Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

Next, Cao Zhiqiang discussed the specific matters of signing the contract with Masashi Sada.

Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with the situation. There are two main objections.

The first point is the division ratio.

Cao Zhiqiang was dissatisfied with the 50-50 split, and initially proposed a 28-percent split, with Cao Zhiqiang 80% himself and 20% for the company.

This was obviously a high price, and he didn't agree. Then Masashi Sada took a step back and gave him 46%, which is 40% of the company and 60% of Cao Zhiqiang himself.

After Cao Zhiqiang thought for a while, he agreed to this share ratio, and it will be based on 40 to 60 points from now on.

The second point is the signing time.

Masashi Sada's original plan was to sign the contract for five years, but Cao Zhiqiang thought it was too long and wanted to sign the contract every month.

This is obviously not possible either.

In the end, the two parties went back and forth, and the final contract was to sign a short-term work contract for three months first, and then sign a long-term contract based on the situation after three months, and Masashi Sada could give priority to renewing the contract.

Originally I wanted to do it for at least half a year, but Cao Zhiqiang also said that his current situation is a bit special. If he signs a long-term contract with Masashi Sada, I'm afraid it will be a lot of trouble.

One of the reasons is Cao Zhiqiang’s job problem.

He still has a job in China, and he is a leader in a state-owned enterprise. If he signs a long-term contract with a foreign company without asking for instructions, he may be in big trouble.

The second reason is Cao Zhiqiang’s visa issue.

Cao Zhiqiang was able to come to Japan using an official passport plus a business visa. According to the current situation, he can only stay in Japan for ninety days, which is about three months.

The advantage is that within ninety days, Cao Zhiqiang can travel back and forth between Japan and China multiple times.

The disadvantage is that once the time limit is up, if you want to enter Japan again, you will have to apply for a new visa and passport.

Therefore, Cao Zhiqiang is not sure whether he will be able to come to Japan in three months.

Of course, if Cao Zhiqiang can apply for a work visa in Japan during his stay in Japan, theoretically he can live in Japan for a long time.

As for the passport issue, it is actually not difficult to deal with.

According to the current situation, as long as Cao Zhiqiang can apply for a work visa in Japan, he can go directly to the Chinese Embassy in Japan and change his ordinary passport without returning to his country. Generally speaking, changing a passport is also very simple and will not fail.

So the key question is whether Masashi Sada can help Cao Zhiqiang get a work visa.

Although Masashi Sada thinks there is no problem, after all, this is not necessarily possible, and it requires a lot of procedures, mainly on the Japanese side.

To put it bluntly, you need to have a reliable work unit and a reliable guarantor in Japan.

As for Masashi Sada's office, the situation is average, but Masashi Sada himself, because he is a famous artist, has some guarantee of energy.

So if Masashi Sada personally vouched for it, the problem would not be big, but it would only be a small problem, not a percentage success.

Not to mention, Cao Zhiqiang's statement really convinced Masashi Sada, which was also the fundamental reason for the three-month contract period.

But, for Cao Zhiqiang, the so-called three months was just for him to fool Masashi Sada.

In other words, the three-month period was used to force Masashi Sada to help him apply for a work visa.

To put it bluntly, Cao Zhiqiang does not want to be restricted by one firm. Even if he has to sign a contract, he does not want to sign a long-term contract.

After all, once Cao Zhiqiang's works are released in Japan, they are sure to become popular, and he does not want to be tied to Masashi Sada's company for the time being.

In fact, what Cao Zhiqiang wants to do more is to cooperate with Masashi Sada and open a joint venture firm together, with Cao Zhiqiang himself becoming one of the bosses.

In this case, Cao Zhiqiang only needs to provide works in the future, and the specific operations will be left to Masashi Sada. The profits will be shared by everyone, and the level will still be an equal partnership, which is better.

On the contrary, if he really becomes Masashi Sada's long-term contracted artist, no matter how good the relationship is, it will not change the difference between a boss and a worker.

But the most important thing is that when you are the boss, you can make the most money, gain the maximum profits, and have more say in Japan in the future.

It's just that I can't talk to Masashi Sada about these things for the time being.

It's not too late to discuss it with him after the work visa is issued.

In short, it is divided into 40 and 60 and the contract will be signed in three months. Once these two conditions are negotiated, everything else will be a minor issue.

Next, Cao Zhiqiang and Masashi Sada officially signed a work contract.

As soon as the contract was signed, Masashi Sada impatiently asked his sister to help him get Cao Zhiqiang's work visa, while taking Cao Zhiqiang to rent a house nearby.

It was Cao Zhiqiang who brought up the idea of ​​renting a house. He said that he likes to be clean and live alone so that he can create better.

