Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 14 Reaching Cooperation
After Chen Xiaoqi left, only Zhou Ziheng and Liu Zhiwen were left in the office.

Liu Zhiwen poured Zhou Ziheng a cup of tea and then spoke:
“From what Xiaoqi said, you have very high standards for signing contracts?
Tell me what you want. If it's not too much, I'll try my best to meet it."

If it were someone else, or if Zhou Ziheng's tape was not so attractive, Liu Zhiwen would never have said this.

But obviously, Zhou Ziheng's tape has successfully attracted him.

Moreover, what Chen Xiaoqi said just now also played a big role. Liu Zhiwen was really afraid that the contract conditions were not good, which led Zhou Ziheng to take the tape to New Era for distribution.

Zhou Ziheng organized his words and then spoke:
"Mr. Liu, this is what I think. We won't sign a singer contract, but a cooperative one..."

Before Zhou Ziheng finished speaking, Liu Zhiwen frowned and interrupted him, "You mean you don't want to sign a singer contract with us?"

"Yes!" Zhou Ziheng nodded and said, "I am capable of composing songs for my own tape records.

I am confident that my future songs will not be worse than this tape."

After a pause, Zhou Ziheng continued, not afraid of offending Liu Zhiwen, "To be honest, I don't think the company can give me much help in terms of songs after I joined Pacific.

In this case, I might as well not join and directly cooperate with you as an independent musician."

The model of independent musicians collaborating with companies is not only popular abroad.

Although the music culture in the mainland is not strong at present, some people have already adopted this method to cooperate with record companies.

Cui Jian, Liu Huan and other top musicians in mainland China are independent musicians. They produce their own records and then hand them over to major record companies for distribution.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng's move is not actually a precedent.

However, compared to those who have signed with record companies, it is indeed more difficult for independent musicians.

In terms of resources, there are very few independent musicians.

When record companies are promoting their records, they don't help singers appear on TV or radio at other times.

The singers have to contact them themselves.

Of course, these are not big problems in Zhou Ziheng's view.

Commercial performances, television appearances, and radio appearances are all determined based on the singer's fame.

As long as there are people who listen to your songs and you are famous, you don’t need to contact them yourself, they will find you.

Liu Zhiwen frowned and couldn't help but said angrily:

"Comrade Zhou Ziheng, you're making it very difficult for me!"

Zhou Ziheng seemed not to hear the anger in his tone, and continued:
“Boss Liu, even though I don’t have a singer contract with Pacific, it doesn’t mean I don’t belong to Pacific anymore.

I could sign a few more records with Pacific.

Think about it, Pacific almost doesn't need to invest, just distribute and publish, and can get a good profit, so why not do it?

You, Pacific, don't even have to worry about whether I will be popular in the future. If I'm not popular and my records don't sell, you will only lose some raw material costs for making and printing tapes and publicity costs.

Besides, do you think there is no market for this tape?

As long as it sells hundreds of thousands of copies, Pacific will make a profit.

The only loss for Pacific is that it has to pay me more.”

Liu Zhiwen didn't look very happy.

Of course he hopes to sign the singer directly.

Because as long as he signed a singer contract, with Zhou Ziheng's appearance and this tape, he was sure to make Zhou Ziheng the first generation idol in the mainland.

In addition, there is one most important factor, that is, Pacific can get the lion's share of the profits created by Zhou Ziheng in the future.

But if Zhou Ziheng only cooperates with Pacific, the situation will be different. If Zhou Ziheng is responsible for producing his own records, it means that the amount he will receive is not a simple singer's salary, but a direct share of the profits.

From the record company's perspective, they don't want to give up any more profits.

only……

He glanced at the tape on the table and was reluctant to give it up.

As mentioned before, in the 1980s, there was very little original music in mainland China, and most of the best-selling tapes came from Hong Kong, Taiwan and ripped songs.

Now, the government has enacted a copyright law, which requires copyright to cover songs, otherwise it is illegal. This directly cuts off the idea of ​​major record companies to rip songs.

As for Hong Kong and Taiwan records.

There is also a price to pay for distributing and publishing Hong Kong and Taiwan records in the mainland.

The more famous the Hong Kong or Taiwan singer is, the more expensive the agency fee for the tape distribution and publishing rights in mainland China will be.

Not to mention others, just take the Four Heavenly Kings as an example. If a mainland record publishing company wants to obtain their record agency rights, the agency fee for a single record will be no less than millions.

Millions, which is an astronomical figure in this era.

There are certain risks involved in spending millions to obtain the agency rights.

Although the records of popular singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan during this period mostly sold very well in mainland China, there were also some unsuccessful sales.

Pacific once encountered a situation where it spent several million to acquire the agency rights for a record, but the sales volume did not meet the target and the money earned was not enough to cover the agency fee.

Moreover, now the agency rights for Hong Kong and Taiwan singers can no longer be obtained simply by paying agency fees.

Just this year, a foreign company, eyeing the huge tape market in the mainland, applied with Tong Sulan to set up an audio-visual production company.

The publishing and production rights for tapes of all big-name singers in the mainland, including those from PolyGram and Warner, were given to this company, making this company called Guangdong Cailing the largest importer in the mainland.

This move directly cut off the idea of ​​Pacific and other companies to introduce Hong Kong and Taiwan records, forcing them to start training their own singers.

It is no longer acceptable to copy songs, and it is also not advisable to import records of Hong Kong and Taiwan singers.

Record companies including Pacific Records naturally pay more attention to mainland singers, especially those with creative ability.

Liu Zhiwen was not a man without vision. From this tape of Zhou Ziheng, he had already discovered that Zhou Ziheng had great creative talent.

At least there are no such people in the Pacific at present.

There was silence for a long time.

Liu Zhiwen took a deep breath and took a step back, "Just do as you said, let's cooperate!

However, your share cannot be too high, 20% at most."

As he spoke, he seemed to be worried that Zhou Ziheng would think the share was too little, so he took the initiative to explain:
"Don't think it's too little. This share is already a precedent, and if your record sales are good, you can increase it later."

Twenty percent!

To be honest, Zhou Ziheng was not satisfied with this share.

But he also knew that he could get this share just by having a tape that had not yet been released, which was already a sign that Liu Zhiwen appreciated his talent.

So, he didn't continue to refute, but nodded and agreed to the profit sharing ratio.

Anyway, Liu Zhiwen said that if the sales are good, he will be given additional albums depending on the situation.

This is enough.

(End of this chapter)