Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 96: Buyout fee for Entertainment Records, phone call from EMI Records
It’s really cool to be the director of a music video. I have the final say over the entire small crew and can shoot the music video however I want.

But its progress is also very slow.

Zhou Ziheng himself was not very familiar with the position of director, and he was pursuing the quality of "Fairy Tale".

Therefore, "Fairy Tale" was filmed in five full days.

But fortunately, the quality is good.

November 10, Pacific Company.

Zhou Ziheng, Florence Hui, Du Baodong, Huang Wei, and cousin He Jin.

A group of people are watching the filmed MTV of "Fairy Tale".

"How? How do you feel?"

After the MTV was over, Zhou Ziheng looked at everyone else with pride.

Zhou Ziheng was indeed very proud because this was the photo he took.

Well! Huang Wei was the one who actually took the photo.

But it was enough for him to be proud, as the filming of this MTV was inseparable from his leadership.

Everyone below looked at each other.

"I think it's very good!" He Jin spoke first.

Zhou Ziheng smiled and nodded.

Although He Jin is young and has little experience and it is hard to tell whether he is good or bad, he has one good thing: he knows how to support his cousin.

Look at Du Baodong.

The oldest person in Ziheng Studio bowed his head and pondered, "This is a great MTV. It feels like watching a miniature movie. I think we can promote the MTV when we promote it, and broadcast it on major TV stations first, so as to promote Fairy Tale."

"I think so too!" Huo Wenxi's eyes turned red, "MTV songs are becoming more and more popular with the audience nowadays, and good MTVs can really help songs a lot.

Sometimes it’s even comparable to the theme song of a movie or TV series.”

For singers, if a song wants to achieve good results, in addition to the quality of the song itself, support from other channels is very important.

Among them, the help provided by TV dramas or movie interludes, especially those with high ratings and huge box office, is incomparable to that of ordinary promotional means.

Whether in this era or in the future, many songs have become classics among classics with the help of movies and TV series.

The most typical one is "My Heart Will Go On", the theme song of "Titanic".

This song became widely sung around the world because of the box office success of Titanic.

There are many such examples in China, such as "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" from "The Iron Blooded Heart" and "Shanghai Beach" from "Shanghai Beach".

In short, a movie or TV series that matches a song will definitely be a huge help in promoting the song.

Although the MV "Fairy Tale" is not a TV series or a movie, because of its touching story, if promoted properly, the help it brings will be absolutely unimaginable.

“Then, Sister Wenxi, I’ll leave the MTV promotion of this song to you.

You have connections in TVB, so try to get the MV of this song on TVB's MTV channel next week.

If you have connections in Taiwan, you can also start promoting it.

As for the mainland, I will contact the TV stations here. I think the major TV stations will not refuse to broadcast my MTV."

Seeing that everyone thought the MTV was good, Zhou Ziheng immediately made arrangements.

After a pause, he looked at Florence Hui again and said, "Sister Florence Hui, can you help me contact the Entertainment Dynamic Music Department?

Ask them what they think of my record.

Tell them that if they have any ideas, I will give them priority in publishing because we have worked together once before.

But I don’t want them to skimp on the publishing agency fee.”

For the release of "Fairy Tale" in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Zhou Ziheng wanted to find a major record company to distribute it.

Like the Rolling Stones or Warners.

Both companies have excellent distribution channels throughout Southeast Asia.

However, there is one issue that Zhou Ziheng has to consider.

That is the problem of resource allocation.

PolyGram has its own son Jacky Cheung, and other big companies naturally have them too.

Warner now has Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok.

The Rolling Stones include Wakin Chau and others.

Zhou Ziheng joined halfway and it was just a collaboration, not a contract. Even though his current popularity is not inferior to these people, in comparison, these record companies will definitely give priority to giving the resources to their own singers.

Therefore, Zhou Ziheng is not considering these companies for the time being.

Plus, the last time Entertainment Dynamic had collaborated with him, it was quite pleasant.

Therefore, his priority now is still entertainment and music.

Of course, the premise of all this is that Yineng Dongyin is willing to offer a reasonable price.

"We are starting to promote it now? Isn't it a bit early?"

Huo Wenxi frowned.

The release date of the album "Fairy Tale" is set for December 7th.

There are still more than twenty days left.

Twenty days is neither short nor long.

But it's still a little early for promoting an album.

At present, whether in mainland China or Hong Kong and Taiwan, singers’ record promotion usually only starts one week in advance.

