hollywood billionaire

Chapter 223 The Gaze of the Abyss

"Did you win the championship?"

"I won the championship."

Han Yi raised the iPad in his hand higher and showed it to Corey McIntosh, who was preparing aerial refreshments for him behind him.

On August 2016, 8, Billboard magazine released the latest weekly Hot 2 singles chart.

The first thing that catches the eye is the dark blue and ink black single cover of "Cold Water".

The four data fields are marked as follows:
This week - 1.

Last week - 2.

Highest ranking - 1.

Time on the list - 2.

This is the fruit of Han Music's efforts to catch up after leaving huge regrets in the first week of release.

An almost perfect answer sheet.

"I don't know how we got rid of RCA."

Jordan Bromley's hearty laughter echoed in the cabin through the built-in Magnastar C-650 digital air phone system of J.P. Morgan's G2000ER.

After submitting the application for intent, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who learned about Hanyi's return plan, directly invited the other party to use this N652CH to set sail.JPMorgan Chase has aircraft, Jet Linx has available pilots and cabin crew, and Meridian Airlines also has permission to operate regular routes between Teterboro and Van Nuys Airport.

When it came to business at this level, temporarily arranging a private jet to fly across the continent gave Han Yi the feeling that it was as easy and comfortable as taking the unmanned subway on Sunday afternoon.

But in fact, if it were an ordinary billionaire, this voyage would never be so easy.The reason why Han Yi can watch the flight in the morning and fly in the afternoon is mainly because of his customer level within Chase Bank.

This is the due obligation of Chase Bank, and it is also the favor of JP Morgan Chase.More importantly, even from the perspective of completing the transaction, JPMorgan Chase should directly provide Han Yi with a test ride opportunity in this way.After all, this rich man of Chinese descent acted decisively and with super high efficiency. He placed an order immediately after seeing the real machine, without wasting a minute.

Since buyers are so happy, top sellers like JPMorgan Chase, with a trillion level, naturally cannot lose their reputation.The flight from New York to Los Angeles took six and a half hours, and the one-way market price was US$68500. After applying, Ryan Fitzpatrick directly put this fee into the contract and passed Han Yi's upcoming down payment. Make deductions.

On the scale of 7000 million US dollars, the charter flight cost of 7 US dollars is really not worth mentioning.

When you go out to buy a $7000 custom-made suit, it’s perfectly normal for the tailor to give you a pair of $7 cufflinks.

"I don't know...but we did it."

Han Yi put one hand on the dining table and leaned forward slightly, trying to make Jordan Bromley on the other end of the phone hear more clearly.

The reason why "Cold Water" reached the top of the charts in its second week was not because RCA Records slacked off in promoting "Cheap Thrills".Judging from the respective data ports of Luminate, Nielsen SoundScan and All Access, "Cheap Thrills" commercial radio performance is even better than last week.

In 140 cities, the number of listeners covered increased by 43 from last week, reaching a total of 5033 million.A rough estimate is that at least 1.51 million radio listeners across the United States have listened to Sia and Sean Paul's melodies at some point.This phenomenal spread data makes "Cheap Thrills" undoubtedly aspire to top the radio chart again.

In terms of streaming listening and video playback, "Cheap Thrills" recorded a total of 1380 million times in the United States this week, which was only a 4% decline from last week. The fluctuation was not large. For a song, it has been on the list for 26 years. For Zhou's singles, it is not easy to maintain such a healthy growth curve at this stage.

If there's one area where Sia's slow-burning chart-topper has a disappointing week, it's its digital sales. In the week of August 8, "Cheap Thrills" fell from second place to fourth place on the digital song chart, with only 2 paid downloads, a full 74000% less than last week.

Why did sales drop so much?
Because, in order to hit the top of the charts, RCA launched a price reduction promotion on iTunes. Singles originally priced at US$1.29 were sold for 69 cents for a month.Starting this week, the discount ends and the plummeting sales volume is expected.

