1561-1563

Chapter 1561: Breaking the Myth 

Back in the 80s and 90s, movie soundtracks were an indispensable part of the market. Music was used to enhance the film's atmosphere and then promote the movie, allowing the film to continue entering people's lives through its soundtrack even after it had finished playing on the big screen. That was the state of the industry. 

Whitney Houston's timeless classic, "I Will Always Love You," was the theme song for the movie "The Bodyguard"; the theme song for "Ghost," "Unchained Melody"; the theme song for "Titanic," "My Heart Will Go On," and so on – they are all classics. 

Furthermore, soundtracks for movies like "Saturday Night Fever," "Grease," "Purple Rain," "The Lion King," and "Top Gun" all ranked in the top three or even topped the year-end sales charts back in the day. 

In 2000, the year-end album sales champion in the North American market was the soundtrack for the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", which sold a staggering seven million copies and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year the following year. 

Unfortunately, that past glory is long gone. 

Even though the soundtracks for "Titanic" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" still sold well in the late 90s, they were becoming isolated cases. The widespread craze for movie soundtracks of yesteryear was no longer seen. 

Back then, soundtracks and movie box office receipts were mutually supportive and propelled each other. Disney always put great effort into the theme songs for all their animated films. When "The Prince of Egypt" was released, they even invited two top divas, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, to sing the theme song "When You Believe" together. 

However, now, the music and film industries have gradually separated, each forging its own path. 

Nicolas was absolutely surprised that Anson had unexpectedly brought this tradition back with "Spider-Man 2." 

Most importantly, Anson completely defied people's expectations. 

August 31st was typically a rock band, but now Anson had done a complete 180-degree turn, bringing a totally different kind of music that injected new vitality into "Spider-Man 2" and reignited Peter Parker's youthful spirit. He was planting an impression in the audience's minds through music even before they entered the cinema. 

One has to say, Anson is truly impressive. 

Imposingly impressive. Nicolas was willing to offer all his praise and admiration. 

Buzzing with excitement, the eyes of the entire North American continent were converging on iTunes. 

In February this year, the band August 31st collaborated with iTunes to release the single "Another Light." This helped iTunes stand out in the digital music source era. That single still holds a series of records for digital downloads, truly making people aware of the existence of iTunes and Apple. 

iPod sales skyrocketed, and more importantly, the market share of digital music sources was completely reshuffled. 

This time, Anson collaborated with iTunes again, exclusively releasing the single "Sunflowers." 

Only on iTunes. 

Furthermore, the situation was slightly different this time. Last time, everyone knew that "Another Light" would be 100% included in the special deluxe edition of "Midsummer Midnight." If you didn't want to buy the single, you could just wait for the album to be released. This time, people weren't sure if "Sunflowers" would be included in the movie soundtrack. Even if it was, people weren't sure if they were ready to buy the soundtrack, which highlighted the value of the single. 

Otherwise, they might have to wait for Anson's personal album, which seemed like a distant prospect. 

iTunes became the only platform where the song could be purchased and downloaded. 

So, in a frenzy, everyone rushed towards iTunes in a swarm. 

The iTunes server immediately felt the pressure. Although it didn't crash for now, the page refresh rate significantly decreased; the surging crowd was clogging the server. 

The numbers were skyrocketing at a speed visible to the naked eye. 

Apple also realized the importance of this collaboration. They were going to take it a step further based on February's "Another Light," this time fully cooperating with Anson's plan— 

The promotion strategy in Times Square had nothing to do with Sony Columbia at all. This was a promotional plan jointly driven by Apple and Warner Records. 

They knew Anson was planning to use "Sunflowers" to boost the movie's box office; but similarly, they were also using the movie promotion to drive music sales. 

Whether it was Apple or Warner Records, they had already started paving the way for the launch of Anson's personal album, with a longer-term vision than Sony Columbia. 

Therefore, regardless of Sony Columbia's opinion, the joint push by Apple and Warner Records was set in stone. 

For this, Apple was fully prepared, keeping a close eye on the download numbers, announcing every time they broke a hundred thousand to let everyone feel the frenzy of "Sunflowers." 

This was also the reason why Mike and Dustin at Warner Records were willing to sign Anson at any cost back then. They believed that "Sunflowers" could propel Anson's music career to another level, and at the same time, it represented a new chapter where the soundtrack and the movie mutually benefited each other. 

Apple agreed. 

However, Apple soon discovered that they had still underestimated Anson's appeal, or perhaps underestimated the energy released by the collision of the movie premiere and the Times Square flash mob. This propelled "Sunflowers" into the position of a trailblazer, set to write new history. 

Sales exploded across the board, to the point where Apple's data refresh almost couldn't keep up. 

One hundred thousand. Three hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand. One million. 

In the blink of an eye, the download count for "Sunflowers" easily surpassed one million. 

