February 12, 2006, Sunday

After nearly a month of fermentation and the promotion of 6 chart-topping songs, Cao Xuan's new album "legend" was finally officially released worldwide on this day.

Domestic fans who are celebrating the Lantern Festival were the first to hear it, and the American side didn’t have to wait long, and it went on sale in a few hours.

United States, Tennessee, Nashville

Wang Mei came to the recording studio with several cups of coffee. When the girl who was practicing singing saw her, she walked out of the room without hesitation and asked anxiously.

"Did you buy it?"

"bought."

Wang Mei put down her coffee, took out two records from her bag, and complained: "I have been in the United States for several years and bought many albums. This is the first time I have to wait in line."

She said she was complaining, but Wang Mei couldn't hide her pride because the man who asked her to line up was her compatriot and boss.

Around 2004, Cao Xuan's shares in Warner Music Group stabilized, and he was able to borrow some resources to establish a small record company [Mars Records] in the United States, relying on Warner's money to make a living.

In addition, this record company will also use the channels of Warner Music Group to help some domestic singers sell their albums overseas. Although the response is mediocre, they can sell one album.

However, the real and most important business of Mars Records is to discover and cultivate new singers.

Look for some good ideas, help tailor the album, and then sell it through Warner's channels. If you can find a good idea, you will make a direct profit.

This is also the routine of many small and medium-sized independent record companies in the United States. Some are lucky enough to even take the opportunity to attract capital and become bigger and stronger.

However, unlike many record companies that cast a wide net and catch as many fish as possible, Mars Records takes an elite route with extremely high barriers to entry and only has one signed singer so far.

Wang Mei glanced at the blond girl with fox eyes who was unpacking the album.

Taylor Swift

Rumor has it that the big boss Cao Xuan saw this little girl performing on TV and thought she was very energetic, so he instructed the person in charge of the company to contact her.

This little girl's father is a stockbroker. Although he is not a big shot, he is quite discerning.

He doesn't care that Mars Records has just been established and is small in scale. Those are just appearances. Behind him is Cao Xuan, a first-line superstar and Warner Music Group. Mars Records has more resources than many medium-sized record companies.

His only worry is whether the company pays enough attention to his daughter. After all, no matter how many resources there are, it is useless if they are not used.

At that time, Taylor had already joined a record company, learning and polishing her professional skills. However, the company felt that Taylor was too young and wanted to give her no records until she turned 18.

Regardless of whether it is a pie-in-the-sky rhetoric or it is true, this condition is not something that Taylor, who feels mature, can endure.

So she left her previous company, and two companies approached Taylor at that time.

One is Mars Records, and the other is also a new company whose boss is a manager who has worked for several record companies.

Comparing the two, Mars Records completely crushes the other. The only weakness is that the company is willing to accept an investment from Taylor's father and control 5% of the shares.

But the shares of a newly established small company are of no use at all. The most important thing is the various resources of the record company, which is related to the future of a singer.

Unless Taylor has opened God's eyes and knows that she will be the most popular female singer in the United States in the future, she will choose shares.

But if she really knows this, there is no need to join other companies. She can just let her father sell everything for her own benefit.

Cao Tianwang is a poor peasant of the eighth generation. If he wants to rise, he has to work hard to earn his first pot of gold.

The Taylor family is middle-class. As long as they are willing to spare their money, there are many ways to set up a small record company...

Unfortunately, Taylor didn't have God's Eyes open, so after a series of discussions, he still chose Mars Records.

Mars Records will create an album tailor-made for Taylor and then sell it through Warner channels, using sufficient resources to promote Taylor to the top.

The price is a multi-year long-term contract with each party's right of priority to renew, as well as high liquidated damages.

This kind of artist who has been raised since childhood is most afraid of being picked off. Boss Cao doesn't care about being permanently bound, but he must squeeze out as much value as possible before terminating the contract.

At home, he is still afraid of hanging street lights and scruples about his reputation, and pays attention to keeping a tightrope in everything. However, when he is influenced by the corrupt atmosphere of capital society abroad, Cao Bapi's nature becomes a bit uncontrollable...

After Taylor signed with Mars Records, he basically spent more than half a year honing his singing skills and preparing for his first album.

Now that I have almost finished composing the songs for the album, the next step is to record the songs, which is expected to be officially completed in the second half of this year.

Wang Mei is Taylor's personal assistant. Overseas Chinese immigrated to the United States in the past few years. There are almost a dozen employees at Mars Records, and nearly 40% are overseas Chinese.

Wang Mei, who had been engaged in related professions in China, after joining Mars Records, was designated as an assistant to Taylor, the company's only singer, and was responsible for some executive management work.

Before Taylor became famous, the job was very simple.

Today is the day when Big Boss Cao Xuan’s new album is released. After a series of previous preparations, this album has already become a huge hit.

Taylor also specifically asked Wang Mei to buy one for her, saying it was a way to watch her boss's grace and learn from her.

