Picture source @Visual China
text | Mouyu
Another domestic entertainment program has been suspended. Youku's "Chaoyang Dage Center" still failed to survive 2023.
After the last program was aired on December 24, "Chaoyang Song Center Season 2" officially ended . It was originally scheduled to be recorded until February next year but was suddenly stopped early. Both the participating singers and the audience They all felt extremely surprised and reluctant. The song-drama program originated from South Korea. It was originally a stage for singers to promote new songs. A culture of singing songs has been formed in Korean entertainment. But when the song-drama program entered domestic entertainment, there were signs of "acclimatization" .
always complains that there is no stage for domestic entertainment, and there is no platform for singers to promote new songs, but no one watches the singing programs on video websites. How about survival?
The demise of Youku’s singing program
Looking at the entire domestic variety show market, "Chaoyang Dancing Center" that has lasted for two seasons can be regarded as having a long life.
Youku has always been very enthusiastic about singing songs programs, but the broadcast effect is average. The "Universe Song Playing Center" launched in 2020 seemed to have no one except fans. It was hastily completed after 11 episodes.
In 2022, Youku made a comeback with "Chaoyang Dage Center". After the ten episodes of the first season were broadcast, the response was good. Although the attention was not high, the reputation was explosive. The Douban score was as high as 8.3. Soon Youku launched it again The second season was released, but I didn't expect that the show failed halfway through. The main reason why it stopped airing was that it couldn't make money.
In fact, Youku has high hopes for the second season of "Chaoyang Song Playing Center". The show was launched in July, and the initial contract was signed in February next year, which means that there is a half-year singing period. It can be seen that Youku I was very optimistic about this show at first.
"Chaoyang Song Drama Center" is different from ordinary song Drama programs. There are neither popular idols nor all new songs. What Dage Songs play is not new songs, but new stages. Even old songs will be re-adapted to bring new songs. Performance.
Although the participating guests are not big-name singers, everyone cherishes this opportunity. This is also a rare stage for domestic entertainment to focus on showing music. Unfortunately, the broadcast effect of program is far from the expected .
Although "Chaoyang Dage Center" has a good reputation, and its Douban score quickly rose to over eight points after it was aired, its popularity has never increased. It can be said that no one cares about it.
The bigger problem is that the business of the show is not very good . There were a few sponsors in the first season, but by the second season there were none. Due to the inability to recruit sponsors, it has been in a state of being unable to make ends meet for a long time. In desperation , Youku could only stop the loss in time and "cut off" "Chaoyang Dage Center" in advance. Although
had known for a long time that the show was not going well, the sudden pressing of the pause button still caught the producers off guard. All the recordings that were being progressed were stopped, and the artist's arrangements were also disrupted.
The suspension of "Chaoyang Dage Center" once again proves that the domestic entertainment prospects of Dage programs are worrying, but this is not because the programs are not good enough.
In fact, "Chaoyang Dage Center" can indeed be regarded as a high-quality domestic variety show in recent years. The producers and singers have taken the stage seriously, and both the artists and the audience have praised the program. singer Kenji Wu even wanted to pay out of his own pocket to "continue" the show .
But the problem is that it is good-looking, but not commercial enough. has not formed a complete and mature commercial link with . This is not only the reason for the suspension of "Chaoyang Dage Center", but also the reason why Dage programs cannot be entertained domestically. main factor of survival.
The business model determines the survival of the program.
Youku is not the first platform to hit the wall in singing songs. Tencent, iQiyi, and Mango TV have all launched singing programs, but without exception, the broadcast results are mediocre. There is no follow-up .
Since the talent show broke out in 2018 and domestic entertainment has entered the "Year of Idols", the demand for the stage has increased, so there has been a blowout of singing shows.
iQiyi was the first to launch the "Chinese Music Bulletin Board". In the first episode of the program, ninepercent, a boy band from "Idol Producer" was invited. It did bring considerable attention, but that was all. Ninepercent stopped participating in the follow-up, and the popularity quickly dropped.
Tencent followed closely and brought "Your Music Role Model", which was linked with QQ Music and combined the music charts with the singing stage. The program format and content were enriched, and it was even broadcast on Dragon TV. , the influence and scope of communication were further expanded, but in the end it failed to make a large-scale exit. After
, Tencent launched "Heartbeating Stage" and Mango launched "100% Open Mic". They are both singing programs focusing on young idols, but as expected, no one except fans paid attention, from the beginning to the end. All without any trouble. As a type of variety show, a song-drama program is essentially a cultural and entertainment product. Commercial value is the main factor that determines whether the program can survive. The reason why internal entertainment song-drama programs cannot replicate the success of Korean entertainment is that it is essentially commercial. Different modes of .
