Chapter 157 Business Genius Xu Kong
The songs for the so-called new album are almost written, so of course it’s bullshit.
In fact, Xu Kong was so busy that he forgot about producing a new album for Su Zhi.
Although the two met quite a few times during this period, each meeting was either at Xu Kong's own home or at Su Zhi's home in the same community.
All the serious people are in the bedroom, and there is nothing else to talk about about the album.
But the song problem is definitely not a big problem for Xu Kong.
If he was just releasing a single, Xu Kong could come up with a new song for Su Zhi at any time.
But this time it is a whole album after all. According to the size of most albums in the current Chinese music scene, at least eight to twelve new songs are needed.
Of course, it’s not that Xu Kong can’t come up with so many new songs.
But because there are so many, it’s difficult to choose.
The album Xu Kong agreed to help Su Zhi produce was naturally a non-conceptual album.
Generally speaking, in fact, he is still responsible for the work of a songwriter. There is definitely a job as an album producer, but it is actually not that big.
From the perspective of awards alone, concept albums definitely have a greater chance of winning Album of the Year.
But in that case, the workload is still too much for Xu Kong at present, and he may not be able to do it well.
Why in the last life and this life, so-called concept albums were praised by a large number of senior music fans and music critics.
Because it is true that the difference between the two is quite large in terms of production difficulty.
A true concept album is not just based on one theme to build all the music of the entire album.
Rather, it allows the listener to listen to the entire album from the first song to the last song, as if they have experienced a complete musical journey or watched a wonderful movie.
To put it simply, it is what is called using an entire album to tell a narrative.
Although it sounds simple, in practice it is quite difficult.
The melody, lyrics, and arrangement all require considerable attention.
Even the song's MV needs to be carefully designed to complement the album itself.
As for the non-concept album, there's nothing to say. It's just a hodgepodge of songs that I think are okay, all thrown together.
If you are a little better, you may consider the genre of music and decide on an album theme or something.
But in fact, for most singers, their albums are actually a hodgepodge of singles.
There is nothing you can do about it. Concept albums are indeed easy to win awards, but they rarely achieve great commercial success.
More often than not, when a singer releases an album, there will be a so-called title song for major promotion, or the album will simply be named after the song title.
As long as one or two songs in the entire album become popular, the actual commercial goal will be achieved.
And under the current situation, almost none of most singers make money by selling digital albums.
Therefore, there are even fewer singers who would specifically consider making a concept album.
Because there is a high probability that you will lose money.
Of course, except for the traffic idols who cut off their fans.
Someone will pay for the brothers.
Now that he told Su Zhi that the song was almost written, Xu Kong's efficiency was equally fast.
In less than three days, most of the songs have been finalized.
The styles and themes are not unified. The main considerations are the quality of the songs and whether they are suitable for Su Zhi.
"Have you really written it all?"
Su Zhi was a little shocked when she got the lyrics and music scores of these songs.
Of course she could see that Xu Kong was like that at that time, and most likely he had forgotten about making an album for her.
She stared at Xu Kong deeply for a while and whispered:
"You didn't write it all at once in the past two days, right?"
But soon, without waiting for Xu Kong's reply, Su Zhi herself felt that such a guess was a bit too outrageous.
After all, the degree of completion and quality of these ten songs, written in two days, is really incredible.
After carefully reading the lyrics and music score Xu Kong gave him again, Su Zhi became a little excited.
"When do we start recording?"
Xu Kong thought for a moment, and then replied directly: "Just today."
Su Zhi: "Huh?"
That's right, according to Xu Kong's plan, since the songs have been written out, it's better to start recording the song sooner rather than later on the same day.
Su Zhi's studio is not as complete as Fengge's headquarters with all departments.
The scale is a little larger than Xu Kong's personal studio.
But the good thing is that the various music facilities are obviously no worse than Fengge's.
Not only does it have a state-of-the-art recording studio, but most of the mixing and arranging equipment is very complete.
Xu Kong selected among the songs prepared for Su Zhi this time, and finally selected one of them.
“Let’s record this one first, the time is just right.”
