Charting

The next morning.

The moment Song Dao opened his eyes, he received a system notification—

[Host's Reputation has reached 300,000. The lottery function is now available for use at any time.]

This came as quite a surprise to him.

During the novice period, popularity had converted to Reputation at a one-to-one ratio.

But after the novice period, it was one hundred to one!

Although he did not know exactly how the system calculated popularity, it definitely was not as simple as counting every view the way it had during the novice period.

There had to be some complex system and algorithm behind it.

In other words, the extra 200,000 Reputation he had gained overnight required at least 20 million popularity points!

He had truly blown up.

The kind of fame that broke out of its circle.

Back on Earth in his previous life, See Through Love, See Through You could only be considered a fairly good Chinese pop song.

It was even a little niche.

Many people might never have heard it.

So although it was a good song, it had never become this wildly popular.

Placed in a different era and a different world, driven by events, it had unexpectedly produced an entirely different chemical reaction.

This sudden explosion in popularity had caught him somewhat off guard.

It had originally just been a song to activate the system and vent the original owner's anger, yet now it might push him onto a stormy stage beyond his ability to control.

But now that things had come to this, there was no point saying anything pretentious.

He did not regret singing that song.

He simply disliked being disturbed; he did not care what others thought of him.

As long as he did not get too involved in this topic from here on, this ridiculous level of popularity would gradually fade sooner or later.

Miao Xiu had indeed treated the original owner terribly. She was a textbook gold digger, and there was no defending that.

The evidence dug up by the resourceful netizens included things that were missing even from his own memories.

It counted as her receiving punishment.

Though it was a little harsh, she was not innocent at all.

So let it be.

No matter how noisy the internet became, it had nothing to do with him.

After washing up, he picked up his phone and opened Penguin Music's charts.

He wanted to see whether, fueled by popularity on this level, the song could quickly climb the rankings and bring him more income.

His roommate, who had spoken up for him so righteously, did not actually know that the original owner had already been nearly broke when he was betrayed and dumped.

Over the past few years, he had spent far too much money on Miao Xiu without restraint!

Part of it was the self-indulgent sentimentality of a simp, but part of it was also the impulsive extravagance of youth.

On top of that, Miao Xiu wanted to become famous. It was all she dreamed about!

She had crazily attended off-campus training programs and built all kinds of connections, which also consumed enormous amounts of money.

Young people did not understand how hard it was to make money. They thought highly of themselves and always naively believed that they could simply earn more after spending everything.

At this point, there was only a little over 20,000 yuan left in his account.

It looked like quite a bit.

But in a place like Beijing, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, he would not last long if he could not quickly earn an income.

Miao Xiu knew that too.

That was why she had said those things when they broke up.

In her eyes, Song Dao was simply living off his dwindling savings. His four years of university had been the peak of his life, and he could not possibly have any future beyond that.

Making money by writing songs was not even as good as singing in a bar.

After all, he would not be able to support her anymore.

A woman still had to rely on herself.

Song Dao had just logged into Penguin Music and had not even opened any of the rankings when he saw the song he had uploaded last night on the homepage recommendations!

At the very top, first slot on the right!

They had actually given it such a major recommendation?

The cover image was a photo of him performing at last night's graduation party.

He had a lean frame and handsome features.

Sitting on a high stool with a guitar in his arms, his eyes were melancholy, and his entire body seemed to radiate a faint sense of sorrow and loneliness.

Tencent Music was Tencent Music indeed!

Whether on Earth or in this world, they had always been masters at grabbing whatever they wanted!

Uh, no, that was wrong.

They were not only experts at grabbing traffic and riding trends; they had even found such an accurate, evocative photo.

Song Dao thought he had been quite calm last night.

It was only that performing such a sad love song required that kind of state of mind.

He had not expected them to capture such an exquisite shot.

"Not bad, not bad!"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

Everything else was empty. Making money was what truly mattered.

He tapped Music Pavilion and entered the rankings, where all kinds of charts were listed.

The Soaring Chart, New Song Chart, Hot Song Chart, Musician Original Chart, and Popularity Index Chart.

Below those were the Mainland Chart, Cantonese Region Chart, Treasure Island Chart, English Region Chart, Fusang Chart, and various specialty charts.

People said music was dead, but a huge number of new songs were still created and uploaded to major platforms every day.

