Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 148 Selected as one of the top ten idols

It’s actually not difficult to sign Xu Wei.

This period should be the most difficult time for Xu Wei.

Didn’t you see him going to more than a dozen record companies with his songs, but in the end no one wanted him?
Therefore, faced with the olive branch extended by Zhou Ziheng, Xu Wei agreed without hesitation.

In fact, the signing conditions Zhou Ziheng gave him are already very good in the current domestic situation.

Not only did he promise to release a record for him, but he also gave him a certain share of the record's revenue.

This is a very rare contract in the current country.

Of course, the main reason why Zhou Ziheng signed Xu Wei was actually his creative ability.

Therefore, special provisions are also given.

Special terms are about song copyright.

From now on, the company will purchase all songs composed by Xu Wei at a price that matches his market price at the time.

In other words, the copyright of Xu Wei's songs will belong to Hengdong Records.

However, if you want the horse to run, you have to feed it grass.

Zhou Ziheng definitely cannot just keep exploiting people.

He still gave Xu Wei conditions on copyright that he could not refuse.

That is, Xu Wei will own 2% of the copyright income of the songs he writes himself.

In other words, as long as one of Xu Wei's songs is authorized by Hengdong to a radio station or platform for use, Xu Wei can get 2% of the profits.

However, his 2% is just profit, and he has no right to decide to whom to license the song.

Although a bit too capitalistic.

But in fact, this is already a very good term at present.

If it were other companies, they would directly buy your songs for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, and you would not get a penny of the subsequent copyright fees.

Many record companies even hold the rights to your songs.

As long as you terminate the contract with the company, the company can even ask you not to sing these songs.

The most typical and miserable example among them is G.E.M.

Not only could he not sing his own songs, he almost couldn't even use his own name.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng is willing to give up 2% of the copyright income to the creators, which is actually a kind of support for the creators.

It is no exaggeration to say that if he makes this condition known, a large number of people with creative abilities will come to sign contracts with Hengdong.

"This is Xu Wei!"

"This is Sister Wenxi, my agent. If you have any work-related questions, you can ask her."

"This is He Jin, the first artist in our company."

"This is Mr. Li Haiying, the company's producer."

"This is……"

After returning to Guangzhou, Zhou Ziheng called everyone in the company together and introduced Xu Wei to them.

"The company has two priorities next, one is He Jin's new album.

Another one is Xu Wei’s album.

Xu Wei's album songs are left to him to compose, and the company is responsible for production and then distribution. "

How could Zhou Ziheng let a talented guy like Xu Wei sit idle when he was brought into the company?

Write songs, write more.

"I have actually accumulated quite a few songs in the past two years, and I should be able to use them directly. The company can review them first and pick out the inappropriate ones. I will spend some time writing them recently."

After Hengdong was willing to give him good signing conditions, Xu Wei seemed very motivated.

"Not bad, not bad! These songs are all very good. Dadi Records didn't even want these two songs. They are really demanding."

Zhou Ziheng took the lyrics and music from Xu Wei and looked at them carefully.

There is no need to say much about "The Blue Bird" and "Two Days".

These two songs were included in "Red Star No. 1" released by Red Star Records.

This is a star album from Red Star Records, which includes songs from almost all singers under Red Star Records.

Original Time and Space, after the release of this album, it achieved great success.

With these two songs, Xu Wei became a rock singer as famous as Cui Jian, Zheng Jun, Zhang Chu and others.

However, of course Xu Wei submitted more than just these two songs, there were other songs as well.

Among them is "Persistence".

This song was also included in "Red Star No. 1".

The song was originally given to Tian Zhen to sing by Red Star Records. Tian Zhen became an instant hit across the country with this song and directly became one of the top female singers in the country.

This song has also become one of Tian Zhen's few representative works.

Zhou Ziheng was wondering, now that Tian Zhen no longer has "Persistence", can she still become a top domestic singer like in her previous life?
However, Zhou Ziheng would not care about this issue.

The song is now in its own company.

How could I possibly give it to Tian Zhen again?

Xu Wei submitted more than a dozen songs.

Zhou Ziheng picked some and drew ten poems.

“Let’s use these ten songs for our first album!”

After a pause, he looked at Xu Wei again and said, "The other song companies also bought the songs at a price of 5,000 yuan per song and temporarily put them in the company's copyright library.

