"Have you ever been a signed singer to a record company?"
"No."
"Come on, come on, let me tell you what it's like after you become a signed singer to a record company. You have to keep practicing singing so that you have a chance to release an album. The record company will arrange commercial concerts, so you earn money from fans.
Divide it into thirty-seven."
"Why is it only 70%?"
"Seventy percent belongs to others! Getting 30% depends on the record company's attitude."
"Whose face?"
"Record company!"
"He?! I came all the way here just to see the face of the record company?"
"right!"
"I finally succeeded in signing the contract, and I still have to work hard to practice singing and produce an album, and accept the commercial performances and concerts arranged by him."
"right!"
"It still depends on the record company's attitude?"
"right!"
"Am I no longer a beggar on my knees?"
"Then if you put it this way, signing a contract with a record company is really about kneeling down to beg for food. How many people want to kneel down but there is no way out!"
"Did I ask you why I'm so reluctant to sign with a record label now?"
"have no idea."
"My legs and feet are weak and I can't kneel down."
"So you want to make money by standing up, so you'd better think of other ways and find a place to sing."
"I don't understand this. There are people knocking on my door asking me to be a signed singer. Why can't I be a resident singer?"
"In the eyes of fans, you are a singer, but in the eyes of record companies, you are just a beggar. You make money, and business is not shabby!"
"Shabby, very shabby!"
.......
This is the conclusion Liu Hao came to based on the feedback from his elder brother.
The eldest brother is also trying his best. He has been busy with his own affairs these days, and he doesn't even pay much attention to his own affairs.
The copyright registration for the song "Jiao Ge Big Brother" has already been completed.
The elder brother found a trustworthy underground band, and in Liu Hao's spare time, he simply recorded a sample of these songs on tape.
It is too expensive to go to a recording studio to record songs. A simple song costs thousands of dollars. Recording a sample does not need to be of high quality, it is enough.
Taking samples of Liu Hao's songs, Brother Liu Hao has visited almost all the record companies in Beijing these days.
The record market has been booming in recent years. Although piracy is rampant in the mainland, the growing demand in the mainland market has begun to make Hong Kong and Taiwan music capital pay attention to it and start to expand in the mainland.
Wanwan Rolling Stone Records established Magic Eye Records in Beijing, and Hong Kong CP Variety Show also established a joint venture in the mainland to establish CP International in Beijing.
There are countless other similar examples.
Hong Kong and Taiwan Music Capital vigorously explored mainland underground music and directly planned the "Chinese Rock Music Power" concert held in 1994 at Hung Hom Stadium in Hong Kong City.
It was a sensation.
Almost all musicians with a little knowledge have realized that although the mainland music market where piracy is rampant is not as good as the mature Bayan market, the gap is not big, not much.
The potential is even greater.
So over the years, slightly famous singers will find ways to release albums. As long as the promotion can keep up, no matter how poor the album quality is, they can still make money.
Not to mention those explosive albums.
It's like a money printing machine.
In the past two years, a large number of local music companies have sprung up.
Mainly concentrated in big cities such as Jingcheng, Magic City, and Yangcheng, especially Jingcheng and Yangcheng.
Yangcheng is too close to Hong Kong and is deeply influenced by the pop music of Hong Kong. Except for some songs with correct ideas, most of the songs released are pop songs.
Beijing is a little different.
What is popular in Beijing is rock music.
Even the original Liu Hao brothers were "victims" of rock music.
There are many musicians who are pursuing their dreams in Beijing. For the two or three most famous major record companies, there are so many people who submit their resumes for interviews every day. Big record companies mean more resources, and Brother Liu Hao also went to a big record company first.
I wanted to get an interview opportunity with a major record company, even if it was a rare interview opportunity. Once the interviewer from the record company heard that Liu Hao's music was not rock music, he lost interest and declined politely without further explanation.
After all, Liu Hao is just a newcomer, and the demand in the Beijing market is rock music.
Not all record companies have the foresight, and not all record companies will take risks.
"How about we come up with a few rock songs? In fact, there are some rock songs that are barely suitable, or it doesn't matter if we play one..."
Different genres of albums will greatly affect album sales, so the songs Liu Hao chooses are all about campus, love, and ideals, and the genre is also pop music with a soothing rhythm.
Because the amount of rock music Liu Hao currently owns is not enough for one album, Liu Hao didn't want to make a rock album at first.
But it doesn't matter if you compromise a little now, or if you come up with one or two rock songs.
But in fact, there are also some small and medium-sized companies that are interested in Liu Hao, and even the interest is not small. Brother Liu Hao even took Liu Hao to the interview.
But Liu Hao was a little disappointed.
When a singer releases an album these days, if he wants to sell well, in addition to the quality of the record, publicity and promotion is more important.
In the future, if you release a song, as long as it is of high quality, fermented by the Internet and spread layer by layer, it will easily become popular without much publicity.
Nowadays, promotion channels are limited, and most of them are in the hands of record companies. Promotion also requires a lot of resources, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive.
Record companies control the resources and channels, the packaging of singers, the production, distribution, and promotion of records, which are almost entirely dependent on the record company.
