Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

There is a saying that comes with good fortune and returns with bad fortune. In other words, there is no worst, only worse.

Although Masashi Sada recognized Cao Zhiqiang's music, he spent his own money to happily make a demo, which is Cao Zhiqiang's guitar-singing version of "As Long as You're Here".

Unfortunately, due to Cao Zhiqiang's special status, Japan's Polydor Records also refused to cooperate with Masashi Sada and did not want to release an album with Cao Zhiqiang as the singer.

Like JVC Records, Japan's Polydor Records politely refused to release Cao Zhiqiang's personal album single, but they also thought the song was good and agreed to buy the song copyright, but the price was not high, and the highest bid was only

600,000 yen, which is higher than JVC.

Not to mention that Cao Zhiqiang cannot agree to these conditions, even Masashi Sada will not agree to them.

Because in Masashi Sada's view, Cao Zhiqiang's song "As Long as You're Here" definitely has the potential to become a hit, and selling the copyright for only 600,000 yen is not cost-effective.

However, it cannot be said that this line of work has no benefits.

The good thing is that it made Cao Zhiqiang aware of the importance of music copyright in Japan.

In addition, Cao Zhiqiang was afraid that someone was really evil. After listening to his demo of "As Long as You're Here", he copied that song, even if it was just the melody, that would be very bad.

Therefore, just in case, after being rejected by Polydor Records of Japan, Cao Zhiqiang did not want to try his luck with other record companies. Instead, he insisted on asking Masashi Sada to take him to the headquarters of the Japan Music Copyright Association immediately, and then

Tonetone has registered the songwriting copyright for a total of one hundred Japanese songs.

That's right, it's a hundred Japanese songs, including "As Long as You're Here", "TSUNAMI", "Maruko Three Brothers" and other top-selling singles on the Japanese Oricon Chart, and they were all released after 1984

song.

He copied these songs in order of ranking, regardless of the date, including the lyrics and music. He did not change even a note or a word. It was pure plagiarism, not even editing the manuscript.

The Japan Music Copyright Association is an amazing organization. Although it is not a government department, it is indeed a non-governmental association specifically responsible for copyright. For various reasons, its power is still very small.

As for Japan, even in the 1980s, it was a country that attached great importance to copyright awareness, especially copyright.

For example, in the singing world, generally speaking, singers are more famous, but the ones who are truly respected are actually the creators of songs, especially the creators of music scores and lyrics, who are more respected and whose income is not low.

Since Japan attaches great importance to copyright from the beginning, as long as you create a song and own the original copyright of the song, such as score copyright and lyrics copyright, you can first register with the Japan Music Copyright Association, and then you can rest assured

Be brave enough to sign a contract or go to a performance.

As long as your original song is registered with the Japan Music Copyright Society, then whether the song sells records, appears on TV, is on the radio, or is on karaoke, the copyright fee will have to be paid to the original creator of the song.

As for collecting money, there is no need for the original creator to do anything on his own; the Japan Music Copyright Association will collect it in proportion.

Of course, the Japan Music Copyright Society does not help you for free. They charge money to help you maintain your copyright.

For example, when you grade your work, you will be charged a registration fee. This fee is not much, but very small.

The key is that any subsequent performances of the work, as long as there is commercial activity, must pay a proportion of the money to the Japan Music Copyright Association.

Theoretically, after you create a song, you don’t need to register it with the Japan Music Copyright Society. As long as you can prove that the song was your original creation, you can also hire a lawyer to protect your copyright.

However, it is very troublesome to find a lawyer to protect copyright by yourself, and it is far less convenient than the Japan Music Copyright Association.

Especially for foreigners like Cao Zhiqiang, the most suitable person to help protect their rights is indeed the Japan Music Copyright Association. After all, this association does not only stipulate that songs by Japanese people, but foreigners can also register their songs.

In other words, as long as Cao Zhiqiang registers his Japanese songs here, he will not have to worry about companies plagiarizing his songs in the future.

Once there is plagiarism, he does not need to hire a lawyer himself. He can entrust the legal team of the Japan Music Copyright Association to sue the company that plagiarized his songs to death.

However, this sudden move by Cao Zhiqiang shocked Sada Masashi.

