The Legendary Actor - Chapter 56

When he saw “Cleopatra” at number 48 on the iTunes Instant Download Chart, Renly was really taken aback by the fact that there was no sales gimmick for such an obscure ballad with an unknown indie artist, and the likelihood of it being discovered by listeners was infinitely close to zero among the thousands of digital singles.

Even though iTunes has the ability to recommend singles based on a user’s playlist and personal preferences, the fact is that the recommended singles are also very carefully chosen, and even if they recommend independent artists, they tend to recommend artists they have signed a contract with in order to maximize their profits. Recommending a nobody? Apple is not a philanthropic company.

In other words, for “Cleopatra” it just a pipe dream if it wants to be on the top of the download charts.

But now that the miracle has happened right in front of Renly’s eyes, he couldn’t help but open his mouth slightly, as he couldn’t even find the right words to describe his feelings at the moment, but after hearing Neil’s excited words, Renly just laughed out loud, “Billboard? I don’t think so.”

As the most representative, authoritative and popular music chart in the world, Billboard may not represent the preferences of all listeners, and may not be professional enough, but as a list reflecting the commercial and popular nature of the music market, it stands alone, even the Japanese Public Rankings and the British Pop Charts are not comparable.

The Billboard charts can be broken down into every genre of music, but the most important is undoubtedly the overall chart, the Top 200 Albums chart and the Top 100 Singles chart, where any artist can top both charts, even if it is only for a week, it would still be a reflection of popularity.

Billboard’s chart ranking is more than just a calculation of sales, the list is constantly adjusting its ranking system with the times, and each issue of the chart is ranked by points based on an official formula that takes into account on-demand radio stations, digital downloads, physical sales, and online streaming on-demand media including YouTube’s VEVO, Spotify, and so on.

In other words, the iTunes Instant Download Chart is only a part of the weekly ranking calculation of Billboard, and without radio and streaming data, even if it is temporarily ranked as the winner of the iTunes Download Chart, it will be difficult to occupy the upper ranking on the Billboard Chart.

So the media often mentions, “This single is not on the radio, so it doesn’t have a lot of points,” or “No music video was shot, streaming data is very low, so it’s not going to make it up the charts,” and so on and so forth.

The single “Cleopatra” hasn’t been on even one radio station, it has no music video, and no physical single, and it’s impossible for it to reach the top 100 on the Billboard charts based on iTunes instant downloads alone.

What’s more, “Cleopatra” has not yet reached the astounding level of download figures, and is only ranked at #48, with a probable download count of around ten something thousand. Of course, for a single without any promotion, this result is already unbelievable, which is why Renly was surprised. However Billboard, just count it as a joke.

“Why is that impossible?” Instead, Neil was upbeat, “I’ll tell you what, the bars around here in Greenwich Village, everyone is crazy into the song, and the downloads are definitely no joke; last month, Stanley went to a radio station in Manhattan and recommended the song, and we heard it twice last week.”

America is a nation on wheels, so radio has not declined with the advent of television and the Internet, and has always thrived. Every state and every city has its own radio station, actually too numerous to count, and there are hundreds of them on Manhattan Island alone.

Most commercial radio stations have signed agreements with the five major record labels.

Each day’s music playlist has a range, and ninety percent of the music played by radio hosts comes from that list. However, as Pioneer Village is a well-known music bar in Greenwich Village, even recommended in the official New York City City Hall travel brochure, Stanley had some contacts in local radio stations.

Renly was surprised again, although the reason why he recorded the single “Cleopatra” was a gift to Stanley was because of Stanley’s dedication and enthusiasm, he never really thought that Stanley would actually be so interested in it, as far as to go around promoting it.

Seeing the look on Renly’s face, Neil became proud, and that kind of satisfaction filled his chest to the brim, “It’s not over yet.” After dropping another bomb, Renly fell calm, which made Neal anxious, so he brought up the computer again, and eagerly opened a YouTube page with a couple of random clicks, “Look, look, here’s another result!”

After watching that video for a brief moment, Renly’s brow furrowed slightly, “What is this?”

