Chapter 183 – MSN
Beijing, New Age Art Park.
The New Age Art Center was established in 2001. It was located between Haidian Park and Beijing University, covering an area of nearly 700 mu. It was one of the key art and cultural construction projects in Beijing.
After more than ten years of development, the New Age Art Park has gathered a large number of well-known domestic film and television, music, literature, art production units, up to thousands of large and small companies and studios, which could be called a cultural hub.
The famous Flying Stone Records was in the New Age Art Park.
In the conference room, Lin Zhijie rubbed his forehead wearily, and his eyes showed a trace of restlessness.
Sitting on both sides of the conference table with him were the deputy general manager of Flying Stone Records, the manager of the brokerage department, the manager of the public relations department, a number of agents, and several composers and arrangers from the production department. It could be said that it was a packed house.
The subject of this morning’s meeting was the planning of the debut album of Flying Stone Records’ newly formed girl group, MSN.
There were a total of three members in the MSN girl group. M.S.N stands for the first letter of the three members’ names. They were all about 20 years old, and they were excellent both in appearance and singing.
Lin Zhijie was the initiator of the meeting, but he was obviously not in complete control of the situation.
There was a lot of opposition to the album planning plan made by the music director.
Such a situation was more or less out of the expectation of Lin Zhijie, but he has always been resolute and never flinched because of difficulties.
“I would like to emphasize again. Inviting Lu Chen to help with the production of this album is the right choice, and his creative talent is obvious to all and is trustworthy.”
MSN was the newly launched girl group of Flying Stone Records to cater to the market of young people.
For this established record company, the establishment of this girl group was not easy. A few years ago, the two girl groups they launched ended in failure, causing considerable losses to the company.
As the saying goes, once bitten, twice shy[1]. if it wasn’t because idol groups were currently very popular, and that popular boy bands and girl groups made a lot of money, perhaps Flying Stone Records wouldn’t have decided to form a new girl group again.
The three members of MSN were personally selected by Lin Zhijie. In order to make the group a hit, he teamed up with the planning department to develop a full set of publicity plans.
The top priority was MSN’s debut album!
But Lin Zhijie didn’t expect that his plan would encounter such a big resistance within the company.
“Director Lin…”
Yi Xiangjun, the deputy general manager of Flying Stone Records, said with a smile: “Lu Chen is indeed an excellent singer-songwriter, but his works are mainly folk songs, which is not suitable for MSN’s style, and…”
The middle-aged woman in her 40’s tapped on the table with her fingers and stressed: “The asking price for one of his songs is 350,000 yuan. Who from the songwriters that we have invited before have asked such a price? And I believe that several songwriters in the company can come up with works that are good enough.”
Her eyes turned to the three composers and arrangers who had signed on to Flying Stone Records. There was encouragement in her eyes.
The latter straightened up, and one of the well-mannered men with black-rimmed glasses nodded and said, “As long as the company needs it, several of our colleagues will try their best to produce good works.”
After a pause, he said in an unquestionable tone: “At least not worse than others!”
The man’s name was Fan Jun. He was the chief contracted songwriter of Flying Stone Records. He was a famous composer and arranger in the circle. He has written many excellent works, but few of them were published in recent years.
Fan Jun has worked with Flying Stone Records for nearly 20 years and has a high status in this established record company. Coupled with the support of Yi Xiangjun, he was really not afraid to play against Lin Zhijie.
And in Fan Jun’s heart, he was very dissatisfied with Lin Zhijie’s album planning.
Lin Zhijie’s idea was to invite outsiders to supervise the production of MSN’s debut album and create the title song, and have their senior songwriters act as an assistant.
If the person invited was a top-level figure in the circle, Fan Jun wouldn’t have any opinion.
But who the heck was Lu Chen?
Just a newcomer who just made his debut and was lucky enough to sell a good album, yet dared to offer an astonishing price of 350,000 yuan a song. He really didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth.
Fan Jun wasn’t convinced. He has worked conscientiously in this industry for so many years, and his achievements were well known. How could he be willing to submit to a junior?
If Lin Zhijie really insisted, he would dare to flip the table and not give face – He could make a living anywhere!
“Yes, yes…”
Fan Jun was so unyielding that others also responded one after another, putting forward all kinds of reasons to oppose.
Their reason was nothing more than that Lu Chen’s asking price was too high, his qualification was too shallow, his writing style didn’t satisfy what they need, and so on.
The only thing missing was them pointing at Lin Zhijie’s nose and telling him that he was talking nonsense.
Lin Zhijie’s face sank like water.[2]
As one of the largest record companies in China, Flying Stone Records has experienced prosperity and recession, almost closed down and getting revived. Keeping it standing until now was not really easy.
In recent years, Flying Stone Records has been seeking innovation and change, following the trend of times. Efforts to compete for market share with emerging entertainment media companies have also achieved considerable results.
But the competition in this industry was too fierce. In the eyes of outsiders, Flying Stone Records was a powerful company, but Lin Zhijie was well aware of the company’s current problems.
First was the lack of signed singer artists.
