hollywood billionaire

Chapter 356 Triple Cover
Han Yi's encounter with Turki Al-Sheikh was purely accidental, but it was an accident that he had been looking forward to and planning for.

What does that mean?

The scale of assets under Han Yi's name is getting larger and larger, and the plans he wants to promote are becoming more and more grand. The total cost of a Mad City Music Festival is around US$30 to 40 million, which is quite expensive, but not astonishing.

But soon, with the official announcement of the legendary music festival project co-produced with Apple Music, his copyright library acquisition plan, which he has carefully prepared for more than half a year, will also enter the actual implementation stage. By then, the transaction amount of hundreds of millions of dollars will surely shock everyone in the financial industry and entertainment industry, from Hollywood to Wall Street.

After all, buying a brokerage agency, opening a record company, doing copyright distribution, engaging in artist management, and hosting live performances are all business areas that look glamorous. However, most acquisitions are closed-door transactions, and the specific amounts are unknown. It needs to be announced to the outside world, so it is difficult to attract outside attention. Secondly, the daily operating expenses are not large. In Room 1001 of Xinghui Building, the rent and the salaries of all employees in the office combined can be comparable to the income generated by various subsidiaries. Even if there is still a deficit, it will not It's too exaggerated, at least a level that a billionaire can afford.

Third, and most importantly, these industries Han Yi is involved in have mature operating mechanisms and business rules. What he is doing does not break out of the market's existing cognitive framework.

In other words, the reason why Han Music has not yet been regarded as a serious competitor by the three major music groups is because, although the recent performance of Han Yi and other companies has been outstanding, it is far from shocking the world. .

It's just three consecutive No. 1 hits on the Billboard singles chart. It relies on the momentum that Diplo and Mad Decent have accumulated for a long time in the field of electronic music. It cannot be regarded as a victory of Han Music's own hematopoietic mechanism.

On the other hand, Han Yi's various trends in the music industry so far are not only exactly the same as those of Richard Branson decades ago, but are at least 70% similar - imitating the structure of the industry leader, he quickly Establish a small but beautiful ecosystem, and then...

There's no after that.

However, once Han Yi launches a plan to acquire copyright shares from artists, the situation he faces will not be as harmonious and respectful as it is now.

The final outcome can only be like that of popular independent record companies such as Kojima Records and A&M Records, which launch a few star artists and sell dozens of platinum albums, and then the giants generously offer high prices and eat them up. .

Thinking about it carefully, it is also the most suitable endorsement for him at present.

But ordinary methods cannot shake Han Yi's foundation. Even if the Big Three were willing to hold their noses and admit themselves to be unlucky and buy back the artist's share from Han Yi at a high price, the latter would never nod in agreement.

Therefore, although it is not known how much the top executives of the three major music groups know about the current development situation of Han Music and what attitude they have towards this new challenger, Han Yi can probably guess that they are most likely to adopt response measures.

Han Yi's ruthless tactics of pulling out the firepower must not sit idly by. If he were allowed to use this method to control 50% of the most valuable copyright resources of the three major music groups, then this battle would not have to be fought.

Who can not panic?
In ordinary business competition, if you hit me, I can fight back. If the artist wants to take back the copyright that has been handed over to the company for management, the company will take advantage of the two-year notice period to sell the music at a high price, causing the commercial value of the artist and his works to plummet, and then take the initiative to sue for peace.

As the leader of the music industry, everyone looks like a library of copyrights waiting to be sold.

But acquiring the copyright share in the hands of artists is different. This is undoubtedly announcing to Universal, Sony and Warner that I am not interested in any of your wives, lovers and girlfriends. I came to your house today just because I wanted to sleep with you.

Money is the most indispensable thing for Han Yi. Exchanging non-renewable and non-replicable resources for cash that can be continuously reproduced through consumption is something only a fool would do.

So he wrote a donation check worth tens of millions of dollars with a wave of his hand, established strategic partnerships with Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Apple Music, and found himself a streaming ally who could deliver ammunition outside of the war. Therefore, he spared no effort to find various ways to make friends with politicians on Capitol Hill, exchange political donations for their support, and change the status quo of the music industry from the legislative level. Therefore, he teamed up with Joshua Kushner to sound the clarion call to acquire musical.ly, intending to control the publicity lifeline of the three major companies and make them afraid. so……

Because their market potential has been tapped to the limit, their business imagination is almost exhausted, and their leapfrog acquisitions of big fish do not receive support from capital institutions. In this case, any billionaire who can lead the company to such a point will make the decision to sell the company at a high price at the best time of valuation.

