Rebirth of the courtyard, the start is 80s

Next, Cao Zhiqiang talked with Masashi Sada about the details of signing the contract.

In general, there is nothing wrong with the situation. There are two main objections.

The first point is to divide into proportions.

Cao Zhiqiang was dissatisfied with the [-]-[-] split, and proposed [-]-[-] at the beginning, [-]% for Cao Zhiqiang himself, and [-]% for the company.

This was obviously asking for a lot of money, and he didn't agree. Then Masashi Sada took a step back and gave him four or six points, that is, [-]% for the company and [-]% for Cao Zhiqiang himself.

After Cao Zhiqiang thought about it, he agreed to this share ratio, and in the future, it will be divided into four or six.

The second point is the signing time.

Masashi Sada's original plan was to sign the contract for five years, but Cao Zhiqiang felt that it was too long and wanted to sign it every January.

This is obviously not possible.

In the end, the two parties come and go, and the final contract is to sign a three-month short-term work contract first, and then sign a long-term contract according to the situation after three months, and Masashi Sada can give priority to renewing the contract.

Originally, he thought it would be at least half a year, but Cao Zhiqiang also said that his current situation is a bit special. If he signs a long-term contract with Masashi Sada, I am afraid it will be a lot of trouble.

One of the reasons is Cao Zhiqiang's own work.

He still has a job in China, and he is a leader in a state-owned enterprise. If he signs a long-term contract with a foreign company without asking for instructions, he may be in great trouble.

The second reason is Cao Zhiqiang's visa issue.

Cao Zhiqiang was able to come to Japan with an official passport plus a business visa. According to the current situation, he can only stay in Japan for [-] days, which is about three months.

The advantage is that within [-] days, Cao Zhiqiang can travel between Japan and China many times.

The downside is that once the time limit is up, if you want to re-enter Japan, you have to apply for a visa and passport again.

Therefore, Cao Zhiqiang is not sure whether he will be able to come to Japan in three months.

Of course, if Cao Zhiqiang can apply for his working visa in Japan during his stay in Japan, he can live in Japan for a long time in theory.

As for the passport issue, it is actually not difficult to deal with.

According to the current situation, as long as Cao Zhiqiang can apply for a work visa in Japan, he can go directly to the Chinese embassy in Japan and change his ordinary passport without going back to his country. Generally speaking, changing a passport is also very simple and will not be rejected.

So the key question is to see if Masashi Sada can help Cao Zhiqiang get a work visa.

Although Masashi Sada thinks there is no problem, after all, this is not always possible, and there are many processes to go through, and the main process is on the Japanese side.

To put it bluntly, it is necessary to have a reliable work unit in Japan and a reliable guarantor.

As for Masashi Sada's office, the situation is so-so, but Masashi Sada himself, because he is a famous entertainer, has some guarantees.

So if Masashi Sada personally guarantees, the problem is not big, but it is only a small problem, not a percentage success.

Needless to say, Cao Zhiqiang's statement really convinced Masashi Sada, which is also the fundamental reason for the three-month contract period.

But, for Cao Zhiqiang, the so-called three months was just for him to fool Masashi Sada.

In other words, the three-month period was used to force Masashi Sada to help him apply for a work visa.

To put it bluntly, Cao Zhiqiang didn't want to be restricted by a firm, and even if he had to sign a contract, he didn't want to sign a long-term contract.

After all, once Cao Zhiqiang's works are released in Japan, they will definitely explode. He does not want to be bound by Masashi Sada's company for the time being.

In fact, what Cao Zhiqiang wants to do more is to cooperate with Masashi Sada to open a joint venture firm, and Cao Zhiqiang himself will be one of the bosses.

In this case, Cao Zhiqiang only needs to provide works in the future, and the specific operation will be handed over to Masashi Sata, and the benefits will be shared with everyone, and the level will still be an equal partnership, which is better.

On the contrary, if he really became a long-term contracted artist of Masashi Sada, no matter how good the relationship is, it would not change the difference between the boss and the worker.

But the most important thing is that when you are a boss, you can earn the most money and profit, and you can have more say in Japan in the future.

It's just that I can't tell Masashi Sada about these things for the time being.

It's not too late to discuss with him after the work visa is approved.

In short, [-]% to [-]% and a contract every three months. Once these two conditions are agreed, everything else will be a small problem.

Next, Cao Zhiqiang formally signed a work contract with Masashi Sada.

As soon as the contract was signed, Masashi Sada impatiently asked his sister to help Cao Zhiqiang get a work visa, and at the same time took Cao Zhiqiang to rent a house nearby.

The matter of renting a house was brought up by Cao Zhiqiang. He said that he likes to be clean and live alone, so that he can create better.

