Huayu 1995

Chapter 23 Even a dog wouldn't be a creator

"Brother Chao, Mr. Yan would like to invite you to the 'Dreamlike Order' private room."

While Su Chao was resting, the waiter approached him respectfully to relay a message.

He had never seen anyone become a legend in the entire karaoke bar in such a short time.

Now no one in the karaoke bar dares to offend Su Chao.

I'm afraid Su Chao will speak ill of them to Sister Hong.

"What kind of guest is so demanding? Mr. Yan can't handle it all by himself, so he needs me to help him out."

Su Chao handed the guitar to Huang Bo.

Sha Baoliang stared blankly, as if he had lost something precious.

He didn't really take Su Chao seriously.

When you first arrive, you must keep a low profile, gradually build up your experience, and wait for your opportunity to stand out.

However, to everyone's surprise, Su Chao did not play by the rules at all.

On the first day, he stole the limelight from him and Wu Xiubo, and on the second day, he stole the limelight from his underling Huang Bo.

He began to sympathize with Wu Xiubo, sharing the same plight.

Wu Xiubo had his limelight stolen yesterday, and his public image has been stolen today.

Su Chao sings English songs with more feeling than Wu Xiubo.

Upon entering the "Dreamlike Order" private room, Su Chao greeted the people inside.

"Hello, Mr. Yan. May I ask your name, handsome boss?"

"Chen Jiantian..."

"Wow, I've heard so much about you! I love Red Star Production Company the most, and I love Xu Wei the most. Could you introduce me to you sometime?"

Su Chao knew about Chen Jiantian because he had a falling out with the members of Beyond.

Most singers end up having a falling out with their former managers.

For example, G.E.M. and her former manager Zhang Dan, and Jane Zhang and her former manager and ex-husband Feng Ke, etc...

"Don't most people prefer Zheng Jun?"

Chen Jiantian was somewhat confused and a little saddened.

Zheng Jun has terminated his contract with Hongxing Production Company and is currently in court.

Zheng Jun became a sensation last year with his first album, "Naked," and was poached this year.

Hongxing Production Cooperative spared no effort in developing Zheng Jun.

It cost over a million Hong Kong dollars in total.

However, Zheng Jun said he only earned tens of thousands of dollars, so he tore up the contracts for the two albums and switched to PolyGram Records in Hong Kong.

Xu Wei...

The treatment Xu Wei received at the Red Star Production Cooperative was probably less than one-tenth of what Zheng Jun received.

Chen Jiantian never expected that anyone would like Xu Wei.

"Rock and roll is dead; making rock and roll is a dead end."

Su Chao displayed the exuberance of youth at just the right time.

Isn't your song "Goodbye" rock?

Chen Jiantian felt that it was fortunate that Su Chao was in a small private room, otherwise he would definitely have been attacked by rock music fans.

That's right, he's a rock music fan, and he wants to kill Su Chao right now.

Beyond, Black Panther, they're all rock bands.

“This isn’t really rock, it’s more like pop-rock,” Su Chao said smugly, pointing down below. “Look at the song request board, sigh, three already. I reckon I’ll have to sing ‘Goodbye’ at least six more times today. Everyone loves me to death…”

Yan Siyuan started rubbing his face again.

He didn't know if it was because he rubbed too hard or because he had gotten used to it, but he felt completely numb.

"If our Red Star production company buys this song of yours..."

"Do not sell!"

Su Chao rejected the other party without hesitation.

It's not that he doesn't want to sell, but he can't just agree to it casually, otherwise the other party is very likely to treat him as a cheap songwriting tool.

For example, Xu Wei.

Xu Wei releases his own albums and writes songs for others, but he's so poor he has to sell his guitars to make a living.

The guitar is Xu Wei's life.

Tian Zhen's "Persistence" is currently very popular, but few people know that it was written by Xu Wei.

It is said that Xu Wei was squatting in a military hospital compound eating instant noodles when Tian Zhen called him and asked, "Do you need money?" He calmly refused, saying, "I can handle it!"

But in fact, he already had depression.

Creator?
Even dogs wouldn't be creators.