But it was difficult for them to be like the past—

Every month had highly singable new songs, every year was a battle among immortals, and even the Heavenly Kings and Queens could flop if they were not careful.

It was perfectly normal for established giants to lose to newcomers. There was nothing unusual about it.

Nowadays, it was extremely difficult for a song to break out of its circle!

There were only a few songs each year that people could remember, let alone call classics.

Although classics required time to settle and accumulate, the issue was that songs nowadays were considered fortunate if they stayed popular for more than three months.

That was why the charts were almost entirely dominated by old songs from over twenty years ago.

Of course, there were new songs too, but most had been pushed up through chart campaigns run by the companies behind the singers using their own resources.

See Through Love, See Through You could enter three charts: the Soaring Chart, New Song Chart, and Musician Original Chart.

It could not enter the Hot Song Chart or the Popularity Index Chart.

Those two charts not only required massive data support but also needed a long period of accumulation.

They were not something one could enter in a short time.

He opened the Soaring Chart first. Since it only displayed the top one hundred, he chose to look from the bottom upward.

As he scrolled, he found either enduring classic songs or songs that had suddenly gone viral again after being covered by some top internet celebrity.

Song Dao scrolled upward in one go until he reached the fifties, yet he still could not find his song.

Don't tell me it didn't make the chart?

Could the terrifying popularity generated by that video have failed to reach this side at all?

Or had the all-powerful netizens failed this time and not discovered it?

That did not make sense. Tencent Music had given it a homepage recommendation, and his handsome photo was displayed so conspicuously. How could no one notice it?

He continued scrolling upward and finally saw See Through Love, See Through You at number twenty-seven!

The specific download figures were not visible here; he would need to log into the Creator Platform to see them.

But this ranking was already enough to pleasantly surprise Song Dao.

After all, he was fighting alone as an independent musician.

Without this wave of popularity, getting into the top one hundred in such a short time would already have been impressive.

The songs ahead of him were almost all works by the hottest singers of the moment, backed by major entertainment companies.

They usually promoted songs without counting the cost, seeking only popularity and fan attention.

With popularity came endorsements, fan meetings, variety show appearances, publicity events, and even roles in film and television dramas.

They did not care about the paltry earnings made by the music itself.

He opened the New Song Chart.

The first thing he saw was that quite a few English songs were ranked in the top twenty.

The Xia Kingdom had now become a global superpower, and many Western singers had come here to develop their careers.

The original owner's memories contained quite a few good foreign-language songs.

They had at least injected a little fresh blood into this stagnant music scene.

This time, he chose to scroll from the top down.

He quickly found his song at number twenty-three.

The singer's name was displayed behind it—

Song Dao.

Duration: 4:38.

The album field was blank.

Then he checked the Original Ranking. It was ranked nineteenth!

"Whew!"

Song Dao let out a breath.

His face was full of delight!

So what if he was on the cutting edge of a storm?

It's Okay!

It had only been one night.

No company, no team, no manager!

To achieve this kind of result, Song Dao was both thrilled and even a little incredulous.

Under normal circumstances, after the song slowly fermented over time and various internet celebrities covered it to generate traffic, it might still have had a chance to climb the charts in the current environment.

But it was somewhat niche after all, so it would probably have struggled to get a good ranking.

Yet after only one night—or, more precisely, only seven or eight hours—it had achieved such ridiculously good results.

Come to think of it, he truly had to thank the video that had shot onto the trending searches last night!

Thank this overwhelming wave of traffic!

Then he noticed the comment section beneath the song.

After opening it, he was immediately left somewhat speechless.

In other singers' comment sections, the discussion either revolved around the song itself or the singer.

People praised or criticized.

Then both sides fought each other.

His was different. Most people had come to eat popcorn and watch the spectacle!

A small number truly empathized and wrote long posts.

There were also some who praised the song for sounding good, but they were not very numerous.

"Came to admire the peerless good man who spent a million on a girlfriend he never slept with. [doge]"

"Watching up close as this year's current number-one male contestant on the Tragic Romance Rankings. [smirk]"

"How did you manage to be this handsome, this generous, and still get dumped without ever sleeping with her?"

"You're so handsome, little brother! Can I get to know you?"

"Why can't I get what's good about this song? Can someone tell me why it's good?"

"Congratulations, OP. Not getting it means you're still too young for this song. Go home and watch In the Night Garden."

"Good night, Makka Pakka."

