special bonus of his being a youthful memory for the post-80s and post-90s generations, plus his current popularity. All these favorable conditions have come together to create his current concert legend.
And Lin Junjie's concerts don't rely entirely on his fans; the widespread popularity and national recognition of his songs are what allow him to hold large-scale concerts like he does.
Fans will follow him for one, two, or three shows, but those who can truly follow him consistently won't even number a thousand.
But are the consistently full houses due to fans? Clearly not.
There's another example: Phoenix Legend.
Does Phoenix Legend have fans?
Yes, but very, very few.
These are fans in the idol standard sense; music lovers don't count. But why are Phoenix Legend's concerts still packed every time they perform? Their general public appeal is large enough, and their national recognition is high enough!
Relying solely on fans to hold concerts?
That won't work.
If you carefully study some of the idols in the mainland entertainment industry, whether it's the early TFBOYS or the later Teens in Times, they have never held concerts in the same way as professional singers, with seven or eight shows as a baseline and no upper limit on touring.
Is it because they don't want to?
It's because they don't dare.
Entertainment companies are not fans; they are very self-aware. Idols, whose national recognition in mainland entertainment cannot go up, simply cannot support touring concerts. Even some veteran singers can't handle it, let alone idols?
Don't just look at how many people attended a concert or where it was held. If you really want to see national recognition, then look at how many concerts a singer held in a year and how many of them had an attendance rate of over seventy percent.
This is the best standard for judging whether a group has consumer-willing general public appeal and national recognition.
And Lin Junjie, as one of the top singers in the Chinese music scene, would have people buying tickets even if he held a hundred shows a year.
And IZONE's national recognition in Korea is no lower than Lin Junjie's in China, only higher.
Don't look at IZONE having debuted less than a year ago. The logic of the K-pop world is similar to mainland entertainment, but not entirely the same.
Idols have one big advantage when holding concerts, and that is...
If a group has twelve members, and a fan likes one of them, then they will have a desire to consume that concert.
Twelve members mean twelve waves of individual fans, one wave of group fans, and countless waves of CP fans.
This is the biggest advantage of K-pop idols compared to singers.
Mainland idols cannot replicate this advantage.
Why?
Mainland idols are not K-pop idols; their national recognition in China is far less than in Korea, so it's difficult to replicate.
"Really?" Zhang Yuanying's eyes immediately lit up, and she looked at Jiang Shu in surprise.
"When have I ever lied to you?" Jiang Shu said with a chuckle.
"That's great! I'm going to tell the Ounis about this later!" Zhang Yuanying said joyfully.
"Don't be in a hurry," Jiang Shu waved his hand. "It's not too late to tell them after the concert ends."
"Alright," Zhang Yuanying nodded. Although it would be early morning in Korea after the concert, none of the IZONE members would sleep before two or three in the morning unless they were too tired.
Their open Korean conversation made the audience who were already paying attention to them even more curious.
Foreigners were not rare, but foreigners coming to watch a Chinese singer's concert was quite rare.
Although Lin Junjie is not of Chinese nationality, he sings in Chinese, so he is still considered a Chinese singer.
"She's so beautiful, could she be a Korean celebrity?" a girl nearby turned and asked her companion.
"I heard there are quite a few Korean celebrities," her companion said, picking up her phone and taking a picture of Zhang Yuanying and Jiang Shu, then performing an image search.
Soon, the image search results came out.
Due to the angle of the shot, Jiang Shu occupied more of the frame, so he was the one identified in the search.
"It's out, it's out!" The girl excitedly flipped through the character introduction, looking at Jiang Shu's long list of prefixes and identities, and couldn't help but exclaim when she saw "hailed as the godfather of K-pop girl groups."
"He's Chinese?!"
"No, that's not the point. The point is 'godfather of girl groups'! What an exaggerated title!"
"Quick, quick, see who that girl next to him is!"
"Okay!"