Bright Star Road [Entertainment]

Zhou Xiao immediately understood the connotation of Li Wei's suggestion. For governments and politicians like Citigroup and Maple Leaf, the employment rate in their constituencies is undoubtedly one of the biggest responsibilities on them.If you can attract investment to boost the employment rate in this constituency, then it is possible for you to re-elect the seat or go further.In the past, when many foreign capitals entered the North American market, they liked to bring their own employees. This not only impacted the local employment situation, but also caused the local people to resent the foreigners.

Li Wei has always believed that company localization is the foundation for a multinational company to survive locally. If a large number of domestic employees are hired to work in the other country, most politicians will not welcome such companies to invest.And if the interests of oneself and the local people are consistent, even if politicians or trade union organizations want to make trouble, it depends on whether the local people agree or not.

This time, Li Wei plans to focus on the retail and catering industry, which is a traditional labor-intensive industry, which is very helpful for increasing the employment rate of a place.As long as Li Wei takes the data of investment and employment rate to the local government, the local government, from the mayor to the city councilors, will be willing to serve Li Wei.After all, these two figures are real political achievements.

Li Wei and Zhou Xiao were chatting about how each other's company entered the North American market, while enjoying the delicious seafood provided by the Michelin restaurant.By the time the two had dinner, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.For Citigroupers, it's the perfect time to start a night out.Li Wei and Zhou Xiao also chose a bar to sit in for a while, listening to music full of local ethnic flavors while drinking.The alcoholic beverages provided in the bar are generally not high in alcohol content. As long as they don’t want to get drunk on purpose, most people can leave the bar with a clear mind.In addition to the local music, this bar also has the most popular jazz and country music in Citigroup.

Citigroup's popular music is mainly jazz and country music (rock music). Jazz is black music, born from black spiritual songs; while country music and rock music come from white culture, mainly from folk songs. .North America is a huge music market, and compared to the small markets of Japan and Korea, North America can undoubtedly support a larger legal music consumption market.Therefore, with the popularization of music production technology, there are more and more independent musicians in North America.These independent musicians earn living expenses by singing in bars and other places, and then use their music through digital distribution platforms to obtain more benefits and attract attention, and finally hope to become guests of a certain music festival, and then be recognized here. Discovered by producers on professional record labels.

In addition to the huge consumers of genuine music, North America also has many large and small formal music venues, allowing many musicians to realize their dream of touring.For the first-line singers in North America, it takes one to two years to produce an album of their own, and then split the title songs into singles to start distribution and release, usually accompanied by a tour.As long as one's own album is still selling well, as long as one's own songs are still on the charts, theoretically, the concert can go on indefinitely.For many first-line singers or orchestras, it is normal for a concert tour to last for one to two years.After a year of concert tour, the ticket revenue alone may be tens of millions of dollars.If copyright income such as records is counted, then a singer can almost go from abject poverty to rich.

It is precisely because the North American market has such a good pop music self-circulation system, which has created the extreme prosperity of the North American pop music market.Compared with China, with the decline of the physical record market, the golden age of the domestic music industry has passed, although genuine protection has prompted the emergence of new carriers such as music downloads or digital record distribution.Li Wei remembers that when he was still in an idol group, if a single did not exceed one million, it basically meant that the singer was confused; the single sales of those first-line singers started at tens of millions, or even 5000 million. Miracle sales are also available.

And when Li Wei set foot in the popular market, EVA could be regarded as catching up with the end of the golden age.The first three albums still guaranteed millions of sales, but the subsequent albums were basically around 60.Even so, EVA is also the champion of the annual album sales list, and has achieved the reputation of "best-selling group".As for the groups or singers launched by Li Wei's company later, it would be thankful if the singles can earn 50 and the albums can earn 30.Moreover, many artists only regard the release of records as a stepping stone or ID card to enter the entertainment circle, as if they enter the entertainment circle as long as they release a record, and then they will make money by shooting advertisements or rushing announcements.It is precisely because of the mud and sand in the pop music circle that the domestic music market has shrunk further.In fact, it is undeniable that Li Wei's own company is the driving force behind this process.

"I didn't expect you to listen to music so seriously." After the two came out of the bar, Zhou Xiao suddenly sighed. "However, the sales of physical records really can't go back. Without digital albums and music source downloads, I guess the domestic pop music market will collapse. I vaguely remember the physical record market back then, from vinyl records to LPs. , then to cassettes, and then to CDs. Do you still remember that our predecessors released small 8cm CDs, and when we arrived, 12cm standard discs had been popular for many years. Now, on the contrary Vinyl records are more popular."

