Shen Lihui Out Of The Music: How Big Is The Modern Sky?

"At the very beginning, I was very depressed. The world seemed to be virtual, ultimately meaningless, but then it became optimistic, unable to change, and had to be happy." Shen Lihui said.

He is the founder of the modern sky. With the summer fire of the band, the company's new pants, mush, turtle and other bands successfully broke the circle, and once again stood in the center of the spotlight. The modern signing of the musicians included Maggie Cheung, the all-purpose Youth Hostel, Xie Tianxiao, Song Dongye, Yao Shisan, Ma and so on. The strawberry Music Festival also swept across the country.

Shen Lihui on the draught is now indifferent. "The best time to enjoy is to stay where you are. Emotion is something in a flash. It moves and is basically calm and peaceful. He told the twenty-first Century business reporter.

The first time I saw Shen Lihui was in the afternoon of the end of August, and his office was wearing a glass house, T-shirt, black frame glasses, and sunlight outside the window. The modern sky headquarters, located outside the East Fourth Ring Road of Beijing, was previously a chemical plant and logistics concentration area in Beijing.

Shen Lihui, who is pursuing "loneliness", has entered the WTO. He spent about 2/3 days a day dealing with things, then he continued to "stay". "I am not nervous now. If I am not on a business trip, I will basically be in the office. Once a week, I will have a management meeting for two weeks." He said.

Behind the founder of "farewell to despondent", the modern sky has developed rapidly and has become one of the largest music companies in China. Covering music copyright, artist brokers, live music and other plates, and set up a brand in Britain and the United States.

"From the core business, the modern sky is home music copyright company. Its revenue share is similar to that of the artist's brokerage business, the highest proportion of live music is, and the plate is around 500 million yuan." Shen Lihui revealed.

Behind the modern sky is a low-key but seductive independent music economic chain. Shen Lihui has publicly stated that before the "summer of the band", the new trousers were 400 thousand and 450 thousand respectively. China has 300 music festivals a year, singing enough 20 games, and earning nearly 10 million every year. The box office split Livehouse will not be able to play 50 games a year, if 200 yuan per ticket, 1000 viewers will be 200 thousand. After the summer of the band, the gold content of musicians has increased rapidly, and more importantly, it has enhanced the modern sky's right to speak in the whole industry.

Riding on the east wind, Shen Lihui opened the fourth layout of the modern sky, went down the line, including hotels, cultural tourism, education, cultural creation and other industries. "We are surrounded by an aesthetic system to link art and consumption, in fact, traffic operation." From aesthetics to music, to flow operation companies, this is the future of the modern sky. He introduced.

The idea of slowing economic growth is not easy. There are similar plans for Taihe music, even the Tencent and NetEase music, which have been planned by IPO. "Chinese music companies lack a systematic business model and ecology. We are pushing this effort." Xu Yi, President of Taihe music group, told reporters on twenty-first Century economic report.

Another high-end chain hotel executives conceded that hotel business is getting worse. "Music can lead the way, but it is definitely not the core competitiveness of the industry. It is difficult to replicate on a large scale. "

But Shen Lihui seems confident of the future. "We need to do one billion in the next two or three years." He said.

Key musicians

Shen Lihui did not deny that the summer of the band played a catalytic role in business.

"The promotion of Music Festival is not so obvious, but the concert and LiveHouse are very obvious. We just announced that the new trousers were involved in the thunderbolt party, and the three minute tickets on the line were basically sold out. Including Mr. turtles, their performance has definitely increased. " He said.

More importantly, variety promoted the return of audiences. "30 year old -40 years old people, and inspire them again, these people have already not to music festival, because it is too hard. Now it's burning again. They have reached the upper and middle levels in society and have a very strong spending power. Shen Lihui road.

This is consistent with the twenty-first Century Economic Observer's observation. The reporter has participated in the "summer of the band" in the final stage. Fans fanning the studio. There are many spectators who are over 30 years old. They come from all over the country, and some people even ask for leave to participate in the recording. In another entertainment activity that journalists took part in, many middle-aged people sang the music of the Tang Dynasty Band and Cui Jian, and the rock and roll passion was not weaker than that of the young people. The group included the senior executives of the pharmaceutical companies and the directors of the law firms.

Despite the current heat, the modern sky has formed its own closed loop, covering artists, copyrights and offline performances. Take its music production and copyright as an example. Over the past twenty years, the modern sky has produced over 200 albums, along with the growth history of China's original independent music, from the early Chinese rock Badhead logo to the current young MDSK, which accounts for a similar proportion of revenue to the artists' brokers, and the more than 100 group of artists in the economic business. Shen Lihui revealed.

