hollywood billionaire

Chapter 328: New singing of old songs

In the past two or three months, with the rise of Han Music, a rumor has spread like wildfire in the music circle, and has spread more and more widely in the past two weeks - this company came out of nowhere, The independent record company that suddenly set up camp at the top of the Billboard charts is most likely a new project of a big boss within the Universal Music Group system.

Most of the rumors do not elaborate on the true identity of the big boss, but there are also a small number of story versions circulated among middle-level managers that directly name the so-called "protagonist".

Jimmy Iovine.

Many people categorically claim that he is the man behind Han Music.

The reason for such speculation is that it is indeed in line with the development trend of the music industry over the past thirty years. The formation of the three major music groups stems from a series of uninterrupted mergers of independent record companies. Sony Music's four flagship labels, Columbia, RCA, Epic and Arista, were all integrated into the group during Sony's merger of the century with BMG. These record companies are not affiliated with each other and each maintains an independent corporate structure and operating team. In other words, the entire Sony Music Group is an out-and-out feudal kingdom. Group CEO Doug Morris can appoint executives to various record companies, but he cannot truly centralize power and integrate superior resources into One place for direct deployment by Sony.

This situation of fragmentation is more common and serious within Universal Music Group. Since its birth in 1999, Universal Music Group has been the top of the three major music groups and has never given up this seat. The other two groups have no way to truly pose a threat to its leadership position. The global music market share is that Universal Music accounts for 32%, Sony Music accounts for 22%, Warner Music accounts for 16%, and independent record companies in other countries account for 30%. After the st century, the three-legged pattern will be roughly the same, and there may be % per year. There are only a few changes, but the general trend has stabilized and it is difficult for anyone to make waves.

One group monopolizes one-third of the interests of the entire industry. It is conceivable that Universal Music must be an unimaginable behemoth. In addition, since the history of the music industry is much longer than that of the IT industry in Silicon Valley, the development history of the three major music groups is also much more complicated, especially Universal Music, which can be said to be the Canadian multinational giant founded in 1857. Gram, the American music group founded in 1924, the British company Decca Records founded in 1929, PolyGram, the overlord of the European recording industry founded in 1962, the American media giant Comcast founded in 1963, and entered the music industry in 1990 A gold-eating monster jointly hatched by Panasonic Electric Co., Ltd. and Vivendi, France's undisputed number one media group. Although it is huge, its structure is bloated and the system is rigid. If it is forcibly meshed together, it may completely collapse at any time.

Therefore, Vivendi did not forcibly integrate the music business line, but put all the acquired assets under the umbrella of Universal Music Group for parallel management. Today, there are more than ten major sub-groups under Universal Music Group, including Capitol Records Group, Island Def Jam, EMI, Motown, Polydor, Republic Records, Verve Label Group, Virgin Music, and of course, Interscope Geffen A&M, which has Jimmy Iovine as one of its founding partners.

The main development model of Universal Music Group is to recruit large-scale and systematic record companies from all over the world to collect revenue, and these sub-groups have also followed suit. They have launched an arms race, cooperated with their contracted artists on a large scale, and established subsidiary labels. Or simply spend money to acquire independent record companies that are doing well.

The giants relied on this simple and crude way of playing, and Universal also had sufficient budget to support the expansion of each sub-group. Over time, the acquisition business became a good way for powerful people at all levels to realize their cash.

Leak some resources out of your fingers, send people outside the group to establish a brand new independent record company, do it for two or three years, make some achievements, and finally sell it to the group at a high price, making a reasonable and legal profit. If you want to obtain longer-term income, then separate the artists separately, terminate their contracts with the original companies one by one, and then form partnerships with Universal Music's sub-groups one by one, and then hold shares in these partnerships to seize profits. .

A large part of the reason why so-called independent musicians are springing up like mushrooms and being acquired by the three major music groups in a short period of time is because of this kind of black-box operation.