It’s not that I was intimidated by Cao Zhiqiang’s copyright awareness, but I was frightened by Cao Zhiqiang’s feat of being able to write a hundred original Japanese songs.

You know, singing and writing songs are two different things.

As a singer, you may sing many songs at once, but it is definitely more difficult to compose songs.

Cao Zhiqiang, on the other hand, wrote a hundred songs in one breath, and they all seemed to be carefully crafted masterpieces, not the kind of casually written songs.

This is very scary.

Fortunately, although Cao Zhiqiang is still unknown in Japan, he was already a famous poet and singer when he was in China, and his reputation as a talented scholar has already spread.

Therefore, it is scary that Cao Zhiqiang can suddenly release a hundred Japanese songs in Japan, but it is not incomprehensible.

Anyway, according to Cao Zhiqiang, these songs were all made up after various substitutions when he was learning Japanese by himself.

In response, Masashi Sada accepted this explanation.

It’s okay not to accept it.

In any case, after this feat, Masashi Sada's ambition was ignited again.

Because in his opinion, just from these 100 songs, if you pick a few songs at random, they all have the potential to be huge hits.

Isn't that right? Ninety-nine percent of the Japanese songs registered by Cao Zhiqiang were songs that appeared after the 1990s, and they are among the top 100 songs in Japan's Oricon song chart. Not to mention anything else, at least in terms of popularity

, which has long been proven by the Japanese people.

Even though it appears a little early now, good things are good things, especially songs. If they sound good, they will sound good, and they cannot really be buried.

It's fine if you don't know how to sing, but Masashi Sada knows how to sing. Even if he takes out a song and hums a few lines of melody, he can immediately tell whether the song is good or bad.

In other words, Masashi Sada cannot guarantee whether a song will be a hit after it is released, but he can guarantee whether the song is a good song.

As for the songs written by Cao Zhiqiang, although Masashi Sada has not read them all, just a few songs he picked out at random were enough to shock him.

Because they are all good songs, all good-sounding songs, and none of them sound bad.

"How did you do it?" Masashi Sada put down a piece of paper filled with song lyrics, "How did you make all the songs sound so good?"

Cao Zhiqiang shrugged: "No, it's just like what I said. When I was learning Japanese, I unconsciously wanted to create my own creations. I thought and thought, and that's all I came up with."

"Awesome!" Masashi Sada shook his head, "The more I get to know you, the more I realize how unfathomable you are. You are really a great treasure. I believe that those who look down on you will definitely regret it in the future!"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly and took a sip of tea: "Maybe."

At this moment, suddenly a middle-aged and elderly man in a suit and glasses walked quickly and said as he walked: "Excuse me, who is Mr. Cao Zhiqiang?"

"I am." Cao Zhiqiang quickly stood up from the chair, "What can I do?"

The middle-aged man in a suit looked at Cao Zhiqiang and was about to speak when Masashi Sada next to him suddenly said in surprise: "Senior Endo, is it you?"

"Huh?" The man in a suit, who was called Minoru Endo, was stunned. He turned to look at Masashi Sada and quickly recognized him, "Oh, you know me? By the way, you look familiar, I think

I know you as Sada, Sada..."

"Sada Masashi!" Sada Masashi said excitedly.

"Yes, Masashi Sada! Hahaha!" Minoru Endo laughed, "I remember, you sang "Guanbai Declaration", right?"

"Hi!" Masashi Sada nodded sheepishly, "That's my humble work. I'm really embarrassed to talk about it in front of my seniors."

"No, no, no, that song is very nice." Endo Minoru said with a smile, "I quite like it too."

Having said this, Minoru Endo suddenly said seriously: "But please wait, I'll finish the business first."

After speaking, Endo Minoru looked at Cao Zhiqiang: "Are you Mr. Cao Zhiqiang? The one who just registered a hundred songs with us?"

Cao Zhiqiang nodded: "Well, yes."

Minoru Endo nodded: "Ah, let me introduce myself first. I am Minoru Endo, and I am the director of the Music Copyright Association."

"Ah, it's Mr. Director, hello." Cao Zhiqiang nodded politely again.

Endo Minoru frowned slightly, and then said with a smile: "Your title is very strange, your name is also very strange, and your words and deeds are also different. Are you not Japanese?"

