The latest released "2021 Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper" shows that the number of new Chinese songs released in 2021 has reached 1.145 million, a year-on-year increase of 53.1%. This speed means that a new song will be born every 27 seconds on average.

(IC phtot / picture)

You may not know that a new song is born around you in less than half a minute. The latest "2021 Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper" released by

shows that the number of new Chinese songs released in 2021 has reached 1.145 million, a year-on-year increase of 53.1%. This speed means that a new song will be born every 27 seconds on average.

Even though the number of new songs exceeds 1 million every year, only a few can make it out of the music industry. On the contrary, in the past two years, there has been a nostalgia craze in the entertainment industry, and old songs are more popular.

After the broadcast of "The Sound of Life", many people's playlists played Cantonese hits on a loop; although there are hot songs on short videos one after another, the top songs on the music platform are still Jay Chou , Stefanie Sun , Luo Dayou and other "old singers"...

Why is there such a huge number of new songs released every year? Why are there so few Chinese-language hits that stand out from the crowd?

can produce a song in a few seconds

The period from 2000 to 2010 was the peak period of Chinese pop music , but even during this period, the number of new songs released each year was relatively limited - this was mainly due to the way music was produced. restrictions.

The production medium of music has changed several times. In the 1980s, it was tapes. In the 1990s, CDs began to appear. In the 2000s, Walkmans began to become popular. After the 2010s, the mobile Internet era emerged, and a listening app can accommodate a large number of songs.

2000-2010 can be said to be the golden age of the record industry. At that time, the circulation of albums by Jay Chou, Stefanie Sun, Jolin Tsai and other kings and queens easily exceeded one million copies.

At that time, records were mainly released through CDs. The packaging of singers and the selection of songs were controlled by professionals from record companies. Elite musicians dominated the process of music production and promotion. Since record distribution costs a lot of money, album production is naturally the best of the best. Therefore, the number of new songs and albums released every year in the record era is relatively limited.

In the Internet era, the production logic of music has undergone fundamental changes.

On the one hand, the threshold and cost of music production have been greatly reduced. If a singer wants to release a song, he does not need a record company. The creator can directly upload and publish it on the music platform.

If a singer wants to record a song, he does not need a professional recording studio or records or other media. He can directly download a song recording APP, which comes with multiple functions such as production, arrangement, and mixing. There are even composing and lyrics APPs. As long as you enter certain keywords and hum a few lines of melody, the APP will automatically help you get the lyrics. In a few seconds, AI can produce a song for you.

In theory, with the help of technology, there can be no threshold for music creation (the quality of the music is another matter). Everyone can be a composer or lyricist, and everyone can be a singer.

On the other hand, the channels for listeners to obtain new songs are convenient and fast. There is no need to buy records, and in many cases, there is no need to pay to download. There are a vast number of new songs to choose from on major music platforms every day.

"Everyone can produce quickly, everyone can spread quickly, and everyone can consume quickly." On average, there is a new song in 27 seconds, and the number of new Chinese songs every year reaches 1.145 million, which is not surprising. .

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The next Jay Chou "difficult childbirth"

The number of new songs every year exceeds 1 million. How many songs are sung by the whole people? How many songs will people still listen to again and again a few years later?

"2021 Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper" shows that the scale of music creators continues to expand, with the growth rate in 2021 far exceeding the same period in 2020. The number of lyricists and composers involved in new song creation has exceeded 100,000, but the next Jay Chou among them where?

The public is not optimistic about the answers to these questions. Behind the changes in the way music is produced is the change in the way music is selected.

In the past, the discovery of an excellent singer had to go through layers of screening, including record companies, radio stations, authoritative awards, and audiences. Those who could go through this process of making gold from sand and gold were basically gold.

Singers in the recording era basically had their moments.At that time, the power to judge music was mainly in the hands of the "elite" representatives such as album producers, music critics, and senior listeners. Those played on the radio or praised by major charts were also original and creative. of golden songs.

