The youngest former senior executive on Bilibili aims to create the world's most influential game music carnival | Exclusive interview by 36Kr
Text | Wang Wenjie
Editor | Liu Shiwu
“When I saw the information about this music festival on my WeChat Moments, my first reaction was that it was a scam.” This was the reaction of a strategic analyst from a large company when the performance content of the Utopia Festi Game Music Carnival (hereinafter referred to as UF) was first revealed. “The IP lineup is really incredibly gorgeous.”
Image source: UF Game Music Carnival
The 21 game IPs that are about to participate in the UF Game Music Carnival are all well - received and commercially successful. More importantly, while bringing together so many top - tier IPs, UF also maintains diversity in terms of types: there are well - known European and American online games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft, ever - lasting classic Japanese RPGs such as the Final Fantasy and Persona series, and new domestic second - generation games like Genshin Impact and Arknights.
To secure so many IPs, the organizer needs to have strong business and production capabilities. According to 36Kr Games, EUPHORIC PRODUCTION behind UF is a startup founded in 2023. The founder of the company, Ayu (Chai Xuanhong), was previously the head of Bilibili's Cultural Division and the general producer and director of BML (BILIBILI MACRO LINK) and BW (BILIBILI WORLD) for ten years. He has very rich experience in planning and resource integration.
To launch UF, Ayu spent nearly two years in preparation and made great efforts to obtain music licenses from well - known domestic and overseas games. Their goal is to make UF the world's largest game music festival brand and introduce Chinese game music and game musicians to the world.
Image source: Bilibili
Recently, we interviewed Ayu and his partners to learn about the story behind UF.
01. “An Impossible Task”
“We were basically rejected during the first round of negotiations,” Ayu told me. The process of signing IPs for UF was not smooth.
Before UF, there had never been a game music festival of such a large scale. As the first pioneer, seeking game music licenses from major manufacturers, especially overseas ones, was a significant challenge. It wasn't that people didn't trust him; it's just that most people couldn't imagine what the final result would be when so many different IPs were combined with high - standard production and performances. “This idea was too abstract in their minds,” Ayu said.
The situation was a bit better in China. Ayu had good cooperative relationships with HOYO - MiX, the music label under Mihoyo, and Siren Records under Hypergryph. With their support, UF's cooperation with domestic manufacturers went relatively smoothly.
However, they encountered great difficulties when contacting overseas manufacturers, especially well - known Japanese ones, in the early stage. But most of these difficulties were within Ayu's expectations. Japanese manufacturers are always cautious in their actions, and it's not easy to persuade them to do something that no one has ever tried. After the initial rejections, he didn't get discouraged. He kept using his connections to try to contact them a second and third time.
At the beginning, most of the people in charge of the negotiations were from the marketing department. They were usually not as sensitive to music and content as the creators. Ayu tried to use the three - minute music medley before the TGA awards as an example to help them form a more concrete picture. “Such a wonderful performance is just an appetizer for TGA, but we will make it the main course, and each work can be presented more completely.”
Gradually, Ayu got in touch with some managers who were familiar with content and music. They could better understand and empathize with UF's vision. Among them, a general manager of Bandai Namco became an important breakthrough. Besides his position as a company executive, he is also a musician and guitarist and often performs live with his band.
“He often jokes that he is an unpopular musician. Although there are usually only about a dozen audiences at his performances, he has persisted for many years,” Ayu told me. This executive hit it off with him and became a good friend. With his support and endorsement, UF finally obtained the license from Bandai Namco.
The trust relationship is like a domino effect, especially for cautious Japanese manufacturers. Bandai Namco's license played an important role in breaking the ice. After that, Japanese manufacturers such as Square Enix and Atlus also loosened their stance, and UF obtained the IP licenses for the Final Fantasy and Persona series.
Obtaining the license is just the first step, and more work is yet to come. Game music is often created for specific game scenarios, and the creation era and regional background vary. Simply moving it to the current Chinese stage may not achieve good results.
To enhance the viewing experience of domestic audiences, Ayu and the cooperating composers and performers will adapt and re - create some works under the supervision of the IP owners. While striving to create a better on - site effect, it also gives composers and performers more creative space and a sense of participation, rather than just a set - topic assignment. During the process, many musicians have established trust relationships with the manufacturers, laying the foundation for more future cooperation, and providing a valuable source of income for some underpaid behind - the - scenes music workers.
