Chapter Nine: Journey to the Island

“Boss, do you have ‘Cold to the End’?”

“Yes, ten yuan.”

As he spoke, the shop owner pointed to the small blackboard hanging near the entrance, which had just been put up. The two girls who had just entered the music store finally noticed the board, which read, “‘Cold to the End’ now in stock, selling for ten yuan!”

Both girls hesitated slightly.

Ten yuan for one cassette tape was not cheap in these times, especially for students—some thrifty girls could live on that amount for nearly a week!

Yet, this album was simply too good to resist!

Everyone said it was wonderful. Many classmates had already bought it. Borrowing it occasionally was fine, but borrowing it all the time was out of the question; everyone treasured their own copy since it was an official release, and they were careful with it!

They talked about the music video, but the girl from the countryside didn’t have a TV at home, so she hadn’t seen it. However, she had seen the cassette cover. The singer, Lin Jianlu, was truly handsome!

His voice was pleasant, his singing skillful, the songs excellent, the melodies and lyrics beautiful.

Everything about it was perfect!

“Let’s buy it, boss. We want one box!” one of the girls made the decision firmly.

Suddenly, the other girl seemed to make a major decision and said, “Actually, let’s just do what you said and buy two boxes! I like this tape so much, let’s each get one... I want one for myself!”

The store was currently playing the ‘Cold to the End’ cassette, and at that moment, the song “Ten Years” was on. It was this song, somehow giving her strength, that made the girl finally decide to spend the money she had saved from meals to buy her very first official cassette.

She actually liked “Ten Years” and “Dusk” more than the album’s hit title track “Cold to the End,” which was recently everywhere.

The owner swiftly handed over the tape and took the money.

Expressionless.

To him, whether selling pirated or official copies made little difference in profit. The official tape sold for ten yuan, and he earned about one yuan per box. Pirated versions sold for five or four yuan, and he still made over one yuan profit. So it was all the same to him, no joy, no worry.

Right now, he had no choice. The tape had suddenly become popular out of nowhere, flooding every channel with stock before pirated copies could even be produced. Students’ buying enthusiasm exploded overnight. What could he do? The official versions had to be sold as well!

This was the common situation across countless audio-visual stores and bookshops nationwide in early March—demand was so high that anyone walking in would be buying. How could they refuse to sell?

Not just private shops—even the bookshops needed to make profits!

This was unprecedented in the domestic audio market, but at a time when everything was about money, people responded quickly.

Stock up and sell!

Just after the New Year, kids had their most pocket money, and university students carried ample meal and spending money—the timing for this tape’s popularity was perfect!

Normally, this would be the season for Spring Festival Gala song compilations to boom. Those songs were much more reputable. Pirated versions would be secretly recorded on New Year’s Eve, and before the Lantern Festival, all channels would have stocked them. Once the holiday ended and schools reopened, it was prime selling season.

But this year, this new album called ‘Cold to the End’ completely stole the spotlight!

The Spring Festival collections, selling at just four yuan a box, couldn’t compete with the ten-yuan price of ‘Cold to the End’!

On March 1st, the MV of the song suddenly began airing on many provincial and city TV stations, and it immediately caught fire. The visuals were exquisite, the singer handsome, the rhythm modern and dynamic, and the singing superb—instantly igniting massive buying enthusiasm!

At first, only the bookshops had stock, giving them a lucrative advantage.

This was mainly to prevent other loose channels from selling early or letting pirated producers get their hands on it. It proved effective—pirates were sharp; once they sensed the tape was hot, they would rush to buy from the bookshops to record copies illegally. But the official release for pirates only came on March 1st or 3rd, whereas the loose channels had stock as early as February 25th. That made all the difference!

In today’s market, even a three-to-five-day head start for official sales was worth fighting for. For ordinary artists and albums, it might not matter much—albums release, sales begin, labels promote through radio charts and shows, artists tour nationally; once a base sales volume is reached and labels profit, they shoot MVs to boost promotion, then sales taper off, except in big cities and among fans obsessed with official copies.