The same goes for future rights management funds. Bruce Springsteen is asking for $500 million? No problem, buy a yacht and build two office buildings. Even if the repayment ratio is not enough, it is enough to just take out the mortgage loan, right?

It's not serious enough to dig up people's ancestral graves and ruin people's feng shui, but at least it can be regarded as a deliberate attempt to buy the house key from someone else's ex-girlfriend. In the middle of the night, he directly pushed open his bedroom and slept with her.

Let them develop freely, and if there are suitable opportunities, they can even take the initiative to cooperate and establish good relationships. When the development was slow, I gave him a little favor, and when the development was fast, I gave him a moderate blow. I just paid attention to the dynamics of Han Music in a relaxed and relaxed manner until the time was right, raised the acquisition funds, and won it in one fell swoop, becoming another great achievement during my tenure.

Can you flip the table? Can't lift it.

To put it bluntly, this plan is touching people's lifeblood.

This is the same as when your girlfriend breaks up with you and you send her PDF everywhere in the WeChat group to ruin her market.

This is the main reason why Han Yi made up his mind to bring the Saudi Entertainment General Administration into the music festivals of Han Live as soon as they met.

Even Blackstone Group's annual net profit is only one-tenth of Saudi Aramco's. And Saudi Aramco is only part of the crown prince’s ammunition arsenal—a very important part, but only a part.

If Han Yi were the CEO of Universal, Sony or Warner, this is the strategy he would pursue.

Although Han Yi currently has no interaction with the Saudi General Administration of Culture, he is not worried about the progress of this cooperation at all. When cooperating with anyone, the first task is to sort out the interests in front of and behind the scenes. The interest relationship in this matter is very clear. Whether it is the General Administration of Culture or the General Administration of Entertainment, no matter who the chairman is in front of the stage, the real promoter is MBS.

How about you Richard Branson, billionaire? So what if its various industries are doing well? Without the accumulation of a copyright library and decades of accumulation, how can we influence the structure of the world music market?

Compared with that illusory face, real money is more attractive.

They are all listed companies and must publish financial reports and be responsible to shareholders. Using this method of killing one thousand enemies and losing one thousand to oneself to deal with Han Yi will only hurt the commercial value of one's own copyright library in the end. The executives who made such a decision will never be able to stay in the same position. a fiscal year.

Turki Al-Sheikh and the Saudi royal family hiding behind him are the endorsement that Han Yi is looking for and urgently needs.

Is Han site short of money? No shortage. Even if Mad City doesn't make a penny, Han Yi can still hold ten hundred music festivals without stopping, as long as his consumption speed can keep up.

Any foreign investment related to the cultural industry in Saudi Arabia will be handled through two agencies - the General Administration of Culture and the General Administration of Entertainment. According to the division of labor between the two, investment in live entertainment projects such as the Mad City Music Festival is mostly under the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Entertainment, while matters such as investment in music copyright management funds will be handed over to the State Administration of Culture.

If you can't play chess, you can only use off-board moves.

The reason why he is willing to open up investment quotas for Turki Al-Sheikh and Crown Prince Salman Jr. is for one and only one consideration, and that is to introduce a national sovereign fund as a cover that no one wants to provoke.

But how to counter Han Yi's operation?

By then, Han Yi's Chinese identity and his overseas capital injections, which are clean but whose sources cannot be traced, will become the targets of frenzied attacks by the three major music groups.

Therefore, it won't be long before the three major music groups will find that any strategy within the rules cannot shake Han Yi's gradually expanding advantages.

Therefore, he is not satisfied with the asset management of Douglas Le Pen and David Rubinstein, and tries every means to increase capital institutions that can endorse him and Han Music, regardless of whether the actual investor of these investments is himself or others. people.

Disgusting? nausea.

The music industry is not the automobile industry, and new players can take advantage of the latecomer advantage of technological innovation to overtake them in corners. In this industry, which gets better with age, old copyrights will not be ignored and quickly eliminated by the market like older models. Instead, they will bring huge benefits to the owners every year and become the ballast stone that determines the survival of the group.

