Chapter 598: 406. Celebration Banquet_3
According to Ma Yankun’s original plan, the trainee Xu Jie from Sky Media should have trained for a while longer before officially debuting.
But faced with a long-awaited opportunity, he had almost no other choice.
"There is definitely a difference between training for two years and training for five years, but the industry is developing too fast for anyone to wait those extra years."
In other words, there are too many fans, and not enough idols to meet the demand.
Having been in business for so long, Sky Media had its first positive income in March this year.
This was the first month after the launch of "Goddess 101."
Sky Media capitalized on the momentum brought by Xu Jie to release a new single for its trainees.
The brand promotions coming continuously from the B-side gave Ma Yankun a glimpse of spring.
The idol management market seems to be ushering in a full-scale explosion of brand collaborations.
Before the show even ended, during the last popularity ranking announcement, Sephora officially announced Xu Jie as its brand friend.
Meanwhile, the relatively unknown Sun Xin became the regional spokesperson for Innisfree, with the I Do perfume she endorsed selling out on the day of its launch.
Endorsements for the top five debut positions lined up in long queues.
Not to mention the one who has a chance to claim the championship crown, Mou Keyan...
Currently, in the domestic idol industry ecosystem, the consumer side has gradually matured, as seen from brand endorsement capabilities and the "fandom" consumption power.
The public ticket price for the "Kunyin Quartet" 520 fan meeting’s most expensive category was 2,098 yuan, even higher than many first-tier singers’ concert prices. In order to win the top spot in the Yingshu shouting list and secure subway advertisement placements, the "Tao Yuanming" (the name of Wang Ju’s fans) spent real money to buy votes. Everything seems to be flourishing. Just like in 2014, when capital entered the film industry, giving rise to youth films. Initially, making youth films was more or less profitable, but the lack of quality in the films ultimately led to C-side audiences’ reluctance to pay, causing most subsequent youth films to flop at the box office. In contrast, the Chinese idol industry is still exploring training, production, operation, and sales, and the huge market demand also masks problems. During the era of "Four Dan and Two Ice," the entertainment circle updated roughly every 10 years. However, in the high-frequency era, a new batch of faces might appear every two years or even one year. On one hand, it’s necessary to improve the business capabilities of existing top idols, maintain their exposure and works, while on the other, the ability to continuously produce and create generation after generation of idols is required. The logic of idol manufacturing has changed. In the training rooms of Awakening East, the lights are often still on late into the night. Even idols like Qin Fen, who have already debuted, return to the company for classes and practice after work. For people like Qin Fen, both external support and internal skills are indispensable to maintain popularity and heat, and to have a bigger stage. With iQiyi announcing two seasons of "Idol Trainee" for 2019, and Tencent Video planning to create a boy band along with related supporting music shows next year, exposure channels are no longer the biggest constraint on industry development.
A reality is that most domestic idol management companies have only been established in the past two years and their talent selection and training still lack the test of time.
Faced with the market’s thirst for newcomers, talent reserves have become a dilemma for idol economic companies.
Returning to the essence of the industry, this business about "people" is very likely to fail due to subsequent talent shortages.
But undoubtedly, in this "large-scale survival experiment" of local idol groups, every path is new, and the outcome of who wins and who loses is still uncertain.