There are very few people like Zhou Ziheng who start promoting twenty days in advance.

Anyway, Florence Hui rarely sees this kind of situation.

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng explained:
“My rival on this album is Jacky Cheung.

Although Jacky Cheung’s new album is a Mandarin album like mine.

But one thing I have to admit is that he has an advantage over me in the Cantonese-speaking areas.

If I want to compete with them in Hong Kong and Macao, I have to take certain measures.

Although advance promotion may cause fans' enthusiasm to rise in advance, it will wane when the album is released.

But as long as the promotion of my subsequent albums can keep up, this problem is not a problem.”

In fact, Zhou Ziheng has thought about creating a pure Cantonese album to increase his popularity in Cantonese-speaking regions.

But after thinking it over, he gave up the idea.

At present, his advantage is in the Mandarin-speaking regions.

Zhou Ziheng still understood the principle of using one's strengths to attack others' weaknesses, and using one's weaknesses to eliminate others' strengths.

It is obviously irrational to use your own weaknesses to challenge the other party's strengths.

Moreover, although Cantonese songs were indeed popular for a period of time.

But during this period, the influence of Cantonese songs was indeed declining.

On the contrary, the Mandarin market is starting to grow bigger and bigger.

This can be seen from the annual record sales data.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Cantonese songs sung by Hong Kong singers seem to be classics.

In fact, in terms of sales, the sales data of Cantonese songs are already far behind those of Mandarin songs.

Currently, the highest sales record for Cantonese albums is over 800,000 held by Alan Tam.

What about Mandarin records?

Just look at the past two years and you will know, whether it is Wang Jie or the Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong.

In fact, the sales of their Mandarin albums are generally higher than those of their Cantonese albums.

"Goodbye Kiss" is even more of a model, with all sales added up to over four million.

In comparison, the sales of Cantonese records are just a fraction of what they were before.

The low sales data also reflects Zhou Ziheng's unwillingness to release Cantonese albums.

It's really not profitable.

Of course, Zhou Ziheng will definitely release a Cantonese album to increase his influence in Cantonese-speaking areas, but definitely not now. As for why he didn't mix Mandarin and Cantonese.

This brings us to the question of the style of records during this period.

Mandarin and Cantonese songs can indeed be mixed, which is what Zhou Ziheng did in his previous album "Sad Pacific".

However, this mixture of two types of languages ​​seems a bit incongruous, and not only music critics dislike it.

Even the fans don't like to listen to this kind of album.

"Pacific Rim" encountered this problem when it was released in Hong Kong.

Many fans ignored this album simply because the songs in it were a mixture of Mandarin and Cantonese.

This is also the reason why singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan do not release mixed albums, but instead produce and release Mandarin and Cantonese songs separately.

Because of the mixture of Mandarin and Cantonese, it is really easy to please neither side.

……

Although the MTV of "Fairy Tale" has been produced, the MTVs of other songs in the album have not yet been completed.

While Florence Hui and other studio staff started running around to prepare for the TV release of "Fairy Tale", Zhou Ziheng continued his MTV shooting work.

Compared to "Fairy Tale", the MTVs of other songs are much simpler.

Zhou Ziheng did not shoot all the MTVs of these songs into short films.

First, there is no need, and second, there is not enough money to shoot it.

Zhou Ziheng spent 150,000 yuan to make the MTV of "Fairy Tale". If he wanted to shoot other MVs in the same way, Zhou Ziheng would have to invest at least one million yuan.

With so much money, it is enough to make a movie. Zhou Ziheng is not so stupid.

Therefore, when shooting other MTVs, Zhou Ziheng followed the regular MVs of that period.

Zhou Ziheng directed the MVs of most of his songs himself.

The others were directed by Huang Wei.

The filming took less than two days.

On the morning of the 14th, Li Xiaolin from Yineng Dongyin came to Guangzhou in person, and Zhou Ziheng received him in the studio.

"Sister Ziqi, bring two cups of tea!"

Zhou Ziheng took Li Xiaolin to the reception room.

Li Xiaolin looked around the seemingly shabby studio with great interest. "Who would have thought that the song "Sad Pacific", which sold millions of copies, was produced in this shabby studio."

"It's just a small fight, it can't compare to the grandeur of the performing arts, Brother Xiaolin, please bear with me."

Zhou Ziheng brought Li Xiaolin into the reception room and asked him to sit down.