"Is that gossip true? Did Brother Dao really spend over a million on his ex-girlfriend? And they never slept together?"

"It's true. Didn't you see his roommate's revelation? He was a total sucker, but this song might let him earn all the money back and make him famous too. This wave wasn't a loss, hahaha..."

"Support Brother Dao's simp awakening and counterattack against his ex!"

Facing all the teasing, Song Dao helplessly twitched the corner of his mouth.

But there were also plenty of people who truly empathized, leaving comments about betrayals they had suffered in the past.

With a casual scroll, he found countless emotionally charged messages.

These were his real "target customers"!

Song Dao could not be bothered to read those long posts.

Poor married couples suffered over everything; when you were impoverished and powerless, do not meet someone too dazzling.

That con man in Dying to Survive had said it well: there was only one illness in this world—the illness of poverty!

He exited Penguin Music, opened the creator dashboard, and eagerly checked the data.

The smile on his face immediately became even brighter.

It also carried a hint of shock.

The data was unexpectedly good!

According to the platform rules, most songs with ordinary audio sources did not require payment unless the copyright holder requested it, so anyone could listen to them.

But that was merely to maintain the platform's user base.

Anyone who liked listening to music knew that the sound quality was not much different from videos on websites.

To make your ears happy, you had to subscribe.

If you wanted to download songs to a professional player or listen to the highest-quality audio for an even better experience, you had to get a higher-tier membership!

In short, they squeezed you every way they could.

Of course, that was from the consumer's perspective. For the platform and creators, it maximized profits.

Generally speaking, as long as they could afford it, people who loved listening to music would spend a few hundred yuan on the highest-tier membership.

That way, whether they listened on the platform or downloaded songs onto other devices, they could enjoy the best sound quality at a relatively favorable price.

If non-members wanted to hear songs in the highest quality, there was only one option—pay directly!

The price was fairly steep too: one yuan per song.

The membership figures had not come out yet, but non-member purchase data updated in real time.

It had already surpassed five thousand people!

That might not seem like much, nothing compared to the exaggerated popularity in the tens of millions, but it was actually already astonishing!

When non-members paid to buy it, it basically showed that most of them normally did not use Tencent Music to listen to songs at all!

Song Dao had just found evidence of that in some comments.

Quite a few people said it was their first time contributing to Tencent Music.

The reason was that they had heard this song, deeply related to it, and come over to support poor Brother Dog.

Brother Dao, dog—there was nothing wrong with that.

"No wonder they gave it such a huge homepage promotion."

Song Dao suddenly understood.

Knowing how to capture traffic was one thing, but bringing in a large number of new users and generating real economic benefits was more important to the platform!

After all, the end goal of traffic was monetization.

Although, as the hype faded, the number of people choosing to purchase and download it would plummet off a cliff.

But as long as a song like this broke out of its circle, there would always be people listening to it!

After all, people fell out of love every day, and every day there would be people whose memories were stirred by a few lyrics.

With a steady trickle of income, plus all kinds of advertising shares and the platform's incentive policies, Song Dao felt that this song earning over a million from the platform alone would not be a problem!

Looking at it that way, the netizens had a point too.

His ex-girlfriend had spent a million of "his" money over four years, and then he used a song about his ex-girlfriend... to earn it all back.

It was starting to feel a little like fate...

Good songs really did make money, no matter the era!

In his world, there had first been Two Butterflies and Mouse Loves Rice, followed by Guangdong Love Story. All of them had been brutally successful songs that broke out of their circles.

They had made a fortune!

If he was willing to ride the wave and join some variety shows or take on commercial performances, he might not be able to live off one song for the rest of his life, but he would definitely make plenty in the short term.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Song Dao did not want to take jobs based on the attention he had gained by hyping up a romance when he had yet to fully spread his wings.

Besides, people might not even think much of him. Going there just to be background decoration and let others mock him would be something only an idiot did.

He had three hundred thousand reputation points in hand now. He was loaded!

And as time passed, they were still constantly increasing.

No matter how stingy the system was, surely sixty draws would get him a few decent "catchy" songs, right?

Although he did not agree with the system's classification of songs, there was one thing he could not deny: every song it gave him was of good quality!

So he just needed to take things step by step and go slowly.

After all, he was still young.

He had just graduated from university.

He was in the prime of his life!

Thanks to Yu for the Alliance Leader reward, and thanks to Xiao Yu for the ten-thousand reward. Thanks, brothers.