hollywood billionaire

Chapter 64 Mad City
"Las Vegas?"

"5 people?!"

Diplo clenched the edge of the sofa with his right hand and sat up slightly.He looked at Jordan Bromley, who was sitting in front of the computer typing on the keyboard, recording the main points of the agreement, and then looked at Han Yi, who was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows admiring the view of the Century Park courtyard, leaving only a back view for everyone in the office, with an expression on his face There is a hint of disbelief in it.

It never occurred to him that the first news he heard when he arrived at Manate Entertainment, who was mentally prepared to sell his label shares, was actually related to Block Party.

"Hey, did you hear..."

Diplo's final sights were on his two partners, label co-founder and manager Kevin Kusatsu, and Mad Decent CEO Jasper Goggins.The former pointed at Han Yi, lowered his voice very low, and asked softly.The latter two shrugged and gave him the same confused look.

When Han Yi told Diplo at the welcome party that he was interested in participating in the operation of Mad Decent's live events and turning Block Party into "a block event where the residents of the whole city participated", Diplo thought that he just wanted to get rid of the label's existing Get a share of the [-] scheduled North American tours.

Unexpectedly, Han Yi’s invitation through Jordan Bromley turned out to be to expand Block Party to the whole world, London, Seoul, Tokyo, Milan, all performances that Diplo and his team had dreamed of but didn’t have the courage to put into practice The plan, Han Yi is ambitious and wants to become a reality.

What surprised Diplo and Jasper even more was the conception of what Han Yi called "Mad City", a Las Vegas electronic music festival with a daily capacity of 5 people, which was so large that Diplo didn't even dare to go to it in his dreams detached.

There is a huge difference between running an international label and hosting a world-class music festival.

To give a simple example, Mad Decent has a total of 32 employees. Counting CEO Jasper Goggins, the annual labor costs of the entire label, including the 401(k) purchased for employees, collective medical insurance and other benefits, are also With only around $220 million, Mad Decent is already a very successful independent electronic music label.

On the other hand, the Tomorrrowland Music Festival in Belgium needs to hire 12000 people to serve the event every year. The new music festival to be held in Boom Town in 2016 has a total production budget of $3550 million.

Music labels and music festivals are respectively located at the upper and lower ends of the music industry chain. Music labels are responsible for upstream content output, while music festivals are downstream consumer ports.The division of labor between the two is different, the products are different, and the business models are also very different.

More than 90% of live music performances in the world are at a loss, only 10% can break even, and less than 1% can obtain double profits like Tomorrowland or Ultra, and have persisted in operation for more than ten years .

The operating costs of music labels are much lower, which means that their trial and error costs are lower. Once a hit is hatched, the profit margin will be an incalculable astronomical figure for the music festival organizers. The production cost of "Lean On" was less than 200 U.S. dollars, and now it has recorded a revenue of [-] million U.S. dollars on the Spotify platform alone. DJ Snake and M's increased commercial value and performance market revenue.

In short, music labels operate with light assets and low costs, while performance organizers operate with heavy assets and high costs.If a label wants to crossover into the performance industry, the first problem that needs to be solved is funding, especially for large-scale music festivals.The production costs, which run in the millions, are often more than all the available cash on music labels combined.If you put all your eggs in one basket and put all your operating funds on a large-scale performance, it is very likely that you will lose everything if you are not careful.

That’s why, even with Budweiser and Red Bull co-sponsored by the two brands, Diplo’s Block Party team still chooses to keep the audience capacity of each tour under 3000 people.

The entry threshold for a 5-person music festival is extremely high, let alone a world-class music festival with a scale of [-] people.

Only billionaires can afford this level of activity.

Guess how many billionaires are in Jordan Bromley's office?
"This is the additional condition for Mr. Han to complete the acquisition of the label's shares, that's right." Jordan Bromley confirmed again, "What Mr. Han wants to acquire is the record company, the live event brand and the rights and interests surrounding the label. Among them, live performances are a very important part, and you know, Thomas, how many loyal fans a good event can bring to the label. "

"Of course I understand, Jordan." Diplo stroked the slightly messy dark beard on his chin, frowning and pondering, "I'm just worried, whether the whole team can support such a large-scale event... Mad Decent, including Including myself, I have never held an event with more than 10 people. I mean, of course I have participated in performances with tens of thousands or even [-] people, but participation and hosting are two completely different concepts.”

Diplo's entire speech was all about his own shortcomings, but Han Yi was able to keenly capture where the hesitation in his words came from.

"Don't worry, Thomas. I'm not saying we have to do an EDC-sized electronic music festival right away, although that's exactly what I want to do in three years—catch up and catch up to EDC."

Han Yi turned around and opened his arms towards Diplo with a smile.

“I’m not saying we’re going to lease the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and build a fantasy world out of 1200 acres of concrete. Those are worthwhile goals, but they’re not something we can achieve right away. I mean, The Mad Decent team, and my team, still have a lot to learn when it comes to performing live."