"Would you like to join our Red Star Society? We'll help you release an album..."

Chen Jiantian was not disappointed.

The main reason is that the Red Star Production Company currently has no shortage of creators.

Although Zheng Jun left, there are still artists like Xiao Ke, Gao Xiaosong, Zhang Yadong, Xu Wei, and Tian Zhen who all have creative abilities.

It's no exaggeration to say that the area is teeming with talented people.

Signing a Scottish Premiership is signing the future of Red Star Production Company.

After all, he is a musician who excels in both songwriting and singing—well, his songwriting is excellent and his voice is quite distinctive, but his singing skills are only average.

Fortunately, he is still young and has room for development.

Yan Siyuan, who was standing next to him, started rubbing his face again.

He has gone from being numb to being paralyzed.

Damn, Su Chao is now one of our karaoke bar's employees.

I treated you like a brother, and you poached my people right to my face.

Thinking back to what Su Chao said yesterday, he was really speaking from the heart.

If you swing your hoe well, there's no corner you can't dig up.

People really do come to bars to make quick money.

"Can you develop me the same way you developed Zheng Jun?"

Su Chao asked.

"Ugh……"

Chen Jiantian looked up at the sky speechlessly.

This kid is so hard to fool.

"So... the Red Star Production Company isn't that attractive to me anymore."

Su Chao shrugged; that was his attitude.

"If it were now, we probably wouldn't be so eager to promote Zheng Jun..."

Zheng Jun succeeded, but Hongxing failed.

The official version sold for 500,000, while the pirated version sold for over 1.5 million.

Behind the seemingly prosperous facade lies meager profits; there's practically no money in the accounts.

Zheng Jun not only refused to pay the penalty for breach of contract, but also demanded that Red Star honor its royalty promise, which Red Star might not even be able to afford. "How about this, bro~" Su Chao poured the other party a glass of wine and said, "Let's not sign this kind of ordinary contract, otherwise I can just become famous and then sign with PolyGram..."

Chen Jiantian twitched the corner of his mouth.

Damn, you don't have to be so blunt in your face.

At first, he thought he could easily manipulate Su Chao, after all, he was just an eighteen-year-old kid who had just started out in the world.

Now we realize he was overthinking things.

This kid is incredibly shrewd, and he's extremely good at stabbing people, hitting them every time, especially the lungs.

"How about we sign an album? I'll write the lyrics myself, and you guys handle the distribution. Bro, don't you have connections in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea? You can help me with distribution and promotion throughout Asia. Making money isn't important; I need fame..."

Su Chao took a completely different path from Zheng Jun.

Zheng Jun can only be a singer, while Su Chao can be a songwriter, actor, director, producer, and executive producer...

For someone like Zheng Jun, selling 500,000 copies of an album only brings in tens of thousands of yuan in direct revenue, and the subsequent income isn't much either.

It's completely useless to him.

He needs to quickly catch up with Richie Jen and then find someone to help him shoot a large-scale music video.

"I understand what you mean."

As Chen Jiantian listened to Su Chao speak, he unconsciously sat up straight.

He knew Su Chao was right.

Signing a contract is not very useful; if you're determined to break up, there's no contract that can't be broken.

In the future, Su Chao will be the next Zheng Jun.

"My singing is still pretty average, so I need to practice more. If we collaborate, I hope the company will give me a settling-in allowance and arrange a teacher to teach me how to sing and compose."

Su Chao has become somewhat addicted to bluffing.

It's unfair not to take advantage of others.

However, to his surprise, Chen Jiantian actually considered the issue and then readily agreed:

"Once you sign the contract, we'll definitely develop a training plan for you. Settlement allowance is no problem either. Back in '92, we gave Zheng Jun HK$3,000 as a settlement allowance; this time we'll give you HK$5,000 and reserve your first album for release. What do you think?"

"Brother Tian, ​​you're so generous. What about royalties and copyrights?"

Su Chao certainly wouldn't refuse. He was going to release an album anyway, and regardless of whether it made money or not, he would definitely release an album once he had enough songs.

Five thousand yuan was a pleasant surprise.

