Chapter 350 First Week Sales
With the cooperation of Warner Pioneer and Sony CD Factory, Akina Nakamori's third single was rushed and finally distributed as expected in mid-October.
Of course, Shirakawa Electric's financial ability played an indelible role in this.
However, since it is a single, in addition to the Shirakawa Electric advertising CM, Warner also prepared various promotional activities for Akina Nakamori.
By the beginning of October, it had already been appearing on major radio stations and programs.
In recent days, with the release of advertisements for Shirakawa Electric's portable CD player, everyone has heard of this very popular newcomer, whose latest single will soon be released simultaneously with the portable CD player.
As a result, the "Mingcai faction" that has begun to take shape, and the general public who are paying attention to Shirakawa Electric's portable CD player, are all secretly looking forward to the release date.
On October 15th, major electronics stores in Tokyo hung advertising signs such as "Discman" and "Portable CD Player" on their doors.
Of course, huge posters are also indispensable in eye-catching places on the streets. In the subway lines, there are also combinations of portable CD players and active speakers everywhere.
In shopping malls and hypermarkets, Shirakawa Electric's CD players are placed in the most conspicuous positions.
The black metal body on the exhibition stand, which is completely different from the previous walkman and vinyl record player, attracted a lot of people's attention.
The first generation of portable CD player D-01 has not changed much from the model shown at the introduction meeting. It is still a split design, with the CD player and battery box being two separate units.
It’s not that Shirakawa Electric doesn’t want to make an integrated product, but due to technical limitations, it can only achieve this level.
However, this problem should be solved next year, as the chewing gum battery at Northeastern University has already made some progress.
As for the current first-generation model, no changes will be made for the time being. However, in order to make it more beautiful, the battery box is designed to be rounded and a storage case is provided.
If you want to take the CD player out, a storage case can easily solve the problem.
In addition, the active speakers that were launched at the same time are also recommended to customers as a combination with the CD player.
A CD player and a set of active speakers make a pocket-sized home audio system.
Compared with the audio systems at home that cost hundreds of thousands or millions, this set from Shirakawa Electric is much cheaper.
A CD player (49,800 yen) and a set of active speakers (39,800*2=79,600 yen) only cost less than 130,000 yen in total, which is a great deal.
Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want speakers. Shirakawa Electric has a wide variety of headphones and you can choose from them.
Even for batteries, Shirakawa Electric has related brands.
With every purchase of a Walkman, CD player, speaker, handheld game console, etc., two batteries will be given for free.
It is also very cheap to buy individually, only 100 yen per section, which is just a drop in the bucket for Japanese people.
At this moment, the young people in the store were surrounding Shirakawa Electric's portable CD player, looking at it curiously.
They had heard about this new type of music player a long time ago, and it was said that the sound quality was much better than that of a Walkman.
But we don’t know what the specific sound effects are like, after all, it is a new product that has just been released.
Sony's desktop computers are too expensive, and few people can afford them except for middle-class and above families.
So Sony and Shirakawa Electric have both run several rounds of advertisements for CD players, and everyone has heard of them, but no one knows the specific effects.
But it doesn't matter. Shirakawa Denki will place a CD player for audition in the store, which will play Akina Nakamori's latest CD single.
At this moment, there was a long line in the store, all waiting to try out the CD player.
When it comes to being considerate, Shirakawa Electric has definitely taken very thorough considerations into account. You see, Sony doesn't have such measures.
Sony's desktop computers are for noble classical music lovers. How could they be interested in you poor kids?
So even though CD players have been on the market for half a month, many people still have not experienced what CD sound quality is like.
But Shirakawa Electric is much more affordable. From price to service, who can refuse it?
In order to present the CD player in the most perfect state, the headphones used for audition are Shirakawa Electric's top-level noise-cancelling headphones.
Some young people experienced the sound quality of the CD player. After taking off their headphones, they immediately returned to the shelf and looked at the exquisite packaging boxes with shining eyes.
Looking at the price again, it’s 49,800 yen. This price is really not expensive, it’s about the same as a better Walkman.
So he gritted his teeth, took out his wallet from his pocket, clicked the number, and reluctantly bought a CD player.
The sound quality is really great, it is totally different from tapes and vinyl. After listening to the CD player, it feels like my ears have been washed.
However, compared to the CD bare machine, more people bought the Akina Nakamori set.
The so-called set is a combination package that includes Akina Nakamori's CD single.
The total price is 51,000 yen, and if you calculate it separately, each CD costs about 1,200 yen.
Of course, customers can also go to the record store and buy Akina Nakamori's records alone, priced at 1,500 yen.
This means that if you buy the set, you can save about 300 yen on the record.
It is worth mentioning that whether in electronics stores or record stores, everyone is shocked .
I was surprised because it was so cheap, too cheap compared to vinyl records.