Then he directly started to produce the accompaniment of the new song live.
In the end, Yuan Yinan did not choose to intervene in this matter.
First of all, Su Zhi may not necessarily listen to herself.
Secondly, Xu Kong really helped Su Zhi’s career a lot.
With Xu Kong helping to write songs, Su Zhi can almost completely abandon the music resources of her original agency and become completely independent.
Su Zhiben's management company also has a lot of songwriters, including some big-shot figures in the industry.
But the only problem is that Su Zhi's album last year was a complete failure.
The entire album, even combined, is not as good as the single that Xu Kong wrote for Su Zhi on the "Singer" program.
It's a bit too ironic.
After all, the investment in that album was not low, with more than five million spent on production alone.
Su Zhi paid for this money herself.
Sometimes, the songs written by some songwriters may be good songs, but they may not be suitable for a certain singer.
There are probably only a few songwriters in the entire music industry who can tailor songs specifically for singers.
But to say that the most suitable person to write songs for Su Zhi is probably Xu Kong.
After all, there are so many successful cases there.
Although it took almost no effort to write the lyrics and music score.
But arranging music is still quite time-consuming.
Xu Kong spent a whole day and just finished the accompaniment of the first song.
When the official recording started the next day, Su Zhi was stunned for a moment by Xu Kong's words.
"Will it be released next month?"
In Su Zhi's impression, at least more than 80% of the entire album was completed before she began to consider promoting it in advance or releasing a pre-release song.
But in Xu Kong's case, the efficiency is too fast, right?
She suddenly mentioned her new album two days ago, and then yesterday the other party brought out all the music scores and lyrics, and then finished the arrangement that day.
She hadn't officially started recording today, but Xu Kong had already set a time to release the song.
Although it's just the first song, isn't it a little too rushed?
"Why don't you post it after recording?"
Xu Kong said indifferently.
This is no longer the era of physical albums.
They are all digital albums anyway. You can negotiate the copyright price with the platform and upload them directly.
For many singers to consider the popularity of the album, it is normal to release an album several times.
The most important thing is that Xu Kong himself doesn't know if he will have enough time to help Su Zhi compose, arrange and record songs.
Rather than pressing on after recording and not knowing when to release it, it would be better to release it earlier. The recording process went smoothly, and the song was not too difficult for Su Zhi.
In fact, by the third time, Xu Kong felt it was enough and he was quite satisfied with the effect.
However, given Su Zhi's personality, Xu Kong got used to it and continued recording for nearly two hours before he was finally satisfied.
Of course, as the album producer, Xu Kong finally chose the third recorded version.
Su Zhi didn't understand this.
"Why?"
In her opinion, whether it is her own state or her performance during recording, the next many times should be the most perfect version.
Even the version Xu Kong chose was, to her, just a audition to find her groove.
Xu Kong smiled and said:
"Believe me, this song wants you to be in a more casual state like before."
Although she was a little confused, Su Zhi still chose to believe Xu Kong's words unconditionally.
Of course Xu Kong would not say that he made the decision after seeing the market's feedback.
In the final analysis, although he is here to win the award, Xu Kong has always felt that there is no inevitable connection between winning the award and business.
In addition to winning awards, business factors are also a key consideration for Su Zhi.
"Will it be released on June 1st?"
"Will it be too late?"
Although he didn't bother him, Yuan Yinan had been staring at Xu Kong when he was in Su Zhi's studio these days.
When I heard that Xu Kong planned to release the prelude to Su Zhi's new album in June, I couldn't help but ask.
There is only less than a week left in June.
The finished song can definitely be produced, after all, Su Zhi has already finished recording it.
The workload behind the mixing and so on is not that big.
But in addition, the promotion and publicity of the new album, and most importantly, discussing cooperation with the two major music platforms, are not enough in just one week.
Yuan Yinan had such doubts, which was completely expected by Xu Kong.
In other words, if the other party did not question it, he would instead doubt Yuan Yinan's professionalism as Su Zhi's agent and studio manager.
"Sister Yinan, what do you think is the problem?"
Xu Kong did not explain directly, but asked.