“Whether a composer is well - known or a newcomer, as long as he does a good job, we will try our best to use his works, and he can earn an extra income. We also plan to globally distribute the newly composed music and commercialize it,” Ayu said.
Ayu spent two years in preparation for this music festival. More than a year ago, when he talked about this idea with his friend Zhou Yang (the top 100 Bilibili music UP master “HOPICO”), the latter thought he was bragging and said, “To coordinate a festival with so many giant IPs, a large orchestra, and even re - arrange the music is an impossible task.”
Signing IPs, negotiating venues, going through approvals, arranging music, and rehearsing... As time passed, this “impossible task” was gradually overcome, and the relevant investment continued to increase. The production cost exceeded 30 million RMB.
02. Sacrificing Profits for Quality
After obtaining the IP licenses of 21 globally well - known games and inviting the top domestic and overseas production teams and performers to participate in the arrangement, this unprecedented high - standard game music carnival is finally on the right track and progressing steadily.
In early April, UF launched its first - round pre - sale, and Ayu encountered a new problem: how to sell 70,000 tickets.
Few offline events show such great ambition at the beginning. According to the original plan, the maximum capacity of UF for two days is 70,000 people. For comparison, the “Super Strawberry Music Festival” held in Beijing during the May Day holiday this year only had a total of about 70,000 audiences in three days, and behind this is the more than 15 - year operation experience of the organizer, Modern Sky. For game - related events, when Gcores held the first “Nuclear Fusion” game exhibition in 2014, the number of participants was only 300, and it wasn't until 2019 that the number of participants in the Beijing “Nuclear Fusion” exceeded 20,000.
When asked why he wanted to make it so large - scale from the start, Ayu said that the scale of UF was largely deduced based on the cost required to do this thing well and provide the best user experience. This is also a habit he developed from years of organizing BML and BW - first do things to the best of his ability, then calculate the business goals based on the cost and prove its feasibility.
Ayu has rich experience in operating large - scale events. In 2023, the number of offline participants in BW, which he was in charge of, reached 210,000. In his imagination, the IPs of UF have a large fan base. Coupled with the high - standard production and performance teams, ticket sales should not be a big problem through word - of - mouth among players. Past cases also seem to support this expectation: many music festivals and game concerts of similar specifications are always sold out.
However, the difficulties brought by this new form of game music festival are not only in obtaining licenses and production but also in marketing and promotion, where there are many unexpected pitfalls.
Different from regular music festivals, where the performing guests themselves have strong fan appeal, most of the performers of UF are more behind - the - scenes, essentially like “craftsmen” - they have strong professional abilities but have a natural disadvantage in attracting attention. Compared with game concerts led by manufacturers, although UF brings together a group of top - tier game IPs, it lacks the unconditional traffic support of specific games. For example, previous concerts of Mihoyo and Hypergryph were deeply integrated with relevant games, and relevant information was pushed to millions or even tens of millions of game players.
After the pre - sale started, the ticket - selling power of UF was far from the team's expectation. Since Ayu's startup was still in its early stage and the whole team only had about twenty or thirty people, everyone was extremely busy, and there were only a few full - time marketing staff. The ticket sales of UF were very poor in the first two weeks.
In mid - April, Ayu turned to his friend and long - term partner Kimura (a pseudonym) and hoped that he could help coordinate some publicity resources of Japanese artists and companies. Kimura is in charge of IP expansion at an overseas distribution company and has rich marketing experience. Facing the ticket - selling situation of UF at that time, he felt very worried - it was far beyond what a little more publicity could remedy.
Kimura told me that he once doubted the model of UF: “Does game music not have many audiences? Is the domestic market not mature enough? Is there a contradiction between the form of outdoor music festivals and the second - generation group? Maybe our young people have never participated in outdoor music festivals.”
He simply calculated that based on the early sales, in the worst - case scenario, UF would probably lose about 20 million RMB, which means losing all the company's profits from last year, this year, and next year. He once wanted to persuade Ayu to cut losses in time, reduce the budget, and control the loss within an acceptable range.
“When we talked on the phone on the 14th, I asked him if he could cut the budget. He said that everything else could be negotiated, but not the production budget,” Kimura recalled. “He has always been such a person. He always wants to give more compensation to the production staff on the production side, and indirectly, users can also feel a higher - quality experience.”
