Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 119: Terrifying Record Profits
Because it was my first concert.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng was nervous but also made sufficient preparations, and had high demands in all aspects.

Zhou Ziheng strives to find the best in all aspects such as stage design and lighting.

His rigorous attitude made EMi very upset, and they started clamoring for more share of the concert profits.

Finally, Zhou Ziheng, who felt that his request was indeed a bit too much, took the initiative to compromise and changed the original plan of giving only 20% to EMi to 30%.

The original profit-sharing plan was that Zhou Ziheng would get 50%, EMi would be responsible for contacting organizers outside the mainland, helping with planning, lighting, stage design, and publicity, and would get 20%, and the organizers would provide the venue and be responsible for ticket sales, and would get 30%.

After the subsequent revision, it was changed to Zhou Ziheng taking 40% and 10% going to EMi Records.

……

If you want to compare it with singers of later generations.

Those singers in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s were undoubtedly miserable.

At least, that's how the treatment is.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the record industry has been extremely booming in recent years, with countless records selling hundreds of thousands to millions of copies each year.

In fact, most of this money will not go into the hands of the singers, but into the hands of the record companies.

As for Hong Kong and Taiwan, let’s not talk about others, let’s just talk about the Four Heavenly Kings.

Leon Lai once told Zhou Ziheng that when PolyGram first signed the contract with him, they paid him 30 cents per record.

That is, after his record is released, if fans buy one, he can get 30 cents.

This situation changed after he became famous, but even so, according to his current contract with PolyGram, he only gets 80 cents for each record.

In other words, if the sales volume is one million, he can get about 800,000.

The Four Heavenly Kings are like this, not to mention the others.

The situation in mainland China is even worse. Most of those who have signed contracts with record companies receive a fixed salary. Only a few, such as Yang Yuying, can get a few cents from record revenue.

For most singers.

Records don’t make money, so what does?

It was definitely a concert.

Giving a concert is not like releasing an album.

When a singer signed to a record company releases a record, he basically only needs to be responsible for singing.

All other work including songs, arrangement, production, post-production, distribution, etc. are handled by the record company.

Therefore, they naturally have no right to negotiate about wages.

But concerts are different.

Many singers actually sign record contracts with record artists, which means releasing records.

If a singer wants to hold a concert, he or she can either contact the planner to hold it independently, or cooperate with a record company.

In short, concerts are usually a collaboration between two parties and are prepared together.

Therefore, the income from each concert naturally cannot be taken entirely by the record company, especially for big-name singers.

Everyone calculates based on the profit sharing. Generally, the record company and the local organizer take about 60%, and the rest is taken by the singer himself.

The concert tickets in Hong Kong and Taiwan are relatively expensive, around 80 to 100 Hong Kong dollars. If you calculate based on 8,000 people, the price for a single show would be between 600,000 and 800,000.

The singer gets 40%, which is about 300,000 yuan.

One game costs more than 300,000 yuan, and ten games cost more than 3 million yuan.

Dozens of games would amount to tens of millions.

For singers who don’t make money from releasing records, this is already the most profitable channel.

That’s why we can see why a certain singer is so keen on holding concerts.

I have to open it. Records don't make money, so I can only rely on concerts to support my family.

In fact, there are exceptions.

For example, Andy Lau.

This person has all-round development and has achieved top-notch status as both a singer and an actor.

So he has more options to choose from.

From 93 to 94, he could earn four to five million for making a movie.

If you work hard and make four or five films a year, you can earn 10 or 20 million.

If he works harder and holds dozens more concerts, he could earn tens of millions more.

However, this is just talk, after all, human energy is limited.

Theoretically you can earn that much, but in reality you don’t have that much time…

Compared to other singers who can only make money from concerts, Zhou Ziheng is undoubtedly an exception.

Because he is an independent singer, and he is also very popular, so he gets a high share of the profits.

This means that his profit from each album is much higher than that of other singers.

Take "Fairy Tale" for example.

At the end of February, Zhou Ziheng contacted Pacific and EMi to reconcile the accounts and settle the revenue from this album.

You wouldn’t know until you check the accounts. After checking the accounts, Zhou Ziheng himself exclaimed: “I made so much money!”

First, the mainland.

The sales volume of "Fairy Tale" in the mainland is currently 2.7 million, which is several hundred thousand higher than "Pacific Rim".

Two million, seven hundred thousand, all on tapes.

The wholesale price has increased by 6.5 cents this time, to yuan.

