hollywood billionaire

Chapter 255 Monaco Yacht Show

Why does Han Yi attach so much importance to Stevie Nicks?

To be honest, in the beginning, he did not include Stevie Nicks in the music copyright acquisition plan. Although he traveled from the future time and space seven years ago, he did not have a computer at hand that could link to another dimension. , and his memory has not been strengthened by rebirth. Therefore, Han Yi can only grasp a general development trend in many fields, but cannot truly achieve precise steps and effective moves.

To give a very simple example, Han Yi knows that Bad Bunny will one day become the most popular Latin pop king, and can even compete with The Weeknd in terms of streaming data...

But even if you punch a hole in his Tianling Cap and pour a ton of Smartwater into it, he still can't write down the name of any Bad Bunny single.

It's all in Spanish, and I haven't deliberately memorized it. How could this kind of information be brought back to 2016?
The same is true for information related to the wave of music copyright acquisitions. Han Yi can remember some of the most impressive transactions, such as Bruce Springsteen’s astronomical purchase of US$[-] million, and the sale of music copyrights for between US$[-] million and US$[-] million. In addition, Bob Dylan, who sold his master tape copyright for [-] million, and Justin Bieber, who emptied his copyright library at a young age.

These musicians and the shocking acquisitions they reached with capital giants are exact data that Han Yi can retrieve from his memory at any time.

Stevie Nicks clearly does not fall into this category.

After his rebirth, the first time he heard this name was at the VMA celebration party.

Madison Beer curled up, hugged her knees, and talked about the glory and dreams she expected. When she mentioned Lana Del Rey's invitation to cooperate, Han Yi just remembered that there was such a number one person.

Stevie Nicks was born in 1948 and entered the music scene in the 70s. It’s so long ago that many of her famous works and notable achievements were completed in the form of a band instead of a solo performance. It’s hard to recall it at the moment. It is normal.

But this does not mean that she is not worthy of Han Yi's attention.

Putting aside everyone's different musical aesthetics, just looking at the overall career data, before Taylor Swift came along, Stevie Nicks was the greatest female singer-songwriter in the European and American music scene. none of them.

Note that this is a singer-songwriter who focuses on performance with one hand and creation with the other, and is very strong in both hands. It is not a person like Madonna or Whitney Houston, who has been famous in the entertainment industry for thousands of years, but does not have a representative song written by her own hands. , pure performer.

And Stevie Nicks, this all-around artist who was called "the living queen of rock music" by Rolling Stone magazine, this musical genius who will never be absent no matter which media chooses the best singer-songwriter in history, lyrics, composition, arrangement Proficient in music, production, and post-production.

For the albums she participated in, her name was usually listed as the composer.

Even among male musicians of the same era, there are very few who can do this.

A total of fifteen full-length studio albums have been released in his career, eight solo and seven Fleetwood Mac albums, with total sales exceeding 1.4 million copies.

As a solo singer, he was nominated for 8 Grammy Awards, and as the band's absolute main creator, he won two Album of the Year awards. Fleetwood Mac's pinnacle work, Rumours, even ranked seventh on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the [-] best albums in history.

Considering that sexism was still rampant in the music industry and American society in the 70s, Stevie Nicks was able to climb to such a lofty position step by step. The hardships and hardships involved are really incomprehensible to outsiders.

Rock music was widely regarded as "the sound of men" at the time.And Stevie Nicks was able to pave the way for subsequent female rock musicians with a pen and a guitar in such a situation where there was absolutely no place for her. Her talent and advanced musical concepts The degree, as well as the commercial value of the work itself, can be seen.

Therefore, when the Wall Street Journal revealed in December 2020 that Stevie Nicks sold the majority of its shares in music copyrights to Primary Wave, a music distribution company established specifically to acquire superstar copyrights, for US$12 million, no one thought that Her asking price was too high.

People only pay attention to two issues:
Why would Stevie Nicks sell the rights to her national treasure?
Who is Primary Wave?
The first question is easy to answer. Think of the music copyright, which contains huge and sustained commercial value in the hands of musicians, as a Powerball lottery with a total limit of 40 million US dollars, but it will take [-] years to realize it.

When musicians redeem this lottery ticket, there is no one-time cash-out option. They can only hold half of it with the music copyright publishing company, and settle the licensing fee every quarter, every six months, or every year.

The income is stable, but it takes too long.

Now, their careers are coming to an end, and their physical lives are entering their twilight years. There are 90 years left in the copyright protection period, but whether they can live another 20 years is a question mark.

At this time, someone came to them and promised a huge nine-figure reward to buy out their future earnings... In other words, someone provided them with an option to cash out the lottery ticket at once, and they did not need to put their previous Earned installment income is spit out.

How do you think they will choose?

Again, "assets" can only be called "capital" when they are combined. For individuals, the best way is to take the banknotes and leave the market, and use the sudden increase in purchasing power to set up a family fund. , carry out diversified investments to ensure that musicians have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their time, and also to ensure that their family descendants can truly take root in the top forests of European and American society.