Wang Ziqi brought two cups of tea.

Zhou Ziheng took it and handed a cup to Li Xiaolin, "One of my sisters gave it to me. It's hard to find on the market. You can try it."

Li Xiaolin took it, took a sip, and his eyes lit up. "It's really good. Do you have any extra? Give me some."

"That won't do. I don't have much myself."

This tea is not ordinary stuff, but a gift from Zhou Ziheng’s sister.

You can’t buy this thing even if you want to. Zhou Ziheng only has a little over a pound of it, and it’s gone after he eats it.

Of course, Zhou Ziheng could shamelessly ask his sister for it.

But my sister-in-law’s family doesn’t have much, I can’t give it all to him!
So, you can drink here, but if you want him to send you home, no way.

"What a pity! I usually love drinking tea. Your tea is really good. I was thinking of taking some with me when I go back!"

Li Xiaolin didn't mind and started to exchange a few words with Zhou Ziheng.

After a few minutes, he began to get back to the point.

Yeeongdongyin is a record company that was re-established after the disbandment of Boyesing.

Although the company bosses are well-known in Hong Kong.

But after the establishment of the new company, it has not had a suitable record to make it famous.

The release of "Sad Pacific" not only made Yineng Dongyin famous among the record companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

It also made a lot of money for the newly established entertainment company Dongyin.

Therefore, for Zhou Ziheng’s new album, artistic dynamic music is imperative.

As soon as Li Xiaolin opened his mouth, he quoted a very high agency fee.

"Two million. I came here with sincerity this time. I hope our cooperation can continue."

The album "Sad Pacific" has sold 1.7 million copies in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Compared with the mainland, records are mainly in the form of tapes.

There are three types of records in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

One is magnetic tape.

The other is the more expensive laser CD.

This type of CD is actually similar to a VCD, but is larger and has images.

VCD was designed based on this.

Since this type of CD came onto the market in the late 1980s, it has become one of the main record brands in more developed regions.

The third type is vinyl records. Although vinyl records have become a thing of the past at this time, Zhou Ziheng's album was also sold in vinyl in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The quantity was smaller, but more than 70,000 copies were sold.

Zhou Ziheng’s sales volume is 1.7 million.

Tapes make up the majority, about 1.2 million.

Laser CDs cost around 400,000.

The vinyl record costs 70,000.

Among them, the average wholesale price of tapes in Hong Kong and Taiwan is ten Hong Kong dollars.

The price for a laser CD is HK$30.

Vinyl records are more expensive, costing seventy-five per copy.

In total, Zhou Ziheng's 1.7 million records have brought him a total revenue of around 30 million in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

After deducting the cost of the record of 4-5 million, plus the agency buyout fee and publicity, there is still about 23 million left. (The distribution of entertainment companies is different from that of large companies. Their distribution in Singapore and Formosa needs to be handed over to other distribution companies for help)
A portion of the money was distributed to distributors in various places, and Yien made a net profit of about 14 million from Zhou Ziheng's album.

Having earned so much from just one album, Entertainment was of course willing to give Zhou Ziheng more buyout money for the subsequent album.

"Two million is too little!" Zhou Ziheng shook his head.

Although he didn't know how much the entertainment company earned from this album.

But according to his estimation, it would definitely not be less than seven or eight million.

He would definitely not be willing to earn so much but only be given two million.

"Then let's add a little more, two million. Two million!" Li Xiaolin said after pondering for a moment.

"It's still too little!" Zhou Ziheng continued to shake his head.

Just when Zhou Ziheng was about to continue negotiating with Li Xiaolin to raise the agency fee to more than three million, Florence Hui knocked on the door.

"Mr. Zhou, there is an important document that needs your signature."

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng was stunned. What important documents could he have?

But he soon realized that Florence Hui had something to say to him.

"Sorry, Brother Xiaolin, please have some tea first, I'll be back soon."

Zhou Ziheng smiled apologetically at Li Xiaolin.

"what happened?"

Walking out of the reception room, Zhou Ziheng immediately asked.

Huo Wenxi glanced at the reception room, and then whispered after they were far away:
"EMI's executive director, Mr. Anda Nie, called me personally and wanted to talk to you about your record distribution.

He also told you not to agree to other record companies' release conditions, and he guaranteed that EMi would pay any price to sign your record contract.

"EMI?" Zhou Ziheng was stunned.

(End of this chapter)