As long as record companies don't care about profit margins, or are backed by financial backers, there are a variety of ways to hit record sales.Selling at a discounted price is undoubtedly the most effective one.When you want to hit the charts or get platinum record certification, lower the price a bit, and the progress of the task will naturally be greatly accelerated.

Sometimes, artists even encounter passive price reductions, such as Lady Gaga's album "Born This Way" in 2011.At that time, Ms. Gaga was in her heyday and the limelight was unprecedented. In order to promote their Cloud Drive service and wrestle with iTunes, Amazon even took the initiative to bear losses and sell digital albums with a wholesale price of $99 at a price of 7.5 cents.The electronics retail giant Best Buy is even more terrifying. It pays out of its own pocket to purchase the standard version for US$11.99 and the deluxe edition for US$15.99. As long as consumers purchase a designated model of mobile phone, they will be given away for free.

These promotional activities were the key factor that enabled Lady Gaga to achieve first-week sales of 2011 million copies in 110.8, when the physical album was still breathing its last breath.

This album exposed some structural problems in the music industry, prompting Billboard magazine to announce in November of that year that it would revise the calculation conditions for album sales.Albums sold for less than $11 within one month of release and singles sold for less than 3.49 cents per song within three months of release will no longer be considered for ranking.

The normal digital sales price is US$9.99 for the album and US$1.29 for the single.

Just looking at the comparison of these figures, we know that the restrictive measures on the bulletin board basically only serve as a warning.After all, in a market with free pricing, an unofficial industry trading magazine trying to regulate the market with a list would be stretching its hand too far.

And no matter how much it sells or how little it sells, Billboard magazine will not get even half a penny. The reason why the new rules are introduced is just to consolidate the status and authority of the list and make it still look fair on the surface.

Therefore, "Cheap Thrills", a single that has been released for more than half a year, adopts a half-price sales strategy to improve its ranking. No matter from which point of view, it is legal and legitimate competition.

"If the 69ers weren't so tight on the back, we might have won the championship last week." This is a joking term for RCA records that became quietly popular in the Han Music office a few days ago. 69ers, people who sell singles for 69 cents.

"That's how we show our strength, doesn't it?"

From the conversation between Jordan Bromley and Han Yi, there is absolutely no indication that he is also one of Sony Music’s main legal advisors.Jordan has already reached the master level of this kind of shopping mall art of trying to achieve both ends.

"In this case, they were overtaken by us, so they would be convinced of their defeat. According to the streaming media playback data, "Cheap Thrills" is behind us... almost 500 million times, right?"

"To be precise, 510 million times." Han Yi has read this data at least ten times since he got it today, and he knows every detail by heart.

In its second week on the list, "Cold Water"'s streaming data dropped by 4%, with 1890 million plays in seven days, 470 million more than "One Dance", which ranks second in streaming data.In other words, although it is slightly inferior to the first week of release, "Cold Water" has a gap advantage that is difficult for competitors to overcome in terms of streaming media platforms, especially interactive streaming media platforms.The playlist strategy that Han Music has been implementing since its establishment is indispensable.

In terms of sales, the digital single sales of "Cold Water" dropped by 36% compared to last week, which was the most exaggerated decline among the data in several dimensions. It received 10.817 paid downloads that week.The situation may seem serious, but the logic of music sales is the same as that of movie box office. In the first week of public sales, the best results are recorded in most cases, and the results are much higher than the second best results.

This is the inertia of consumers. The core purchasing power of die-hard fans will be released intensively one or two weeks before the product is launched, and then the long tail effect will slowly accumulate data.Digital downloads are a one-time transaction, and the purchased singles belong to the consumer forever. When the inventory is fixed, both albums and singles will follow an L-shaped line, plummeting in the second or third week of release, and then gradually go lower.