And Han Music is suspected to be a new shell for Jimmy Iovine to return to his old business after he resigned as CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M. It is indeed not unfair. Just look at the guest lineup of this Mad City - Eminem , 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Blink-182, Ellie Goulding, Kendrick Lamar, are all artists signed by Interscope. Everyone knows that Snoop Dogg, who accepted the offer of an annual salary of three million US dollars and became the CEO of Temple label, is from Dr. Dre. Lil Yachty, who entered the public eye with the song "Broccoli" under the label, is also bound to Interscope Records' Rae Sremmurd for his first solo tour.

To anyone who looks at it, these companies within the Han Music system look like someone is helping Jimmy Iovine hold shares on his behalf.

Otherwise, why would Dr. Dre be willing to take Eminem and 50 Cent out with him, and officially announce that he will perform a shocking revival of West Coast hip-hop classics?

Who else but Andre's closest business partner Jimmy Iovine has this kind of energy?

Next, the popular rap single "Bad Things" released on October 10th suddenly made the rumors more credible.

The composer of the single is Madison Love, a new composer who just graduated from the Clive Davis School of Recording Music at New York University. Her father, Roger Love, is a famous vocal coach in Hollywood who has coached legendary bands such as The Beach Boys, Chicago and The 5th Dimension. In recent years, his most noteworthy career achievement is being hired as a vocal teacher for Gervin Stefani and Selena Gomez.

That's right, these two artists have their recording contracts signed to Interscope.

As one of the industry resources that Jimmy Iovine recommended to Han Yi, Roger Love has naturally become the vocal guide for many artists under Han Music, such as Billie Eilish. During the break of teaching Billi, Roger, who visited Han Publishing's office, accidentally mentioned his daughter who was seeking a publishing contract... After a while, Adrian Nunez, the head of Han Publishing's A&R department, represented the company. Signed a three-year initial contract with Madison Love, which requires the completion of at least 20 works.

"Bad Things" is the first work Madison Love submitted.

To be precise, it can only be regarded as half a work, because this single is said to be composed by Madison Love and her classmates in a college physics class. The core part is basically borrowed from the 1999 band Fastball. Released hit single "Out of My Head".

From the lyrics to the melody, they are almost identical.

Sounds a lot like plagiarism, right?

But in the modern music industry, this creative technique has a proper name, "Interpolation", which uses part of the melody of a certain song, but does not directly sample it, but invites other singers to enter the studio to record a new version.

The main motivation for doing this is that if the creator chooses to directly sample a previously released recording version, then in addition to paying the copyright distribution company for the sampling fee, the creator also needs to pay for the record company that owns the master copyright of this recording version. Pay usage fees.

For major labels, the royalties for an ordinary sample are generally between US$2000 and US$5000 - one payment to the copyright distribution company and another payment to the record company. Add the two together, that's $4000 to $10000. If they encounter big-name composers and popular music, the licensing fees they ask for can even reach more than ten times these two figures.

In the era of streaming media where artist contract advances are getting smaller and smaller, there are only a handful of musicians who can afford this fee, and there are also very few record companies who are willing to pay musicians. For one million streams, the company only gets $2380. How could they be willing to spend a lot of money on sampling? Therefore, in the licensing department of every record company, there are one or more staff members who are responsible for sample licensing. Their most important job is not to clear the sample rights for their artists, but to closely monitor the finished products provided by the musicians. whether there are unauthorized samples, and try our best to persuade the artist to give up these samples, or use other methods to achieve the effect of the samples.

Interpolation, or re-sampling, is “other methods”. Musicians who cannot afford to pay the royalties usually re-record the melody they want to sample. In this way, they only need to pay the copyright company the royalties for the music itself, instead of paying the record company for the use of the music itself. With the licensing fee, it saves 50% of the cost.

Of course, the reason why Madison Beer was asked to do the interpolation on the song "Bad Things" was not because Han Music or Interscope couldn't afford the money. Madison Beer has an advance payment of over one million U.S. dollars, which has already reached the standard of a first-line singer. When this number is revealed, even singers who became famous five or six years earlier than her will feel a little envious in their hearts. .