So, who provided them with this opportunity to cash out?
This is the answer to the second question: Of course, those who can turn assets into capital are the people who have already become capital.

Primary Wave, founded in 2006 by Lawrence Mestyre, the last chief operating officer of Virgin Records, raised funds to buy the late musician's Nirvana property from Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love. Started with music copyright share.

On September 2016, 9, at the same time that Han Yi flew from Los Angeles to Nice, Lawrence Mestel announced that he had accepted an investment of US$27 million from the Blackstone Group. Together with this investment, he announced to the industry that Primary Wave and Music legend Smokey Robinson from Motown Records in a $3 million copyright library acquisition.

When Han Yi saw this news from a height of [-] feet, he couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.

He only remembered that Primary Waves was killing everyone after the black swan incident, but he did not know that it had started large-scale capitalization operations in 2016.

Han Yi knew very well that this was just the first time that the Primary Wave opened its abyss. In 2022, it will also receive US$17 billion in special funding from capital giant Brookfield Capital Management Group.

And it's not the only big fish in this business. Hipgnosis was co-founded in 2018 by music entrepreneur Merck Mercuriadis and Chic co-founder Neil Rogers. It was founded in 2018 and listed on the main board of the London Stock Exchange in July of the same year. It was transferred in 7 Go to the high-quality sector of the main board for trading. Starting from March 2019, it will even be included in the calculation formula of the FTSE 2020 index.

This means that this "start-up company" has raised more than one billion pounds in five years since its establishment. It only engages in the music copyright acquisition business. It owns the music copyright of 65000 songs, of which 4000 are in the top ten and 2000 have topped the list. ” has become a barometer for the entire London Stock Exchange.

It is also a barometer of the development of the world music industry.

It is also the biggest stumbling block to Han Yi's career plan in this life.

Universal, Sony, and Warner can only be regarded as competitors at best. Han Yi does not need to completely defeat them. He only needs to use advanced information to gather future superstars and weaken their influence.

Behind each group, there are several or even dozens of global capital giants to protect them. To completely destroy them is just a crazy plan to huddle up in bed and indulge in lust at midnight.

A normal music group has a complete and powerful hematopoietic mechanism, without Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Bad Bunny.Even if they are all taken away by Han Yi, there are still other potential newcomers to make up for it.In the music industry, there is no shortage of fresh faces.

But Primary Wave and Hipgnosis are different.What they are interested in is a segment where new stock cannot keep up with the speed of acquisitions.

This means that in the foreseeable future, the music copyright acquisition business will be a zero-sum game for a long time.

Unfortunately, Han Yi also fell in love with it.

There is only one Beatle, one Michael Jackson, and one Stevie Nicks in this world.

If he wants it, everyone else has to give up.

For him to live, others must die.

According to Han Yi's original plan, he didn't actually need to start acquiring copyrights in 2016.It’s not too late to wait until 2018 or even 2019, when you have full wings and sufficient funds to do this.

First complete the big project with Apple Music, get to know a group of legendary superstars, and see who has the strongest intention to cooperate, then start with them, and just figure it out slowly.

Because, in the future timeline he originally outlined, both Primary Wave and Hipgnosis were companies that only started to make efforts after 2020.

Just smother them in their swaddling clothes.

But now, Stevie Nicks suddenly appeared in his sight, helping him correct his perception invisibly.Now that Primary Wave has boarded the ship of Blackstone Group, he can no longer remain indifferent.We must seize the time and act immediately.

Speed ​​and quantity are the keys to winning this competition.

With this song collaboration between Madison Beer and Stevie Nicks, we quickly reached a copyright acquisition agreement with the latter, using one of the greatest female singer-songwriters in the history of pop music to launch the first offensive A clarion call.

Since you want to attack, you need ammunition.

Speaking of ammo…

Even though he had a cheat code such as a cashback reward, Han Yi had to face such an embarrassing reality.

His money is indeed not enough.

The co-investment fund established with Parkway is earmarked exclusively for the UTA project and has no remaining balance.CEP-III, managed by Carlyle, spent one-third of it on Sony Pictures' slate deal, and the remaining cash was transferred in batches to the artist management company, record company and copyright distribution company under the Han Music Group structure, for Provide financial support for various projects.

As for the US$12 billion in custody funds David Rubinstein mentioned, it can only be described as being close at hand but far away.

You can see it, but you can't touch it.

[1. "I don't count how many sit-ups I do. I only start counting when I feel pain, because only those are the most important." - Muhammad Ali]

[2. "There are no accidental encounters between souls." - Sheila Burke]

[3. "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what belongs to you." ——Bruce Lee]

[4. "Suppose, dear reader, that you are an idiot. And suppose that you are a member of Congress... I say that sentence twice." -Mark Twain]

[5. "If opportunity doesn't knock, build one yourself." - Milton Burleigh]

Of the five mottoes in the memorandum, the first is still motionless, all black.No one else is to blame. Han Yi can only blame Han Yi for having too many things to do and serious procrastination. The easiest thing to accomplish is the slowest.