In the Internet era, the traditional music and musician selection model has been broken. The traditional model is of course still in play, but it is not the mainstream. The mainstream “selection” method is the platform’s algorithm.

At the end of last year, an awards ceremony known as the " Chinese music world national music entertainment event" announced the "Top Ten Hot Songs of the Year" based on playback data, including "Clouds and Sea", "Traveling on Mountains and Rivers", " Short video songs such as "White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole", "Prodigal Son's Gossip" and "Coco Tuohai Shepherd" took all the seats.

Looking back, most of the new Chinese songs that are popular today became popular through short video platforms. The songs on the

short video are mainly used as background sounds, combined with some dance moves that are easy to imitate and brainwash. This also determines that the melody of the song must be catchy, easy to sing, and the simpler the better. When a background sound becomes popular, the platform will distribute the push on a large scale through algorithms, thereby creating a "divine song" in short videos.

This in turn affects the creation of musicians. Many musicians create songs based entirely on the characteristics of short video music - not prioritizing musicality, but pursuing "usage", whether it is suitable for use as background sound, and whether it can be used with some dance moves.

There are many small music companies on the market. Their daily energy is to find hot spots from Douyin , Weibo, and NetEase Cloud’s comment area, quickly launch songs based on the hot spots, and use song production software to produce two or three songs in an assembly line every day. normal. If no one listens to

, forget it. If it becomes popular, the copyright income on the music platform will be very considerable. This kind of saliva creation is no different from the 100,000+ creations on the public account platform. Getting traffic is the first priority.

So despite the fact that the number of new songs released every year exceeds 1 million, a large part of them are "collage".

When a new song becomes popular, many people will use its elements to collage several "new songs" of the same type. This has also resulted in a large number of new songs that "all look the same." This type of song does not have high requirements for singers, as long as they have the right pitch and can sing it smoothly - if not, the tune can be modified later. With such a creative atmosphere, the next Jay Chou will naturally have difficulty in giving birth.

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The key is to have a "selection" mechanism

No one can stop the trend of the Internet. The trend of 1 million+ new songs every year is difficult to change. But does this mean that Chinese music has degenerated? Does this mean there are no good singers or good songs in Chinese music? This is certainly not the case with

. The problem is that good singers and good songs don’t stand out so easily.

Under the algorithm mechanism, what the algorithm pushes directly determines the exposure of the singer and the song. Those songs that cater to the platform algorithm, even if they are collaged in a few hours, can quickly gain traffic.

In contrast, those songs that are carefully composed and recorded in the recording studio cost more manpower, material resources, and financial resources, but may no one care about them. This creates a situation where "bad money drives out good money". No matter how good your work is, if you don’t have a platform to support it, and there are no channels and methods to promote it, there will only be very few people.

The School of Music and Recording Arts of Communication University of China once produced a "Research Report on the Living Situation and Copyright Awareness of Musicians in 2018". The report pointed out that 30% of musicians have a music income of 0, and the part-time rate of musicians is as high as 70% %, 95% of musicians cannot support themselves solely on music income.

Therefore, the key now is that there must be a "selection" mechanism that can resist the algorithm. For example, the Golden Melody Award is one of the most authoritative Chinese music awards, and it continues to introduce outstanding newcomers and excellent songs to the market every year.

Not long ago, the Golden Melody Awards announced this year’s shortlist, and singers from mainland China made great achievements. Yuan Yawei was shortlisted for Best Chinese Female Singer, Xu Jun, Jude, Cui Jian were shortlisted for Best Chinese Male Singer, Lu Yanliang was shortlisted for Best Newcomer, "Night Mode" and " Flying Dog" were shortlisted Best Chinese Album, etc.

The authoritative music award is a good channel for "selecting the best", but only one channel is not enough. We should also have more authoritative and professional music lists to help many music fans find the essence of the ocean and continue to keep the flame of Chinese music alive.

Chen Zifei