Neil’s heart sank a little, only then did he realize that he was so proud of himself that he had actively exposed it, and it was obvious from Renly’s expression that this was the first time he had seen this video, “Hey, it’s just a little hobby. The last time you performed at the bar, I recorded it, and I think it’s such a great performance that we can’t just keep it to ourselves. I definitely want to share it with everyone.”

What was playing on the laptop was the video of Renly singing “Cleopatra”. He had no idea that Neil had actually recorded the video, much less that Neil had put it on YouTube. Looking at the time of the upload, it was obviously last summer, and to top it off, he didn’t even know until now, which is really a kind of ridiculous feeling ….

Neil took a closer look at Renly, unsure of what Renly’s mood was at this point, and was too busy preempting, “Look, everyone loves it, really! This video was also on YouTube’s official recommendation last Thursday, and now has more than two million hits, and the number of likes has reached ….” Under Renly’s gaze, Neil’s voice gradually dropped to an almost inaudible level.

“My eyes are still good,” Renly said in a deep voice, the number of likes on the video has exceeded 50,000, which is really amazing.

The problem lies in the fact that Renly didn’t have any publicity, and no updates after this videos, so a video that has been uploaded for nearly nine months, and is still anonymous, had been accumulating step by step to the current level, which was indeed a bit shocking.

If you think about it, it’s not hard to find the reason – “The Pacific”. The fervor this work generated on the Internet brought Renly a strong exposure, and the search index rose, while the click-through rate of the YouTube video also climbed steadily, so that the increase in the number of iTunes downloads can also be explained.

This is the first time Renly felt his own popularity rise, he is no longer a nobody, the name “Renly Hall” is getting familiar to more and more people, the news reports on big stars finally have some authenticity to him. It was just that he had never thought that he would actually feel in such a way. The Internet age of the twenty-first century was really different.

Suddenly, Renly reacted to why that truck uncle had that reaction just now! He didn’t watch “The Pacific”, he watched the video of the YouTube performance and wondered why the reaction to it didn’t match “The Pacific”!

“Don’t blame Neil, I had a hand in this.” Stanley’s familiar voice came from behind him, and Renly turned his head, then saw Stanley walking over with an apologetic and guilty look on his face, “I just think that good music should be shared with everyone, and your performance shouldn’t be enjoyed only by a bunch of old men from Pioneer Village. I hope you don’t mind.”

Renly never had much interest in music, and it was a sign of disrespect to Renly that they went behind his back and made his compositions and performances public.

When he first learned of this, he was surprised and angry, and he didn’t like the feeling of things being done behind his back; however, when he looked at the sincere Stanley in front of him, all the negative emotions vanished. Instead, he only felt a slight soreness in his chest. He could feel Stanley’s enthusiasm and devotion. It was pure enough to touch anyone.

What’s more, the person who recorded and uploaded the single was Renly himself, and no one forced him to do so, right?

“Shouldn’t I thank you instead?” Renly said with a smile, and Neal, who had been standing beside him with his head bowed and pretending to think about it, looked up with surprise in his eyes, “This is a gift from me to you, and as to how you use it, that’s your freedom. But now it seems that this gift is actually re-gifting myself, or at least, I should have some income from my royalties, and I can take you all to dinner some day.”

Renly’s jibe made everyone laugh, and Neil began to re-do the deed once again, “I knew it, I knew your music would be enjoyed by millions of people, you see, the streaming numbers are going up all the time, not just on YouTube and iTunes, but Spotify as well, and the next maybe the Billboard singles! Rankings are definitely not just words.”

Looking at Neil’s face, Renly laughed dumbly, “Then next, should we not be thinking about being among the top ten, or even winning the leadership?” An indie folk song in the top ten on the Billboard singles chart? This has to be the best joke in the music market since the twenty-first century.

“Why not!” Neal thumped his chest and said confidently.

Renly nodded seriously, with a smile on his lips, and said in all seriousness, “Then I’ll wait for that day to come! I’ll take you for a ride up the Hudson River then.”

Neil and the rest of the group shouted as if agreeing. Renly stood up, walked over to Stanley and said solemnly, “Stanley, thanks, I mean it.” The old man, who had loved music all his life, was living his dream in his own way too.