Just four months ago, "Another Light" burst onto the scene, writing a legend with unstoppable momentum, setting milestones as the first legally sold digital single to break one million, three million, and five million downloads. The numbers of one million in twenty-four hours and three million in seven days were still distant records in 2004. It single-handedly caused a complete boom in the digital music industry, fundamentally changing the course of the era. 

To this day, the digital download count for "Another Light" has exceeded seven million and is still slowly rising at a snail's pace. 

Undoubtedly, "Another Light" was the industry standard. 

However, a record is destined to be broken from the day it is born; the only question is when. Now, the myth of "Another Light" has been shattered— 

By Anson Wood himself. 

In just six hours, only six hours after "Sunflowers" went live, its download count had already surpassed one million, taking only a quarter of the time "Another Light" took. Not only did it break the record, but it did so with an overwhelming force, single-handedly pushing the record to an untouchable height. 

And the sales continued to bomb. 

The entire North American continent witnessed the birth of history together. Within twenty-four hours, the download count for "Sunflowers" soared in a frenzy, finally settling at a number of three million and seventy thousand, completing its twenty-four-hour journey of creating history and marking a perfect ending. 

In other words, the feat that "Another Light" took seven full days to achieve, "Sunflowers" accomplished in just one day. 

While other singers and other singles were still trying to catch up to the "Another Light" record, "Sunflowers" shattered and broke the record with a massive advantage, creating a distant benchmark and fully unleashing the entire market potential, leaving people to exclaim— 

Digital music sales, can they actually reach such heights? 

Chapter 1562: Adding Fuel to the Fire 

As mentioned before, the entire music market was currently observing and hesitating, everyone knew that the era of digital audio sources was quietly approaching. 

However, the issue of piracy remained unresolved, leading record companies to maintain a reserved attitude – 

The digital audio source market needs attention, but how much attention? What's the priority order? Resource allocation? These details differed in strategy between various companies. 

Ultimately, it still came down to a matter of profit. If the piracy issue couldn't be completely solved, sales wouldn't go up, and record companies couldn't earn more revenue. 

It's a simple numbers problem: a physical single, even as the market gradually declined, could still easily sell three million, or even five million copies; a digital audio source single could reach downloads of ten million or even twenty million, but piracy took the lion's share, and the genuinely legal downloads might only be one million, or even less than one million. 

What did this mean? 

Putting the sales numbers aside for a moment, what was most frustrating was record companies watching their profits disappear, gone forever. 

Currently, the legal costs record companies were spending on suing pirate digital audio platforms had even exceeded the legal revenue from digital audio sources. 

So, it wasn't that record companies couldn't see the era's progress, but rather that technology hadn't caught up with the times yet, tying their hands and feet. 

About four months ago, the success of "Another Light" on iTunes gave the music industry a positive signal, and record companies began taking action one after another. 

Not long after, things changed again. 

"Sunflower" burst onto the scene, crushing all hesitation, all speculation, all delay with overwhelming force, displaying astonishing energy and stunning everyone. 

It was then that other record companies realized how high digital audio sales could reach, and that all of them could be legal downloads. 

Twenty-four hours, three million. 

Overnight, the entire industry was shaken. Warner Records and Apple fully entered everyone's sight, and some companies suddenly realized they might be too late to enter – 

iTunes had seized the first-mover advantage. 

Apple had been quietly planning and operating silently, waiting for a long year, and now it was finally entering the harvest phase, completely turning the situation around. 

Breaking through! 

Only four months had passed, the wave of "Another Light" hadn't fully subsided, and iTunes had already welcomed its second wave of the year with "Sunflower", quickly establishing itself firmly in the public mind and formally cementing its industry status as the "number one legal digital audio download channel." 

And, this still wasn't the whole story. 

After "Sunflower" was released, it became a universal topic of discussion. 

Since the band disbanded on August 31, people had never doubted Anson's talent; after all, all the band's lyrics and music came from Anson. But the key question was, with his acting career booming, was he willing to return to the recording studio? And in what form would he release an album? 

Everything was up in the air. 

Finally, the veil of mystery was lifted. Anson's debut as a solo singer was absolutely stunning. 

It wasn't rock, but hip-hop. 

In the past two years, hip-hop and rap had fully risen, with artists led by Jay-Z and 50 Cent making major inroads into the mainstream. 

Although rap was huge in the nineties, its street and gang-related musical elements were always limited to a certain scope, commonly known as "unable to enter the halls of elegance." However, the situation had completely changed now; hip-hop and rap were more mainstream and commercial, and their influence was spreading universally. 

However, at the Grammy Awards ceremony earlier in the year, hip-hop and rap received no awards in the four major general categories, offering a glimpse into the Academy's attitude. 

And now, Anson was surprisingly dabbling in hip-hop. 

The entire market was in an uproar. 