Flying Stone Records has signed up a number of singers, several of whom were in the front line, but all of them were old people from the 1980s and 1990s. They were not aggressive enough to keep their achievements[3] and lack enough appeal among young people.
Of course, the company also attached great importance to the training of new people, but so far, there was no one who could play the leading role!
It was under such circumstances that Lin Zhijie single-handedly promoted the establishment of MSN.
However, he underestimated the resistance from within the company.
Lin Zhijie knew that as a music director, he has touched the interests of some people. Therefore, it was regarded as having crossed the line.[4]
It was inevitable to encounter opposition!
Buzz ~.
At this time, his mobile phone lying on the table suddenly vibrated.
Lin Zhijie picked up his mobile phone and took a look. The look on his face changed a bit.
“Sorry, I’ll take this call first.”
He immediately got up and left the conference room and went out to answer the phone.
The atmosphere in the conference room then relaxed. Yi Xiangjun chatted with several department managers, and Fan Jun chatted and laughed with the singers’ agents, looking as if he already had victory in his hand.
With such fierce opposition from everyone, Lin Zhijie’s plan was bound to fail.
Everything will return to its original track.
After a while, Lin Zhijie came back.
Instead of sitting down again, he shook his phone at everyone and said, “Let’s put this matter aside first.”
Yi Xiangjun knitted her brows and said, “Director Lin, I don’t think that’s a proper thing to do, right? Everyone is very busy. I think we’d better finalize the new plan first, so as not to waste time. The company will have a long National Day holiday tomorrow!”
She thought Lin Zhijie was playing a game of delaying time in order to win the support of the company’s senior management.
Lin Zhijie said with a smile, “I also want to finalize this matter. But Miss Chen Fei’er is coming here right now. I believe everyone knows that her new album will be produced by our company.”
The cooperation between Chen Fei’er and Flying Stone Records has been long-standing. Any of the former’s album was extremely important for Flying Stone Records, and there was no room for any slightest neglect.
Yi Xiangjun still has to weigh the importance of this.[5]
But she still has doubts: “Director Lin, Miss Chen Fei’er is here for her new album?”
She hasn’t seen any notice from the company!
Lin Zhijie nodded and said, “Yes, and she’s coming here with Lu Chen, because Miss Chen Fei’er has selected the two songs that Lu Chen wrote for her as the first and second title songs of her new album!”
What?!
Everyone present was shocked.
Chen Fei’er actually used Lu Chen’s works as the title song of her new album, and it was still two songs!
She was a big-time Heavenly Queen!
How could Lu Chen be so capable?
Fan Jun immediately felt his face burning and a little ashamed.
Fan Jun has long known about Chen Fei’er’s new album.
Fan Jun even had the ambition of writing the title song for this album. Once this can be realized, his career and reputation will undoubtedly be taken to a new level.
But Fan Jun also knew very well that his talent was not enough. He might have the advantage of being able to compose and arrange songs for Chen Fei’er’s new album because of his connections[6], but writing the title song was basically just wishful thinking.
Unexpectedly, Chen Fei’er’s title song was actually the work of Lu Chen, which he despised.
Moreover, If Lu Chen could write the title song for Chen Fei’er, then producing MSN’s album would be a cinch for him.
Their previous objections have all became jokes!
Both Fan Jun and Yi Xiangjun had the feeling of being slapped in the face on the spot.
Seeing the ugly look on these people’s faces, Lin Zhijie was really happy in his heart.
Chen Fei’er’s assistant informed him yesterday that Chen Fei’er would come to Flying Stone Records this morning.
Lin Zhijie also just learned the reason why Chen Fei’er came to the company.
To be honest, he was also very surprised. He couldn’t figure out why Chen Fei’er chose Lu Chen.
With Chen Feier’s position in the circle, she could casually invite the top songwriters, and few songwriters could refuse her.
It should be known that with this album, Chen Feier has the idea of transformation. The difficulty of its production was bound to be very high, and once it is successful, its influence would also be huge!
What song did Lu Chen write that moved this Heavenly Queen?
Lin Zhijie was really curious!
But on the surface, he remained calm and said: “MSN’s album plan will be postponed. I’ll go to meet Miss Chen Fei’er first. Would you like to come with me?”
No one raised any objection this time, and several composers and arrangers looked at each other.
Yi Xiangjun felt as if she had swallowed a fly and couldn’t spit it out even.
She could only force a smile: “Then let’s go together.”
_____________
[1] Original Chinese saying: “Once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of coiled rope”. The English equivalent: “Once bitten, twice shy”. The metaphor is afraid of encountering the same or similar event after being hurt once.
[2] Looks cold like stiff water
[3] 守成有余进取不足. I really don’t understand this part. What I could get from this is that old artists only have enough strength to maintain their status in the industry, but doesn’t have enough strength to forge ahead/increase their status (I think) and they lack appeal to young people. Comment if you know what it means.
[4] Overstepping his authority.
[5] The “this” here refers to their cooperation with Chen Fei’er.
[6] Because he works in the Flying Stone Records (his connection) and Chen Fei’er has a cooperative relationship with his company, he has an advantage in being able to compose and/or arrange songs for Chen Fei’er.
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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