hollywood billionaire

Chapter 91 Karate Black Belt

Without even eating breakfast, Phineas drove up the mountain road in Bel Air with Billy cheering loudly all the way. According to them, today they plan to drive from Santa Monica to Venice Beach, and then run all the way south Go to Huntington Beach.

It doesn't matter where you go, let's talk when you run out of gas.

After telling the brothers and sisters to be more careful, after watching the first pair of signed artists leave with a smile on their faces, Han Yi also changed his clothes and went out with Zhao Youzhen, Xu Yiru and Madison Bill.

Madison Bill went to join his mother, and went to the Los Angeles County Superior Court to apply for the judge's permission to sign, while Xiao Ru and Yu Zhen still followed him as if they were in New York, and continued with him. It's been a pretty fantastic All-Star Weekend for everyone.

Arriving at No. 1000 Xinghui Building, walking through the C-shaped corridor, saying hello to every employee he met, Han Yi went straight into the corner office he had been away for a few days.

Both Han Music and Han Publishing implement a weekend system, but today is a big day, and the signed contract documents alone have printed hundreds of pages.Most employees have to work overtime today.

Xu Yiru went to Zhao Youzhen's private room to catch up on papers, and Youzhen sat down opposite Han Yi with Karen Guo and the person in charge of A&R issued by Han.

Before Han Yi had a few words with them, Emma Morris walked over quickly, knocked on the open door, and said.

"Anne-Marie has arrived and is in the waiting area outside. Do you want to let her in now?"

"Ask her to come."

Han Yi exchanged glances with the three of them, and nodded in response.

"We'll be there later."

"So her real name is Anne-Marie." Karen Guo lowered her voice, "It's not a stage name."

"Yes, Anne-Marie Rose Nicholson." Zhao Youzhen replied.

"Wow." Karen rolled her eyes, "One name is not enough, so I took three."

"Hi guys!"

As soon as the words fell, the Lord, led by Emma Morris, rushed in excitedly.

Not very tall, but with a big frame.

She was a little thinner than she remembered, but her muscles were still distinct and full of strength.

While comparing it with the memory of his previous life in his mind, Han Yi stood up and looked at him with a smile.

"You must be Anne-Marie."

"Yes, that's me!"

After a fiery response, Anne-Marie held up the green and brown paper bag in her hand.

"I brought everyone coffee!"

"...too hard work, you don't need to be so polite." Han Yi swallowed subconsciously, and exchanged glances with Zhao Youzhen.

The coffee bought by Billi and Phineas hasn't worked yet, so let's have another cup.

But refusing the drink for the first meeting is definitely not something Han Yi can do. He took another glass of iced vanilla latte, asked Anne-Marie to sit down in the middle chair opposite the desk, and then introduced them to her one by one with a smile. Team members in the room.

"TGO's manager Zhao Youzhen, Han Music's A&R director Karen Guo, and Han's A&R director Adrian Nunes."

"Oh my God, I actually read your reports on the Internet!" Anne-Marie's thick Cockney voice was an octave higher than usual, echoing around the office, "Karen, you Helping Rihanna be Rihanna, and Adrian... You basically put Zaytoven on the map."

"Well, Wheezy, Zaytoven, Maaly Raw, Cassius Jay...but who's counting?" Karen Guo shrugged and smiled, coolly accepting the compliments he's tired of hearing, while Adrian spread his hands He laughed, obviously Anne-Marie's adoring eyes made him very happy.

Before accepting the job offer from Han Release, Adrian Nunes was the vice president of A&R department of Ultra Records, and worked closely with many singer-songwriters of electronic music, hip-hop music and pop music. Zaytoven is just one of his resources Just one of the brighter names.

The reason why Han Yi chose to offer an olive branch to Adrian Nunes was because of his influence in different music genres, especially electronic music singer-songwriters.

In this era of fusion of electronic pop music and electronic music popularity, Adrian Nunes' circle of contacts can help Han Publishing and downstream Han Music to continuously obtain good works with the right style and excellent quality.

"First of all, I want to say, Anne-Marie, welcome to Los Angeles." After a few more pleasantries between Anne-Marie and Adrian, Han Yi brought the topic back on track.

"Yes, I'm very excited." Anne-Marie straightened her hair. "My luggage is all packed outside. The good girl Emma watched it for me."

"I like your passion very much." Han Yi put his hands on his chest and said with a smile, "From this point of view, signing a contract with you shouldn't be something we need to worry about today."

"I never play hard to get." Anne-Marie rubbed her hands, looking impatient, "When will we sign the contract?"