Although "Out of My Head" is a rock classic in the late 20s, its highest ranking on the Billboard singles chart is only No. 3000. In recent years, the frequency of commercial licensing has not been high, and the popularity of streaming media platforms has It is also very sluggish, with less than plays per day, so the licensing fee is not very high, even US$ or is considered to be sky-high. For Madison, who is currently rapidly becoming famous and has a lot of money, this sampling fee is not something she takes seriously.

The real reason she chose to re-record the melody was because that was the essence of the single - a gospel-influenced rock ballad featuring Hammond organ and piano, adapted into a rich The pop rap, which contains elements of independent pop and contemporary R&B, explores a love theme that is more suitable for contemporary young people and seeks pain and pleasure in sadomasochism.

Re-singing old songs and re-arranging old songs is one of the eternal secrets of success in the music industry. The new wave synth-pop classic "Take On Me" released by a-ha in 1984 was adapted into the pop dance song "Feel This Moment" by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera in 2013. It topped the European dance music charts and also It peaked at number eight on the US Billboard singles chart.

The Carnigans' 1996 disco pop song "Lovefool" was transformed into one of Justin Bieber's early masterpieces, "Love Me", after a modern arrangement. The Jackson 5's classic "ABC" was re-recorded and added with tropical house elements, becoming a breakout song that brought electronic music producer Sigala into the mainstream music scene. Cheat Codes, a group recently signed by Mad Decent, a subsidiary of Han Music's electronic music label, borrowed its first chart-topping hit single "Sex" from Salt-n-Pepa's 1991 Hip House song "Let's Talk About Sex" melody. This was the driving force behind Adrian Nunez signing Madison Love and matching this song to Madison Beal. A classic melody has gradually lost the attention it deserves over time. It is a win-win situation for a popular newcomer to pick it up, polish it, and bring it back to the public eye. The owners of the original works will gain more income due to the renewed traffic. Using excellent samples that have been proven by the market can also increase the probability of success for the new version of the single.

Therefore, after repeated and careful discussions, "Bad Things" was finally determined to be the first official promotional single for Madison Beer's debut studio album.

"Cold Water" was her first collaboration with Diplo and Justin Bieber, while "Bad Things" was the first time she really took the leading role.

In order to get the new album off the ground, executive producer Christopher Stewart specially hired The Futuristics, a production group he has worked with many times, to arrange the music. At first, Alex Schwartz and Joe Kajadourian, two members of The Futuristics, were not particularly happy to hear that they were writing a song for an unknown junior like Madison Beer. After all, they They have collaborated with all big names in their career. The first song they officially sang was Chris Brown's "Go Away". Bruno Mars, Flo Rida, Will.i.am and Wiz Khalifa have all hired them again many times. For an old client, re-recording and sampling a popular Disney princess was really contrary to their career plans - after all, in the early stages of the "Bad Things" project, "Cold Water" was still a full month away from its official release.

The Futuristics proposed to Han Music that cooperation is possible, but the singer must be replaced, preferably an outstanding independent artist like Horsi with a unique voice and whom he has collaborated with before. At that time, Karen Guo almost agreed to The Futuristics' request and gave the song to Horch to sing. Fortunately, Horsch himself didn't like this kind of sampled pop rap and politely refused, so the song returned to Madison Beer.

However, this is not the only twists and turns Madison has faced. Since "Bad Things" is a popular rap song, the main song needs a hip-hop singer to write lyrics and sing, so Han Music had to find a rapper partner for her. At that time, the Temple label was still in its infancy, Snoop Dogg had not yet taken up the post of CEO at Han Yi’s warm invitation, and artists such as Migos, Lil Yachty and 21 Savage had not yet signed 360 contracts. This means that Han Music must find external artist resources to complete the project.

It happened that the original song "Out of My Head" that was sampled belonged to A&M Records, which, like Interscope Records, was within the business framework of Interscope Geffen A&M. Therefore, Adrian Nunez followed the lead and led Karen Guo to kill I went to the Interscope records office ten minutes away and dumped the "Bad Things" demo on the desk of Sam Lieback, Interscope's executive vice president in charge of A&R.