Therefore, being able to maintain digital downloads at around 11 in the second week is already an excellent record for "Cold Water" to be thankful for.More importantly, even if it dropped by nearly 7%, "Cold Water" still ranked first in sales during the same period.In addition, in order to make up for the lack of video playback data due to the official MV not being shot yet, Han Music released the lyrics version of the MV for "Cold Water" on July 29.Although only lyrics with animated effects flash, the free audio with a full duration can attract a large number of light pop music consumers who are not even willing to open Spotify membership, or who just hang out on YouTube.

In the six days since it was launched, the video has been played 578 million times, which is not outstanding, but it has effectively narrowed the gap between "Cold Water" and "Cheap Thrills" in the field of visualization.

There are a total of four dimensions in the list calculation formula, and Han Music has done its best within its capabilities in three of them, regardless of the cost.The final winner fell on the radio data.

The establishment of radio channels and cooperative relationships is the deepest moat in the American music industry, and it is also the biggest challenge currently faced by the new Han Music.Fortunately, the artist lineup of "Cold Water" was chosen with the station manager in mind. No one can say no to Justin Bieber's new song, and no one can say no to Major Lazer's new masterpiece after "Lean On."Coupled with the impressive ranking of No. [-] on the Billboard singles chart and the excellent quality of the song itself, this single's radio performance this week has completely exceeded the maximum energy that the platform of Han Music can give it.

In 140 cities, commercial radio stations played it 15052 times, covering 4760 million listeners, and the estimated number of listeners in the United States was 1.428 million, ranking second on the radio broadcast list.

Although it still failed to surpass "Cheap Thrills", the gap has narrowed to less than 1000 million people.With streaming and digital sales leading the way, no matter how much Billboard's calculation formula favors radio, "Cold Water"'s overtaking is a foregone conclusion.

"But even so, we still can't let down our guard. Victoria has calculated that the gap between "Cold Water" and "Cheap Thrills" is very small. If the latter has [-] more downloads, then they will still be the champions this week. of."

Han Yi held the back of his head with both hands and stretched.

"The current Billboard chart algorithm is too biased towards radio stations. In this area, there is no good way to check and balance in a short time. In addition, streaming media platforms currently rely more on official traffic, and user-generated content has not yet formed a climate... ...So, although it is a good thing that "Cold Water" wins the championship, we are not yet on the same level as Universal, Sony and Warner."

"We... just met Justin Bieber and released this single at the perfect time. 'One Dance' stayed at the top of the charts for three months and everyone was burnt out. 'Cheap Thrills' hit But the release time was too early, and most of the potential energy was dissipated, which gave us the opportunity to steal the crown."

""Closer" has just been released. Based on its current performance, it is estimated that "Cold Water" will lose its current position in two weeks at most."

"If we can really reach the top of the list for three consecutive weeks, it will be a milestone achievement for the current Han Music." Jordan Bromley expressed relief, "What's more, doesn't part of "Closer" also belong to us? Horsch’s part.”

Although "Closer", which Columbia Records has high hopes for, is far less popular than "Cold Water" as an artist, with the support of Sony Music's top promotion matrix, it still successfully landed at No. [-], becoming The Chainsmokers and Holsh's career No. [-] A top ten single.

With 10.3 digital downloads, it ranks second on the sales list, second only to "Cold Water". 1390 million online plays, ranking seventh on the streaming list.Because it was only officially released on July 7, the radio broadcast has not yet fully fermented. It is currently ranked No. 29 with 140 million listeners in 1900 cities.

With the opening record of "Closer", The Chainsmokers became the first group to have three Billboard Top [-] hits this year, tied with Rihanna and second only to Drake and the newly crowned Justin Bieber.

As for Horsi, although the highest ranking in the history of "Badlands" is No. 30 on the album chart, her best performing work on the singles chart is "The Feeling", No. [-], which she was invited to guest-sing by Bieber. [-] people.

In other words, this is Horch's first taste of the Billboard Top 30 so far.