"But...but!"

Han Yi raised his left index finger and slowly walked towards Diplo.

"If we are always satisfied with activities on the scale of warehouse parties, then this kind of learning will always be slow and ineffective. Many times, only through a bold attempt and a leap of faith can we improve ourselves in terms of realm and level, regardless of The end result is success or failure."

"That's why I proposed this plan. In my opinion, Mad Decent's Block Party is a rare high-quality brand in the electronic music industry, and it is also a brand that has not yet discovered its full commercial potential. Its future should start from the depth and breadth. Breadth is the market we want to reach. The performance form you choose for Block Party now has controllable costs, controllable effects, and controllable sales expectations. The scale of two to 3000 people means that According to Mad Decent's current influence, no matter which major city in the world it performs in, the ticket sales situation will be very optimistic."

"Therefore, Block Party's globalization process must start now, Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania, if I am lucky enough to be a shareholder of Mad Decent, this will be the first thing I will focus on. Of course, we can't From the beginning, we will hold international tours by ourselves, but we can cooperate with Live Nation or AEG Live, and use their executive team, network resources and ticketing channels. Block Party is such a high-quality independent performance brand, and we can afford all the costs ourselves , I believe the two companies will fight for the co-host seat."

"Indeed." Jasper Goggins nodded, "From last year to this year, Live Nation and AEG Live have been talking to us about the tour, and they also want to invest and participate in the production of the show...only However, their requirements are too strict, and we cannot accept it from the start of sharing."

"How much do they want?"

"North America contributes half and half, and splits half." Kevin Kusatsu sighed with a wry smile, "I mean, if it's just the US, we don't need them to contribute at all."

"That's right, in North America, including Canada, or adding Mexico, we don't need to share the performance income of these three countries with them at all... But if we want to expand overseas, their mature performance industry assembly line , still has a certain value." Han Yi nodded his temples and lowered his voice, "Think about it, if we can fund ourselves and hire Live Nation or AEG Live to do the specific execution, then don't we only need to pay for it? They’re an overhead fee. Even if both companies insist on a cut, I’m sure we can talk about the percentage of superstars who go to concerts — 10-15% of gross profit.”

"What show company would turn down such an offer without taking financial risk?"

"It's very convincing." Diplo's hand on his chin covered half of his mouth at some point. He looked at Han Yi with great interest and said, "Please continue, Yi."

"It's over for breadth, but a performance brand, especially a brand that wants to be named as 'great', must have depth. Whether it's Tomorrowland, EDC or Ultra, or the earlier Wood Stoke, Glastonbury and Monterey are not remembered for one mediocre year, one international show."

"What will they remember?"

“Of course Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pops in 1967, Janis Joplin at Woodstock in 1969, Kurt Curt at Reading in 1992. Ben... Gentlemen, and our lovely lady. What we need to create for Mad Decent and all fans is a memory that belongs to this era. It is the future human beings 50, 60 years later, referring to the 2010s Live music, a treasure handed down that cannot be ignored."

"Sound, rhythm, gathering, carnival... From ancient times to the present, human beings are alone most of the time, which is why we always need live entertainment. We are not only entertained by the artists on stage, but also by the audience. Standing shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet. Why do people always flock to events with 1 people, 5 people, 10 people or even millions of people? Because only here can we as individuals truly feel The greatness of the entire human civilization. The same melody is sung by [-] mouths, and the same rhythm is synchronized by [-] hands... Even in the most difficult time of the music industry, the live performance industry has never been defeated. The charm."

"And this is exactly the meaning of the 5-person music festival, this is Mad City!"

It has to be said that among Han Yi's many advantages, his contagious and superior speech ability may be the most eye-catching one.Not only Zhao Youzhen's eyes burst into gorgeous fireworks, Diplo, Kevin, and Jasper were so excited that half of their bodies were hanging outside the sofa, even Jordan Bromley, who was always known for his eloquence, was very excited. Resting his chin with one hand, he listened attentively to the wonderful picture outlined by Han Yi.

"In my imagination, Mad City is a mix and mix of diverse neighborhoods. It should be a form of multi-stage performances at the same time or alternately, instead of having a main and auxiliary stage like EDC or Tomorrowland, and each stage There are all independently divided areas without interfering with each other. A city should be a fusion of different voices."

"Like the World Club Dome?" Diplo asked.The World Club Dome organized by BigCityBeats is one of the largest electronic music festivals in Germany. It is held every year at the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. The form Han Yi described is very close.

"Almost, but not quite." Han Yi smiled and shook his head, explaining, "World Club Dome still has a primary and secondary, but in Mad City, each stage is a block with a different style, with the same Importance. Plus, World Club Dome only has electronic music, and Mad City needs more if it's going to be a real 'city'."

"Electronic music, hip-hop, pop, rock, anything good that gets people's feet off the ground."

