The number of songs on a single disc or album disc is actually limited by the length of time the original record could be recorded, and then it gradually developed into the rules of the record industry. According to the regulations of the British Recording Association, records containing less than 4 songs or recording time less than 30 minutes are called single discs; otherwise, album discs.

However, this regulation was a long time ago. According to the current world-wide rules, physical records are physical records, with less than 4 songs on single discs; 4 to 8 songs for mini albums; and 8 to 12 regular albums. In fact, with the arrival of the new century digital music wave, the boundary between singles and albums has become increasingly blurred. However, in the East Asian music circle in the 2000s, physical records are still an important publicity method for singers.

"My idea is to gather the four songs together, and then write a Chinese version of the title song "Your Name Is Hope". In this way, a collection of 7 songs can be regarded as an EP album." Lin Junxiu said, "And what we want to shoot in PV is just to add a Chinese subtitle to the Chinese channel of MTV or el V."

"This is indeed a solution." Akimoto nodded.

Although mini albums have not become popular in this era, singers have already released mini albums. Mini albums in this era are mainly released by singers who produce experimental songs or songs that are designed for transformation, and there will basically be no promotion. In this way, the cost of mini albums is not high, and if they fail, it will not cause a serious blow to singers and record companies.

"Although our partner Sony Records has distribution channels in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, the authentic environment in the mainland is not ideal. What if our authentic records cannot be sold?"

"Who said we want to make money from the mainland market for genuine albums?" Lin Junxiu glanced at Akimoto Yasu with contempt.

Sometimes Japanese people lack a big view of the overall situation in doing business, and always feel that the piracy rate in the Chinese music market is too high, so they are unwilling to involve it. But why do Koreans rather sell records in the mainland at a loss? They even sell Korean records, but also have their singers who specialize in learning Chinese to record special Chinese albums to sell them in the mainland. Are Koreans stupid? In fact, Korean artists do not make money in the mainland in terms of records, but they make a lot of money in advertising endorsements, concerts and commercial activities. Not only did they sweep away a lot of foreign exchange from the mainland, but they even once had an immeasurable impact on the values ​​of the entire mainland teenagers, and finally forced senior officials to take action to directly ban them.

"When we treat the mainland market, we must clarify what the goods we are going to sell! It is not AKB48's record, but AKB48 itself! For us, the record is just the promotional expenses we put in the mainland. Once the popularity of AKB48 is opened, we can recover all the original expenses through concerts and other forms. Therefore, in order to show goodwill to the Chinese market, we must produce special albums for them."

Lin Junxiu knew that Hollywood once made a lot of money in the mainland film market with the so-called "Chinese Special Edition" movies. Some movies that sold very poorly in the North American market or had no prospects, arranged a few Chinese scenes or even Chinese actors who were irrelevant to make money in the mainland market. Unfortunately, in the early days, everyone thought that Hollywood really loved Chinese people and gave them face to these special edition movies. These movies that were obviously second-rate or even third-rate in Hollywood, but they could squeeze into the annual box office list with the support of the Chinese box office! Fortunately, everyone later saw through the face of Hollywood, and they only loved RMB.

I have to say that Akimoto Yasushi is indeed one of the best entertainment businessmen in Japan. He immediately understood the meaning of Lin Jun's words. But he was still a little hesitant and asked: "Concerts or commercial activities should be based on a certain economic foundation. Are you so optimistic about the development of the mainland?" China is indeed still in the start-up period of economic take-off, so it is not uncommon for many people to not see China's economic potential for the time being. In fact, before the 2008 Olympics were held, many people's impression of China may still be the one in the fifth-generation director's camera. Let alone the sky, everyone probably thinks that the mainland is still riding bicycles.

"If you have any doubts about my words, you can take a look at the Asian economic situation survey report released by the Japan Economic Revitalization Association. This report is public, you can take a look at some of the data in China. If you still feel that the authoritative report of this report is not enough, you can buy relevant data reports from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank in the name of the company." Lin Junxiu said calmly, "We have to convince shareholders at the same time, so you can take a look at these reports first and then show them to shareholders in the future."

Akimoto Yasu is still very active. After talking with Lin Junxiu, he instructed his assistant to get some analysis reports on the economic development and entertainment market in mainland China. As a close neighbor of China, Japan is both wary of China and win over China, so many research institutions in Japan specifically target China. It can be said that Japan is the most popular country in the world to study China. Therefore, Akimoto Yasumoto quickly obtained many analysis reports on China. After reading these analysis reports, he contacted some friends who were developing in the Chinese market and obtained a lot of first-hand information.