If you want to use it in the future, or give it to other singers, your copyright income will not be less either."

Every company has a library of song copyrights.

Hengdong is naturally the same.

Zhou Ziheng does not care about other people's songs just because he has a lot of songs in his mind.

After all, he is only human and it is impossible for him to remember all the songs in the entire music industry.

The songs he remembered were all those he had come into contact with and learned to play and sing in his previous life.

There were also many songs he didn't remember at all.

Therefore, Hengdong is also collecting songs from outside.

"no problem!"

Xu Wei was shocked when he heard this, and nodded in agreement without hesitation.

How could he disagree.

He took out a total of seventeen songs.

Five thousand per song, a total of eighty-five thousand.

This is actually a very considerable amount of money for him.

In fact, in this era, not everyone cares about song copyrights as much as Zhou Ziheng.

In addition, people’s awareness of copyright is still weak.

The more important reason is that as long as you sign a contract with a record company, the copyright of your songs will basically automatically belong to the company.

Just like Dou Wei.

He created a series of songs including "Shame" and "Don't Break My Heart" when he was in the Black Panther band.

After creation, it belongs directly to Black Panther.

After he left, the copyright to these songs disappeared.

Then, the Black Panther members made a living directly from these songs. They even established a Black Panther band brand and lived off these songs for the rest of their lives.

From time to time, the lead singer is changed to stir up the popularity.

……

Xu Wei's record was given to the company to help produce.

Zhou Ziheng took the time to write songs for He Jin's new album.

There's nothing to choose from, just go for Sun Nan.

The title song is "As Long as You Are Here".

Other songs were directly copied from Sun Nan's 1997 album "Get to Know Sun Nan".

However, "As Long as You Are With Me" is a duet song between a man and a woman.

The original song was a duet between Sun Nan and Na Ying.

Now of course, He Jin can't just sing it alone. This song is more suitable for a male and female duet.

As for female singers, Zhou Ziheng prefers to invite Gan Ping.

If it really doesn't work, the worst that can happen is to invite the original singer Na Ying.

He is not so dissatisfied with Na Ying now.

Well, it’s mainly a matter of interests.

It must be said that Na Ying is still very popular in mainland China.

With her joining the song and the fact that it is suitable for the album, the sales of the record will be boosted to a certain extent.

After composing He Jin's song, Zhou Ziheng stopped managing the company's affairs and began to devote his energy to the shooting of his own record MV.

Although the MVs of this album are mostly dance.

But what is there is still there.

You can't just dance!
Adding some brief plots will undoubtedly make the MV more enjoyable to watch.

In addition, the main sales targets of this record are still Europe and the United States.

Therefore, after much thought, Zhou Ziheng decided to find a European or American for the role of the heroine.

The filming locations were also chosen in Europe and the United States.

……

In 1994, Wanwan's Ten O'Clock Idol Selection Campaign started in late October. Zhou Ziheng didn't pay much attention to it at first, but EMi called him excitedly to tell him that in the first round of selection, he received votes, ranking sixth, second only to Wanwan female singer Pan Meichen and higher than Aaron Kwok.

"Hengzi, judging by this data trend, if nothing unexpected happens, you will definitely be one of the top ten most popular idols this year..."

"Please pay more attention to it for me. If you need any publicity, please contact my agent directly."

The Top Ten Idols has been held for two consecutive years, and this year is the third.

This award has caused quite a stir in the Chinese-speaking regions in the past two years.

Because this award is currently the first award that is calculated purely based on popularity.

The selection rules are very simple.

The organizer launches ticket cards. After fans purchase the tickets, they write their idol’s name on them and send them back to the organizer.

Finally, the ten with the highest number of votes will be named the top ten idols of the year.

In the past two years, Zhou Ziheng had never been to Taiwan, so although some fans voted for him, they were not many.

Therefore, he did not win the award for two consecutive years.

This year, his photo album sold well on Wanwan, and he also held a concert, which attracted huge attention and gained a lot of popularity.

In addition, he is handsome and is the dream lover of many fans. Therefore, he is one of the favorites to win the award this year.

It is worth mentioning here that this award attaches great importance to appearance.

If you are not handsome, 80% of your fans will not vote for you.

Just like Jacky Cheung, he is definitely not weak in terms of record sales.

But he is not good-looking, so this year, for the third consecutive year, he has not been on the list. He only won the Best Singing Idol Award last year.

