I Became an All-round Artist

The next day was Saturday.
At 9:00 AM, Lin Yuan arrived at the company’s composition department.
As soon as he walked in, he noticed his colleagues giving him strange looks.
Wu Yong came over with a mysterious expression and whispered, "Do you know Yang-dad?"
"Who?" Lin Yuan asked.
"Senior Yang Zhongming!"
"Yes, I know him." Lin Yuan had listened to Yang Zhongming's work.
Wu Yong exhaled heavily, clearly relieved. "No wonder he wasn’t mad. That explains it..."
Lin Yuan didn’t bother delving into Wu Yong's words. Wu Yong, of course, had no idea that Lin Yuan’s understanding of "knowing" was very different from his own.

At that moment, Zhou Ruiming entered. There was a hint of excitement on his face. The moment he walked in, he said, "Lin Yuan, come to my office."
"Okay," Lin Yuan nodded and followed him to the office.
Zhou smiled and said, "Take a seat."
Lin Yuan sat on the sofa.
Zhou pulled out a form, saying, "Take a look at this."
Lin Yuan took the form. It listed his four songs along with their download numbers:

• Life Like Summer Flowers: 3.33 million downloads
• Big Fish: 5.01 million downloads
• Easily Explosive: 4.21 million downloads
• Balloon: 3.57 million downloads

Now it made sense to Lin Yuan. No wonder his song royalties had surpassed 600,000 this time; the download numbers for his songs had been steadily increasing, even faster than in their release month.

"I’m sure you already know," Zhou said, his excitement barely contained. "These past few months, your songs have shown incredible potential. The downloads are steadily rising, and most of them are on track to break 10 million. When I saw this data from the department this morning, I was shocked!"
Lin Yuan said nothing. He hadn’t been paying much attention to the numbers, but he quickly grasped the lesson here: seasonal ranking wasn’t everything. Some songs were suited for competition, while others weren’t. What truly determined a song’s value was its long-term potential, not just its initial performance.

This was largely due to the music scene in Qin Province.
Every month, a huge number of new songs came out. Aside from industry professionals and music aficionados, most people couldn’t keep track of all the new releases. Many might only discover a song from previous seasons several months later and then add it to their playlists.

Some songs could break 5 million or even 10 million downloads in their first month, dominating the charts, but then plateau afterward. Others might only reach a few hundred thousand in their release month, but eventually exceed a million or more in later months.
Take Lin Yuan’s song Balloon, for example. It was released in February and had the highest initial downloads among his songs. But by March, its growth had stalled. It seemed to be the kind of song people enjoyed in the short term but got tired of quickly, making it better suited for charting but not for long-term popularity.

In Qin Province, listeners were constantly bombarded with new music, making it difficult for any song to stand out long-term. Additionally, there was a rule that allowed five free listens to each song per month. This led to a lot of "free riders"—people who loved a song but didn’t bother downloading it because the free listens were enough for them. Only those who were either very passionate about a song or didn’t care about the cost would pay to download it.

That’s why, in Qin Province, it was rare for a song to have an explosive first month unless it was exceptionally good. Unlike Earth, the music market here was more focused on long-term growth.

"You’ve got four songs now," Zhou said, staring at Lin Yuan intently. "If just one more of your songs hits a million downloads, you’ll become a senior composer—the new ace of the 10th floor composition department!"

There was one thing Zhou didn’t mention: If Lin Yuan became a senior composer this year, he would be the youngest ace in the entire Starmoon Entertainment.

Lin Yuan nodded.
Zhou smiled, "Alright, get back to work. By the way, I’ll give you a little heads-up: the higher-ups are paying attention to you. That’s great for your future."
"Okay." Lin Yuan stood up.
As he was leaving, he overheard Zhou on the phone, "Yang Zhongming has returned from Qi Province. I plan to send someone over again."

Send someone to Qi Province?
Lin Yuan hesitated but then left.

Back at his desk, he thought to himself:
Just one more song, and he’d become an ace. Should he make a push now?
After all, he hadn’t released anything last month, so he had a bit of a break.
Plus, becoming an ace would mean a higher royalty share.
Zhao Jue had mentioned that, and it was a tempting prospect for Lin Yuan.

That night, as Lin Yuan was walking back to campus, he made a decision.
He pulled out his phone and called Sun Yaohuo.
Sun picked up immediately. He always answered Lin Yuan’s calls quickly. "Junior, what do you need me to do?"
"Come to the company in a while to record a new song," Lin Yuan said.

He decided to give Sun Yaohuo Red Rose, his last unreleased song. It was perfect for pushing downloads, and Sun's vocal skills were more than enough to handle it.
"What?"
Sun Yaohuo thought he had misheard.
Lin Yuan added, "You get a 0.5% share."
He hung up, not giving Sun a chance to negotiate.

"..."
Sun Yaohuo, who had been walking down the street, stood stunned for several seconds.
Only when Lin Yuan hung up did he understand the significance of what he had just heard.

"Yes!"
Sun suddenly broke into a joyful dance, nearly tossing his phone in the air. "I’m going to be famous again!"

Pedestrians on the street gave him a wide berth.
A little girl asked her mother in wonder, "Mom, what’s wrong with that man?"
The mother sighed, "He’s just been pushed too hard by life. You need to study hard so you won’t end up like him."
"Oh."
The girl nodded, though she didn’t quite understand.

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