"Mr. Lin, I have to admit that your opinion is completely correct." Akimoto Yasushi has been reading various reports for three consecutive days, causing dark circles to appear. "The mainland Chinese market will be a market that AKB48 must develop, and I think we can consider establishing a sister group in AKB48? With the size of the mainland Chinese market in the future, I think there is great potential."

"Teacher Akimoto, we should not go deep into the Chinese market." Lin Junxiu reminded.

Just like Japan's attitude towards China, China is actually very cautious about Japan. Moreover, in terms of culture, China has never been so easy to relax. In parallel planes, the AKB48 headquarters gradually loses control of SNH48, in addition to the cunning of the mainland operators, it is actually the mainland operators who have stepped on the government's ideas and know that the government does not want a popular idol group from non-China. Lin Junxiu's purpose is to make money, so he doesn't have to touch some restricted areas too much.

"Our strategy is to operate one or more Chinese teams in Japan, and these teams should not go too deep into the Chinese market."

Lin Junxiu does not plan to do SNH48 and TPE48 in this plane, but just copy Team SH and Team TP directly. Once the economy of a country or region develops, the people in the local area will first choose to support local idols and have a sense of exclusion from non-local idols. Why do many European singers fail to enter the US market? It is because the United States is an economically strong country, so the local cultural barriers will be very high. Lin Junxiu does not think that forming the AKB48 sister group in South Korea or China can succeed, so she decided to open a small team to try the waters. On the contrary, what AKB48 really wants to conquer is Southeast Asia and South Asia, where this is the main battlefield.

Akimoto Yasumi nodded with regret. After Lin Junxiu and Akimoto Yasumi reached a resolution, the board of directors naturally did not have much opposition. Everyone is a businessman, so they can naturally feel the attraction from the mainland Chinese market, so they don’t have much opinion on AKB48’s release of a test EP. Moreover, the cost of this EP is basically included in the upcoming single, so there is no cost at all, so everyone passed it quickly after watching it.

After Vernalossom passed the plan for AKB48's first Chinese EP, Lin Junxiu began to arrange for AKB48 members to start learning Chinese. His requirement was that all members should at least learn how to say hello in Chinese, while Yuko Oshima and several other main members must be able to communicate in Chinese. After everyone studied for a while, Lin Junxiu arranged for everyone to record a short video. The content of the video was to say hello to Chinese fans in Chinese and officially announced the plan for Chinese EP.

After this period of study, AKB48 has a Chinese language proficiency, and at least it can understand the general meaning. Because AKB48 has been promoted online since its birth, it has accumulated a lot of fans in the Chinese-speaking world. After learning that AKB48 will release a Chinese EP, the entire Chinese-speaking fan circle was naturally very happy. At the same time, many fans in the Chinese-speaking world expressed their hope that AKB48 can all members or send teams to the Chinese-speaking areas for activities.

Because the Chinese EP plan has been made public, Vernalossom has also released its new single plan, and the selection of Team 4 is also released with the release of the new single. Compared with the selection of SKE48, the selection of AKB48 Team 4 is really much more lively. Unlike previous years, it only took a few staff members to handle the primary election. Now the number of people in the artist training department of Vernalossom has increased several times, but the date of the primary election has become longer and longer.

"What did the Japanese Football Association and the Japanese High School Sports Federation ask us for?" Just as Lin Junsoo was filming the movie, Akimoto Yasu summoned himself back with an emergency call. "Does they plan to let us endorse the Gaoyuangong Cup?"

The Gaoyuangong Cup is a collective name for a series of events sponsored by Prince Takamotomiya Japan. Among them, the most famous are the Gaoyuangong Cup U18 and U15. These two leagues cover two age groups in Japan, and since the registration team is not restricted from whether the registration team is a school team or a club youth training echelon, the Gaoyuangong Cup is actually very valuable. However, for various reasons, in Japanese middle school football events, the Gaoyuangong Cup is not well-known and pay attention.

Similar to the United States, Japan's sports events in middle school have always been amateur events that surpass professional events, and everyone loves to watch events composed of schools and teams. Therefore, in the junior high school stage, the All-Japanese Junior High School Football Championship is the most concerned event for Japanese people; and in the high school stage, because there are more events, everyone is relatively concerned about the two major events of Japan's National High School Football Championship and the National High School Comprehensive Sports Conference Football Conference. On the contrary, the U18 League of Gaoyuan Gu Cup is even less attention than the high school group of the National Sports Conference Football Conference.

Especially in the later stages of the event, there were basically no amateur school teams, so the attention of the Japanese has been reduced a lot. In the U15 League, no junior high school teams won the championship after the third session; in the U18 League's highest-level Super League, there were only three high school teams left. The rest were basically the echelons of major clubs, or professional teams specially formed by local youth age groups.
Chapter completed!