According to Jordan Bromley, Han Yi should be happy for all reason.Because in any case, Horsch has special guest royalties for the single "Closer" that fluctuate between 3-5% depending on sales.Moreover, the better the chart performance, the more staggering her live performance prices, which have increased more than ten times in the past year, will become.

"Maybe, but I don't think so, Jordan, you should understand. Neither 3% nor 5% is what I want. What I want is..."

"Becoming one of the four major music groups in the world."

Before Han Yi could speak, Jordan Bromley finished the second half of his sentence for him.

From the first meeting at Grove Shopping Center, Han Yi's goals have been consistent, firm and clear.Not to mention Jordan Bromley, even the fall intern who just joined Han Music two weeks ago knows about the company's ambitious goal.

"Yes, to become the world's four major music groups means that I have to steal at least 15-20% of the world's music market from them. Even if it is an equal share, I have to forcefully take away from Universal, Sony, and Each of Warners has a piece of meat worth tens of billions of dollars."

"It's gonna be an uphill battle."

"It's always gonna be an uphill battle for us. So, any move that will help us expand our share must go all out. Any cooperation that will allow them to continue to maintain their lead, regardless of whether it can benefit us, is to be cautious. The most open attitude we can show."

Han Yi paused and thought carefully about how to accurately express his views on the cooperation between Horsi and "Closer" in front of the group's legal counsel.

"I love Horsi, I love all the artists of Han Music, and I hope that each of them can win their own number one single. I have never wavered on this point. However, although "Closer" will be Horch It’s a much-needed career breakthrough, and I don’t want to see this song bring more imagination, signing artists, and cooperation opportunities to Sony. If there is a way to stop it...I will definitely do it, Jordan.”

"Of course I understand what you mean, Yi. But how difficult is it to block the single that Sony is pushing? I believe you should also know that this is not something we can do at the moment. I think it is best The best way is to try our best to absorb the nutrients for growth from every good thing that happens around us, even if those nutrients will make our enemies stronger."

At this point, Jordan Bromley suddenly fell silent on the other end of the phone. After a while, Han Yi even thought that Magnastar's communication system had malfunctioned, before Han Music's chief legal counsel spoke again.

"More importantly, I think that at this stage, what we should consider most is how to survive the coming storm. We won the Billboard championship, and we invaded the areas they care about most. No matter how slow we are, The three major executives should have noticed us now. You are right, Yi, "Cold Water" is a miracle born of countless wonderful accidents. Next, when Universal, Sony and Warner really put us Would we still be so lucky if we were treated as a competitor worthy of being suppressed?”

"That's why I used my flight time today to have this one-on-one meeting with you."

Han Yi turned up the volume on his side to ensure that Jordan Bromley could clearly hear every word he said.

"When the abyss stares you in the face, what's the best way to respond? It's to introduce endless water and turn it into a quiet lake of your own."

"We will start a fair fight with them in the field of music, but at the same time, we must also fundamentally change the face of this battlefield and the rules of this game."

"Yi, when you chose me, did you already know what I was doing on Capitol Hill?"

Han Yi's metaphor is not subtle. As smart as Jordan Bromley, he can naturally understand his strategy instantly.Han Yi heard Jordan's meaningful low laughter, and seemed to be able to see from his voice that he was shaking his head helplessly in the office with an expression of admiration and fear.

"That's one of the reasons, a key reason."

Han Yi spoke frankly.There are too many elite lawyers in this circle who can help people negotiate nine-figure contracts, but there are very few legislators who are committed to promoting changes in the industry.

"You know how much I respect what you're doing now and the mark you want to leave on this industry. I told you that when I met Keahun in Miami. I hope to join your cause, Helping you become a great person beyond profit, career, and even success itself.”

"Now, I hope to officially open this topic, for the sake of the music industry, for your sake, and for my own sake."

“Tell me, what do I need to do to move the Music Modernization Act from a dream to a reality?”

(End of this chapter)