That works out to 1755 million.

Deducting the cost of 405 million and Pacific’s advertising fee of 100 million.

Well, it can be seen that Pacific's advertising expenses this time are obviously high.

Zhou Ziheng didn't say anything. He had already tried his best to supervise, but it was useless.

However, Zhou Ziheng will set a promotional standard for the next album.

Just 500,000, he won’t acknowledge anything more than that.

As for whether Pacific would choose not to promote it and then claim that it did, that is another matter.

Zhou Ziheng's supervisor is not just there to do his job.

Moreover, if Pacific was not stupid, it would not choose to advertise for the sake of half a million.

After all, the profit is far more than 500,000.

All in all, the mainland profit of this record was 12.5 million RMB.

Split in half, Zhou Ziheng got 6.25 million RMB.

This is just for the mainland.

The figures for Hong Kong, Taiwan and other regions are even higher.

The sales of "Fairy Tale" in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas combined are greater than those in mainland China.

Total sales have reached 3.3 million copies.

The data is higher than Jacky Cheung’s “Kiss Goodbye” last year.

Three million, three hundred thousand.

Tapes account for the majority, with 2.7 million copies. The cost in Hong Kong and Taiwan is higher, at 2.5 yuan.

Zhou Ziheng had no objection to this. Since overseas regions were scattered, they basically had to find local manufacturers for production, so it was normal for the price to be a little higher.

Of course, all crows are black, and EMi must have made some money from it, but it should not be much higher than Pacific Ocean.

However, although the costs in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas are high, the selling prices are also high.

The wholesale price is twelve Hong Kong dollars.

The total amount is HK$3240 million, minus the cost of HK$675 million, leaving HK$2565 million.

In addition to tapes, there are 400,000 laser CDs in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas, with a cost of ten yuan and a wholesale price of thirty yuan.

The total revenue is 1200 million, which is 800 million after deducting costs.

And 200,000 vinyl records.

The cost of vinyl records is even more expensive, with one costing thirty-one dollars to produce and the selling price being eighty-five dollars.

The total revenue is 1700 million, and after deducting costs it is 1080 million.

The total income from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas is.

Deduct the six million yuan in advertising expenses for each region.

The net profit of this record is 38.45 million. Split 50-50, Zhou Ziheng gets 19.2 million.

Because it was their first collaboration, Zhou Ziheng didn’t feel that EMi was trying to trick him.

However, the future is uncertain.

Who can say for sure about capital things?

Therefore, in order to avoid being cheated, Zhou Ziheng took advantage of the fact that "Fairy Tale" was making a lot of money and EMi was paying attention to him, and took the initiative to propose a new clause.

It’s not for the purpose of increasing the share of the profits. Zhou Ziheng is not so shameless as to raise the price after just releasing a record.

He still has a very good sense of EMi.

atmosphere!

Willing to spend money!

The reason why he approached EMi was to reduce his share of the profits.

That's right, it was lowered from the original 50-50 split to 70-30, with EMi taking 70 and Zhou Ziheng taking 30.

But this is not free, he also has requirements.

His requirement is that future profits will be divided directly according to market returns.

In other words, he doesn’t care how much the record costs or how much it was spent on promotion.

No matter how many records are sold, he will get 30% of the total sales.

After he raised this question, EMi Records did not respond to him immediately.

However, Zhou Ziheng was not worried about this.

He has already asked a professional to calculate it.

As long as EMi Records doesn't try to cheat him in terms of cost and publicity, his request for 30% is not excessive.

Of course, if EMi really intended to cheat Zhou Ziheng in terms of cost and other aspects, they would definitely not agree.

It all depends on what EMi is thinking.

Zhou Ziheng considered what would happen if EMi Records disagreed.

Then he won't say much.

Anyway, he will keep an eye on EMi records for the next few albums.

If he finds out that there is any fraud, he will immediately exercise the singer option and not renew the contract with EMi five years later.

He might even consider changing jobs if someone is willing to pay the penalty for breach of contract.

He's not biased towards EMi in this regard just because they took a big gamble when they signed him.

Indeed, Zhou Ziheng is very selfish.

But that's how this industry works.

Loyalty does not exist in this industry.

If you are really foolish enough to be loyal to a company, then just wait to be bled dry by capital!
Moreover, if EMi really chose to falsify his sales and record costs and other aspects.

That actually proves that they were the ones who betrayed Zhou Ziheng first, so Zhou Ziheng naturally would not feel guilty about it.

