last year’s song, Peng Jiahui sang "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" with tears on stage. When the big screen behind her began to play back the previous Golden Melody Awards frame by frame, we knew that it was a kind of commemoration. , Is a farewell.
text | Li Hezi
proofreading | Song Zixuan
editor | Anxixi
43-year-old Amis singer Zhang Zhenyue stood in the center of the stage and raised a banner with "No one is an outsider" above his head. He was wearing ethnic clothing, closed his eyes, frowned, and looked very emotional. "Familiar with the way home, when will it become broken; don't cry, little girl, lead you along..." This song by A Yue, released in 2013, is floating above the Taipei Arena at the moment. Everyone knew that he was doing some kind of solidarity and resistance.
At the beginning of the 28th Golden Melody Awards ceremony, it seemed to usher in a highlight of the night. A few months ago, the Taiwanese government promulgated the traditional field division method, which greatly squeezed the activities of the aboriginal people, and the contradiction between the two rose to the Kaidao parade, which later attracted much attention. From the red carpet to the end of the ceremony, this theme almost runs through the Golden Melody Awards. As an immigrant city, the tolerance and diversity of Taipei are also reflected in the Golden Melody Award. For the past 28 years, this music award, which is known for its impartiality, has been conscientiously selecting the best music works in the Chinese music scene that year. It is also a witness to the changes in the Chinese music scene for more than 20 years. Whether it is the power comparison between Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland pop music, or the growing sales gap between entities and numbers, the old order is already disintegrating, and new rules are sprouting and establishing. After
last year’s song, Peng Jiahui sang "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" on stage with tears in tears. When the big screen behind her began to play back the previous Golden Melody Awards frame by frame, we knew that it was a kind of commemoration. , Is a farewell. Since the announcement of the nomination for the Golden Melody Award on May 16, many people have found that there are many mainland artists on the list. For example, Guo Ding, who is considered to be the dark horse of the Golden Melody Award, is due to "Good Chinese Songs". And the well-known Xu Jun, the duo Mr. Miss under the new independent label Caotai Echo, the producer Qin Sifeng, who has had in-depth cooperation with Wang Feng, Xu Wei, Huang Qishan and others, and Huang Zitao’s production of many songs People Palace Pavilion and so on.
However, when the first Golden Melody Award was held in 1990, the press bureau of the Taiwan Executive Yuan, the organizer at the time, only allowed "Republic of China nationals and Hong Kong residents who have a residence in Taiwan and have lived in Taiwan for half a year". It was not until 1997 that the Golden Tripod Award was incorporated into the 8th Golden Melody Award, and the nationality restrictions on some awards were relaxed and the registration of Chinese in mainland China and other countries was completely opened.
Until 1998, the Golden Melody Awards finally lifted the nationality restrictions of participants, and stipulated that "As long as the first publisher of the work in Taiwan can register for the election", the Audiovisual Industry Bureau of that year also responded, and this amendment was to make the Golden Melody Award develop. It is an international music event. In the same year, there were three other landmark changes in the history of the Golden Melody Award: additional bonuses (Publication Award winners will be awarded NT$150,000, and Individual Award winners will be awarded NT$100,000), which was broadcast live for the first time. (TVBS-G obtained the broadcasting rights of that year), the number of applications exceeded 1,000 for the first time.
△ Golden Melody Award changes to the geographical requirements of the contestants
This is after the 25th Golden Melody Award Li Ronghao won Best Newcomer, Li Jian's "The Wind Blowing Wheat Wave" Arranger Zhao Zhao won Best Arranger, Mainland Chinese artists once again Affirmed by the highest award of Taiwan music. Although as early as 2001, Na Ying won the 12th Golden Melody Award for Best Female Singer in Mandarin Chinese, becoming the first mainland female singer in the history of the Golden Melody Award to receive this honor, and won the best lyrics for her song "Sorrowful Romance" People Award, but unlike Li Ronghao, Zhao Zhao and others, Na Ying, who belonged to the Gold Medal Gale (later acquired by Warner Music Group in 2014), whose works are more of the products of Taiwan’s popular music industry assembly line, with an aesthetic orientation It is also closer to the popular music of Hong Kong and Taiwan at that time.