The price of an ordinary vinyl record is usually more than 2,000 to 3,000 yen, and it will be even more expensive if it is an album.
But look at how much a CD costs now, it’s only about half of a vinyl record.
This is because there is a difference in their production costs. The material cost of a CD is only 20 or 30 yen, but the cost of a vinyl record is several times higher.
What’s more, the size of the vinyl record is too large, 30cm in diameter, and it is not convenient to maintain.
Compared to it, CD records are simply a product of another generation. Not only is it very small, with a diameter of only 12 cm, but it also does not even require special maintenance according to the instructions.
In the past, the public had no idea about CD records, but after this comparison, the difference is obvious.
More importantly, in the eyes of many people, the sound quality of CDs is better than that of vinyl.
It turns out that CD records have so many advantages. Everyone who has experienced them has high praise for them.
So seeing the affordable price of the CD player, most people directly chose to buy the set.
Of course, if you have a more ample budget, you can just focus on the combination package and pack up the pocket-sized audio system in one go.
In addition to their love for CD players, some people buy Shirakawa Electric's CD players purely because of Akina Nakamori.
They are her die-hard fans, and now that their idol has released a new single, they can only buy another CD player to support her.
There are only two types of CD players on the market, one for 169,800 yen and the other for 49,800 yen. You can tell which one to choose by just using your feet.
The affordable price of a portable CD player plus a pop music CD is the best combination for promoting CDs.
Do you think that this is all the means that Shirakawa Electric uses to promote CD players? Of course not.
Shirakawa Electric and Warner Pioneer signed an agreement that if Akina Nakamori's CD single's first-week sales exceed 50,000, Warner will continue to release CD records of other artists.
Baichuan Feng sees it clearly that if the CD player business is to continue to thrive, content is an indispensable part.
Only the continuous release of new records can attract consumers to buy CD players.
These two constitute a stable CD ecological environment if consumers are willing to pay for it.
Then CDs will slowly grow until the day they replace vinyl.
Now with the official launch of Shirakawa Electric's CD player, a revolution in the music industry has begun in full swing.
Shirakawa Electric is not the only company in the market that is paying attention to the sales of its CD players.
Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Pioneer, etc. are all secretly estimating the sales volume of Shirakawa Electric.
After all, they are all participants in the CD player market, and the performance of their competitors will provide them with a certain reference.
The bustling scene in the market has made competitors eager to make a move.
Not only were the electronics stores and record shops packed with people, but the launch of the Shirakawa Electric CD player was also being hotly discussed on television and radio.
The reason why it has become such a hot topic is that Shirakawa Electric has combined its products with the entertainment industry.
As a form of entertainment for the general public, the entertainment industry has always been a subject of much discussion.
Shirakawa Electric's advertising slogan "Discman and Akina Nakamori make their double debut" attracted a lot of people's attention.
In addition, this is Japan's first pop music CD, so there are many people who want to try it out.
With topics, there will be traffic, so will there be few people buying CD players?
Although competitors do not know what the specific results will be, it does not prevent them from taking action.
Panasonic, Pioneer, NEC and others are contacting record companies and are also preparing to launch a first-release bundled promotion for their own products.
Even Sony, which has already started selling its products, has quietly asked its own record company to start producing CDs of current popular songs.
For example, some records of "Light Girl" Seiko Matsuda are the priority choices.
Shirakawa Electric has already set an example for them on how to promote their CD players. If they still don't understand how to do it, then there is really no hope.
A week passed in a flash, and on Monday of the second week, Shirakawa Electric and Warner Pioneer simultaneously announced their first week sales.
70,000 portable CD players! "Second Love" achieved 80,000 initial sales!
The first-week sales, which were almost the same, dazzled the eyes of competitors and the entertainment industry.
For a brand new music player with no record support on the market, selling 70,000 units in the first week was a remarkable achievement.
As for Akina Nakamori's third single, it sold 80,000 copies in the first week and unsurprisingly topped the Oricon singles weekly chart.
Well, but at this time Oricon does not have a CD chart, and the current charts only count vinyl records and tapes.
However, the result of 80,000 copies, whether it was vinyl or cassette, was sold out in seconds.
It’s well deserved to be number one on the weekly list.
The hot sales of portable CD players and Akira Nakamori's singles prove that the future of CD records is bright.
And there is a strong public demand for cheaper CD records.
In fact, if you calculate carefully, both CD players and CD records are cheaper than the corresponding vinyl record players and vinyl records.
In terms of sound quality, most people think that CDs are clearer than vinyl.
What does this mean? It means that Shirakawa Electric has brought high-quality music, which was usually only affordable for the middle class, into the homes of ordinary people.
Although this practice of "degrading" music will be criticized by some old stubborn people, the enthusiastic feedback from the public is the best counterattack against them.
As I said before, demand determines the market, and the market determines capital.
Shirakawa Electric's series of unconventional practices have also brought more changes to this market.