In the second line, the red part didn’t know when it reached the two-thirds position.Han Yi did not stare at the progress bar all the time, and even if he did, it would be difficult for him to effectively judge which behaviors could trigger the bright red growth.

The progress of the third item is 25%, which is steadily improving.The fourth strip has the most obvious change, going from completely black to one-fifth covered in red.

As for the fifth motto at the forefront, at this moment, only about 5% of the black presence can be vaguely seen at the end.

The last few vacant important positions of Han Capital and Han Music have been filled. This task, for which the specific requirements were uncertain from beginning to end, should be considered completed.

But after all, this is just one of them.

There were four more waiting for him.

Even if the meanings contained in the other four maxims are exactly the same as his guess, according to the most optimistic estimates, it will be at least this time next year before the US$12 billion in funds from the Carlyle Group can be truly used by him.

It can't solve his urgent needs.The same is true for the US$1.33 million managed by JPMorgan Chase. I submitted a cash withdrawal application on January 1 and only got it in March, a full half year away.

Therefore, the only thing Han Yi can really mobilize now is the deposits in his cash account.

After Hanyi reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to purchase the N652CH private jet through Jet Linx, it took another two full months, that is, on September 2016, 9, for the entire transaction to be truly finalized.

The two parties had no objections to the transaction price. US$7000 million was above JP Morgan’s psychological expectations and in line with Han Yi’s affordability and consumer demand.But even under this circumstance, the legal teams on both sides worked continuously for two or three weeks, and waited patiently for another month and a half to complete the entire process from coding transfer and change, lien and release rights clearance, to FAA re-registration.

Not to mention anything else, just talking about the coding change was so cumbersome that Han Yi almost gave up.

Antoine Gachet and Jordan Bromley, who handled the transaction, consulted Han Yi for his opinion on whether to retain the serial number registered by JP Morgan for the world's first G6074ER, production serial number 650.

After careful thinking, Han Yi finally decided to change the coding. N652CH sounds very boring and does not have any special meaning. It is better to change it to a number chosen by Han Yi. Maybe doing so can increase his positive emotional feedback and obtain a higher return ratio.

Each region has its own coding initials. Private jets registered in the British island of Guernsey need to start with "2", so you can see many hilarious and interesting codes, such as "2-SEXY".

For private jets registered in the United States, the first letter must be N, which stumped Han Yi.The first bold word that popped into my mind would definitely not be used, and for a while I couldn’t think of any meaningful combination related to N. Finally, Antoine Gachet came up with a good idea.

N10AH, although you can’t tell much about it when you look at it this way, it’s clear when you brush it on the tail of the aircraft and read it backwards.

HAN means Han or Han.

01, which means that this is the first private jet under Han Yi’s name.

As for why you put the number in the middle?
Because the FAA requires that the beginning of the code must be an Arabic numeral from 1 to 9.

Fortunately, no one has reserved this code in the FAA database, so Han Yi can directly apply.The application fees are also incredibly cheap: there is a $10 fee to reserve or be assigned a special registration number, and there is also a $10 fee to change the name of the aircraft.

Thinking that it costs US$103 to apply for a customized license plate at the California DMV, Han Yi once wondered if he had spent US$7000 million to buy a three-wheeler.

But soon, he tasted the bitter consequences of bargain hunting.You get what you pay for in everything in this world, especially things related to the U.S. government.

A document that can be processed for $20 means an outrageous processing time.

In the first step, it took two full weeks to wait for the application I submitted to appear in the FAA system.Then, Han Yi can continue to submit another application, requesting the FAA to replace the reserved "N10AH" on the "N652CH" aircraft.

Because changing the aircraft code was "not a priority for the FAA," this step took another month of Han Yi's time.

After the FAA finally approved the request to change the code, they sent Han Yi an authorization form called 8050-64.

Approval is not complete. Han Yi must first sign the form and then send the original copy back to the FAA. The FAA will then modify the coding information in the system.

How long does it take to modify system information?
Two more weeks.

This is the core factor why the transaction of this aircraft took two months. Just changing the coding took that long.

You know, it only took two and a half weeks for the Jet Linx pilot team to erase the N652CH on the tail and apply the new code of N10AH.

On September 9, Jordan Bromley’s assistant found updated information about the G25ER on the FAA’s official website.Fortunately, it is now more convenient to apply for air routes. For cross-continental flights between North America and Europe, you usually apply in the morning and can take off in the afternoon. This way Han Yi's trip to Monaco was not delayed.

Fortunately, other processes of the private jet transaction can be carried out at the same time. The 7000% balance of the US$70 million that Han Yi wanted to spend can be transferred from the escrow account to JPMorgan Chase's company account on September 9 to complete the transaction. Delivery.

When Han Yi, who was in Europe, finally got some time alone and received the reward update information in the memo, it was already late at night on September 9.

(End of this chapter)