Produced by | Entrepreneurship is at the forefront
Author | Li Xiaofeng
Edit | Egg total
From the end of 2021, Chen Wen after the 90s has a new hobby - listening to radio dramas. "Radio dramas can bring me joy and fill in those fragments of time in my life." She said.
There are not a few young people like her who are on the top of radio dramas and kryptonite. Most of them are fans of IP or voice actors, and in order to support radio dramas, some people spend thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan for this.
As a kind of sound and dramatization, radio drama is mainly based on character dialogue, and uses musical accompaniment and sound effects to enhance the atmosphere. Therefore, radio dramas test the voice actors' personalized and colloquial performance ability, and they need to be emotionally sincere during the performance process, so that the audience has an "immersive experience".
In essence, the current domestic radio dramas also belong to the "fan economy" - it is an industry that relies on IP fans to develop, which requires the platform side and the production team to please the fans. Only when the fans are happy, they are willing to pay for it.
However, most of the current well-known IP has been developed, will radio dramas face the problem of no IP to produce in the future? Compared with film and television dramas, radio dramas only rely on sound to express content, is there any limitation? With the entry of audio platforms such as Himalaya, Kugou, and NetEase Cloud, what imagination space will there be for radio dramas?
1. The out-of-the-loop and heating up of radio dramas
Zhao Can's hobby of listening to radio dramas after the 90s has been maintained for 3 years. She is a fan of CV (CV refers to voice actors), in order to follow the stars, she will pay and tip for CV's radio dramas, and will also participate in offline fan meetings.
"I listen to radio dramas for a long time every day, from the morning I get up all the time I hear going out to work, I can listen to half an hour during my lunch break, and then I go home in the evening and continue to listen." Zhao Can told "the forefront of entrepreneurship". According to rough statistics, she has spent thousands of yuan to buy radio dramas, and some friends around her have even paid tens of thousands of yuan for krypton.
Radio dramas have a group of loyal fans, mainly IP fans and CV fans. Well-known IP comes with huge traffic, if the IP is not very famous, or the original work of the production team, you need to rely on the fan effect of CV to drive radio dramas.
Graph /Photo Network, based on VRF protocol
Generally speaking, the pricing of radio dramas is not low, and even more expensive than the VIP film and television dramas of movies or video websites, but fans are willing to "kryptonite" for their favorite radio dramas and have good spending power.
According to the observation of "the forefront of entrepreneurship", a radio drama generally has more than a dozen episodes, an episode of about 30 minutes, and the price of each episode is generally between 1-2 yuan, and the most expensive can reach 3 yuan per episode. For example, on the Cat Ear FM platform, the radio drama "Wild" has four seasons with a total price of 77.6 yuan; "Silent Reading" has 5 seasons and the price is more than 145 yuan. In contrast, the monthly membership of the video platform is only more than 20 yuan, but it can watch multiple film and television dramas.
Higher pricing hasn't diminished fan loyalty. Zhao Can said that when the radio drama "Magic Ancestor" was serialized, a general cognition was even formed in the fan group: the pricing was too cheap, and fans had to tip for the radio drama, so that the crew would not lose money.
In order to support their own CV works or original works, some of Zhao Can's friends will send red envelopes to buy this drama after the radio drama is launched.
"In fact, this is also a real problem, as long as fans are willing to spend money, their favorite IP can be continuously incubated, and their happiness will be more and more." Zhao Can analysis. It's actually fans spending money on happiness.
On social platforms, fans also make no secret of the joy that radio dramas bring to themselves. Many people posted on Weibo that they brushed a radio drama six times and seven times, and said that "often brush often new and often harvest touched". For example, Chen Wen, who began listening to radio dramas at the end of last year, was initially aimed at decompression and finding happiness.
Radio dramas have always been a hobby of a niche group, but recently it has a tendency to go out of the loop.
Recently, the radio drama "Secretly Can't Hide" has exceeded 100 million listeners and appeared on Weibo hot search, and in the following days, the topics related to the radio drama of "Blessing of Heavenly Officials" have also rushed to the hot search, and fans are looking forward to the lineup of voice actors. And these two hot searches have also pushed the radio drama to the public.