In addition, it is not suitable for him to live here for a long time at Sada Masashi's place. Firstly, it will be too crowded, and secondly, it will affect each other's lives.

Masashi Sada also agreed with this point, so he decided to rent a one-family building nearby for Cao Zhiqiang, specifically for Cao Zhiqiang and the two he brought.

In the early 1980s, Japan had not yet reached the peak of the economic bubble. Even in Tokyo, renting a house was not that stressful, so it was not difficult to rent an extra apartment and build one.

In the end, Masashi Sada rented a one-family building about 300 meters away from his home, where he could move in with just his luggage.

This house looks a bit older than the house Masashi Sada lives in, but it's not bad. In addition, it has two floors, 88 square meters, and three bedrooms and one living room. Anyway, if three people live in it, it will be absolutely no problem.

The most important thing is that this house is very close to Masashi Sada's house, just a few steps away, which not only facilitates communication with each other, but also has a certain distance, so both of them will feel very comfortable.

Now that the house is done, the next step is the serious work.

To put it simply, the day after Masashi Sada rented a house for Cao Zhiqiang, he took Cao Zhiqiang to JVC Records' recording studio in Tokyo and officially started recording, preparing to release Cao Zhiqiang's first single record.

In fact, JVC Records is currently just a common name in the industry. Its real name is "Victor Music Industry Co., Ltd.", also known as V Company.

But because the current record company is JVC, which is a subsidiary of Victory Company, it is commonly known as JVC Records in the industry.

Later, in 1984, in order to facilitate operations, they simply integrated and re-created "Japan JVC Co., Ltd."

But no matter what, it is not an exaggeration to say that JVC Records is currently the leader in Japan's local record industry.

Not to mention anything else, at least in terms of recording studio software and hardware, JVC Records’ recording studio is definitely one of the best in Japan.

Masashi Sada's works are basically released by this JVC record company. He is very familiar with the heads of the production department, sales department and other departments of this company. Now he wants to use the recording studio of JVC record to produce a new song. How about that?

It's not a matter of one sentence.

Speaking of which, Masashi Sada has already thought about Cao Zhiqiang's debut song in Japan, which is the first single. It was the song "Jun が" that Cao Zhiqiang sang in the room when he met with Akina Nakamori and Kyoko Koizumi. "いるだけで", also known as "As long as you are here".

In fact, when he heard Cao Zhiqiang singing this song that day, Masashi Sada had the idea of ​​​​helping Cao Zhiqiang release a single, and thought that this song was very good and had the potential to become a hit.

Unlike Akina Nakamori and Kyoko Koizumi, Masashi Sada is not only a singer, he is also a lyricist, composer, and record producer. He wears many hats and is versatile.

In addition, Masashi Sada is a very popular artist in the past. His "Kanbai Declaration" even topped the Oricon weekly song chart, and it has been at the top for ten consecutive weeks. He is a very popular singer. .

Therefore, Masashi Sada's appreciation of a song is not just as simple as whether it sounds good or not. He is more often an office owner and a businessman.

Masashi Sada feels that Cao Zhiqiang's song "As Long as You're Here" has a beautiful and cheerful melody, catchy lyrics, and Cao Zhiqiang's very unique and penetrating clear voice. Once released, it will definitely be a hit. .

In fact, ever since he heard this song that day, the melody of this song has been echoing in Masashi Sada's mind, and he can never forget it.

Therefore, he was so eager to sign a contract with Cao Zhiqiang, even though he knew that signing Cao Zhiqiang would be troublesome, he did not hesitate.

Moreover, Masashi Sada also believes that as long as the song is recorded and presented to the person in charge of JVC Records, he will definitely agree to sign a contract with Cao Zhiqiang and help release Cao Zhiqiang's single record.

As long as JVC Records is willing to promote Cao Zhiqiang, it will take less than a month for Cao Zhiqiang to become a big singer in Japan.

And as long as Cao Zhiqiang becomes a Japanese singer and has a certain reputation, it will naturally be easy to apply for a work visa.

By then, Cao Zhiqiang has become famous, and Masashi Sada, as Cao Zhiqiang's agent, will also rise with the tide, at least he won't have to worry about making money.

If the song isn't successful and doesn't sell well, that's no problem.

As long as Cao Zhiqiang can sign a contract with JVC Records, no matter what contract is signed, it will be a victory.

Because as long as Cao Zhiqiang signs a cooperation agreement with JVC Records, he can use this agreement as proof to apply for a Japanese work visa for Cao Zhiqiang.

JVC Records is a big company. If you have a cooperation agreement with JVC, it will be easy to apply for a work visa.

In addition, Masashi Sada currently has an office, but lacks funds for early stage packaging, publicity, etc. Therefore, the method of cooperation that Masashi Sada hopes for is a cooperation model of advance capital plus profit sharing.