"The contract is in the meeting room, and it only takes 5 minutes to sign it... But before that, let's have a good chat." Han Yi said unhurriedly, "The three people around you are the ones who will stand by your side in the future." Allies in combat, I think it would be a good idea to use this time to get to know each other better."

"Of course, what do you want to know?" Anne-Marie put her hands on her knees and nodded earnestly, "I will answer any questions."

"Let's start with the easiest... who is Anne-Marie, and what was she doing?"

"She was born in a small seaside village in Essex, went to stage school at the age of five, and participated in two West End musicals... Les Miserables and Gone with the Wind. At the age of six, in Nowhere After informing my parents, I went to the interview secretly, and finally got the role of little Cosette."

"Six years old, interview secretly?" Han Yi asked curiously, "How did you do it?"

"I told them that the stage school had an event in the West End, and asked them to drive me there. It's as simple as that." Anne-Marie snapped her fingers with a proud expression on her face.It seems that her reckless personality is not an acquired way of doing things, but a gene that runs in her blood.

"Then, when I was 12, I did Gone with the Wind. After all, I did it with Jessie J."

"I hope this is a good sign." Karen Guo took a long sip of coffee before adding, "Jessica is also an artist of IDJ, and I was in charge of planning her first album."

"That's why I came to LA with my luggage." Anne-Marie pointed to the door, "It's been too long, it's time to catch up."

"What's holding you back?" asked Adrian Nunes. "Starting a music career at the age of six should be ahead of everyone else."

"karate."

"Huh?" Zhao Youzhen felt that he heard it wrong.

"Yes, karate." Anne-Marie gave a serious affirmative answer, "Shotokan style karate, besides music, this is my biggest hobby. I have been studying since I was nine years old, and now I have a black belt."

No wonder.

Han Yi unconsciously pushed his chair back half a minute.

This is not a big frame, but a black belt figure trained since childhood.

"After I won two international karate championships at the age of 17, I was able to fully complete that part of my goal and put all my energy on music." Speaking of this, Anne-Marie grinned, with regret in her tone. Hidden, but still easily recognizable, "It's very difficult to continue the previous momentum after putting it down for a while. So before graduating from college, there are no real good opportunities."

"In 2013, I signed a short song deal with Sir Elton John's Rocket Records and released my first official single, 'Summer Girl'. Fortunately, Ed Sheeran was Liked the song and retweeted it, which eventually got the attention of Rudimental... They happened to have a singer leave the group, so they invited me to join and replace her as the female vocalist in the band."

"so……"

Han Yi keenly captured the key information in this self-introduction.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're not personally signed to any record label, are you? It's the entirety of Rudimental that's signed to the record label."

"Yes, in fact, my name does not appear in the band agreement." Anne-Marie replied honestly, "In the team, I don't write songs, I don't produce, I just appear as a singer. In fact, I'm more like their employee."

"Understood." Han Yi nodded, this kind of situation is not uncommon in the band.Paramore, who he wants to sign, is an example. Only Hayley Williams is really in the band agreement. Everyone else can only get performance fees according to the performance, or get some share according to their contribution in the song.Advance payments and stuff like that have nothing to do with them.

This is also the mode of operation of Maroon 5. Adam Levy and James Valentine are the creative masters and team souls, and everyone else is a substitute that can be replaced at any time.

For Rudimental, a Drum&Bass-style electronic orchestra, the lead singer is not an important position.Go one, come one, ordinary music fans may not be able to hear the difference at the scene.

"So, what about the distribution agreement? Have you signed the company?"

"I signed Universal in 2013." Anne-Marie held out three fingers, "but only signed a three-year rookie contract with no advance payment. The contract just ended last month."

"Manager?"

"No, Rudimental's managers will manage some of my affairs, but they will only help me when it is related to the band, and have not signed a formal agreement." Anne-Marie thought for a while and continued to add, "Including me The EP released before is also in this form. The songs I wrote are handed over to Rudimental for production, and then released on their label Major Tom. It is a very loose cooperation method.”

"Great." Han Yi clapped his hands and said with a smile, "Besides the full contract, any other way of cooperation with you will be a regret for us."

"We all appreciate your original works." Zhao Youzhen took over the conversation, "Personally, the song "Do It Right" is my favorite, it can reflect your creative ability, and it is also very suitable for your own voice .”

"Trap and Future Bass works of the masses." Karen Guo's comments are always sharp, "but the vocal melody line fits you very well, and your own voice is also the most popular in the market now... The problem with the song is the high frequency Too many cumbersome tones that are a headache, but that's not your problem, it's a producer problem."