On the spot music, the proportion of total revenue is the highest, among which music festival is the most important, followed by concerts, mini shows and LiveHouse. "At present, LiveHouse has shops in Shanghai and Kunming, and it will open to 20 in the future. There are advantages in rents, which can get relative benefits, such as decoration subsidies, and so on. He said.

In Shen Lihui's view, the modern sky carrier is music, but the core competitiveness lies in aesthetics. "Modern aesthetics" is a kind of angle and sensitivity to aesthetics, and self iteration and innovation ability, combined with aesthetic foundation, this is the gene of modern sky. I studied art. I was in the Beijing arts and crafts school, some of the modern bands, Ding Wu (the band leader of the Tang Dynasty), Pang Kuan (New Pants keyboard singer and keyboard player), Yao Lan (used Rose Band guitarist), all came out of our school. Like attracts like. One aesthetic and the other is commercialization, which makes up the modern sky. The so-called ideal and reality, we first put the ideal first, the reality level, must also be able to do. He said.

Musicians are the core of the modern closed loop of the whole sky, but they are attacked by the Internet commercialization giants of the fully commercialized institutions. Many giants, including Tencent music, NetEase music and shrimp music, all focus on creating musicians.

"We are not a pure record company. Musicians today earn most of their income from offline. When he decides to sign a contract, he must have a look at the comprehensive ability, whether he has enough creative freedom and the quality of his company. We are a company that has the most cash in ability for independent musicians. Similarly, an artist will be placed in other companies and us, at least 30% higher. " Shen Lihui said. But he does not deny the growth ability of the platform. "We are also growing and have the advantage of window period."

Musicians do have a "circle" culture. Shen Lihui for example, the modern sky in the bean paste on the excavation of Song Dongye, but before, Song Dongye has applied for the modern sky, target enterprise declared. "He wanted to save the country with curves. After we signed Song Dongye, Ma came and Yao thirteen. Maggie Cheung liked Song Dongye, and we signed her on the way. In the first year of the Modern Sky Music Festival, Song Dongye was an audience and was still a thin person. As long as we do what we need to do, we must have connections in the dark.

On the other hand, executives from the head idol company felt sorry for the twenty-first Century business reporter. "Now the artists have come to primary school students, we have to be responsible for raising them, economic pressures and risks." He said.

This state of affairs seems to have relatively limited influence on the modern sky. "We are discovering people and letting him be himself. The idol system is chosen, and then the artist is asked to play the role of presupposition. We seldom interfere with musicians. There are always pressures to find new people. We have only one hundred groups in China. In fact, it is very harsh in theory. Shen Lihui said.

With the advantage of musicians, the modern sky has a certain initiative. "Music platform (copyright revenue) has a limited proportion of total revenue, which is acceptable to us. Therefore, it is not afraid of monopoly. Artists' brokers earn almost the same, and head artists make a lower proportion, which can also hedge risks." Shen Lihui analysis.

In this case, the modern sky opens the revenue ceiling. Shen Lihui believes that the festival still has great potential. "In the Internet age, the lifestyle of young people is becoming more and more similar. We do not have to adjust the line-up in one place. The Strawberry Festival is more than a dozen stations throughout the year, most of which are profitable. Shouldn't China open the music festival of more than 100 cities? They certainly need music festivals. The threshold of Music Festival is very low. In the future, it will be more like a movie theater.

The copyright market also has new increments. "There's still a lot of money left in copyright. For example, public broadcasting is like a trickle. Copyright business is also the highest profit margin segment. We finished it 20 years ago. From the source of profits, the biggest is copyright. The profit margin under the line is relatively low, and the actual gross profit is less than 20. Shen Lihui road.

Firmly grasp the power of control.

The key to the interpretation of the modern sky is the founder Shen Lihui.

"In the cultural industry, the sense of powerlessness is normal, but I will convince myself with other reasons. For example, when it is very bad, it is said that music is a favorite industry. When you like a thing, you should spend money, how you can earn money in something you like, every time you can say so. Because there is no other choice. " He admitted to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter.

Shen Lihui's entrepreneurial history is indeed tortuous. He has been on the brink of bankruptcy two times. After graduation, Shen Lihui founded a printing company. In the early 90s, he owed nearly 300 thousand yuan. With the decline of the music industry and the beginning of the modern sky, Shen Lihui was in debt again and fell to the bottom again. "Choosing music business is because I want to play my own band and become a rock star."

In the end, Shen Lihui succeeded, and even "rock star" saved the printing business. At the time when the printing plant lost nearly 300 thousand, he took the rest of his savings out of the record, and produced the first album of his life, rock 94. It is catching up with the last gold period of the record industry. This record has enabled Shen Lihui to get 100 thousand income from the bottom line, so he has paid off some debts and the printing company has changed the business mode.