In fact, Korean singing programs are so popular because there is a complete set of business links that are closely connected with the music industry .
In Korean entertainment, singing programs are not only a stage to promote new songs, but the greater meaning behind them is related to the achievements of singers.
Generally speaking, after a singer releases a new album, there will be a singing period that lasts for several weeks. During this period, he will appear on many shows to promote the new song. When multiple singers participate in the show and compete together, a "one" will be born. It represents the popularity and status of the singer. It has a very high gold content and its importance is self-evident.
Under this strong competition mechanism, Korean singers attach great importance to singing programs, and fans will also work hard to promote and help. The selection of "one" mainly depends on music performance and album sales. essentially promotes It has increased the payment rate of music platforms and the sales of physical albums .
Take the Korean music platform melon as an example. The listening rate of melon will affect the performance of singing songs. Therefore, after a singer releases a new album, fans will consciously "brush data", and these all require payment. Melon membership is about 60 per month. Compared with RMB, members of domestic music platforms can be said to be cheap.
Under the business model in which singing programs and music platforms drive each other, if only can keep the Korean music industry alive, then singing programs will naturally not defeat .
In contrast, domestic entertainment singing programs are not connected with the music industry. profits mainly come from advertising revenue, which results in the survival of the program completely relying on investment, and investment depends on the popularity of the program .
From the perspective of the program model, domestic entertainment singing programs are more like stage shows. Different singers come to sing and perform every week, and the champion songs of the week are also selected. However, since the singers do not have long-term performance, The actual significance of winning the championship is not great. has weakened the competitiveness of to a certain extent. The singing program has changed from a competition to a music sharing, which lacks controversy and attention.
When the program focuses on stage performances, it relies entirely on business profits, and the program is not popular enough to attract brand sponsorships. No matter how good the content is, it is useless. "Chaoyang Song Center" was forced to do so because it could not attract business. Off the air.
The singing system under the influence of the entertainment environment
In fact, singing programs have a strong correlation with the idol industry and the music industry.
Korean singing programs rely on the developed idol industry and music industry to form a rich singing culture, but the domestic music entertainment environment itself is not suitable for the development of singing programs..
On the one hand, the domestic idol market started late and developed slowly. It is currently even stagnant, and there is no soil and environment for the development of singing programs.
The idol industry is the backbone of Korean entertainment, with a wide audience and great influence. A large number of idol singers need a platform for promotion, and Korean entertainment’s publicity resources are mainly concentrated in the hands of TV stations, thus giving birth to TV singing programs.
In contrast, although domestic entertainment ushered in the "Year of Idols" in 2018, overall the cultivation and production of idols is not mature. The idol market is not large and has not formed a complete industrial chain. .
More importantly, the idol industry and the Internet platform are closely connected, and the audience is mainly concentrated in specific circles. There is even a saying of "300 show fans" on the entire network. The influence cannot cover a wider range of users, and is essentially limited to Pink circle.
So generally speaking, domestic entertainment’s demand for singing programs is not as big as that in South Korea.
On the other hand, the importance of singing programs to the domestic music industry has not been reflected.
Korean entertainment has a complete and mature idol industry chain. Song singing programs have become a part of the industry chain, connecting the idol market and the music market. It not only provides a publicity platform for idols, but also promotes the increase of music sources and sales. Through amplification The commercial value of the program will promote the prosperity and development of the idol industry and the music industry.
However, the connection between domestic entertainment singing programs and the music industry is not deep. In the domestic entertainment environment, reality shows, film and television dramas with wider audiences and wider dissemination will also be open to idols, and game reality shows will also provide singers with It is a platform to promote songs, so singing programs are not necessary for the idol market and the music industry, and their importance and particularity are not reflected in . Although traditional Dage programs have not developed in China, this does not mean that the programs are meaningless. In fact, the core target of the Dage program service is the popular music industry. A mature and complete Dage system can promote the music industry. The healthy development of .
But the problem is that domestic entertainment singing programs are either copied from Korean entertainment, or reduced to music performances. There is no promotional singing program suitable for the domestic music industry environment. In domestic entertainment dominated by commercial realization, No platform is willing to spend a lot of time and capital to build such a system.