After working at Interscope for many years, Sam Riback may not be an artist, but he can definitely identify quality commercial singles that have the potential to reach the top of the charts. Moreover, after having been in the group for so long, he knew very well which company the two managers in front of him represented and who that company was closely related to. Therefore, Lieback made a decision on the spot and reached a song usage agreement with Han Music and Han Publishing. Machine Gun Kelly, who was preparing for his third studio album, just needed a song that could help him conquer the mainstream charts and commercial radio stations. popular rap.

However, not surprisingly, Sam Riback questioned the singer's choice on behalf of Interscope. They didn't trust Madison Beal and felt that putting her name next to Machine Gun Kelly was a bit of a drag on the latter. Lieback proposed that if the singer could be changed, especially if the singer was replaced by an artist signed by Interscope, he would be willing to bear the entire production cost of "Bad Things", including the cost of filming the music video.

That time, Camila Cabello almost got the music that had belonged to her in the previous life, her first Billboard top ten hit, thanks to Han Yi's persistence in the weekly meeting He wanted to leave "Bad Things" to Madison Beale, and even called Jimmy Iovine before Interscope finally reluctantly agreed to the cooperation.

There is blatant discrimination everywhere and there is absolutely no room for rebuttal. It is clear how difficult it is for newcomers to break into the music industry. Needless to say, it is difficult for a start-up record company to break into the core circle. Without the tens of millions of dollars donated by Han Yi to the Yowen and Yang Academy, without his investment regardless of cost, even if Han Music poached more executives from the three major music groups, it would be difficult for the mainstream companies to lift it up Look more closely.

What are the employees in Room 1001 of Xinghui Building busy with every day?

Three-quarters of the time, I am busy fighting against and compromising with these stereotypes in the music industry.

Out of the protection of artists, neither Han Yi, Zhao Youzhen, Karen Guo or Adrian Nunez revealed the bitterness behind it to Madison Beer, but the Changdao girl is not a rookie, " The extremely slow progress of "Bad Things" can already explain everything. The single was originally to be released in September, but it was finally delayed until October 9th. Every minute and second wasted in the middle was contempt for her.

Therefore, in her opinion, the lyrics of this song have a deeper meaning besides the sadomasochism imagined in Madison Love's mind.

"Have I lost my mind?

Is my thinking out of control?

I can't explain it in words,

What can I say, none of this is under my control. "

Madison Beale, who was singing softly, walked slowly to the center of the stage. Behind her, on the semi-curved giant screen conceived by Han Yi himself and built according to the effect of the Las Vegas Sphere, an abandoned warehouse appeared. Interior panorama. The mottled red walls, broken window eaves, dirty water in the corners, and the chandelier on the ceiling that looked dim due to aging and flickered from time to time.

Underfoot, the originally pitch-black floor gradually lit up, turning into a black-gray concrete floor covered with cracks and lines. In front of him, several backup dancers were sitting or lying around a few broken sofas and a faded tea table, sleeping soundly. They were obviously acting as a group of decadent teenagers who sneaked into an old factory and drank and caroused all night long.

"No matter what you say,

No matter what you do,

I just want to do something bad to you.

This indescribable feeling,

What can I say, it's so complex. "

"Get into cue, Madison."

After hearing the instructions in the earphones, Madison followed the movements planned during the rehearsal, moved a female backup dancer's right foot off the sofa, and sat down on the edge of the armrest.

Madison raised her head and glanced at the audience who all raised their phones to record this live visual performance that was beyond their imagination while holding their breath in anticipation of her next move.

Contrary to the expectations of all the audience, Madison leaned back, as if he was too drunk, completely collapsed on the sofa, and closed his eyes.

Immediately, she raised the microphone and whispered in a tired voice that sounded like she was about to fall asleep:

"Ladies and gentlemen, Machine Gun Kelly."

Like an instruction, as soon as Madison finished speaking, a single sofa next to her that originally had its back to the audience... to be precise, the round table under the sofa began to rotate, causing the seat to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees. Spend.

At this time, all the music fans in the audience discovered in a burst of soft shouts that Machine Gun Kelly had been curled up on this sofa with his legs crossed.

(End of this chapter)