What Shen Lihui most wanted was to produce a record that was entirely his own, but at that time the recording industry was already in its twilight years. So the record company set up the modern sky. In 1997, Shen Lihui's first album "wonderful! Sales volume exceeded 200 thousand. "I have another wish to become a football star, but it soon collapsed." He said.

Great! With the music industry entering the "dark period", in 2002, the modern sky, which was founded for only 5 years, is facing death and death. The company has debts of 23 million, leaving only two employees. "In 2003, we made a Suede band concert, though we lost money. But it's cool. " Shen Lihui recalls.

The turning point appeared in 2007 and founded the "Modern Sky Music Festival". With the music festival, the modern sky began to enter the profit stage. In 2015, the state launched the "sword net action", cracking down on pirated music. With the QQ music and other major platforms began to compete for exclusive copyright, modern skyline copyright revenue surged. In 2009, the modern sky became the first capital to come from the Silicon Valley paradise. At the end of 2015, it was announced that it was awarded the B round financing of the Fuxing Group's investment company's recreation culture 130 million yuan cash and the next 3 billion investment plan. At the end of 2016, it won the C financing of Junlian capital.

Objectively, the contact with capital has perfected Shen Lihui's commercial framework. "I prefer to do the industry, and I want to understand the industry structure at a low point." He said.

Shen Lihui, with "industrial dream", firmly grasped the dominant power of modern sky. "70% stake belongs to me and management team, 30% belongs to investor. Investors are not involved in the operation, and the funds are in good condition. There is no refinancing plan. " He told the twenty-first Century business reporter.

Exploring cross boundary hotels

After the fundamental stability, Shen Lihui's "industrial dream" is becoming clearer.

"From aesthetics to music, to flow operation companies, this is the future of the modern sky, not only music, a node, or even a modern movie company. The fourth sector has already set up a company, and there will be a framework for subdividing business. It may be larger than its original size. " Shen Lihui explained.

At present, one of the foothold of "new modern" is the hotel. The joint venture between modern sky and Dongcheng group has been registered in Guangzhou. Shen Lihui disclosed that the new company shares 49% of the modern sky, not holding shares, focusing on hotel operation. "When we take the property, we will have a price advantage with the modern brand. At the same time, the hotel will include Livehouse and so on. There will also be some public spaces that are designed to play the new format with three-dimensional playing. We have some new value-added. Millions of fans have already had enough traffic. In turn, hotels will attract new users, recognition of hotel design and recognition of quality. A hotel usually has about 80 thousand guests a year, a music festival may be 30 thousand, sometimes 60 thousand. Modern Sky Hotel will not open hundreds of cities in the future. We may open 10 homes and 20 homes. This logic is actually a bit like music, it actually connects people. He said.

The industry does have doubts about the modern sky. The foregoing hotel executives told the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century that music flow should be a diversion and effective in the operation of his specific company, such as the modern sky project. But after all, music flow promotion is limited, and the industry will enter the stock competition, the modern sky advantage is hard to say. "The flow of fans is economic, but the magnitude is not too big. It is difficult to support many hotels. If there are music festivals and other packaging projects, the modern sky does have a certain bargaining power, but the industry direction is that competition is becoming more and more difficult. The most important thing in hotel industry is basic capability. He said.

Shen Lihui also admitted that in the hotel supply chain, the modern sky is still in the "system running in period". "From location, our hotel is not only music, but also its design and aesthetics. First of all, it is a good hotel. Not particularly the so-called flow, but also with the crowd's matching, quality and aesthetics. He added.

The other direction is education. The modern sky set up the Kids children's music brand, hatched the little strawberry Music Festival, and made children's talent selection and training around the little strawberry.

"After the first sample is finished, the evaluation is very high, so it is very confident to do the ten stop next year. Behind it is the demographic dividend. Parent-child is a big market. I believe in modern appeal, brand and execution. Small strawberry audiences, many of them are modern users, ten years strawberry Music Festival, ten years ago ten years later, they can bring the children. In the final analysis, modern company is the operation company of this kind of person, that is its commercial essence. Shen Lihui said so.

In addition, Wen brigade is also an important direction of modern sky. But Shen Lihui seemed very protective of the project and said it was still in secrecy.

The head of the Tourism Bureau of the famous tourist destination in Southwest China admitted to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter that he was very willing to introduce modern sky related projects and was willing to give subsidies, but with financial pressure, the funds would be very limited. "We are now compressing advertising expenditure and directly subsidizing the flow of traffic."

"I am still closed in my bones. Can I open myself to accept and pay it? It's a challenge. The essence of business is valuable and will be fulfilled someday. What we do in modern times is that we do everything, think it is valuable, may be realized in the short term, may not be realized, but in the end, it can get the same value. " Shen Lihui said.