But in his heart, Taylor had completely different ideas.

Taylor, who was born in 1989, only turned 17 in December this year. Although she is not the age of a middle school girl, she is not much better.

She has shown artistic talent since she was a child, and has been praised by many people since then. She has even been trained and competed by many professionals, which makes this 28-year-old girl have her own pride.

Taylor was very happy to be chosen by Cao Xuan's company. Although she was not a fan of Cao Xuan, she also recognized Cao Xuan's talent.

Therefore, when he was valued and signed by this oriental music magician who is recognized as the world's top singer-songwriter in the industry, Taylor was excited and even felt like a hero and a confidant.

After joining Mars Records, Taylor fantasized about meeting Cao Xuan more than once.

He showed his talent and shocked the crowd. Cao Xuan himself took several breaths of cold air and exclaimed repeatedly.

"This woman is so terrifying, she has the talent to be the queen of the world!"

Then he fell to the ground in admiration, cried and shouted on the spot, and wanted to accept her as his apprentice. He even decided to marry Jin Lan as his disciple. After much hesitation, he reluctantly agreed, and then with Cao Xuan's reckless support and help, he reached the pinnacle of his life.

, starting a journey to become a legendary queen...

Taylor thought very well and even rehearsed her lines several times in private. Afterwards, she also thought about how to talk about this past event calmly when participating in a talk show.

But it's a pity that after more than half a year after she joined Mars Records, Cao Xuan didn't even meet her, and didn't even make a phone call.

This result made Taylor extremely frustrated and had to accept that he was just a newbie. He might be able to attract Cao Xuan's attention, but he was far from being taken seriously.

Taylor was frustrated and a little unhappy at the same time. She felt that Cao Xuan had an eye for gold and jade, and had far underestimated her talent. The so-called oriental magician did not live up to her name.

The little girl became more and more stubborn as she thought about it. She didn't dare to say anything, but she kept holding her breath in her heart.

I asked Wang Mei to buy Cao Xuan's album today just to find out something wrong with him and prove that Cao is just a mortal with mediocre musical abilities, so he didn't realize his amazing talent that he couldn't hide.

A professional recording studio naturally has audio and video equipment. Taylor opened the album and played it directly without paying attention to other peripherals.

Wang Mei also came over with coffee, and there were two staff members. One of them was a fan and two were industry practitioners. They were all very curious about this album that was making a lot of noise.

The first song is "apologize" which was just performed at the Grammys two days ago.

The extreme sadness of light rock and the delicate falsetto high notes make people feel the sensitivity and sadness in the songs and melodies, as well as the determination and toughness in response to the past.

The story that goes along with the MV is actually very clear. In a couple, the girlfriend proposed to break up, but the man was unwilling to accept it. Then the man asked to get back together, but the girlfriend hesitated, causing secondary harm.

So after repeated pulling and pulling, the man gave up completely, accepted his girlfriend's "I'm sorry", and let go of the relationship completely.

Although the story is a bit humble, it is essentially a rare anti-dog-licking song.

It's a pity that many people use this song as a love song to lick...

This song was an astonishing success at the Grammys and spread quickly. Although the Billboard singles chart for the new week has not yet been announced, many people believe that this song is expected to hit the Billboard top ten.

Taylor listened to the song quietly and then was silent for a few seconds.

Frankly speaking, if you were to pick an egg, she could find a lot of faults with this song.

But it makes no sense. No song in the world is perfect. Even if you take some of the classics that have been handed down from generation to generation, some people will still dislike them.

Therefore, when analyzing the quality of a song, you should not just find faults, but look at the various advantages of the song.

When a song, especially a pop song, has enough advantages and even excellent overall quality, then some shortcomings will not affect the spread of the song at all.

And this song "apologize" is a very mature and distinctive excellent pop song, with very obvious advantages and selling points.

At least Taylor himself objectively compared this song with his new album. Except for the title song, which he still has some confidence in, the quality of other songs is obviously much inferior.

Taylor's blue fox eyes kept flashing.

Cao Xuan's album is a famous singer's, so it's normal to have a few top-notch songs, and she is mentally prepared for it, but she doesn't believe that the entire album is top-notch.

She had watched the last song "Release", and only half of it was truly remarkable. There were still a few songs that were slightly better than ordinary songs.

However, Cao Xuan soon told her a cruel fact. Geniuses are very powerful, but the most powerful ones in the world are idiots...

"we don't talk anymore"

《monsters》

"something just like this"

《roar》

"rolling in the deep"

Even though Taylor had heard this before, seeing it with his own eyes

Five consecutive top-10 songs on the Billboard singles chart appeared on the same album, which still shocked her heart.

Is this really just an ordinary album, rather than a collection of classics from the singer's entire career?

Moreover, even many big names in the music industry may not be able to put together so many high-quality songs in their lifetime.

Taylor complained crazily in his heart, and his previously vowed mentality of finding trouble became much weaker without realizing it.
To be continued...