"I understand, I must know myself better." Anne-Marie was being educated, "That's why I want to move to Los Angeles and work with you."

"I can create Topline myself, that's perfectly fine, but I can't rely on Rudimental's production team all the time...they're great, really, really good, but Rudimental is Rudimental, they have a certain style, but I want to find something that belongs to My uniqueness."

Speaking of this, Anne-Marie put her hands together, stretched out her two index fingers overlappingly, and swiped from left to right.

"After I received Yuzhen's email, I studied you guys and Han music very seriously. Later, I saw one industry news after another, and found that more and more top talents like Karen and Adrian were Join in."

"I think, instead of signing with Warner through Rudimental and becoming their... [-]th newcomer, it would be better to join the nascent HMG."

"Maybe in this way, I can become an important artist among the four major music groups in the future."

"Are you trying to be a 'Big Four' entertainer, or help us become a 'Big Four'?"

"I hope it's the latter."

"It seems that we have found a brave pioneer." Han Yi picked up the signature pen on the table, took off the cap, and handed it to Anne-Marie, "Yuzhen should put our full agreement in the follow-up email." Has the content been told to you? Is there anything unclear?"

"Yes, 1+6 hours, $15 upfront payment for recording and distribution, 17% of recording royalties, 50% of publishing royalties, 70% of performances... what else I forgot to mention of it?" Anne-Marie tried her best to remember.

"There is a key point to note, the record royalties given to you are not All-In."

Zhao Youzhen reminded.This is a word that is often overlooked by most new musicians, All-In.

What exactly do you mean?

All-In refers to the share of all participating parties in a song, which is included in the percentage listed.To give a simple example, if an artist’s record royalties share is 17%, but her producer also needs to take 3% of the share, and the post-producer has to take another 1%, in the case of non-All-In , the record company needs to pay the artist 17%, and then pay another 4% to the producer and post-engineering, for a total of 21%.

But if it is All-In, the artist needs to allocate 17% of his own 4% to the production team.In other words, the record company doesn't take a penny more, and the artist has to get a little more out of his own pitifully small share.

Countless newcomers and rookie managers have paid hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars because of ignoring the difference of this one word.

There are even miserable examples of the more albums owed more and more, and finally they can only file for bankruptcy.

Universal, Sony, and Warner didn't care at all whether the newcomers under their contract would be insolvent after receiving the advance payment.But the nascent Han Music Group, or HMG, is different.

At present, every full-time artist contacted by the group is a popular star that Han Yi is extremely optimistic about and will shine in future generations.Therefore, the goal of signing the full contract is not to snatch food from the mouths of artists and squeeze them to the last drop of blood, but to make them feel the cooperation of the company as much as possible within a reasonable range that is in line with their own interests Sincerity, thereby building a sense of belonging and loyalty.

Anne-Marie's deal clearly falls on the good-will side of the spectrum. The $15 advance payment for the first album is not the same as the $50 cross-guarantee contract for the first album received by Madison Bill, and the $800 million total guarantee contract is not the same, but for Anne-Marie, it is still enough for her Start a career as a full-time musician without feeling financially cramped in Los Angeles.

More importantly, Anne-Marie has been preparing for her debut album. Currently, most of the songs have been written, and two or three songs even have a very complete demo. That is to say, after signing the contract, she does not need to Spend too much money on production, and you can start releasing singles and warming up the album.

From the perspective of Han Music, it is a good thing to be able to launch artists as soon as possible for cash. For Anne-Marie, this also means that she can have a lot of production fees left over to subsidize her life.

The 17% share of the debut album, which is 2% higher than that of Madison Bill, is also based on this consideration.Madison, who lacks creative ability and is even learning to write lyrics, needs not only a music producer, but also a music creator to empower her. Anne-Marie is a singer-songwriter who can write her own songs, and she can also produce albums. I am responsible for a lot of links, and it is understandable to take a higher level.

Han Yi was satisfied, Zhao Youzhen was satisfied, HMG was satisfied, and Anne-Marie herself was extremely satisfied.The four boxes, large and small, placed on the front desk have already shown her attitude towards this agreement.As expected by Han Yi, it only took 5 minutes to sign the contract. Anne-Marie, who didn't have an independent manager to remind her, didn't even look at it. which one to use.

Although it can't be regarded as the artist who reached an agreement with Han Music the fastest, Anne-Marie, who has already grown up and is particularly agile, became the No. 4 of HMG after Billie Eilish on this pleasant Saturday of April 30. Full contract entertainer.

The stage name is the same as her real name, Anne-Marie.

(End of this chapter)