Whether a singer can be popular and whether he can remain popular for a long time depends largely on the record company.
Therefore, among most record companies and singers, record companies have absolute dominance.
Fortunately for famous singers, the proportion of publicity investment in revenue generation is small. Record companies are motivated by anger and do not dare to exploit them too much. They will even try their best to win over their opponents to prevent them from poaching.
For new singers like Liu Hao, record companies are not so polite.
The contract that a record company gives to a newcomer is almost the same as a contract of sale.
Older new singers will be signed for no less than five years, while those like Liu Hao, who are young and have some potential, will often be signed for more than ten years or even longer.
Signing a contract is also beneficial to the record company.
If you are worthless, they can throw you away like garbage at any time.
If you have a little value, they will try their best to squeeze out all your value. If you are a little dissatisfied, they can hide you at any time.
Do you want to leave? Even if you are severely scratched, you may not be able to do so.
Unfair? Everything is done according to the contract. Who told you to sign the contract in the first place?
Singers can only get 1%-5% of the income from novice albums, while record companies get the lion's share of commercial performances and other income.
The reason for signing the contract was to package training, and it did not clearly state when the singer would produce and release an album.
More importantly, the copyright of the songs you create belongs to the company. Only after the company adopts it will a buyout fee be given, and it will be given priority to the company's famous singers.
Contracts are full of traps. For example, the contract is for packaging training, and the contract does not clearly state when the singer will produce and release an album, but it just blocks you at the critical moment of releasing the album and makes you obey.
Liu Hao, with his future vision and "creative" ability, would never be able to sign such a contract!
Maybe Liu Hao doesn't care about the temporary income from the album, but the copyright of the songs he creates must not be given to the record company, it must be in his own hands.
In this era, the Internet has not yet emerged, there are not many ways to monetize song copyrights, and the value has not yet been fully realized.
But Liu Hao is very clear about the value of song copyright!
Song Copyright This is the real golden chicken, it can still lay eggs.
In later generations, Fatty Zhou has been slow to release new songs, but he can earn hundreds of millions every year just from the copyright income of old songs.
Releasing new songs is so hard, just keep putting it off...
So when his eldest brother helped him find a contract company, Liu Hao always told him that the copyright of the songs he created must be in his own hands, otherwise he would not sign a contract with the record company.
Although the eldest brother does not fully understand why Liu Hao is so obsessed with song copyright, he will try his best to meet Liu Hao's request.
Bole will have it, but Bole who broke the rules of the game for Liu Hao will not.
It is a pity that we were not able to sign the contract. When the record companies that were very interested in the songs written by Liu Hao learned that Liu Hao had already registered the copyright of these songs, they could not snatch them away. They could only leave "As long as the changes are made" with apparent regret.
Ideas are always welcome.”
There are also some smaller record companies. These record companies basically do not have the ability to independently package singers. They cannot provide the channel resources Liu Hao needs, and it is difficult for them to make popular singers popular.
Signing new artists is nothing more than a scratch-off lottery ticket. If the scratch-off ticket becomes famous, it will only be supplied to other big record companies.
There are also some companies that operate as studios under the banner of record labels. They don’t have any resources and basically just do one job and leave.
The purpose of tricking singers into signing contracts is just to get cheap labor and to pay off the termination fee after signing the contract.
The eldest brother made inquiries for Liu Hao, and even found a lawyer friend to help Liu Hao analyze the risks, so he was not fooled.
Otherwise, ordinary people will definitely be deceived by the clever tongues of people from these companies.
There is another type of singer, which is an independent musician who does not sign a contract with a music company.
Independent musicians are also divided into two situations.
One kind of independent musician is a singer who has been famous for a long time. He is already an independent label and has sufficient resources. However, the resources provided by the record company can no longer help him. In order to avoid the record company's
Suck blood, set up your own company and become independent.
Everything requires hard work, but record companies can provide one-stop services to solve all the worries of singers, and can also provide precious song resources to singers, so there are very few independent musicians like this.
More independent musicians are actually unable to sign contracts with record companies due to various reasons. Becoming independent musicians is also a helpless move and they can only follow the path of independent musicians.
This road is extremely difficult. It requires a lot of exposure, high-intensity performances to accumulate popularity, and then also to accumulate savings and contacts. It may take several years or even longer to release an album.
For example, Wang Toutiao formed a band called "Baojia Street No. 43" when he first debuted. He hesitated for more than two years and toured everywhere. After accumulating, he was lucky enough to find a record publishing company, and then he successfully released his first album.
.
But more independent musicians are not so lucky. The albums they try their best to release often lack publicity and do not sell well and are greatly discounted.
In the end, he disappeared from everyone's sight due to serious losses.
Professionals do professional things. If someone can meet Liu Hao's requirements, Liu Hao would still prefer to sign with a record company.
The experience of later generations was also limited, and Liu Hao couldn't think of many solutions for a while, so he could only rely on his elder brother's help to find a breakthrough.
Liu Hao has other very important things to do.
The eldest brother found an acquaintance for Liu Hao from the drama and finally had time to spare. On Sunday this week, the two parties had made an appointment for Liu Hao to have emergency performance training before the art exam.