"A comprehensive music festival?" Kevin Kusatsu couldn't help raising his voice. The investor's ambition was much bigger than his wildest imagination.

When everyone thought that Han Yi wanted to copy EDC, what he really wanted to create was actually Woodstock in the 21st century.

"Imagine here, Kanye West has just finished his hip-hop set on a slum-themed stage, and the next second, Alicia Keys appears on another stage with the Empire State Building as the main structure, with her partner Jay -Z. Before anyone can recover from the Empire State of Mind chorus, Ni appears on the third stage, Ibiza-style."

Han Yi pointed to Diplo and said word by word.

"Anything and everything, happening all at once."

This sentence alone made the hairs on Diplo's arms stand up.

If everything can really come true as Han Yi said, a few blocks in a city, superstars representing each culture gather together, and turn the music festival into a metropolitan museum that pays tribute to pop culture, then Mad City will definitely become This decade, no, this century, is the memory of the times that people talk about and never forget.

And myself, the co-founder of Mad City.

Hot - Fucking - Damn.

"What about the venue?"

Diplo has completely fallen into Han Yi's dream, and asked eagerly.

"I know that the scale of the first edition may not be the most impressive, but if we want to complete a performance of this level, we still need a top-level venue."

"Of course, Thomas, of course we need a top-level venue."

Han Yi put his hands together and said softly.

"What do you think of Las Vegas festival venues?"

The Las Vegas festival venue is one of the largest open-air music festival venues on the entire West Coast, and even the entire federal territory, and it is also the latest one. In 2014, MGM announced that it would jointly develop this 26-acre vacant land on Western Sahara Boulevard in Las Vegas with Cirque du Soleil and the Yucaipa Group, which is controlled by California entertainment tycoon Ronald Burkel. , and named it "MGM Festival Celebration Venue".It will serve as the permanent venue for Brazil's No. [-] music festival brand, Rock in Rio America.

This open-air music venue was not put into use until last May, and the first performance was naturally the long-awaited Rock in Rio USA.The lineup of the music festival is extremely strong. Over two weekends and four performance days, Las Vegas welcomed more than 120 artists, including Metallica, Linkin Park, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and John Legend.But the final ticket sales situation can be described as a disastrous failure. It was originally expected that 32.8 people would show up, but only 14 tickets were sold in the end.

MGM, Cirque du Soleil and Yucaipa saw nothing in return for the $2000 million they put into building the venue, and the three companies, along with SFX Entertainment, which hosts Rock in Rio USA, lost $2800 million.This tragedy directly caused SFX Entertainment, which had been losing money and had to rely on financing to suspend its breath, to file bankruptcy documents in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware in February 2016.

Rock in Rio?Permanent venue?

Now, there is not even a celebration at the MGM festival venue.

In order to attract third-party events, under the pressure of the other two partners, MGM gave up its naming rights and changed the name to a more neutral Las Vegas festival venue, so as not to discourage potential partners.

But until April 2016, there was not a music festival of sufficient importance here.The only thing worth mentioning is a charity show hosted by the Academy of Country Music Awards here.

From Taylor Swift's relegation to Carrie Underwood, you can imagine the anxiousness of the venue owners.This is also one of the key reasons why Han Yi chose this open-air venue as the venue for the first Mad City Music Festival. In addition to its brand-new facilities and convenient transportation, there have been no major events for a long time, and it can also allow the owner to The rental price is not so deadly.

If it is more radical, directly asking them to provide the venue for free and then give a certain percentage of the box office share is not a completely idiotic proposal.

"It can hold 5000 people here."

Han Yi called up the pictures of the venues on his mobile phone, put them in front of Diplo, Kevin and Jasper, and explained patiently.

"We can connect the north, west and east with several stages... Yes, the interoperability between different stages is also a highlight of Mad City. Roughly calculated, the remaining open space can accommodate about 7 people People, this leaves a lot of room for our ticket sales and lineup arrangement. If the first round of pre-sales works well, we can add a few top guests in time."

"So this Mad City...when is it going to be held?"

"It's April now, we still have a series of tours to do, the time is very tight, I hope to land the show around Halloween this year. I know it will be rushed, but this is the best time to launch the brand."

"I also agree." Jordan Bromley nodded approvingly, "If Live Nation or AEG Live participate in overseas tours, then we don't need to bother, just concentrate on making this music festival a success. As for other cities We have done so many times on the North American tour, and we are already familiar with it.”

"It's not a big problem at the executive level, just find some outsourced professional teams at that time." Kevin frowned, thinking seriously, "But the time is really very, very tight. If we want to find an artist who meets the requirements, we You basically have to start the inquiry process now.”

"Isn't it, Kevin?"

At this time, Han Yi sat down again. He leaned against Kevin Kusatsu and patted the latter on the shoulder.

"If the next investment negotiations are fast enough, we should be able to push everything forward today."

(End of this chapter)