America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 110 I’ll deal with him

The song "Rolling in the deep" seems to be about the relationship between men and women, but that's because the singer is Adele, so everyone automatically gets involved in this emotion.

If the singer were replaced by MJ and combined with his current situation, then the meaning of this song would become struggling upward in the abyss, and it would have an inspirational flavor.

Because of this, Eric specifically chose this song for McQueen.

This situation is similar to Tengger's "Paradise". Many people say that it sings about his dead daughter, while others sing about his hometown.

Although Eric can not sing many English songs, he can still sing songs that are popular around the world, such as "let it go", "see you again" and "Despacito", but these are obviously not in line with the current MJ.

You can't let Maikou suddenly release a pornographic song, right? Are you crazy? That is not equivalent to confirming the rumors of child molestation.

After accepting this gift, Maiqun couldn't sleep. The fatigue from playing all day disappeared, and he directly pulled Eric into the workroom.

Eric hummed it over and over again, and McQueen rehearsed the song based on the melody he sang.

In fact, this process is not long. With Maikou's strength, it is almost completed in more than an hour. All that is left is to consider the details.

The real difficulty lies in the arrangement. For a song to be truly formed, it mainly consists of three parts: lyrics, composition and arrangement.

Lyric writing means writing and filling in lyrics, composing simply means writing out the staffs in music textbooks, and arranging means adding accompaniment to the song, including the coordination of various instruments and human harmony that the audience hears.

All three are indispensable, and no song is complete without any part.

So every time Eric sings a line, McQueen will keep trying back and forth among piano, guitar, drum set, bass and other instruments until he finds the most suitable arrangement and combination.

Gadot and Elizabeth watched the two try with great interest, but this process was very boring for laymen, and they left feeling bored after watching it for a while.

And it seems that he deliberately doesn't want time to disturb him, so there is no clock to be found here.

The lights in the workroom have been on for who knows how long.

"ah"

As MJ completed the last part, the two of them screamed and collapsed to the ground, as if they had completed a difficult and accomplished task.

Through the cracks in the curtains, it seems that the sun can already be seen.

Maikou narrowed his eyes: "Is it dawn yet? I haven't been so excited to work for a long time, finishing a song in one night."

"Eric, if I tell this, my friends will definitely not believe it. They know that I am a very slow person."

"So, is this done?" Eric asked.

"Most of it, I need to continue to improve the rest with my team, but it won't take long. I'm still surprised that this was actually sung by you. The degree of completion is already very high. It's incredible. It's incredible. ”

Eric was also embarrassed to brag too shamelessly, and instead said: "That's great, send this song out, I can't wait to hear it."

Maikou smiled with some satisfaction and said: "Yes, and I will put your name in the lyrics, composition and arrangement. This is all your credit."

"When the song is completely perfected and the MV is shot, it can be released as a single."

We are not yet in the era of streaming media. Songs cannot be uploaded to the Internet and downloaded. At present, CDs are still used as the main carrier.

Releasing a single is different from releasing an album. An album usually contains at least ten songs, but there may only be one title song with a MV.

Therefore, releasing a single can be understood as releasing a title song, and the MV must be shot well.

Otherwise, you only have one song per CD, and no matter how stupid your audience is, few will buy it.

Eric said: "It's actually not difficult to shoot a MV. You can directly use your current situation as the background. If you need it, MGM can find a lot of directors and screenwriters."

"And I am a quick shooter myself. A big project like "Transformers" was completed in two months, which broke the industry record."

MJ grinned: "Thank you, this is good news for me, but I just realized that there is still a key problem. This problem exists, and I am afraid that this song will not be released soon."

"what is the problem?"

"Eric, do you know which company distributes my songs?"

"It seems to be Sony. I don't know much about the music market."

"Yes, it's Sony Music, but the relationship between me and Sony is very bad at the moment. To be precise, it should have become very bad several years ago."

Eric said nothing and listened quietly.