Yet, just like the band wasn't simple rock, this wasn't simple hip-hop either; it blended styles like pop and Latin. 

Fresh and exciting! 

The entire music market was buzzing with discussion. 

Sony Columbia: ... 

Not just Michael Lynton, but Amy Pascal too, were completely stunned, utterly stunned, losing their ability to react, their brains grinding to a halt. 

Shock. Impact. Bewilderment. 

These words were completely insufficient to describe Michael Lynton's mood at that moment. Fright was the accurate word. 

The premiere's brilliance and sensation were within expectation; after all, Sony Columbia had poured money into it, and that much money would make some splash even if thrown into water. But "Sunflower"'s dazzling debut was unexpected. He was caught off guard, watching zebras and antelopes stampede past him in a mighty roar. The herd was so large and its momentum so fierce that even a lion could be buried under their hooves. 

This was how Michael felt right now. 

"That guy actually..." 

Michael couldn't believe that Anson, behind Sony Columbia's back, had secretly teamed up with Warner Records and Apple, stabbing them in the back. 

What's more, Anson hadn't violated the contract. If word got out, people would even praise Anson for promoting the movie with his own money. Sony Columbia should have been grateful. 

Michael knew he had to swallow this bitter pill silently. 

Soon, Michael realized he wasn't the only one caught off guard. 

From the clues within the company, it was clear that Amy's supporters were equally flustered and surprised. It seemed Amy was likely also kept in the dark and knew nothing. 

Clearly, Anson had not only played Michael but also Amy, truly placing Sony Columbia in opposition. Was Anson being so foolishly reckless just because he had Warner Bros. as a powerful backer? 

Putting that thought aside for now, when Michael saw Amy, a thought popped into his head, and he boldly acted on it. 

"Heh heh. Looks like that young man did quite a few things where you couldn't see, and treated you like a monkey too," Michael whispered devilishly into Amy's ear. 

This was sowing discord, and also leveraging the situation – 

A wise person knows when to adapt to circumstances. 

If Amy were to turn back now and align with Michael, at least when Michael fully took over Amy's work, he could allow her a graceful exit. Either she could work under him – he was willing to let bygones be bygones and give her a job – or he could let her leave honorably. 

Amy was flustered, yes, things had been spiraling out of control since the Warner Bros. situation, and now she truly couldn't see the bigger picture. 

But this didn't mean she would betray Anson to Michael. 

"It's rare to see a hint of panic leak through your smiling mask. Don't be like that, Michael, if you give up so easily, the game won't be fun," Amy retorted lightly, even with a hint of sympathy in her expression, completely disdaining Michael's provocation. 

Then, Amy caught a fleeting stiffness in Michael's expression. 

This was the first time in their long two-year rivalry that Amy had seen Michael flustered, no longer strategically planning, but showing a hint of urgency in his actions. 

This current provocation, at a glance, was clearly based purely on intuition – 

This wasn't Michael Lynton's style. 

The corners of Amy's mouth curled up, revealing a genuine smile. Things, it seemed, were finally starting to get interesting now. 

Chapter 1563: Working Together with Force 

Of course, Amy wasn't losing her head. 

She knew Anson had set her up, she knew Anson's collaboration with Warner Bros. had put Sony Columbia in a difficult position, and she also knew Anson was planning something big. 

But at the same time, she knew Anson was her greatest hope for staying at Sony Columbia, and that Anson continuing to play Spider-Man was in Sony Columbia's best interest— 

In the short term, Sony Columbia might need to use a massive contract to keep Anson, potentially hurting their immediate interests. In the long term, Amy believed this was a wise and correct investment. Sony Columbia couldn't worry about trivial short-term gains; they needed to look ahead. 

So, whether from the company's perspective or her own, Amy knew that Anson was the right choice. 

Amy would not mistake who was an enemy or a friend out of impulse or panic. 

If Michael thought that Anson's unconventional approach might disrupt their plans and cause Amy to switch sides, then Michael clearly hadn't truly seen the whole picture. 

Perhaps this was the first time Amy had seen a flaw in Michael. 

A smile crept onto her lips, a genuinely heartfelt one. 

Michael noticed Amy's gaze and felt a slight sting. He had barely managed to hit the brakes in time and regain control of himself; the reins of rationality were back in his hand. 

Michael found his composure again. "Right now, that young man is digging his own grave, priding himself on being clever, but this game isn't over yet. It's still unknown who will ultimately be buried." 

Currently, the momentum for "Spider-Man 2" was surging, breaking all perceptions and overturning all common sense. People's expectations for the movie's box office performance were further going off the charts. 

Clearly, Anson was pushing himself into a position attracting worldwide attention, a position with no way back, one where he couldn't back down gracefully, and one with no room for error. By then, a North American box office performance of three hundred million dollars for "Spider-Man 2" might still not be considered satisfactory in the eyes of the general public. 