In reality, during the period when an album gains traction, pirated copies would already be flooding the market nationwide—fame always comes with such a process, and pirates get their distribution ready long before.

One sells at four or five yuan, the other at ten yuan—which would you buy?

Besides, your cheap cassette player probably can’t tell the difference!

But ‘Cold to the End’ was clearly playing by a different set of rules.

During the album’s production, Lin Jianlu had many in-depth conversations with Xue Zhongding and Zhang Peiren, gradually influencing and persuading them to try his marketing approach.

First, don’t flood the market early; don’t let tapes leak out too soon. Even though it’s easy for them to get stock early through loose channels, they shouldn’t target bookshops too early.

Next, negotiate with key provincial TV stations to air the MV simultaneously on March 1st to spark immediate buying enthusiasm instead of slow buildup.

Finally, equally important for Lin was to abandon the so-called domestic distribution channel through Moyan Records and instead find a major audio publisher to handle bookshop distribution nationwide.

Don’t be fooled by the myth surrounding Moyan Records, which had pioneered mainland rock in the early 1990s and was almost legendary online. In fact, at this time, private record companies had virtually no distribution power.

Everyone knew to approach bookshops to sell albums. Moyan Records had done this before, but dealing with the big Magic City Audio Publisher was a whole different matter.

Thus, the release of ‘Cold to the End’ was divided into two main parts.

The copyrights belonged to Rock Records in Taiwan. Outside the mainland—Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia—Rock Records handled distribution. Within the mainland, Rock Records licensed distribution rights to its subsidiary Moyan Records, which had handled mainland releases for years.

But this time, Moyan Records contacted Magic City Audio Publisher and, willing to sacrifice some profits, handed over a significant portion of distribution rights to their long-time publishing partner to specifically handle nationwide bookshop distribution.

Moyan Records retained only the loose channel distribution rights.

It worked brilliantly!

Although final sales figures were not yet tallied, Lin Jianlu knew how much stock was supplied—the first batch, entirely distributed by Magic City Audio Publisher to bookshops, reached a staggering 1.2 million boxes—usually enough for the whole sales cycle of an album. Moyan Records prepared another 300,000 boxes to start loose channel distribution from March 3rd.

By the fourth day, March 4th, a restocking order from the bookshops showed that more than half of the 1.2 million tapes had sold within just three days. This excited not only Rock Records and Moyan Records but also Magic City Audio Publisher and the bookshops.

One million boxes meant tens of millions in sales!

Despite the thriving publishing market, piracy was rampant, making any legitimate single-item sales over ten million yuan an absolute rarity.

The second batch was 1.5 million boxes, followed by a third batch of 1.2 million boxes!

The main buying regions were limited—small towns barely counted. The core markets were the coastal provincial cities and some inland provincial capitals and major cities. Even so, these groups, the most affluent at the time, plus the university students gathered there, numbered over 100 million people. In fact, even ten years later, this would remain the biggest market for official cultural products.

The results proved that without piracy interference and with good promotion, even in 1996, these consumers had strong purchasing power and a keen appetite for cultural works!

However... the good days lasted only thirteen days.

On the morning of March 14th, as Lin Jianlu braved the cold wind and light snow, riding his old bicycle once more through the streets, he saw a blackboard outside a music store announcing “‘Cold to the End’ five yuan a box!” He knew then the golden sales period was over—he could only sigh.

That was the reality. That was the era. All his efforts had only earned him a precious thirteen-day window of prime sales.

But that was enough. In the current domestic album market, few even had a single day of golden sales.

Thirteen days—he had to be grateful.

Moreover, the very next day, March 15th, his entry permit for Taiwan finally arrived!

Rock Records in Taiwan sent a dedicated person to the capital to collect the documents, then fly them to Hong Kong, to the only place issuing such permits, and then fly back to personally hand them to Lin Jianlu!

Because... ‘Cold to the End’ had also exploded in sales across Hong Kong and Taiwan!

Rock Records was eager for Lin Jianlu to go there for promotion, to strike while the iron was hot, and fully capitalize on the buying frenzy. Rumor had it the album might even break records!