In the impression of industry observer Guo Qing, 2018 is the most obvious time for the growth rate of the radio drama industry. This year, "The Magic Ancestor" was launched on Cat Ear FM, which played a great driving role in the industry. According to the data of Cat Ear FM, the total number of plays of "Magic Ancestor" has exceeded 500 million times, and the CV participating in this radio drama has officially entered the stage of idolization.
"After CV gains fans, it can monetize by live broadcasting, attending offline events, etc., and CV uses its popularity to purchase copyrights to adapt and produce radio dramas." Guo Qing said.
At present, whether it is from the perspective of the revenue of popular IP radio dramas or the discussion of young people's discussion of related IP adaptations, many signs indicate that the previously niche radio dramas have begun to go out of the circle and heat up.
2. The fan effect is very strong
Like the performing arts industry, the production team of radio dramas is generally equipped with directors, screenwriters, voice actors, artists, post-production and publicity, etc., which also develops voice actors to gradually become "stars" and have their own "fans". Coupled with the fact that the IP itself has a considerable number of fans, radio dramas eventually evolved into an industry that relies heavily on fans.
It has been observed that platforms such as Cat Ear FM and Comic Broadcast mainly rely on radio drama fees, fan tips, live broadcasts and other services to monetize. This requires the platform side and the production team to do their best to please fans and make fans willing to spend on radio dramas.
Guo Qing revealed to "The Forefront of Entrepreneurship" that the producers of radio dramas will always pay attention to the suggestions of fans, and once there is a problem, they will respond as soon as possible, and some small pronunciation errors will be corrected in time. At the request of the producer, some authors will write exclusive interviews for radio dramas to increase the audience.
When a radio drama is over, the producer will organize a discussion event to collect fans' questions, and voice actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, etc. will sometimes participate and answer fan questions.
All of the above methods have increased the stickiness of fans to the work, and also made the income of the radio drama production team and the platform side continue to rise.
In fact, the out-of-the-loop and heating up of radio dramas is indeed inseparable from the strong support of fans, but while relying on fans, fans will bring great uncertainty to radio dramas.
In 2020, the "Blessing of heavenly officials" animation announced the voice cast, and the original voice actor of The Role of Huacheng was sun Lulu, a 729 sound factory, but many fans believe that the CV is inconsistent with the image of Huacheng in their minds and express dissatisfaction. Subsequently, the official Weibo announced that it would renegotiate and draft a dubbing candidate.
Until some time ago, the radio drama "Blessing of heavenly officials" was on the hot search, and many fans posted on the topic to boycott the 729 sound workshop.
Photo / Fans tweeted boycotts 729 Sound Workshop
What is more troublesome is that IP fans and CV fans cause quarrels because of different opinions, which will also bring some unpredictable risky consequences.
Zhao Can remembered that some fans had posted on the forum, saying that they had reported an episode of a radio drama. Dislike of the author, dislike of the voice actor or dislike of the work can be a reason for their report.
In addition, since the beginning of the heating up of radio dramas, the industry is changing, and all the links in this industrial chain are changing, and unconsciously, the requirements of users are becoming higher and higher. Their pickiness is reflected in all aspects of radio drama production, such as whether the CV fits the characters; whether the script is restored or modified by magic; whether the post-production is sophisticated.
Take, for example, a script adaptation. "Many IP works will have a situation of plot procrastination, if you copy the original text will lead to a very watery radio drama, if the screenwriter has no brain to delete, it may be dissed by fans of the original work." Guo Qing said.
"Secondary users appreciate works with love, they can feel the intention of production, but they love thoroughly at the same time, but also have high expectations for content." They asked the production team to keep improving, and once it was done, they didn't skimp on praise. The relevant person in charge of the radio drama production studio "Mibo Culture", which has produced many radio dramas such as "The Governor is Sick", "Too Well Nourished", "Paper Lover" and so on, told "the forefront of entrepreneurship".
Under the high demands of the audience, the radio drama production team must strive for excellence.
"Looking back at the radio drama two years ago, at that time, the production level was already good, but if you look at it now, you will be scolded to death by fans." Zhao Can said. Some radio dramas are complained about by fans, and the production team will even take down the shelves and re-produce them.
Fans often criticize and love at the same time, and they will still recognize radio dramas. "It's just that we can't let the fans down again." The relevant person in charge of Mibo Culture said.