In addition, it is not suitable for him to live here for a long time. Firstly, it is too crowded, and secondly, it will affect each other's lives.

Masashi Sada also agreed with this point, so he decided to rent a one-household building for Cao Zhiqiang nearby, specially for Cao Zhiqiang and the two he brought.

In the early 80s, Japan had not yet reached the peak of the economic bubble. Even in Tokyo, renting a house was not so tight, so it would not take much effort to rent one more house and build one house.

In the end, Masashi Sada rented a one-family building about 300 meters away from his home, the kind that can be lived in immediately.

This house looks a bit older than Masashi Sada's house, but it's okay, plus it has two floors, 88 square meters, three bedrooms and one living room. Anyway, if three people live there, it's absolutely fine.

The most important thing is that this house is very close to Masashi Sada's house, just a few steps away, which not only facilitates the communication with each other, but also has a certain distance, so that each other will feel very comfortable.

The house is done, the next thing is serious work.

To put it simply, the day after Masashi Sada rented a house for Cao Zhiqiang, he took Cao Zhiqiang to JVC Records' recording studio in Tokyo, and officially started recording, preparing to release Cao Zhiqiang's first single.

In fact, JVC Records is currently just a common name in the industry. The real name is "Victor Music Industry Co., Ltd.", also known as V Club.

It's just because the current record company is JVC Company, which is a subsidiary of Victory Company, so it is commonly known as JVC Records in the industry.

Later, that is, in [-], for the convenience of operation, a direct integration was carried out, and a "Japan JVC Co., Ltd." was created again.

But no matter what, it is not an exaggeration to say that this JVC record is currently the leader in the Japanese record industry.

Not to mention anything else, at least in terms of the software and hardware of the recording studio, the recording studio of JVC Records is definitely one of the best in Japan.

Masashi Sada's works are basically released by this JVC Records, and he is very familiar with the heads of the production department, sales department and other departments of this club. It's not a matter of a word.

Having said that, about Cao Zhiqiang’s debut song in Japan, that is, the first single, Masashi Sada has already thought about it. It is the song "Kimi がいるだけで", that is, "As long as you are here".

In fact, when Cao Zhiqiang sang this song that day, Masashi Sada had the idea of ​​helping Cao Zhiqiang release a single, and thought that this song was very good and had the potential to become a big hit.

Unlike Akina Nakamori and Kyoko Koizumi, Masashi Sada is not only a singer, he is also a lyricist, composer, and record producer.

In addition, Masashi Sada was originally a very popular artist. His "Guan Bai Manifesto" has even been on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart No. 1, and it has been No. 1 for ten consecutive weeks. He is a proper and popular singer.

So Masashi Sada's appreciation of a song is not just as simple as whether it sounds good or not. He is more often the owner of a firm and a businessman.

Masashi Sada felt that Cao Zhiqiang's song "As long as you are here" has a beautiful and cheerful melody, catchy lyrics, and Cao Zhiqiang's very unique clear voice that can be called penetrating. Once it is released, it will definitely be a hit .

In fact, the melody of this song has been echoing in Masashi Sada's mind ever since he heard it that day, and he can't forget it no matter what.

Therefore, he was so eager to sign a contract with Cao Zhiqiang, even if he knew that signing Cao Zhiqiang would be troublesome, he would not hesitate to do so.

Moreover, Masashi Sada also believed that as long as the song was recorded and brought back to the person in charge of JVC Records, he would definitely agree to sign a contract with Cao Zhiqiang and help release Cao Zhiqiang's single record.

As long as JVC Records is willing to promote Cao Zhiqiang, it will take less than a month for Cao Zhiqiang to become a big singer in Japan.

And as long as Cao Zhiqiang becomes a Japanese singer and has a certain reputation, it will naturally be easy to apply for a work visa.

By that time, Cao Zhiqiang will become famous, and as Cao Zhiqiang's manager, Masashi Sada will follow suit, at least he won't have to worry about making money.

In case the song doesn't work out and doesn't sell well, that's fine.

As long as Cao Zhiqiang can sign a contract with JVC Records, no matter what contract is signed, it will be a victory.

Because as long as Cao Zhiqiang signs a cooperation agreement with JVC Records, he can use this agreement as proof for Cao Zhiqiang to apply for a work visa in Japan.

JVC Records is a big company. If there is a cooperation agreement with JVC, it will be easy to apply for a work visa.

In addition, Masashi Sada currently has an office, but lacks funds for packaging and publicity in the early stage. Therefore, the cooperation method that Masashi Sada hopes more is the cooperation model of advance capital plus share.

