2008 Beijing Pop Music Awards (Photo : Getty Images)
The eighth studio album of Chinese singer-songwriter Li Yuchun, “Growing Wild,” made history in China’s music industry by achieving the highest digital musical sales since Tencent Music Entertainment Group released the first Chinese digital musical album in December 2014.
“Growing Wild,” broke tradition by separating the 12-song album into four EPs which were released in 2016. “Wild,” the first EP, sold 3 million copies in 16 days since its release in May. Tencent, China’s internet giant, released the three other EPs within six month which sold over 6 million copies and grossed more than 32.8 million yuan ($4.73 million), China.org reported.
New Way to Launch Album
Li Yuchun said at a Beijing press conference that the idea of a new album began in 2015. She recalled that she then just followed the usual way of selecting new songs and compiling it into an album.
However, with that method, one or two songs become the leading tracks and other songs within the album tend to be overshadowed. Since Li Yuchun loved all 12 songs in “Growing Wild” and she had a difficult time picking a track to be its leading single, she broke the album into four segments which gave more exposure to four tracks.
To launch the album online, Li Yuchun teamed up with QQ, Tencent’s music service. Besides Li Yuchun’s album, QQ has released also the digital album of other Chinese singers such as Lu Han and Dou Jington, western singers such as Rihanna, Adele and Taylor Swift, and Korean boy band Big Bang, Andy Wai Lam Ng, vice president of Tencent Music, said.
Digital Music Growth in China
According to Andy Wai Lam Ng, because paying for digital music has become a trend in China, in 2016, digit music sales hit 110 million yuan. On an annual basis, the growth rate was 150 percent.
Li Yuchun, also known as Chris Lee in the west, became famous in China when she won “Super Girl,” a nationwide singing contest, in 2005. Since then, she had released 40 top singles and attended the Gucci 2017 Cruise runway show held at the Westminster Abbey in June 2016. She is one of the brand ambassadors of the high-fashion brand to Asia, Fashionlaw reported.
