Watanabe Lu found a three-person band that performed at LIVE HOUSE as the accompaniment team for Ye Zhao. The three of them are about the same age as Watanabe Lu. They are all veterans who have played musical instruments for nearly ten years. Although they all have formal jobs and only regard music as a side job, their performance is also quite excellent.

After all, the recording studio pays 12,000 yen per hour. In order to save expenses, before entering the studio, the five people first found an abandoned old warehouse for two days of rehearsal. The lead guitarist was Ye Zhao, the rhythm guitarist was the band's lead singer, a tall and thin man named Tanaka, the bassist was Okazaki, and his arm was tattooed with a lifelike Azure Dragon tattoo. The drummer was Takada, and he was an old smoker who smoked when playing drums. As for Watanabe, although he was a bassist, before he came into contact with bass, the first instrument he learned was the piano, so he was the keyboardist this time.

In order to accommodate the working hours of the three band members, the official entry time was set at 8 pm.

The Submarine studio located in Yoyogi is one of the studios with a fixed partnership with Apollo Records. This studio is not large in size and has a relatively simple decoration. The most eye-catching sign is the huge poster of the Beatles band "yellow Submarine" (yellow submarine) hanging in the hall, which is also the source of the name of this studio.

This band that was temporarily gathered together has accumulated a certain tacit understanding during the two days of running-in. The cooperation was pretty good in the recording of the accompaniment tape, and the opinions they put forward on the arrangement of the two songs also benefited Ye Zhao a lot. When the accompaniment tape was finished, Ye Zhao asked Watanabe Lu about the expenses of asking the band to pay the bill, Watanabe Lu waved his hand: "There is no need to talk about the money. Tanaka and his brother are old friends for many years. Let's go to the Izakaya to have a few glasses together and this favor will be over."

After the recording of the accompaniment tape, Ye Zhao spent another ten hours to complete the recording of the song. The subsequent work was handed over to the recording studio, and they completed the final mixing and mastering.

Ye Zhao was also prepared for the record cover. In the album of his predecessor, there was a photo he took while on vacation on the southern coast of Hunan. The sparkling sea surface and waves pounced on the beach. He sat on the beach, facing the vast sea. Although he only took his back, it was just right to use it as a single cover. After all, this is a summer single, and when it comes to summer, the protagonist should of course be the sea.

I found a printing shop on the street to copy the photo, adjusted the color tone slightly, and changed the size. Ye Zhao took it and handed it over to Apollo Records. So far, Ye Zhao finished everything he could do.

After the mastering was completed and Ye Zhao was accepted correctly, the contract was about to go to the last step - contact the printing factory for batch printing, and then send the produced singles to the record store in the Tokyo circle for sale through the distribution channel of Apollo Records. Ye Zhao also had to make up for the remaining funds. In addition to the final payment of 600,000 yen that should be paid, there was also a total of 18 hours of studio usage fee of 216,000 yen. It took him a total of 1 million and 6,000 yen to record this single, not only did he spend all the bonus, but he also paid 6,000 yen. If Arakawa and Shi had not given him a discount, Watanabe Ryu had friendly sponsored the musician, his capital would not be enough.

By the way, given RB's copyright law, CDs will generate royalties as long as they are manufactured, rather than after they are sold, even these two thousand CDs will still have to pay Ye Zhao 80% of the royalties that are 1,600 CDs under the premise of 20% of the default return... Of course, you can't get them now.

A week later, the production of this single will be completed and scheduled to be released on June 22. It is said that it is on the 22nd. Since the ORICON chart counts sales of the previous day, in fact, on the 21st, the single will be officially launched on the shelves. As a singer and producer, Ye Zhao also got the finished product one step ahead of schedule.

Remove the plastic film and open the CD box. There is nothing else but a small 8cm disc. Even the lyrics are printed on the back of the CD cover. However, the 8cm singles at that time were basically in this simple configuration.

The 8cm disc, which was born in the late 1980s, was the mainstream of the RB music scene until the late 12cm single reform in the late 1990s. Its compact appearance is not only easy to carry, but also saves more materials than the square 12cm CD, which greatly reduces the production cost. If Ye Zhao printed a 12cm single this time, he would have to pay nearly one-third of the extra money for printing the disc.

However, although the 8cm single has many advantages, it has one big disadvantage: its small capacity and can only accommodate four songs. Therefore, with the development of the times, various music business laws emerged, and the 8cm single that could not keep up with the trend gradually withdrew from the historical stage.

Looking at this single that was almost all composed of him inside and out, Ye Zhao was very moved. The hard work he put in for this single and the high hopes for it were comparable to parents who wanted their son to become a dragon.

I got ten singles from the record company. Ye Zhao had no friends in Tokyo, so he just gave one to Watanabe Ryu. Each of the three people in the band who helped him play, and then sent one to Fujii Natsumi by mail, and he took the rest by himself.

Among the singles released on June 22, the most eye-catching ones are TRF's "Boy Meets Girl" and DEEN's "Himusa" (please don't look away from your sight). The former is a capable player of the Komuro family, and the latter is a popular rooster under BEING. It can be said that the firepower points this week are basically concentrated on these two bands, and the record store is without exception. They put their CDs on the most conspicuous place as soon as they enter the door and play their songs in the store.

As for Ye Zhao's singles, they were naturally placed in the inconspicuous corner of the record along with a bunch of unknown singles by singers. Although the 1990s was the golden age of CD sales, several funny artists could sell dozens or millions of temporary groups to make programs, but this does not mean that anyone can get a share in this huge market.

In 1994, there were more than 300 groups of actors, idols, models, funny artists, and singers. The knowledgeable record store staff would not even confirm the records names of these miscellaneous artists. They just mechanically performed their duties and put them on the shelves. As for whether a golden dragon would fly out of it, it was not within their consideration.

For singers with their own record companies and firms, whenever they release new songs, the company will arrange one-stop service for them, from participating in TV series to conducting magazine interviews, and even arrange small LIVE performances or street performances for them, trying their best to ensure their exposure during the publicity period. Underground singers like Ye Zhao who want to become popular can rely on other opportunities such as being selected by radio programs, and only the reputation of the songs themselves.
Chapter completed!