That is to say, JVC Records paid in advance, and was responsible for the pre-production, publicity and distribution. The copyright of the song was returned to the economic company where Cao Zhiqiang worked, Sada Planning, and then it was divided according to the sales.

In this model, there is no need to give money to the management company and the singer in advance, but to wait for the album to be released, and then distribute the money after the sale.

The advantage is that the record company can reduce some of the expenses in the early stage. The disadvantage is that once the fire hits, the singer and the management company will also get a lot of share, but overall, it is beneficial to the record company.

With Masashi Sada's status today and his long-term cooperative relationship with JVC, if he is willing to come forward to guarantee, then this kind of advance capital plus sharing model may not be difficult to pass.

Of course, the premise is that the master tape of the song must be approved by the person in charge of JVC, specifically, it must be approved by the director of the Planning Department of JVC Tokyo Branch.

"Don't worry, Cao Sang." Sada Masashi held the master tape in his hand, and said to Cao Zhiqiang with a smile, "Minister Shibazaki of the Planning Department of JVC Records Tokyo Branch is very familiar with me. Your song is so good, it should be fine. It will definitely pass."

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly: "That's good."

However, it turns out that Masashi Sada was thinking a little too much.

When Sada Masashi took Cao Zhiqiang and the master tape of the guitar playing version "As long as you are there" that Cao Zhiqiang recorded in the recording studio before, and went to the planning department staff of JVC Records Tokyo Branch to explain his intentions, it was not the minister who received them, but a Head of class.

As for the head of the planning department, he wasn't very interested in Cao Zhiqiang's piece.

In other words, if this song was sung by Masashi Sada, then they would be more interested. After all, Masashi Sada is quite well-known at present.

But if it is the unknown newcomer Cao Zhiqiang, who is also a mainlander who cannot stay in Japan for too long, they are not very interested.

After talking and talking, they proposed a buyout plan, that is, to buy the copyright of Cao Zhiqiang's song, but they only want to buy the song, not the lyrics.

The price is not high. They are only willing to pay 40 yen for the song copyright buyout fee, which is only more than 3000 RMB.

Due to the huge difference in conditions between each other, of course the final result was that they did not reach an agreement.

"It's okay, Cao Sang." After coming out of the planning department office of JVC Tokyo Branch, Masashi Sada quickly comforted Cao Zhiqiang, "There are many record companies, and they have no vision, which does not mean that other record companies have no vision.

By the way, otherwise, I'll come back tomorrow, and if Minister Shibasaki is around, I can find him directly.

Minister Shibasaki knows me very well, and if I come forward, he will definitely agree. "

"Forget it." Cao Zhiqiang shook his head with a smile, "Didn't you find out that the other party is not interested in my personal identity, so it's useless for you to find their minister.

Don't forget, I am a mainlander with a business visa, so I can only stay here for less than [-] days, and it is not certain whether I can stay here for a long time in the future.

During my stay in Japan, it was too risky to make a record for a mainlander with a complicated situation like me.

After all, Ms. Deng Lijun made her debut in Japan before, but because of passport and visa issues, she had to leave for the United States halfway during the fire, which caused her and the company behind her to suffer a lot.

With the lessons learned from Ms. Deng, it is understandable that people do not want to take risks for me. "

"Huh? Wait!" Masashi Sada's eyes lit up, "What did you just say? Miss Deng Lijun?"

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Cao Zhiqiang looked at Masashi Sada curiously, "Is there a problem with her?"

"Yes!" Masashi Sada clapped his hands and laughed, "We can go to the record company that Ms. Teresa Teng once signed with, Polydor Records Japan!

Since this record company once promoted a Chinese Miss Teresa Teng, if you come again, they will definitely be interested!

That's right, if this company is to succeed, it will definitely help you out with a record! "

Cao Zhiqiang smiled noncommittally: "All right, you have the final say."

Indeed, although Cao Zhiqiang signed a contract with Masashi Sada, he was actually not very interested.

Mainly, he thought about going back to China in two days.

Originally, Cao Zhiqiang wanted to return to China the next day, but during this period, there were not many direct flights between China and Japan, only two round trips per week, and the fastest flight back to China had to wait for two days, so he could only wait for one day. waited.

During this period, it's a relief to do some work for Masashi Sada.

As for the cooperation with Japanese record companies, it is of course best if it succeeds, and it doesn't matter if it fails.

In addition, even if the work visa is not enough, as long as he can satisfy Mr. Lin in China later on, it is not impossible for him to use the hard money he earned in China to exchange some yen and foreign exchange, and then come to Japan in the name of investment and management.

An investment business visa is much easier than a work visa, at least for Japan currently.

All in all, he is not in a hurry now, so naturally he doesn't care about success or failure.