Eating steamed buns dipped in instant noodle seasoning is a novelty once in a while, but eating it three times a day makes me want to die.

He's still too poor.

“Since you don’t care much about profits, I won’t set your royalties at 62%, I’ll give you 45%, but the audio and video copyrights will still be yours.”

The conditions offered by Chen Jiantian were very good.

Red Star Production Company can be described as the last utopia in the Chinese music scene.

Other record companies are all learning from Hong Kong and Taiwan to exploit their artists, but Star Records is the only one that dares to give Xu Wei 62% royalties and allow him to not release an album for three years to recuperate.

It covers the medical expenses of employees' families for serious illnesses and has set up a special "bipolar disorder counseling room" to arrange psychologists to counsel singers on their mental health issues.

The most outrageous thing is that they didn't charge a deposit for recording demos for underground bands, and they were ripped off by professional scammers.

These anti-commercial practices now seem almost mythical.

Since then, there have been no more utopian experiments like this in the Chinese music scene, not even any attempt at them.

Each one is darker than the last.

"Brother, I simply can't refuse you like this!"

For singer-songwriters, copyright is more important than royalties.

Right now, we can only make money by selling records, but things will be different in the future.

"It's not like I'm without conditions. You write two songs for us every year, and we'll buy them at market price. What do you think?"

Although Chan Kin-tim wanted to create a musical utopia, he was ultimately a businessman and knew the importance of a steady, long-term approach.

How can a business last if it doesn't exploit anyone at all?

"Sure, no problem at all. But I need to meet with the singer to discuss the songwriting process, and I need to pay half of the fee in advance. If I'm not satisfied with the song, I won't have to pay the remaining half, but I also won't write songs for that singer anymore."

Su Chao had already thought about how to maximize the use of the system.

Find someone to come over, open their personal shop, buy the items in the shop with the money the other person paid, and then sell them back to that person.

As a middleman, I specialize in profiting from the price difference.

His rules sounded a bit strange.

However, Chan Kin-tim has seen too many strange and eccentric creators, so he didn't think it was that outrageous.

Moreover, Su Chao has only created one song so far.

The quality seems good, but it's hard to say whether it can maintain this level in the future.

Many singers and songwriters have only a fleeting moment of fame.

For now, these are just agreements. How they will be fulfilled, or even whether they will be fulfilled at all, will depend on whether Su Chao can create a song that is no less impressive than "Goodbye".

Chen Jiantian is a very pragmatic person.

He simply pulled out his briefcase and counted out five thousand dollars.

Considering the exchange rate of 1.08 between the Hong Kong dollar and the RMB, he gave him an extra 400 yuan.

"Brother, this isn't in accordance with the rules. There's no contract yet, and no accountant or lawyer is present..."

Su Chao was astonished by his actions.

Are all companies operating so irregularly these days?

It doesn't feel much better than his training courses.

"Isn't there a witness here? You can sign the contract when you have time. This is our company's current address."

Chen Jiantian handed the money and business card directly to Su Chao.

There's really nothing to worry about.

The industry is only so big. If you really do something like taking advantage of someone and then refusing to acknowledge your debts, then no one will be willing to cooperate with you in the future.

"Aren't you going to give me some more, as a tip?"

Su Chao was not polite at all.

"..."

Helpless, Chen Jiantian drew out two more bills.

Afterwards, Su Chao chatted with Chen Jiantian for a while, mainly to learn about the current album production and distribution process.

He also knew that the current piracy market was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

"Aren't you going to shoot a music video?"

“We don’t usually film music. Music is music. Do you want the music to listen to music, or do you want to see your music video?”

The two clearly do not share the same musical philosophy.

The first disagreement soon emerged.

"No way, I'm so handsome, I'd die if I didn't shoot a music video. Bro, have you ever thought about it? All the local TV stations have song request channels. This part of the revenue won't be affected by piracy. It's a channel that, although not very big, can support us."

Su Chao often struggles to understand people of this era.

Chen Jiantian couldn't compete with Su Chao.

And he genuinely thought Su Chao was very handsome; he'd be a huge hit even if he starred in an adult film, let alone a music video.

(End of this chapter)