"This is a long story, probably starting in 1986, when I spent a sum of money to buy ATV, a music company that owns many singers including The Beatles and Elvis Presley. song copyright.”

"Later, Sony Music found me in 1991. They wanted me to join Sony Music with these copyrights, and the condition was that I obtained half of Sony Music's shares."

"In other words, from that time on, I not only had to work for Sony, but I was also Sony's boss, but I didn't understand and didn't participate in management."

"Later on, Sony Music became bigger and bigger, and countless singers began to sign, including Madonna, Oasis, Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Norah Jones, etc."

"This means that Sony will eventually give half of the money everyone earns to me, but the copyright of my own songs does not actually belong to Sony. It only has the recording copyright, and the copyright is about to expire.

"In the beginning, I was very happy with Sony Music, but things changed."

"Sony was able to give me a year's worth of dividends, but it couldn't bear to share it with me forever, especially as the company got bigger and made more money."

"I remember that around 1993, Sony began to want to acquire half of the copyrights in my hands, and wanted me to hand over all the copyrights of my songs to them, but I refused."

"From that point on, my relationship with Sony started to become less harmonious."

"As you know, my last album was released in 2001. Its production cycle was as long as five years. In fact, it could have been completed faster, but during the production process, Sony was unwilling to cooperate and always asked various parties to do it. Reasons to put it off again and again."

"After the album was finally released, Sony invested very little in publicity and distribution. Generally speaking, the company would organize various promotion activities for the new songs, as well as subsequent MV recordings, etc. But the treatment they gave me was very poor. , as if I was just a singer who had just debuted."

"Eric, if you paid attention to the news last year, you would know that Sony and I had a public fight in the newspapers over this matter, and the album sales of "Invincible" did not even reach 10 million copies. "

"Perhaps, but at least it doesn't show up on the books. Since about three years ago, all my album sales have stagnated."

"I suspect that Sony froze it, so I hope to audit the accounts, but although I own half of the company's equity, I am not involved in the management. Even if they finally allowed me to send an accountant to investigate, no problem was found in the end. I think you can Understand this.”

Eric nodded: "When it comes to accounting, Hollywood has always been the most professional. It can make a loss on a box office of 1 billion US dollars. This is an essential skill for every company."

"If you want to find the problem on your own, I can tell you that it is almost impossible. Mykko, let alone you, even if you call in the elites on Wall Street, they will not be able to analyze the problem."

"Unless the tax bureau is involved and spends at least a few years investigating, it may be possible to discover the hidden tricks."

Maikou smiled bitterly: "Yes, so I can't do anything with Sony, and I'm still carrying debt."

"You refused to sell the copyright, so Sony intends to drag you down financially and force you to sell the copyright to pay off the debt, is that right?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what those people think."

Eric sighed. If it was true, then what Sony did was indeed very despicable.

To put it bluntly, the root cause is profit. Sony Music in 1991 and Sony Music in 2003 are no longer on the same level. The cake has been made bigger.

In the past, Jackson might only need to be given millions or tens of millions of dollars every year, but now this number is probably in the hundreds of millions, and Sony will certainly not be reconciled.

Let alone Sony, if anyone is put in this position, they will probably not be willing to do so. The only difference lies in whether the means are glorious.

This is because MJ's status is too high and his influence is too great. Sony also has concerns about dealing with him and only dares to do it secretly.

If it were an ordinary singer, all the bones and dregs would have been swallowed long ago.

"Mykko, what about the 1993 case and this time?"

Maikou nodded: "I suspect it has something to do with Sony, maybe they are instigating it behind the scenes."

"Especially in 1993, I originally planned to pursue the lawsuit to the end. Evan Chandler couldn't produce any valid evidence. As long as I followed the legal process, I would definitely win."

"But at that time, I was on the Danger World Tour, and Sony kept urging me to put my career first. Of course, many people in my team also advised me."