Yuan Yinan actually said it directly without any hesitation.
To sum up, it is still about the lack of time to promote the album and discussing copyright issues with the two major music platforms.
Xu Kong organized his language and then said:
"As for promotion, don't worry."
"At this time, someone will naturally help us promote it."
These words sounded a little unclear to Yuan Yinan, and he didn't know who Xu Kong was talking about.
Xu Kong couldn't explain it, he could only say that he would know it when the time comes.
Obviously, agents like Yuan Yinan attach too much importance to so-called marketing and promotion.
There is nothing we can do about it, after all, it is almost the unified understanding of the entire industry.
But in fact, the best promotion is that there is no need for promotion.
"As for the copyright issue"
"My suggestion is not to talk about copyright in the short term."
This was Xu Kong's plan from the beginning.
“Don’t talk about copyright?”
"Free?"
Yuan Yinan was even more confused.
The key is that it doesn't work like this.
For a singer of Su Zhi's stature, the song copyright fee is definitely not low.
For example, even though the last album received poor response, it still received more than 2 million in exclusive royalties from Yun Music.
"It's free for now"
Xu Kong replied.
Yuan Yinan asked: "Which platform should we publish on, or Cloud Music?"
Because many of Su Zhi's previous songs were almost exclusively copyrighted by Yun Music, Yuan Yinan subconsciously thought of cooperating with Yun Music.
Xu Kong shook his head.
He asked: "Can't we post on both platforms?"
Yuan Yinan was stunned when he heard this question.
The song was written by Xu Kong, so the copyright was naturally in Xu Kong's own hands, but in terms of the copyright fee, he chose to give it directly to Su Zhi.
The main reason is that after he came to Su Zhi's studio, he also discovered one thing, that is, Su Zhi's studio is currently operated completely independently, and all expenses need to be paid for by himself.
However, the original brokerage company needs to share the income from related commercial performances.
Although Su Zhi didn't say it, Xu Kong guessed that this was probably a condition negotiated with the company for the independent operation of his personal studio.
To put it more clearly, Su Zhi is currently short of money.
That’s why we received such a large number of business performances and activities some time ago.
Although Su Zhi was also a workaholic, she still couldn't help but feel a little distressed when she saw the other party sleeping sleepily in the closet that day.
Su Zhi would most likely not accept the direct payment, and the song copyright fee would be better.
Therefore, Xu Kong has already had his own considerations in terms of copyright fees.
From the very beginning, he planned to use the royalties from this album to slightly increase Su Zhi's studio's capital for independent operations.
Of course, in Yuan Yinan's opinion, there is a high probability that the copyright fee for an album is only a few million.
The current market is indeed like this. Even for a singer as popular as Su Zhi, the copyright fee for an entire album is exaggeratedly high.
But that doesn’t mean you can really only get so much.
"What you mean is that we publish on both platforms and don't discuss copyright issues with the two major music platforms?"
Yuan Yinan finally understood after listening to Xu Kong's explanation.
Are you planning to wait for the song to become popular and wait for the price to be sold?
But why is Xu Kong himself so confident that the song can really become a hit?
"It's not that we won't talk, but that we won't talk for a short time."
"For Su Zhi's album, I plan to release all the songs in three times."
"This time I will play the pre-recorded song, and then I will release three new songs for the second time, and the remaining six songs will be released last."
“The best time to negotiate copyright fees with the platform is after the second three songs are released.”
"As for whether to give copyrights to both platforms or sell exclusive copyrights, that's something you need to consider, Sister Yinan."
Xu Kong certainly wouldn't have the time to even discuss copyright fees.
So he gave his own ideas. As for the specific price, it was up to Yuan Yinan to negotiate it himself.
"You are really a business genius."
Yuan Yinan couldn't help but say something, both complaining and sighing.
If such an operation is successful, it can indeed greatly increase the copyright income of this album.
But at the same time, it is estimated that no one except Xu Kong can think of this method.
Mainly, who dares to ensure that his new album will be a hit?
Especially in the current market, it is very common for the king of singers to release songs without any splash.
(End of chapter)