However, Zhou Ziheng's idea was destined not to happen.

After Zhou Ziheng proposed to EMi to take only 30% of the total sales, Nie Anda came with a new contract on the third day.

“Zhou, you are the most astute singer I have ever met.

If I had been as smart as you, I would definitely be richer than I am now."

When the EMi representative saw Zhou Ziheng, he immediately expressed his admiration.

"It's not that I'm smart enough, but the benefits I bring to your company far exceed that little profit."

Zhou Ziheng signed his name on the new contract and said with a smile.

"Haha!" Nie Anda was stunned, then laughed, "Yes, if you can't bring enough benefits to EMi, no matter how smart you are, this contract will not appear here.

You successfully convinced our top management through two albums.

Let them choose to believe that you can bring more benefits to us."

"Yes!" Zhou Ziheng nodded and said, "This decision of your company will be the most correct decision you have made in the past few years.

Because I am definitely worth this contract."

"Then let's wait and see!" Nie Anda said with a smile.

……

The revenue of "Fairy Tale" in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas was HK$19.2 million.

This year's exchange rate between Hong Kong dollar and RMB is 1 Hong Kong dollar equals 1.1075 RMB.

Well, yes, the Hong Kong dollar is more expensive than the RMB this year.

Therefore, 19.2 million is equivalent to more than 21 million RMB.

Plus 6.25 million from the mainland.

His earnings from the album "Fairy Tale" were more than 27 million.

After reasonable tax avoidance, he had about 20 million left.

To be honest, Zhou Ziheng understood that Mao Amin was going to evade taxes.

It's either 30 percent or 35 percent.

Watching helplessly that nearly half of the money is not yours, the pain you feel is something that ordinary people cannot understand.

Of course, no matter how heartbroken he was, Zhou Ziheng still didn't dare to be careless in this regard. He had to pay exactly what he paid.

Not only did he not hide, but at the end of every year, he would take the initiative to check to see if he had missed anything, and if so, he would make up for it in time.

He received 20 million RMB, plus the previous earnings and the real estate and other properties that Music currently owns.

After two years of traveling through time, he had managed to accumulate a fortune of around 30 million.

It's still exhausting work and full of intrigue.

Compared to the small goals, he is really far behind.

In order to get one step closer to his small goal, after the record revenue came in, he only gave himself one day off, went to a nightclub to have fun for a night, and then went back to work.

EMi put a lot of effort into getting more commission from Zhou Ziheng's concert.

Let's talk about choreography.

They found the most famous dance team in Hong Kong, the choreographer Mei Zhuoyan of the Hong Kong Contemporary Dance Company, for Zhou Ziheng.

The Hong Kong Contemporary Dance Company is an incredible dance troupe. Since 1980, the troupe has been conducting frequent international cultural exchange activities, and has represented Hong Kong in more than major cities in America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and has given tours, receiving high attention from the international art scene.

Many members of the dance troupe are internationally renowned.

The same is true for Meizhuoyan.

She received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to study improvisation and postmodern dance techniques in New York.

She was also invited to participate in the American Dance Festival International Choreography Camp.

After returning to Hong Kong, he choreographed for the Hong Kong Dance Company and the City Contemporary Dance Company.

Normally, people are basically preparing for international dance tours and the like.

This time, if EMi hadn't stepped up, if Zhou Ziheng had gone to invite him himself, there was a high probability that he wouldn't even be able to meet him.

As for the dance team, EMi has recruited the top dance troupe from local concerts in Hong Kong.

It is said that this dance troupe also served as dancers in concerts of Leslie Cheung and others.

Although many of Zhou Ziheng's songs do not require dancing to a certain extent.

But he couldn't be alone for the entire hour or two.

If that were the case, his fans would be scolded and he himself would be bored to death.

In his previous life, he hated the kind of singers who would just stand on the stage and sing like an idiot during concerts.

Naturally, he was not prepared to be such a person in this life.

Although I hate Jacky Cheung, I have to say that the God of Songs is still worth learning from.

At least when it comes to holding concerts, he is worth learning from.

Many of his songs are actually slow songs and love songs.

But they have managed to match most of the songs with dances.

Even the God of Songs can do it, so why can't he?

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng decided to fight to the end, and the atmosphere of the concert could not lose to that of the God of Songs.

Otherwise, next time the God of Songs will mock him, "Zhou Ziheng's concert has no atmosphere."

How did he respond?
(End of this chapter)