"But after I accepted the proposal to settle out of court, the concert still could not be held. It only lasted less than three months before it was forced to be terminated."

"I don't know if Sony was involved in this, but at that time there were definitely cracks in our relationship."

"This is even more true now. Sony will never produce new songs for me again, and I will never ask them to produce songs!"

"Sony can't do it. What about other record companies? For example, EMI and Universal, can't we cooperate with them?" Eric asked.

Maikou sighed: "It is a choice, and since we had a complete falling out with Sony last year, Universal and EMI have taken the initiative to contact me, hoping that I can cooperate with them with 50% of the copyright, but the specific contract has not been negotiated yet. Then things broke out again in February this year."

"Now the public opinion is not friendly to me, so the negotiations have been suspended. I don't think any record company will take the risk to release me a record at this moment."

"Sorry Eric, you may not be able to hear this song for a while."

Looking at the disappointed MJ, Eric didn't expect that the things behind it were so complicated and there were so many games.

Sony may be the mastermind behind this, or there may be other organizations or individuals involved besides Sony.

After all, MJ's piece of fat is really valuable, and he is still a black man. Even though he has done a lot of good things, there are some things that are original sins from the moment they appear.

Eric tapped his fingers slowly on the floor, thinking about countermeasures.

In addition to being his idol and someone he respects, MJ is also an important part of Eric's career plan.

However, talking about business for the first time would seem a bit impure. Wait until the right time.

In short, no matter what angle he comes from, he does not want a generation of superstars to fall into the abyss.

dong dong dong

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside, and then Gadot walked in and looked at the two people lying on the ground in surprise.

"OMG! You guys didn't sleep all night, did you?"

Seeing Eric nod, she suddenly became angry: "This is not the attitude you should have at work. You are running towards sudden death."

"I'm going to get some food. After you finish eating, you guys can go back to bed and sleep."

After saying that, Gadot slammed the door and left.

"Eric, you've got a great girlfriend."

Michael said with some envy, his frivolous marriage to Catwoman was disappointing.

"Yes, I think so too."

A moment later, Gadot returned with milk and food, and handed Eric the phone: "Your phone belongs to Spielberg. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't give it to you!"

Eric smiled and kissed Gadot, then answered the phone.

"Okay Steven, I'll call the people below. You can just ask the people from DreamWorks to come directly on Monday."

"Hahaha now we are partners, that's okay."

"If you have time, how about making an appointment with Jeffrey and David, and I'll call my dad to play a round of golf together?"

"Hahahaha, then it's settled, see you then."

After hanging up the phone, Mike asked curiously: "Spielber? Do you have a cooperative relationship with him?"

Eric nodded: "Yes, MGM and DreamWorks are strategic partners. Steven and I are acquaintances. Are you also a fan of his movies?"

Mike smiled: "I'm afraid Steven and I have known each other longer than you. When he was filming "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "ET", we were good friends."

"Really? Then we can play a round of golf together. Wait, I suddenly remembered that DreamWorks also has a music department. Maybe we can ask David Geffen for help. He is the leader of the American music industry."

"If he helps, it will not be difficult to publish films. It may be difficult worldwide, but if it is limited to North America, he still has the ability to make all the difference."

Unexpectedly, when it came to David Geffen, McQueen waved his hand hurriedly: "No, David Geffen and I, it's best not to meet,"

"Why? Did you two have a holiday?"

MJ looked embarrassed: "Actually, the relationship between the two of us was very good. I mean in the early 1990s, Madonna and I went to celebrate his birthday, but then something unpleasant happened between us, and we became estranged. .”

"What is it? Is it serious?"

Maikou shook his head and remained silent.

"Let's do this. I can talk to David first. If he is willing to give me face, I will get Steven to make peace for you. You don't have to come forward yet."

"Never mind, this is going to be a little embarrassing."

"Maikou, that's how the world works. You need help now. Anyway, leave it to me. You can't go wrong if you give it a try."