Han Yi did not touch the share that originally belonged to the three major music groups. Han Yiqiu did not violate the spheres of influence defined by the three major music groups. In this case, no matter whether it is Universal, Sony or Warner, it is impossible to take action on the copyright itself. Because the agreement is still the original agreement, but the people who share the money together have changed. If Han Yi wants to lose a dollar, they themselves have to lose a dollar.

then what should we do?

Yes, poaching artists is just to steal someone's wife, which is a bad nature, but this is what everyone in the industry does. Today you steal mine, and tomorrow I'll steal yours. The main thing is to be happy and happy. It doesn't matter if this one leaves, the next one will be better behaved.

Han Yi had expected this a long time ago, and this was the reason why he told Jordan Bromley about his plan in March, but has not actually put it into action yet. His Han Music needs to grow to attract really important industry figures - such as Dr. Dre - to support him, so that it is possible to acquire those truly valuable music rights. In addition, Han Yi himself also needs to build a set of armor that is strong enough and a spear that is sharp enough to ensure that he can have the last laugh in the endless peak battle in the future.

First, they didn't steal your girlfriend, and second, they didn't steal your property. They just put on women's clothes and wigs, gained your girlfriend's approval, assumed her identity, made her look like her, and took her place. I'm just planning to live together with you.

Who would be willing to mess with a future king who can spend two trillion US dollars to implement the Vision 2030 plan?

The most critical thing is that Saudi Arabia's support is the cornerstone of the United States' effective implementation of its Middle East strategy. In the last life, Salman Jr. had constant conflicts with the White House starting from the Khashoggi incident, and publicly opposed Washington on countless things. However, the two presidents still used intimidation as a supplement and comfort as a priority to ensure that this country is firmly ranked among the top three in the world. The major oil-producing countries will not completely rebel and stand opposite to the interests of the United States.

Every year, the U.S. Congress holds hundreds of oversight hearings, investigative hearings, approval hearings and on-site hearings, large and small. How many of them have you heard of that are related to Saudi Arabia?
Under such circumstances, which music group dares to incite lawmakers to investigate the investment status related to the Saudi National Sovereign Fund?
As long as Han Yi keeps a low profile, creates a few more entities for cross-shareholding, puts the Saudi royal family at the top of the shareholder list, and uses several other capital management groups as cover, he can ensure that Han Music will not be affected by his nationality and Race, subject to unnecessary investigation and persecution.

To be safer, Hanyi can also put this copyright management fund in the UK and list it on the London Stock Exchange. Before its rebirth, the Hipgnosis Song Fund, which was number one in the industry, followed this approach. A music rights management company is not ranked among the top companies on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange, but it can become a component of the FTSE 250 index on the London Stock Exchange. The British government, whose decline is irreversible after Brexit, will inevitably protect it as if it is a piece of cake.

The assets held indirectly by the company will hardly be affected by war or other political turmoil. More importantly, even those assets that have been frozen are only supervised by the British government and have not been directly confiscated.

It is not because of how noble the British government is, but because the foundation of the prosperity of London as a whole and even modern Britain lies in its nature as a safe haven for capital. Therefore, the British Isles are undoubtedly the best place to register the music copyright management fund that Han Yi wants to establish in a short period of time.

Saudi Arabia participates in the investment, Wall Street asset management groups serve as the shell, and the British government provides cover. If Universal, Sony and Warner can still make moves in such a company, then Han Yi will not be unjustly defeated.

Once again, Han Yi has always taken good care of his hands after his rebirth. As he promised David Rubinstein, he wouldn't even look at the liquor he wasn't buying.

One is not to control Intel, the other is not to acquire Nvidia, and the third... even if the time comes to join the AI ​​wave, it will still be behind Joshua Kushner and provide him with ammunition boxes.

What reason does the administrative power have to touch such a high-quality overseas investor who has drawn the red lines himself?

Ultimately, the pop music industry is not that important.

"Didn't you invite them to Los Angeles?"

"They returned to Los Angeles two days later and from there they headed back to Riyadh the next day."

"No, I mean, are you going to meet them in Los Angeles?"

"It's probably too late." Han Yi shook his head, "I have to stay here for a few more days. There are still many people who need to meet and many meetings that need to be held."

"Then they won't go..." Dr. Dre paused and asked, "I'm sorry, where is your office now?"

"Xinghui Building, over there at Century City."

"Star Building." Andre shook his index finger back and forth, "Don't they go check out the company they want to invest in?"

"A company you want to invest in?" Han Yi was stunned, "You mean Han Site?"