Ayu also told me, “I'd rather lose money than sacrifice quality. Only by maintaining quality can we have a future. If I do something shoddy, I'll look down on myself and won't be able to forgive myself.”
Finally, the team reached a consensus: even if it means losing money, they must do this thing well. Kimura immediately decided to pull an external team to help Ayu quickly make up for the lack of manpower and experience. He stayed up all night to write a more than 10,000 - word document, listing all the things that could be done, the resources at hand, and the division of labor.
“I've experienced many situations where I tried to put out a fire but made it worse. To avoid such a situation, I detailed the division of labor - what they should do, what I should do, some simple tasks can be outsourced or given to volunteers, and in some places, we need to find some suppliers...” Kimura said.
After clarifying the division of labor, he quickly assembled a team of about twenty people and engaged in the marketing and ticket - selling work of UF: finding KOLs, conducting joint cooperation, and resource exchange... On Bilibili alone, they invited the top 100 UP masters “Fanshi” and “HOPICO” to help with the publicity.
These efforts achieved remarkable results. The ticket - selling efficiency of UF increased several times. As more people learned about the event, some “voluntary promoters” appeared in the community, helping UF to break through its original circle.
Seeing that the company had passed the critical point of not going bankrupt, Ayu and Kimura finally breathed a sigh of relief.
03. A Call Back from History
At the end of April, Ayu received bad news: the usable area of the venue for UF was halved. After verification, the daily capacity limit needed to be readjusted, and the area planning needed to be redone. Based on this adjustment requirement, the originally planned daily capacity of 35,000 people suddenly dropped to 16,000, a reduction of more than half compared with the previous plan. To ensure the safety and comfort of the viewing experience, the zoning of each ticket type was also adjusted accordingly.
“At this point, our project is 100% in the red,” Ayu told me. Since this was the first - ever event, they were very conservative in commercialization. They hardly introduced any advertising sponsorship, and the booths were operated on a revenue - sharing basis. The responsibility of recovering costs fell entirely on ticket sales. “The break - even point of the project is 48,000 tickets. Based on the current situation, even if I sell all the tickets, I will still lose 10 million RMB.”
A loss of 10 million RMB means using up all the company's income from last year and this year. To keep the company running, further financing is needed.
Ayu negotiated with the venue about the capacity limit but found there was not much room for negotiation. At this point, he could only console himself: “With fewer people on - site, the user experience will be better. The key for the first - ever event is to build a good reputation.”
This experience of “losing money for popularity” is not new to Ayu. In 2013, when Bilibili held its first BML, it lost 100,000 RMB, which was almost a year's profit for the “little broken station.”
That year, Ayu was still a student and had his own small startup focusing on second - generation offline performance business, with an annual income of 200,000 RMB. The second - generation circle was very small at that time. Ayu had known Bilibili's founder, bishi (Xu Yi), for a long time, and they were both very young. Ayu took on the BML project and helped with various “messy” things such as finding people, communicating, applying for approvals, inviting Japanese guests, and arranging schedules.
The origin of the event was that Bilibili approached Ayu and said they wanted to create an offline event where anime fans could gather. At that time, the largest concerts in the circle only had about 1,000 people. They wanted to rent the Changning Gymnastics Center to hold a 3,000 - person event right from the start. Ayu recalled, “I thought they were crazy. Later, we found a Live House under the Mercedes - Benz Arena, which could accommodate a maximum of 800 people. Later, all 800 tickets were sold out.”
Although the first BML lost money, the effect exceeded expectations and refreshed Ayu's understanding of the industry - he realized that he had underestimated the influence of the second - generation culture before. “It can actually reach a larger audience.”
Persuaded by bishi and Akatsuki (Bilibili's co - founder), Ayu joined Bilibili as the 39th employee. At that time, Chen Rui, the current CEO of Bilibili, had not officially joined the company.
A year later, Chen Rui left Cheetah Mobile, which he co - founded, and officially became the chairman of Bilibili. The “little broken station” embarked on the “road to breaking through the circle.” Ayu also developed BML from an 800 - person event in the first year to an event with tens of thousands of offline audiences and 50 million online audiences later, and founded BW, making it an annual second - generation event.
History always repeats itself. Maybe because he has experienced BML's transformation from a loss - making event to a grand gathering for thousands of fans, Ayu seems calm about the losses that UF has to face. During the conversation, he mostly had a smile