That is to say, JVC Records advanced the funds in advance and was responsible for the early production, promotion and distribution. The copyright of the songs returned to Cao Zhiqiang's economic company Sada Planning, and they would be divided according to the sales later.

In this model, there is no need to give money to the brokerage company and the singer in advance, but after the record is released and the money is sold, the money will be divided.

The advantage is that the record company can reduce some of its initial expenses. The disadvantage is that once it becomes popular, the shares given to the singers and management companies will be larger, but overall, it is beneficial to the record company.

Given Masashi Sada's current status and his long-term cooperative relationship with JVC, if he is willing to provide guarantee, then this advance capital plus profit sharing model may not be difficult to pass.

Of course, the premise is that the song master must be approved by the person in charge of JVC, specifically, the director of the planning department of JVC Tokyo Branch.

"Don't worry, Cao-san." Masashi Sada held the master tape in his hand and said to Cao Zhiqiang with a smile, "Director Shibasaki of the planning department of JVC Records Tokyo Branch is very familiar with me. This song of yours is so good, it should be no problem.

I’ll definitely get through it.”

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly: "That's good."

However, it turns out that Masashi Sada thought too much.

When Masashi Sada brought Cao Zhiqiang and the master tape of the guitar-playing version of "As Long as You're Here" that Cao Zhiqiang had previously recorded in the studio, and went to the planning department staff at JVC Records' Tokyo branch to explain their purpose, the person who received them was not a minister, but just a

Section Chief.

The head of the planning department was not very interested in Cao Zhiqiang's piece.

In other words, if this song was sung by Masashi Sada, then they would be more interested. After all, Masashi Sada is currently quite famous.

But if it's a little-known newcomer named Cao Zhiqiang, and a mainlander who can't stay in Japan for too long, they won't be too interested.

After much discussion, the plan they proposed was to buy out, that is, to buy the copyright of Cao Zhiqiang's song, but they only wanted to buy the music, not the lyrics.

The price is not high either. They are only willing to pay 400,000 yen as a buyout fee for the song copyright, which is only over 3,000 RMB. This is like sending a beggar away.

Since their conditions were too different, the final result was of course not agreed upon.

"It's okay, Cao Sang." After coming out of the planning department office of JVC Tokyo Branch, Masashi Sada quickly comforted Cao Zhiqiang, "There are many record companies, and they don't have vision, which doesn't mean that other record companies don't have vision.

By the way, otherwise, if I come back tomorrow, if Minister Shibasaki is here, I can go to him directly.

Minister Shibasaki knows me very well, and if I come forward, he will definitely agree."

"Forget it." Cao Zhiqiang smiled and shook his head, "Didn't you realize that the other party is not interested in my personal identity, so it's useless even if you go to their minister.

Don’t forget, I am a mainlander and I have a business visa. I can only stay here for less than ninety days. It is not certain whether I can stay here for a long time in the future.

While I was living in Japan, it was too risky to release a record for a mainlander like me, who was in a complicated situation.

After all, Ms. Teresa Teng had made her debut in Japan before, but she had to leave for the United States during the fire due to passport and visa issues, which caused a lot of losses to herself and the company behind her.

With Miss Deng’s experience, it’s understandable that people don’t want to take risks for me.”

"Eh? Wait!" Masashi Sada's eyes lit up, "What did you just say? Miss Deng Lijun?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Cao Zhiqiang looked at Masashi Sada curiously, "Is there something wrong with her?"

"Yes!" Masashi Sada clapped his hands and laughed, "We can go to the record company that Ms. Teresa Teng once signed, Polydor Japan!

Since this record company once made a Chinese lady Teresa Teng popular, they will definitely be interested if you come again!

Yes, this company will definitely succeed and will definitely help you release records!"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled noncommittally: "Okay, you have the final say."

Indeed, although Cao Zhiqiang signed a contract with Masashi Sada, he was actually not very interested.

Mainly, he wanted to return home in two days.

Originally, Cao Zhiqiang wanted to return home the next day, but during this period, there were not many direct flights between China and Japan. There were only two round-trips per week, and the fastest flight back to China had to wait two days, so he could only wait one day.

waited.

During this period, just do some work for Masashi Sada, just to relax.

As for cooperation with Japanese record companies, of course it would be best if it works, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't.

In addition, even if the work visa is not available, as long as he can satisfy Uncle Lin in China, he can use the hard-earned money he earned at home to exchange for some Japanese yen and then come to Japan in the name of investment and business.

An investment and business visa is much easier than a work visa, at least for Japan at the moment.

All in all, he is not in a hurry now, so it doesn't matter whether he succeeds or not.