In Michael's view, Anson was playing with fire, putting himself on the fire to be roasted. He was being clever by half, but the reality was his cleverness was defeating its own end. Adding fuel to the fire could easily turn into getting burned by his own actions if he wasn't careful. 

It was still too early to declare the winner or loser of this contest. 

Since Amy was stubbornly refusing to wake up and was prepared to perish in the sea of fire with Anson, rejecting his good intentions, there was no need for him to show pity. 

Michael didn't even bother to respond to Amy's provocation, chuckling lightly. "Heh, of course, of course. You have to see it through to the end to know the truly brilliant winner." 

"Good luck." 

"Oh, no, good luck to all of us." 

Michael's confidence and composure slightly surprised Amy. She hadn't expected that in the blink of an eye, Michael had regained his footing and found his rational confidence in strategizing. 

In the end, it was Michael who turned and walked away slowly and leisurely. 

He had just turned his back on Amy, but a light was already gleaming in Michael's eyes— 

Since Anson was prepared to play with fire, then he would go with the flow and fan the flames, making the fire even more intense and boiling. By then, don't say Sony Columbia dragged their feet. 

At the same time, Amy's mind was racing with thoughts. She quietly clenched her fist. Now that Anson had created the opportunity, she needed to contribute to the momentum and firmly seize the chance to generate hype. 

Rarely seen, Michael and Amy, each with their own intentions, reached a consensus. The two chief executive officers of Sony Columbia rarely joined forces to push something forward. 

And then— 

Things were getting out of control. 

With Sony Columbia entering the fray, their media and publicity resources were fully unleashed. Cooperating with Warner Records and Apple's promotion, they actively played the role of collaborators, as if they had known about the "Sunflowers" plan all along, and everything was agreed upon and part of their plan, forming a three-way partnership. 

The most remarkable thing was that Sony Columbia seemed to have finally eliminated internal disagreements and were pushing "Spider-Man 2" together with one heart, hoping the movie would achieve great results. Sony Columbia, which had been troubled and indecisive due to internal power struggles, finally reached a consensus, providing strong support with all their resources. 

The combined effort of the promotional resources from three top companies, while not simply one plus one being greater than two, did cover every corner from all angles. It wasn't just North America; the heatwave could be felt globally. The entire situation had gone beyond anyone's judgment in Hollywood. 

Moving forward, everything was new and unknown. 

Just like when "Titanic" burst onto the scene back then, eyes from inside and outside the industry were all focused; no one wanted to miss this grand event. 

Hollywood: ...Dumbfounded! 

Such a scene was also completely unexpected. Originally, the entire North American market was already boiling because of "Spider-Man 2," and now the music market was also dragged in. 

Especially the media and audience who attended the premiere unanimously stated that this song "Sunflowers" played an important role in the movie, and the movie soundtrack was also about to be released! 

The topic of movie soundtracks, which had been quiet in the music market for a long time, returned to people's attention. It had been four full years since the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack exploded onto the market. Could the "Spider-Man 2" soundtrack be about to make history again? 

Driven by powerful media resources, the rolling heatwave had long broken free from the constraints of the film and music industries, strongly breaking out and becoming the biggest event of this summer. 

Just how exaggerated was this momentum? 

Simply put, the biggest event of 2004 that was originally attracting global attention was the Athens Olympics, which was about to kick off in August and had already started building anticipation a month in advance. But now, the Athens Olympics also yielded; "Spider-Man 2" strongly topped everything, and eyes from all industries converged. 

Traffic. Hype. Attention. Everything went off the charts. For a time, it seemed like every corner was buzzing about "Spider-Man 2." 

And! 

Anson. Anson. Anson. 

Everything, absolutely everything, was about Anson. 

Everyone knew that the white balloon waterfall at the premiere, plus the spectacular scene of the entire audience cheering Anson's name after the screening ended, every detail proved Anson's uniqueness. And the appearance of "Sunflowers" further proved this point. Anson was drawing the attention of both the music and film markets. 

Frenzy! 

According to official iTunes data, from Thursday to Sunday, in just four days, the legal download count for "Sunflowers" had strongly surpassed seven million. 

What did this number actually mean? 

Simply put, the total cumulative download sales that "Another Light" accumulated over four full months were easily broken and surpassed by "Sunflowers" in just four days. 

Seven million. 

A distant number, an incredible number, a number that industry insiders generally believed would be difficult to surpass in just two years, but now, only four months later, "Sunflowers" had easily surpassed it, and it only took four days. 

From four months to just four days, an explosive energy that left people speechless, destroying all rationality like withered leaves and completely changing professionals' understanding of industry rules, leaving experts completely speechless and sweating profusely, like a group of fools. 

Time is one thing; numbers are another. 

This number is incredible even when considering physical sales.