△ Li Ronghao's performance at the Golden Melody Awards. In 2014, he won the Best Newcomer Award at the 25th Golden Melody Awards.
One of the signs that mainland music producers entered the eyes of the Golden Melody Awards jury was in 2004, when Faye Wong joined EMI.The album "Love" made Zhang Yadong nominated for the 15th Best Arranger and Best Album Producer at the same time; in the 21st Golden Melody Awards in 2010, Zhang Yadong relied on the album "Return" produced for Karen Mok. "Wei" was shortlisted for the Best Album Producer Award, and Zhao Zhao was also shortlisted for the Best Arranger Award at the Golden Melody Award that year with the song "Soo Love Song" from this album.
Until the 24th Golden Melody Award in 2013, Chang Shilei won the Best Arranger Award and the Best Album Producer Award for Lin Yilian’s album Gaia. This was also the number of mainland music producers at the Golden Melody Award at that time. Not much for sure. The reason why
believes that the awards of Li Ronghao and Zhao Zhao in 2013 has a turning point is that whether it is Li Ronghao’s album "Model" or Li Jian's album "Picking Light", the behind-the-scenes team is dominated by mainland producers, the former It was almost done by Li Ronghao himself. This is not only the affirmation of the Taiwanese recording industry, which has mature record production experience, of the level of music production in the mainland, but also shows that in this increasingly flat world, the exchanges between musicians on both sides of the strait are becoming more convenient and frequent, and the level of music production in mainland China has also come from behind. The trend. On the list of winners of the 28th Golden Melody Awards announced last night,
has several important awards, such as the Best Singing Combo Award (Mr. Miss), Best Album Award, Best Composer Award and Best Performance recording album awards (all three award winners are Qin Sifeng), it can be said that they are all proof of the above phenomenon.
△ Qin Sifeng at the 28th Golden Melody Awards
's highly valued digital album
After the Grammy allowed works released only through streaming media to qualify for registration in February this year, the Golden Melody Award finally opened up to digital albums.
is almost from the first year, the Golden Melody Awards has repeatedly emphasized the entry requirements of the contestants, that is, the work must be the first physical record in Taiwan. Although in recent years, with the development of the Internet and streaming media, more and more artists have chosen to distribute works digitally, but the Golden Melody Awards have not been able to take the step of accepting digital albums. Until last year, the 27th Golden Melody Awards opened for the first time for the best song of the year for works released in digital form. “As long as the works are listed on three or more legal digital sales platforms in the Republic of China, you can register.”
When the registration for this year's Golden Melody Awards began, the organizer of the Ministry of Culture, Film and Television and Pop Music Industry Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Audiovisual Industry Bureau) finally announced that the registration of digital albums will be fully opened, and the form will no longer be limited to CDs. As long as the work obtains the "International Standard Audio Recording Code", log in to the registration system to participate in the selection. The Audiovisual Industry Bureau believes that this is not only helpful in identifying the release time of the work, but also encourages authors to register songs to facilitate copyright protection.
How has the development of Taiwan's digital albums been in recent years? You can first look at a set of data. The report of the International Recording Industry Association of
shows that Taiwan’s digital music sales have grown steadily in recent years. The revenue of digital music has been increasing year after year. Five years ago, the annual revenue was about 250 million Taiwan dollars, and last year it has risen to 1.46 billion Taiwan dollars. In contrast, physical records have been shrinking. From NT$1.6 billion in 2010 to NT$860 million, physical music sales were eventually overshadowed, from 70% in the past to 30% today. It can be said that digital music consumption has become mainstream in Taiwan. It is worth mentioning that in addition to the inclusion of digital albums in the selection, the Golden Melody Award is also paying more and more attention to expanding its own broadcasting channels.