3. The future of radio drama
Objectively speaking, radio dramas are still in a relatively early stage in terms of commercialization and content development, and there is not even a vertical data research report in the industry. However, from the perspective of the online audio market, Ai Media Consulting data shows that its user scale continues to expand, reaching 640 million people in 2021 and 690 million people in 2022.
However, while the industry is running, some problems in radio dramas still need to be paid attention to.
First of all, compared with the rich forms of expression of film and television dramas, radio dramas can only express content through sound, and users need to imagine pictures through various sound effects. In contrast, the single form of expression of radio dramas will be limited.
"The audience didn't bother to imagine that they just wanted to see the protagonist fall in love." Guo Qing said, "Book fans will still want to watch TV more, and it is difficult to be completely attracted by the sound of CV." ”
Some popular film and television drama IP has been made into radio dramas. For example, "You Are My Glory", Cat Ear FM shows that this radio drama has less than 3 million broadcasts, compared with the tens of millions, or even more than 100 million, of other radio dramas, this data is not eye-catching. The TV series of the same name, starring popular artists Di Lieba and Yang Yang, has so far had 4.58 billion album views on Tencent Video.
Photo / Cat Ears FM ("You Are My Glory" radio drama has been played less than 3 million times)
Radio dramas are like film and television dramas without pictures, which also leads to its extreme dependence on the skills of screenwriters and post-production. Compared with the screenwriters of film and television dramas, the screenwriters of radio dramas may need to pay more attention to detail.
For example, when the scene is shown in a café drinking coffee, the film and television drama only needs one picture to express. Radio dramas, on the other hand, need to show the environment of the café, the sound of grinding coffee, the footsteps of the waiter, the sound of serving coffee, and the swallowing, etc., so that the audience can imagine in their minds.
The same is true in post-production. "For example, on a rainy day, raindrops fall on the concrete floor, and a thin woman passes by in high heels. There are at least 3 elements to pay attention to in this scene, namely what ground the rain falls on, how many people are wearing, what shoes they are wearing, and the sounds that appear in different situations are different. The person in charge of Mibo culture said.
In addition, the theme of radio dramas is also limited, and it is difficult for works such as martial arts and science fiction to be made into radio dramas, because many scenes are difficult to restore.
Taking the fight scene of the martial arts drama as an example, although the sound of the sword can be simulated, the action of the two sides fighting is completely unimaginable to the audience. If there is no weapon, the two sides fight with their bare hands, what is the matter, or how to behave when a man in black suddenly comes? Guo Qing said.
Another example is science fiction works, through text descriptions or visual effects, readers and viewers can easily understand what kind of situation the protagonist has entered, but it is difficult for radio dramas to fully express the process of these crossings, and what environment they have crossed into.
Moreover, radio dramas fill the fragmented time of many users, in order to keep the plot smooth, some IP that pays attention to logic and burns brains is not suitable for being made into radio dramas.
Secondly, most of the well-known IP on the market has been developed, will radio dramas face no IP to do in the future?
When some big IPs are preemptively occupied by the head platform, other platforms will attract users through the title party or "rubbing the edge ball" when advertising, but doing so will also have the risk of being supervised and punished.
However, the relevant person in charge of Mibo Culture believes that the domestic IP stock will not decline. The financial report released by reading data shows that last year, there were 700,000 newly signed authors, and if it is calculated according to 1.5 works per person per year, it is equivalent to millions of works appearing every year, and then removing the average quality, there can be many high-quality works left. And the longer the time, the more influential the IP. ”
At the same time, Mibo Culture is also trying to produce original works and make some cross-border attempts, such as changing film and television drama works, games, animations, etc. into radio dramas.
In addition to platforms focusing on the second dimension, such as Cat Ear FM and Comic Broadcasting, platforms such as Himalaya, Lychee, Kugou Music, and NetEase Cloud Music have also already laid out radio dramas.
With the efforts of all parties, the future radio drama may have more imagination space, not only to attract more high-quality production teams, but also to promote more young audiences to consume, become a new way of entertainment, and radio drama is destined to be a "quality wins, content is king" market, excellence can go more stable and long-term.
*The title image in the text is from the photo network, based on the VRF protocol.