"I'm talking about your record company, copyright distribution company..." Andre thought for a moment, grinning the right corner of his mouth, "Maybe there's also UTA, I don't know, it depends on your appetite."

"I didn't mention anything related to company financing." Han Yi looked at Andre with interest, "I just talked about investment in music festival projects."

"Come on man."

Andre shrugged and put his hands in his pockets again.

"The first step to achieve cooperation is to establish mutual trust. I know what you want to do, Yi, and I know what goals you want to achieve... The four major music groups in the world need huge amounts of capital, and what else is better than oil capital? It’s easier and more abundant.”

"You saw right through me, Andre."

Han Yi laughed a few times, and he was very satisfied with Andre Yang's performance. He needs an industry legend to stand in front of the stage and be the mascot of Han Music Group. It doesn't matter what his actual ability is. But if the mascot is also an insightful manager, that's the icing on the cake.

The thinking that Andre showed just now fully proves that he is a person with keen business sense and clear logical thinking. Although the conclusions derived are slightly different, it is commendable to be able to stay on the same frequency as Han Yi under the condition of limited information.

He may not have high academic qualifications, or his education may not be orthodox, but he has achieved great success in both Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and he has obviously created a complete cognitive system.

To put it simply, Dr. Dre’s achievements are more than just Jimmy Iovine’s gift to him.

And this strengthened Han Yi's determination to extend an olive branch to him.

"I do want to talk to Turki to see if they are interested in getting fully involved in our music business."

"What about Apple Music?" Dr. Dre suddenly changed the topic and asked, "The Saudis can provide capital, but Apple can provide more. In the music industry and the United States, if we can reach strategic cooperation with the latter, There’s no doubt life will be easier.”

“Apple Music…”

Han Yi glanced around Andre Yang's face, and soon captured the subtext of this hip-hop legend from the subtle changes in his expression and some intriguing words.

"I don't want to be so deeply tied to a certain platform. You know, this will affect Han Music's ability to expand channels."

What Andre Young really wants to ask is why Han Yi didn't choose to be deeply bound to Jimmy Iovine.

After all, the latter has been dominating Hollywood for decades. Every company he founded has grown into a leader in the industry, and he is now the head of one of the two music streaming platforms.

If there was a choice, normal people would choose Jimmy Iovine instead of Andre Young.

Han Yi knew that Andre must be very concerned about this question, so he asked it twice in different ways in just ten minutes.

Yes, Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young are indeed a rare black and white duo in the American business world and a successful example of cross-racial business cooperation. However, this does not mean that the relationship between the two is absolutely intimate. .

Perhaps the interests are highly bound, but Andre Young, as an African-American who walked out of the streets of Compton and went through all kinds of hardships to climb halfway up the mountain of Hollywood, he has a pride that he cannot let go of. Want something to prove.

"I feel like you and I are the same kind of people, Andre. We are both unwilling to be inferior to others. Regardless of our cultural background, we are all minorities in this country. Recognition, success, and even simple acceptance are all important to None of us take it for granted. It is a privilege that requires hard work day and night to earn."

"The partner I want is someone who can fight for this privilege with me and turn 'privilege' into 'equal rights.'"

"I don't know what to tell you..."

Dr. Dre was silent for a while when he heard Han Yi's steady but turbulent statement. After a long while, he took his right hand out of his pocket, scratched his eyes, and showed his rough laughter to Han Yi again.

"But I didn't talk to you about my partners."

"I'm talking to you about my partners." Han Yi responded with a smile.

"Okay, okay, it seems we can't talk together anymore."

Andre breathed a long sigh of relief, curled his lips noncommittally, then tilted his thumb and pointed at Turki Al-Sheikh not far away.

"Since he can't meet in Los Angeles, I think... we should try our best to let him meet as many artists of Han Music here, chat with them, and listen to their achievements. You know, they are the best artists of Han Music. Important asset."

"Good idea, I agree."

Andre Yang's proposal made a joyous mood quietly rise in Han Yi's heart.

Han Yi knew very well that Andre's words meant that he had initially reached an agreement with the young Chinese tycoon.

The CEO seat of Han Music Group finally welcomed its first owner.

"Where...has she gone?"

Dr. Dre frowned slightly, turned around, and looked for a beautiful figure in the booth area whose name he couldn't name at the moment.

"That's... the girl who won the first place on Billboard before, the one discovered by Justin Bieber, her name seems to be..."

"Madison...Bill?"

(End of this chapter)