Pacific Audio & Video Company was established on January 3, 1979, invested and founded by the Guangdong Province Bureau of Radio, Film and Television.
It was the first audio-visual enterprise in New China equipped with a complete set of internationally advanced, brand-new recording and video equipment as well as audio-visual product production lines.
It had published New China's first stereo cassette tape "Selected Solo Songs by Zhu Fengbo", the first laser disc "Golden Songs of Jiang Dawei", the first video cassette "China Video Collection"......
It could be said that it pioneered the audio-visual industry of New China, witnessed the development of China's audio and video industry, and traversed an extraordinary path from small to large, from weak to strong.
In later generations, this company was no longer prominent, but today in the 1990s, it was a giant in the Mainland China music industry.
Currently, the Lark Award, a relatively well-known music award in Mainland China, was hosted by it.
Originally, the Lark Award was initially established as an end-of-year summary award by Pacific internally to reward singers within the company whose sales exceeded 100,000.
However, with the passage of time and Pacific's influence, this award once became a relatively important music award in Mainland China, and the selection criteria even changed from 100,000 copies to a staggering 2 million copies.
To reiterate, the cassette tape market in Mainland China during the 1980s and 1990s was immensely massive.
Every year, cassette tapes with sales exceeding 1 or 2 million in Mainland China were as numerous as grains of sand.
Of course, one point needed attention: these cassette tapes basically came entirely from Hong Kong and Taiwan singers or covers.
"Peeling tapes" was a very popular trend in Mainland China from the 1980s to the early 1990s.
The so-called peeling tapes meant finding professional musicians to transcribe the musical scores and re-recording them according to the original arrangement.
At that time, the Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music one could hear was played on the radio, brought back by overseas Chinese, or bought from Sha Tau Kok... Only a minority of people could hear the original singers.
Musicians of that era felt shocked upon hearing Teresa Teng, Lo Koon-wai, and Su Rui, and could not help but imitate their singing styles, voices, and arrangements, learning independence through imitation.
Peeling tapes gave birth to a batch of later original musicians: Li Haiying, Chen Xiaoqi, Chen Jieming, and Bi Xiaoshi.
Cui Jian had also peeled tapes. He once recalled in an interview: "In 1984 and 1985, we had just started contacting Western modern music. It felt great, so we started peeling tapes ourselves. As we peeled, we felt we could write, and so we wrote two albums."
Among them, Pacific was the company that took the lead in peeling tapes.
Back then, Zhu Xiaolin's cover of "Mother's Kiss" even sold 2.6 million copies, setting the highest sales record in Mainland China at the time.
This shameless era of song-peeling came to an end in 1991.
Because song-peeling had become a trend in Mainland China, even the Americans could no longer sit still, and even used this in diplomacy to demand that Mainland China issue a copyright law.
Since then, song-peeling officially bid farewell to the Mainland China music stage, and Mainland China musicians also began successively starting their own original works.
And this was the reason why China Record Company would establish a planning department modeled after Hong Kong and Taiwan record companies.
Not only China Record Company, but companies like Pacific also began to improve singer remuneration and focus on Mainland China original music due to the promulgation of the copyright law.
Zhou Ziheng was sitting in Chen Xiaoqi's car.
The car sped rapidly along the road and soon arrived at Pacific Building at 686 Renmin North Road.
Looking from afar, the twenty-nine-story Pacific Building was exceptionally striking among numerous buildings.
Directly opposite it was the Guangdong Province Radio and Television Building.
Speaking of the Guangdong Province Radio and Television Building, there was a rumor about this.
It was said that back then, the reason the Radio and Television Building was established relied on Pacific Audio & Video coming out with 30 million to create it.
As a result, after the Radio and Television Building was established, not only did it not become a subordinate institution of Pacific, but instead it became Pacific's direct superior.
"Compared to our China Record Company, Pacific has one thing that is exceptionally good."
"That is, after you join, the promotional exposure of your cassette tapes will receive stronger guarantees."
"For Pacific's singers, Yangcheng Evening News and the Radio and Television Station will both help vigorously promote them."
When parking, seeing Zhou Ziheng looking at the Radio and Television Station opposite, Chen Xiaoqi spoke up.
Zhou Ziheng agreed with this point as well.
At this time, the Guangdong Province Television Station was definitely one of the television stations with the highest viewership ratings in Mainland China.
Various television programs modeled after Hong Kong and Taiwan emerged endlessly.
For example, A Riot of Colors, a program modeled after Enjoy Yourself Tonight of Hong Kong's TVB, could be said to be the television program with the highest viewership ratings in Mainland China currently.
The slogan "Go down to the Pearl River every month, have a gala every week" was virtually known to everyone in Guangdong Province and several surrounding provinces.
Parking the car, Chen Xiaoqi did not get out immediately, but instead looked at Zhou Ziheng. "I heard Chunbo say that you don't want to sign a singer contract with Pacific, but instead want to sign in the form of cooperation?"
Zhou Ziheng nodded. "I can write songs myself and produce records myself. If I join Pacific to become a singer, there will instead be constraints. It's better to just cooperate rather than become a singer under them."
Chen Xiaoqi pondered for a moment and said, "This is your own decision, and it is not my place to say much."
"However, I must remind you that joining Pacific to become its signed singer versus not joining are two different concepts."
"If you can guarantee quality and sales for every cassette tape, then this decision is undoubtedly beneficial to you."
"But if the quality of your records falls short midway, or the sales are not good, then Pacific obviously will not continue to invest resources in you."
"Therefore, you need to consider carefully yourself."
Zhou Ziheng nodded. "I know, but I still don't want to be constrained."
As long as this cassette tape could successfully earn his first fund for himself, Zhou Ziheng believed that even if he did not join a record company subsequently, he could still achieve sustained development.
After all, he had so many songs in his mind to serve as his backing.
Hearing this, Chen Xiaoqi did not persuade him further, but instead opened the door and got out of the car.
Zhou Ziheng followed him out of the car as well.
Arriving at the first floor of the Pacific Building, Chen Xiaoqi checked in at the front desk and then took Zhou Ziheng up to the twenty-fifth floor.
At the doorway of a room with a plaque reading "Deputy Manager's Office", Chen Xiaoqi stopped and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" A clear voice came from inside.
Chen Xiaoqi did not hesitate, directly pushing the door open and walking in with Zhou Ziheng.
"Xiaoqi! Welcome, welcome!"
An office chair inside the room was occupied by a middle-aged man who immediately stood up and greeted them upon seeing Chen Xiaoqi.
The two seemed very familiar. Without exchanging polite formalities, Chen Xiaoqi directly brought Zhou Ziheng to sit down on the nearby sofa and, pointing at Zhou Ziheng, said:
"This is Zhou Ziheng whom I mentioned I wanted to recommend to you some time ago. He has both a great appearance and a good voice, and possesses impressive songwriting abilities."
As he spoke, he took out the cassette tape of Wandering Song. "This is his recorded cassette tape. All the songs on the entire tape were independently created and completed by him. You can listen to it!"
Liu Zhiwen's gaze constantly sized up Zhou Ziheng, and he nodded imperceptibly, seeming quite satisfied with Zhou Ziheng's appearance.
He took the cassette tape, but instead of finding a tape player to listen to it immediately, he said to Chen Xiaoqi:
"You know about the movements over at New Era, right?"