Before last year, the Golden Melody Award had never authorized any company in the mainland. Whether it was a cable TV station or an online video platform, its live broadcast channels were basically Taiwan TV, China TV, Dongfeng TV and other limited Taiwan Local television media. Beginning in 2013, the Golden Melody Award authorized for the first time non-local television media to broadcast, including J2 channel owned by Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Astro AEC and Astro Quanjia HD channel owned by Astro Malaysia, and controlled by the Chinese Cultural Industry Investment Fund (CMC) Xingkong TV Channel, a subsidiary of Xingkong Huawen Media.
Last year, for the first time, the Golden Melody Award opened the broadcasting rights to the mainland's online video platform LeTV Music and Ali Planet. At that time, the Ali Planet application was also called Tiantiandongting-Ali Planet, and the live broadcast did not provide a web version, only through the application Watch every day in the live streaming section. At present, the 26th Golden Melody Award playback page of LeTV Music has 5.907 million views, and Ali Planet’s playThe amount is temporarily unproven.
this year's Golden Melody Award granted the broadcasting rights in the mainland to Tencent Video Live Music. Judging from the live broadcast page of Tencent Video, a total of 3,391,483 people watched the live broadcast, and the number of broadcasts reached 39,084,302 times.
△ Screenshot of Tencent Video’s Live Music Golden Melody Awards live page
becomes a publicity-led online promotion
The Internet is not only influencing the way people listen to songs, but also for artists, distribution and promotion channels are slowly changing. This is especially reflected in the "outsiders" of the Golden Melody Awards and mainland artists.
Since the simultaneous release of the new album "Aircraft Execution Cycle" on both sides of the Taiwan Strait in November last year, Guo Ding's record company Universal Music has begun to formulate a promotional strategy for the Taiwanese market for the Golden Melody Awards. One of them is to use Facebook for publicity. Guo Ding’s Facebook page was opened in October last year, and there will be up to 20 posts per month, which is basically the same as his Weibo update frequency. Up to now, a total of 2,747 people have followed his Facebook page, and there will be dozens of comments and hundreds of likes under many posts. For Guo Ding, he is obviously a beneficiary in using Facebook to accumulate popularity outside the mainland. Although he failed to win the Golden Melody Award, he received a lot of attention.
△ Screenshot of Guo Ding's Facebook page
In fact, for many Taiwanese artists, online platforms such as Facebook have become their main publicity channels, and their status is comparable to that of mainland Weibo. For young artists who are growing up in the new era, the effect of online promotion has far surpassed that of radio, television, and even offline meet-and-greets, taking the lead in promotion.
For contracted artists under international record companies like Guo Ding, they can easily share resources in publicity and promotion, which can be said to have innate advantages. But for some independent musicians, they are also looking for ways to promote themselves.
Mr. Miss’s Caotai Echo was founded in 2009 and is a young independent label. CEO Ge Fei believes that Taiwan is also an area where this group needs to be promoted. "We don't have a branch in Taiwan, so we can't do in-depth publicity." He once said in an interview. Therefore, he finally chose Paige, a copyright agency under Street Voice, which was founded in Taiwan and has established a branch in the mainland, as the digital distribution and promotion agency of Mr. Miss's works in Taiwan. The reason for choosing digital distribution and promotion agency is that Caotai Echo has taken a fancy to the importance of online promotion in publicity.
According to Paige’s feedback, Taiwanese listeners mainly listen to Mr. Miss’s music through the Street Voice official website, KKBox, Omusic, Apple Music and other online music platforms; most of these listeners are between 15 and 35 years old, including college students and The majority of white-collar workers. The professional copyright agency platform of
can feed back accurate audience information to customers. However, for the mainland where copyright protection started relatively late, there is still a lack of good digital copyright agency and publicity platforms at this stage. However, with the strengthening of copyright protection awareness, more professional platforms will surely emerge, and it will not be out of reach to get more help for online promotion.