Maybe this year is the same, as a consolation prize.

Zhou Ziheng took some time to look at the current voting situation.

Compared with last year, this year's list is mostly filled with old faces. Apart from myself, only Tony Leung Chiu-wai is a new entrant.

The first place is still Andy Lau.

This guy still has a huge lead in votes.

He was the first in the previous two sessions.

If he still ranks first this year, he will have won the first place for three consecutive years.

Zhou Ziheng had no idea of ​​competing for first place.

Andy Lau is hanging on the wall.

In the next one or two years, I will definitely not be able to shake his position.

As for the top three, if I invest some money in promotion, there might be hope.

Currently, the second is Takeshi Kaneshiro, and the third is Nicky Wu, the most popular of the Four Heavenly Kings.

The fourth is Eric Suen.

In the past two years, Sun Yaowei is still very popular.

She is very popular in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially Wanwan. In terms of popularity alone, she is even comparable to the Four Heavenly Kings.

There's no way around it. He's handsome, and he's already developing in Taiwan, so he has a geographical advantage.

It is worth mentioning here.

Eric Suen is indeed from Hong Kong, but in fact, he is not considered a Hong Kong singer.

He made his debut in Wanwan and his main activities are also in Wanwan.

He also released records in Hong Kong, and "Love Story Part 1" is a Cantonese record.

But it was actually after Taiwan became famous that he turned to Hong Kong for development.

He is similar to Wang Jie. Both of them failed to make it in Hong Kong, but then became famous in Taiwan.

The Hong Kong media always says that the new generation in Hong Kong is not good enough.

In fact, they don’t think about the fact that in recent years, the Four Heavenly Kings have almost monopolized most of the resources in Hong Kong, and even singers like Hacken Lee, who are second only to the Four Heavenly Kings, can’t make it.

In this situation, which newcomer can survive in Hong Kong?
In the following years, many of the new generation in Hong Kong cannot be considered pure Hong Kong singers.

Later, a little sun named Wallace Chung will appear in Hong Kong.

However, the fact is, Wallace Chung was unable to make it in Hong Kong, so he signed a contract with Wanwan Entertainment, which is how he became famous and popular, and was considered the new generation in Hong Kong.

In a word, Hong Kong is not suitable for newcomers to develop at present.

Among the newcomers, every one of them was suppressed by the Four Heavenly Kings and could not stand out at all.

It was only because Ekin Cheng took advantage of the opportunity and starred in Young and Dangerous with Andy Lau that he was able to emerge and was once comparable to the Four Heavenly Kings.

As for others like Edison Chen, Daniel Wu, Nicholas Tse and others, they had to wait until the Four Heavenly Kings retired before they could emerge.

Therefore, there is a reason why the Four Heavenly Kings can dominate Hong Kong.

They are completely dependent on the resources of Hong Kong as a whole for their survival.

……

October 26, New York.

"Zhou, welcome to New York!"

After getting off the plane, Zhou Ziheng and others soon saw a bearded foreigner holding a sign with his name on it at the airport exit.

After going up to say hello, the other party immediately and enthusiastically led Zhou Ziheng and others to the hotel.

"The company has already found the female lead for your music video. You can meet them tomorrow."

The foreigner’s name is Ernst, he said, raising his eyebrows.

"What does this foreigner mean by winking at you?"

The company's exclusive MV director Huang Wei approached Zhou Ziheng and asked.

"What he means is that there will be a lot of blondes tomorrow, and if we are capable, we can let them serve us."

Zhou Ziheng said.

"Service? Service for what?" Huang Wei was like a fool.

Zhou Ziheng looked at him with contempt.

You can't even understand such a simple meaning. You deserve to be single at the age of 27.

However, Zhou Ziheng did not expect Hollywood to be so open.

I was just shooting a MV, but I was still subject to unspoken rules.

However, Zhou Ziheng was not interested in this.

The path of being able to take advantage of someone through a MV, I don’t know how many times this person has walked.

He still prefers the roads that are more congested and require one to clear them.

"Remember not to go out at night. The Americans are not safe."

When they arrived at the hotel, EMi arranged rooms for Zhou Ziheng and other members of the filming team.

Before entering the house, Zhou Ziheng gave specific instructions to the filming crew.

He didn't want to wake up tomorrow morning and find himself alone, so he wouldn't have to go to the garbage alley to look for someone.

(End of this chapter)