All-rounder Artist

When “Red Rose” rocketed to the top spot, the downloads for the song had already exceeded 1.2 million!

This was not just an impressive figure but also signified that Lin Yuan had officially earned the qualifications of an advanced songwriter.

Putting it plainly:

It was time to revise Xian Yu’s royalty contract!

Lin Yuan’s previous contract was a standard one for newcomers, where the company took 80% of the profits.

To change this, a negotiation with the company was needed.

The contracts signed by the advanced songwriters in the company were not all

the same.

As soon as Lin Yuan reached the promotion criteria for the advanced songwriter, 01′ Zhou approached him bluntly: “You have reached the company’s criteria for an advanced songwriter, what do you think of a new contract?”

Thoughts?

Lin Yuan gave 01′ Zhou a puzzled look. That was a rhetorical question, wasn’t it? Obviously, he wanted more money!

Surprisingly, 01′ Zhou understood the meaning behind Lin Yuan’s gaze and didn’t get angry. He smiled kindly: “I will handle the contract negotiations with the company personally.”

Lin Yuan hesitated.

Can 01′ Zhou be trusted?

While he was contemplating, a knocking sound was heard from the door followed by a familiar figure entering the room.

The person was Zhao Jue. Upon entering, she said to 01′ Zhou, “Lin Yuan has reached the standard for an advanced songwriter, and I’m planning to negotiate a new contract on his behalf.”

01′ Zhou glanced at Zhao Jue: “I can handle it.

Zhao Jue shook her head: “I can get a better contract.”

01′ Zhou was displeased: “Don’t forget that Lin Yuan is a person from our Songwriting Department. Do you think your face is bigger than mine, or do you think I will cheat Lin Yuan if I take charge?”

This Little Zhao couldn’t be trusted!

Lin Yuan was my man, yet you’re trying to steal my limelight?

Zhao jue, a bit disgruntled, reminded 01′ Zhou, “I was the one who signed Lin

Yuan.”

“I’ll go.”

“I’ll go!”

“I, Zhou Ruiming, dare to confront upper management!

“I’m very close with the boss!”

II II

Seeing both about to bicker, Lin Yuan could only say: “What about both of you going together?”

“Together?”

Old Zhou and Zhao Jue looked at each other and simultaneously broke into a smile: “Alright, wait for our good news.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

Five minutes later.

Zhou Ruiming and Zhao Jue arrived at the Finance Department. Starlight Entertainment’s Finance Department had a dedicated person in charge of the contracts for advanced songwriters.

“What wind blew the two of you over here?”

Seeing both Zhou Ruiming and Zhao Jue together startled the responsible person briefly before a warm smile spread across his face.

Both were significant figures within the company.

Zhou Ruiming said: “Renegotiate a contract for Xian Yu.

The manager immediately looked as though he had swallowed a bitter melon: “You’re personally negotiating on behalf of Xian Yu?”

Zhou Ruiming nodded.

The manager immediately got a headache.

Normally, such contracts were negotiated between the musician and the company.

Only for some extremely talented songwriters would the managers personally step in to help negotiate.

This was the situation the manager dreaded most!

These managers, in order to win over high-potential musicians, often adopted the most aggressive attitudes, firmly siding with the musician!

The manager’s responsibility, on the other hand, was to keep the company’s interests in mind and bargain as much as possible.

“Then what about Chief Zhao?”

The manager looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue said: “The same.”

The manager was dumbfounded: “Whose behalf are you on?”

Zhao Jue: “Xian Yu’s.”

The manager was so shocked that he didn’t manage to utter another word for a while.

By the time Zhao Jue and Zhou Ruiming left, the manager was slumped over the table, scaring the subordinate nearby: “What’s going on?”

“I’m the company’s sinner.”

The manager replied weakly.

The subordinate looked helpless; “Why not explain it to upper management?” The manager gave the subordinate a look: “You think I didn’t think of that?

Upper management already told me to do as I see fit once they heard it was for Xian Yu’s contract.”

“How much did you sign?”

“Is that any of your business?”

Embarrassed, the subordinate gave a weak laugh and left quietly.

As if it were casual, the manager said, “The next time a contract comes up, higher management might need to personally negotiate.

The subordinate was taken aback.

On the other side, 01′ Zhou and Zhao Jue had returned to the songwriting department and with much grandeur, they placed the new contract on the table: “This is your new contract.”

“What’s the split?”

Lin Yuan was anticipating.

Zhao Jue smiled: “If you were to collaborate with smaller artists in the future, you can directly get 50% of the distribution rights, you decide how you want to split with the artist and of course, they have the right to refuse. But, I guess there won’t any small artist who will reject the opportunity to work with you.” Lin Yuan started to do the math:

According to this contract calculation, he previously would have only received 0.15%. Now, he would directly get 4-5%. tripling his previous amount. This meant that Lin Yuan’s song split amount would be multiplied by three in the future. This made the price for customized songs from the system seem significantly more reasonable.

“In addition,”

01′ Zhou added: “In the event of a collaboration with a big-name artist, the company can give you a 30% share of the profits, the remaining 60% will be negotiated with the artist and their management by the company, and you wouldn’t be involved.”

Lin Yuan: “…”

This was the reason why he wasn’t fond of collaborating with big-name artists. When working with tool people (small artists), he could get 4-5% and give away only 0.5%; but when working with big-name artists, he would only get 3%.

The difference was a full 1.5%!

Don’t underestimate this 1.5%. That was the percentage Lin Yuan earned from his previous songs. AU in all, he had made a decent amount of money from this.

“Lin Yuan,”

Old Zhou said with a smile, “For a new advanced songwriter like yourself, this contract is already the best at the moment. Other advanced songwriters may have more exceptional works than you, but their contracts might not necessarily be better than yours.”

“Hmm,”

Zhao Jue nodded: “Once you’ve created more excellent works in the future, this contract can be further improved. At that time, both Old Zhou and I can still help you negotiate.”

“Thank you.”

While Lin Yuan was talking, he looked through the entire contract again. Once he was certain there were no problems, he wrote “Xian Yu” and his own name in the signature column.

“By the way,”

After Lin Yuan signed, he curiously asked, “How do ‘maestros’ split royalties with the company?”

“100%”

Zhao Jue smiled.

The artists don’t participate?

Before Lin Yuan could become envious, 01′ Zhou added: “Some maestros can also participate in various other types of revenue splits beyond downloads.” Lin Yuan was shocked.

There were many ways for a song to make money, not just from download shares, but also include artist appearances and even concerts, etc. The revenue from these projects was often astronomically high, which sometimes could even exceed download shares!

“Keep going,”

01′ Zhou chuckled, “When you reach that stage, I might share some even better-kept secrets with you. The company has many trump cards, so trump card contracts might not necessarily be that great, but maestros, well, they live in a different world.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

While Lin Yuan was over the moon about his new contract, Chen Zhiyu was dining with his agent on a fish banquet when suddenly, Chen Zhiyu opened his mouth in distress.

“What’s wrong?”

The agent asked concernedly.

Chen Zhiyu shouted, “A bone! There’s a bone in this fish!