ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY
Phoenix Legend has won increasing popularity since they released their debut album with Peacock Records in 2004.
When Chen Jinfang and her younger brother Chen Rentai started their record company in 1993, neither knew much about the music industry.
Chen Jinfang was selling home appliances in a State-owned company in Guangzhou, earning 1,000 yuan ($170) a month, while her brother, a big fan of pop music, often went to Hong Kong to buy CDs. He liked singing karaoke because of his good voice, which his friends said, resembled that of Hong Kong pop star Alam Tam.
The two made the bold decision, mainly because she believed in her brother's music intuition and she was confident about her talent in sales.
Decades later, the Guangzhou-based Peacock Records has become one of the few record companies that can claim to have never lost money in the country's declining market.
Chen Jinfang and Chen Rentai have discovered some of the most popular singers in China. Singer-songwriter Zheng Yuan's 10,000 Reasons was downloaded more than 120 million times as a cellphone ring tone, according to statistics from China Mobile. Meanwhile, pop duo Phoenix Legend has sold more than 6 million albums in China since 2005, and 10 songs from their four albums have recorded 1 billion online hits since 2004. One of their hits, Most Dazzling Ethnic Trend, even reached the United States in 2012, when it was used by cheerleaders during an NBA Houston Rockets game.
While those songs achieved big commercial success, they have been considered critically flawed. Critics regard such music to be rather low-brow.
"I know that many people call Phoenix Legend a pop duo for farmers. I don't think it's a bad thing. There are millions of farmers in China, which is a huge fan base and a consuming power," says Chen Jinfang. "What we want is to reach a bigger audience. For us, a good song means making the listener happy."
In 2014, the record company plans to build its own music industry zone in Shunde district in Guangzhou, which will form a complete music chain from songwriting, producing, promoting and selling. They will also cooperate with international companies to sell more CDs abroad. She was in Beijing recently signing a 10-year contract with Phoenix Legend, which will continue a cooperation going back to 2004 and kick off a world tour in 2014, including London and Tokyo.
"Elegant art, like classical music, only appeals to the taste of a minority. I prefer to be close to the audience," she adds. "The more CDs we sell, the wider audience we reach."
By selling karaoke CDs, the company made its first pot of gold. Then they invested big money in purchasing nearly all the copyrighted works of Yueju Opera, a traditional opera being prevalent in Cantonese-speaking regions including all of Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao.
They also exported Yueju Opera karaoke CDs and DVDs, which are popular among overseas Chinese.
"We have been collecting works of Yueju Opera since Peacock Records began because our father is a big fan of it," says Chen Jinfang. "Every Yueju Opera artist, like a pop star, has his or her fan base so it's a big market. But it is not pop music and it won't sell big instantly. We want to keep it ticking over."
Peacock Records also invested in a relationship with five of the world's biggest record labels, including Universal Music and EMI. In three years, they have imported more than 3,000 CDs.
The investment was more than 100 million yuan. However, the result was not as good as expected, due to struggles with piracy and copyright issues.
"Though we didn't make money, we realized that copyrights are crucial for a record company and since then we started thinking about managing singers on our own," recalls Chen Jinfang.
Thanks to Chen Rentai's feel for the music market, Peacock has been making profits ever since signing its first singer, Zheng Yuan.
In 2004, Chen Rentai signed a contract with Phoenix Legend because he was attracted by lead vocalist Ling Hua's high-pitched voice. He says that the duo's success was not a surprise.
"Love songs and songs with a strong beat are very popular among Chinese music lovers. With easy-to-understand lyrics and singalong tunes, a song will be a hit in the market," he says.
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