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly, "I am a mainlander."

"Oh, that's right." Endo Minoru nodded.

Immediately afterwards, Endo Minoru looked at Masashi Sada next to him: "You, are you together?"

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang said, "Mr. Sada is a good friend of mine, and he accompanied me here to register the copyright this time. Otherwise, I might not even know where your association is, or even know where to go in advance.

Come and register the copyright.”

Endo Minoru smiled: "I see, it makes sense."

After a pause, Endo Minoru put away his smile, looked at Cao Zhiqiang very seriously and said, "Cao Sang, is it okay if I call you this?"

"Yes, of course no problem." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

Endo Minoru nodded and continued to ask seriously: "I want to ask, the copyright registrant of the previous hundred original new songs was all the same. Is that you?"

"Yes!" Cao Zhiqiang replied.

"You wrote them all yourself? Are you original?" Endo Minoru asked immediately.

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly: "At least in this world, yes."

"Endo-senpai!" Masashi Sada couldn't help but said, "I can prove that these songs are all original by him. He is a genius in this area, and not only can he write songs, he can also sing very well.

By the way, although he is not famous in Japan, he is now a very famous singer in their mainland.

As far as I know, he released a Mandarin Chinese song album in mainland China more than two months ago. So far, it seems that the sales have exceeded four million copies, right, Cao Sang?"

In the last question, Masashi Sada was obviously asking Cao Zhiqiang.

"Four million pictures? More than two months ago, less than three months?" Endo Minoru was stunned, and then looked at Masashi Sada, "Is it true or false?"

"Of course it's true." Masashi Sada said, "I'm definitely not lying. If you don't believe it, you can check it out at any time.

By the way, Cao Sang is also the president of a mainland record company.

His first album released in mainland China was produced and distributed by his own record company, and they are very strict in managing this kind of data, so the sales data should not be wrong."

"What?" Minoru Endo looked at Cao Zhiqiang again, "You are still the president of a record company? How is that possible?"

"Why is it impossible?" Cao Zhiqiang smiled.

Endo Minoru frowned and said: "I know a little bit about the situation in mainland China. It seems that their companies are all state-owned, and private individuals cannot set up companies.

Then, their club presidents must be appointed by the government, and they are usually based on seniority. It is impossible for a young person to serve as the president of a record company.

You look very young, probably not even thirty years old, how could you be the president of a state-owned club?"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled: "Oh, you said this, this matter is a bit complicated to say, but you also know that our country is currently undergoing reform and opening up, and many situations are seeking innovation and change, so I was appointed

It is not impossible for a young person to become a president.

Of course, if you are interested, I can tell you about my specific situation in detail.

To be honest, I am not only the president of a state-owned record company, I am also the president of a state-owned film company and the president of a state-owned publishing house.

By the way, I am also a shareholder of a state-owned department store. Well, if I were here, I would be like a director like you."

Endo Minoru was stunned for a moment, then frowned and said, "You, you're not kidding me, are you?"

Cao Zhiqiang shrugged: "You are the director of this association, and judging from how respectful Mr. Sada is to you, I'm afraid you are a highly respected senior here.

How dare I make a joke in front of someone like you?

In fact, when I came to Japan this time, I originally got a government-issued passport, and it was a business visa.

As for the purpose of my coming to Japan this time, I was originally here to discuss music cooperation, and the invitation party for the cooperation was Sada Masashi-kun's Sada Project.

Oh, by the way, if you still don’t believe it, this is my passport, it has my unit and position on it, you can take a look.”

Having said this, Cao Zhiqiang reached into his arms and took out his ordinary official passport.

Ordinary personal passports will not display your unit and position, but ordinary official passports of this period will specify the specific unit and position of the passport holder in detail.

When Cao Zhiqiang applied for a passport, the applicant was the Huaxia Audio and Video Company, and his position was general manager. It was clearly written on it.

This kind of passport cannot be deceived. Just look at the job title on it and you will be able to identify yourself.

Moreover, the value of this kind of official passport is much higher than that of an ordinary private passport.

Because this does not represent an individual, but the entire unit, and it is a business trip.

Therefore, as long as you take out your passport and the other party sees the unit and position on your passport, he can immediately prove his identity.