"No way, vinyl records can still be used as collectibles, and CDs made of plastic are not much like collectibles anyway?" Li Wei said with a smile, "Besides, vinyl records are mainly aimed at classical music. Group users, those users have plenty of money, so they naturally want to buy the best. And isn’t there a legend that both hydropower and thermal power have an impact on the playback effect of records, and the best power source for playback should be wind power. Then there is a classic In order to enjoy the ultimate record experience, music fans built a wind power plant and used it to generate electricity for their own record players, just for the inexplicable different feelings.”

"Why do I feel that you are mocking others?" Zhou Xiao said with a smile, "By the way, aren't you planning to purchase IP from North America? Do you have any companies that you are optimistic about? If I think it is suitable, maybe I will invest with you Woolen cloth."

"Of course I have a target company in mind." Li Wei said with a smile, "I would like to choose Lion Pictures as a movie company; as for a record company, I would like to choose United Television Music Publishing Company; and as for a comic company, Both Stunning Comics and Metro Comics are my targets."

Lion Pictures is the most experienced film company in North America. It is no exaggeration to say that Lion Pictures has a company history as long as the history of North American films.Moreover, the founders and former chairmen of organizations such as the North American Film Association and the North American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are all members of Lion Films.It's a pity that this lion is a thing of the past. After New Century failed to invest in several films in succession, it fell into a slump, and then the management, which was ordered to face danger, tossed this dying old lion to the point of death.If it weren't for the government's affection for this historically iconic company, Lion Pictures would have gone bankrupt long ago.United Television Music Publishing House is currently one of the top ten music copyright management companies in the world, with the fifth largest music copyright library in the world.As for Jingwei and Duman, both are double walls in the North American comic circle, but they both fell into the embarrassing situation of poor management.

"Jingwei and Duman are easy to talk about. Although the two companies are well-known in the comic circle, they are small in scale. If they really want to acquire them, they will spend money." Zhou Xiao is actually a fan of comics, so he also has opinions on these two companies. As far as I know, "But Lion Pictures' external debt is as high as 50 billion US dollars. If hard costs such as labor costs are included, then its acquisition price must be more than 60 billion US dollars. Your company still has such a huge cash flow support? As for United Television Music Publishing House, I don’t think they will talk to you about the acquisition. By the way, don’t you still want to acquire Best Western? You still have so much money in your account?”

"I wouldn't buy Lion Films alone. To be honest, I'm not a particularly sentimental person, so I'm interested in the Lion Films brand and its people, equipment, and offices. If we find a suitable partner, we can each get what we need. To put it bluntly, this lion is too big for me to hunt alone. So I plan to come together, and then everyone will share and eat." Li Wei explained with a smile , "As for the United Television Music Publishing House, I don't plan to buy it outright. I plan to talk to them about the possibility of a joint venture. If they have ambitions, they shouldn't reject me."

United Television Music Publishing House is only the fifth-ranked music copyright library, and Li Wei's idea is to occupy at least one-third of the world's music copyrights.Therefore, he plans to let Kirin Music acquire the original Rock Music and Harvest Records in China to create the largest Chinese music copyright company, and then use this company to form a joint venture with United Television Music Publishing House.After the joint venture, the new company will continue to acquire other music copyright libraries around the world, such as Phoebe, Empire Music, Bell Music, etc.As for the current top two Huanyu and Nahua, Li Wei is not in the mood to wrestle with them for the time being.

Li Wei and Zhou Xiao chatted and returned to the hotel, and after enjoying the essential oil bath in the hotel, they started their world.

After Marcos Yang returned from Honolulu, he held a board meeting and expressed that a Chinese-funded company was willing to acquire them.Marcos' news did not make the board happy, but more worried.

Benjamin, the chairman of the board, said: "My dear Yang, don't you know that the country is very disgusted with investment by Chinese-funded enterprises? Not only will the trade unions be in trouble, but the government will also be in trouble. We will eventually go bankrupt. .”

"But we have already found a suitable next buyer." Marcos said slyly, "If the government and trade unions don't agree, then please ask them to provide a suitable buyer. Since they can't provide a suitable buyer, then Having rejected our proposed buyer, is there any reason for the court to deny our bankruptcy petition? It is better for us to get out of this quagmire than for us to get in."

What Marcos said made the directors look clear. The current Best Western is a swamp, and they can only continue to sink if they don't jump out sooner.Now that I have provided suitable buyers, but the trade union and the government still have to pick and choose, then the court has no reason to refuse the directors to leave.Thinking of this, everyone started to form an acquisition negotiation team through Marcos's proposal, and at the same time informed the union representatives and the local government about the acquisition invitation.