Chapter 222: Preparations Before Album Release
It’s commonly said that releasing an album usually involves two methods: physical release and digital release.
Physical releases involve applying for copyright permissions and producing records, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.
For newcomers who haven’t signed with a record company, this is a very difficult task. With the increasing popularity of the internet and smartphones, digital releases have gradually become a good choice for newcomers.
Of course, as someone from a game company, Mei Fang naturally understands the importance of copyrights and authorship rights. During his free time, he paid a third party to handle the registration of song copyrights.
Xia Yuan’s first digital album includes five songs: “Plain Face,” “In That Not So Far Place,” “I Am Willing,” “Recollection of Lanzan,” and “Vastness of the Universe.”
These five songs, as an album, are actually quite small in volume; they can only be considered a mini-album. Moreover, calling these songs an album now feels somewhat forced, as typically albums have a certain consistency in style and theme.
Of course, since Yuanyuan is a newcomer, people might not mind too much about these details.
Besides confirming the song list, Xia Yuan and her team also need to determine the artist names and the album title.
Among these five songs, there are solo performances by Xia Yuan (“In That Not So Far Place” and “Vastness of the Universe”), Lin You Xi (“Recollection of Lanzan”), and Mei Fang (“I Am Willing”). There’s also a duet between Xia Yuan and Mei Fang (“Plain Face”), and Liu Xiaoyu contributes some harmony. Therefore, Xia Yuan initially did not want the album to be solely under her name.
However, since the album is not a band collaboration, directly using a new band’s name would be quite forced. In the end, after everyone’s discussion, Xia Yuan decided to use the artist name 【Yuanbao】 for the release, and they would continue using this name when forming a band later.
Since Xia Yuan is Yuanbao, then naturally Lin You Xi and Mei Fang would follow suit.
Yuanbao, Xiobao, Fangbao.
“Turns out, we’ve all gotten new nicknames.”
Xia Yuan happily asked Lin You Xi and Mei Fang, “At first, calling this name felt a bit cheesy, but after getting used to it, it doesn’t feel so bad… Fangbao, Xiobao… should we just call each other like this in daily life?”
Mei Fang frowned, “Why change? I’ve been calling you guys for over a decade now. Suddenly not being able to call you Yuanyuan and instead having to call you Yuanbao…”
Lin You Xi shook her head, “It sounds odd when Aifang calls me Xiobao. Every time he calls me that, I hear ‘Xi ba’ instead, as if he’s insulting me, which makes me angry for no reason.”
“Hey, am I pronouncing it that badly?”
“Then say it again for me.”
“Xiobao, Xiobao, Xiobao… This isn’t so bad, right?”
“Even more gently.”
“Xiobao?”
Xia Yuan watched Lin You Xi teasing Mei Fang to call her something, feeling a bit strange, “Oh well… I think this name is fun to call each other. If you’re uncomfortable, we can just do this at home.”
“I don’t find it very natural to say, but I really like the name Yuanbao.”
Mei Fang started his usual mediating act, smiling at Xia Yuan, “I can call you Yuanbao at school too, right?”
“Heh, heh… This name does sound cute when said aloud.”
Xia Yuan blushed and fidgeted, a little embarrassed, “But it feels a bit old-fashioned for high school students to say it.”
“You’re already old-fashioned! I like calling you Yuanbao because it sounds like I have many ‘gold ingots,’ like I’m getting rich.”
“What nonsense! Stinky Aifang!”
Xia Yuan pushed Mei Fang onto the sofa and sat on top of him, hitting him repeatedly.
After resolving the issues related to the artist names, the next step was deciding on the album title.
As previously mentioned, since the album is a hodgepodge and lacks a unified theme, Xia Yuan called on everyone at the Ximilu Studio to brainstorm.
Peng Xue, as the main supporter of Yuan, could not hold back any longer. Since it’s Yuan’s album, it should focus on Yuan.
She suggested several album titles with puns involving the word “yuan.”
“Reasonable Affection”
“One-Sided Affection”
“It’s You”
“Let Me Have My Way”
Yue Xinyi, as the main supporter of Xi, naturally could not back down. However, since most of the songs were composed by Yuan herself and had very little of Xi, Yue Xinyi did not want to completely overshadow Xia Yuan.
So, the names she came up with were quite common, either using the main songs as the album titles or incorporating terms related to Xia Yuan and Lin You Xi.
“I Am Willing”
“Plain Face”
“There You Are, Xi”
Yue Xinyi and Peng Xue argued back and forth in the group chat, neither backing down, making others afraid to speak up for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
Just as Mei Fang was considering throwing out the versatile album title “Customize” to end the dispute, Xia Yuan ended the argument with “GG.”
“Yuanyuan and I discussed it, everyone’s opinions are good, but we’ll stick with this one! This is our long-time online nickname, and it will be the title of our first album, which I think is meaningful.”
The final album title Xia Yuan chose was 【Yuanxi Companion】. This title can be interpreted as Xia Yuan and Lin You Xi accompanying each other, or Xia Yuan accompanying someone else with Lin You Xi.
…
No mention of Mei Dog, every word is about Mei Dog.
Liu Xiaoyu could clearly see through Xia Yuan and Lin You Xi’s intentions, but out of support for her friends, she only gave a thumbs-up and then fell into thought.
In today’s society, would a girl really share a boy’s love?
If it were me… I definitely wouldn’t accept it.
But since the parties involved have no objections, why should I impose my own views?
And ultimately, who am I to accept anything?
Liu Xiaoyu smiled bitterly and shook her head, unsure of what she was thinking.
Since returning from the spring outing, Liu Xiaoyu found herself increasingly concerned with Mei Fang’s actions.
She would actively listen to Xia Yuan and Lin You Xi’s casual conversations, hearing about what Mei Fang had been doing recently.
Whenever she saw Mei Fang, she would inadvertently look at him more often, but when Mei Fang tried to talk to her, she would awkwardly avoid him.
When I first met Mei Fang, I actually had a good impression of him…
He was gentle to You Xi and Yuanyuan, appearing to be a clean and pure young man.
And… towards me—
Although Liu Xiaoyu had said she didn’t like boys better than her, Mei Fang was such an ideal type that it was hard to look away…
Unfortunately, he turned out to be a dog.
Sigh… If I hadn’t seen those things!
Liu Xiaoyu lay on her bed in the dormitory, covering her head in frustration. Her uninformed roommates teased her, thinking she had fallen for someone.
After completing the album, Mei Fang planned to launch it on Tencent Music as the primary platform but also wanted to test the actual promotional effect of C Station.
Mei Fang and Lin You Xi planned to have Xia Yuan sh**t a short promotional video, which they would post on the homepage and relevant sections of C Station to try and promote Xia Yuan through the platform’s traffic.
End of Chapter
