Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 936 Everyone is a Hot Commodity

The encore was undoubtedly "Comfortably Numb." Although the arrangement was largely unchanged from a year ago, except for the addition of Guo Sichu, the Rolling Stones' performance still felt increasingly refined.

The person most qualified to speak on this matter is none other than Fimos.

In his view, the teamwork of Bian Lang, Di Li, and Strauss in this match can be described as flawless.

On their way out, the two music reporters had mixed feelings. The guy who came out with them was still rambling on and on: "Next year, the Rolling Stones' ticket prices will probably at least double. Such excellent musicians and such great works, we are so lucky today!"

The two reporters shared this thought, but they also had an added worry. That was, if Music magazine ultimately refused to include the Rolling Stones' two guitarists, would the magazine's authority, as this guy suggested, completely lose its place in the hearts of music fans?

As the two were thinking this, they ran into Lonelli and his group when they came out of the fence.

Several musical instrument factory owners followed Adams toward the venue where the party was to be held that evening.

As the biggest winner of the night, Lonelli couldn't stop smiling. The others ignored him and chatted about the things they had agreed on earlier.

One of the reporters, upon hearing that the content was related to music, naturally perked up his ears to eavesdrop.

Although he didn't hear any useful information, he secretly took photos of the people with his phone. On the way home, he sent the photos to a colleague in the company's business development department, who replied almost instantly.
"These are all big shots from our magazine's advertising clients. Did you take this on location at Rolling Stone? If these guys team up to talk to us in order to improve our relationship with Rolling Stone, our salaries for next year might be temporarily out of reach."

This looks like a joke, but if it really happened...

The reporter gasped, then planned to send an email to his boss that very night. If his boss still insisted on going his own way, then he would have to consider starting to look for another job.

Meanwhile, it was midday in China, and many music fans were repeatedly refreshing related web pages or bloggers' homepages, all hoping that the content they wanted to see would appear in the next second.

As the officially certified platform, Bilibili naturally has the largest number of music fans and receives the most requests for updates.

The staff in the content editing department simply set their department head's messages to "Do Not Disturb," otherwise, with reminders every three minutes and complaints every five minutes, they really couldn't work.

After all, they have VIP access that ordinary internet users can't enjoy, and bandwidth that only major internet companies have. They've only downloaded a quarter of the source material so far, and Lao Niu is still uploading continuously.

Half an hour later, seeing that no one in the group had reacted, the head of the editing department, who had made a solemn pledge to Chen Bing, rushed to the office area.

Seeing that everyone was working with headphones on, his impatience subsided slightly. He quietly crept up behind one of his team members and was about to yell at him, but after glancing at the video footage playing on the computer screen, he simply took off the team member's headphones and put them on his own.

After listening for less than a minute, he had already forgotten all the pledge he had made to Chen Bing: "Let the fans wait, I have to see that awesome original video first."

However, Chen Bing arrived less than 10 minutes later.

This person was more concerned about work, so after watching for 20 minutes, they said with a stern face, "Let's brainstorm and come up with something to satisfy the curiosity of music fans. Otherwise, the first wave of traffic will probably be taken by those overseas bloggers!"

Speaking of this, a staff member who was browsing those bloggers' videos looking for key moments said: "I suggest that we stop making any trailers or mashups. Right now, the most requested songs online are 'Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies,' 'The Great Gig In The Sky,' and 'Wish You Were Here.'"

We can focus our efforts on editing one of the songs into a high-definition version, and then, just like updating an online novel, we can update one song every half hour..."

Hearing this reliable suggestion, Chen Bing jokingly added, "Quickly recommend that online novel author who updates a chapter every half hour to me, I'm having a reading slump lately!"

……

Half an hour later, when the official video of "The Great Gig In The Sky" was released, the market for those overseas bloggers and various content reposters completely disappeared. Bilibili sent three cameras to film this time, plus Lao Niu urgently obtained footage from eight other camera teams through social media.

Finally, thanks to the tireless collaboration of several colleagues in the department, the final product is arguably on par with music films, but it's definitely better than the broadcast of some top-tier galas!

Anyway, as soon as Liang Kuan finished watching the video, he called the person in charge of Coconut Tree with a smile: "The video on Bilibili has been updated. Take a look at it. If there are still any concerns, I will make a trip there myself."

Less than 10 minutes later, they replied directly: "Mr. Liang, what are your schedules? Our Jay Chou would like to invite you to dinner to discuss the domestic premiere of this song."

Once "Wish You Were Here" was released, the biggest name band on Bilibili, Pink Floyd... no, I should say the Rolling Stones, immediately became prominent.

Because of its difficulty, many music bloggers chose to wait before analyzing "The Great Gig In The Sky," rather than using it as their first source material.

However, less than 10 minutes after "Wish You Were Here" was released, a blogger's video appeared. This hastily produced work obviously couldn't offer much substantial content, but it certainly provided enough emotional value.

This producer, who has always been relatively low-key and treated this as just a pastime, is finally about to become a breakout star. The very first sentence of his video is: "I suggest that the Yunnan Provincial Government should start preparing. If the Rolling Stones band and Bian Lang are not declared as intangible cultural heritage, it would be an absolute desecration of music!"

The comments section above this part of his video was even more fascinating:

"You're awesome! But aren't you worried about being cyberbullied if you curse someone to die on Bilibili?"

"Yunnan Province's top official: I probably won't make it during my term, and I probably won't live to see this day!" "Bian Lang: Thank you! I'm just temporarily blacklisted in China, not killed!"

After the video went viral, Minister Wu also noticed this interesting video. Of course, it's impossible for it to be recognized as intangible cultural heritage, at least not at the moment. But the rewards that should be given still need to be given. The original Earth's "Go Where the Wind Blows" already gave more than 200, and Rolling Stones has become popular overseas, so they have to give some substantial benefits.

However, in order not to go against the decision made above, Minister Wu's idea was to directly allocate the benefits to the Rolling Stone Music School. This way, it would be easier to provide resources and support, especially in education.

But those nagging, jealous people started to get sour. But who in the Rolling Stones camp would pay attention to these trivial trolls? It's already the end of the tour, time to wrap things up and do post-concert publicity.

There couldn't be anything more serious than being banned in China, so Liang Kuan really isn't worried at all right now.

They poured in traffic without hesitation and bought trending topics without a second thought. Their main goal was to show advertisers the influence of Bianlang and Rolling Stone.

Before domestic advertisers with similar ideas could even make a move, musical instrument manufacturers in Europe were already getting restless.

In their view, the Rolling Stones only have a limited number of musicians, which means there are only a limited number of advertising slots. Getting exclusive deals is simply impossible for a band like the Rolling Stones, so it's all about competition.

Fender had contracts with both the Rolling Stones and Bianlang, which was initially thought to be an advantage. However, Martin and Gibson offered them titles such as "Designated Asian Performer" and "The Only Chinese Spokesperson," along with exceptionally high fees, which put Fender at a significant disadvantage.

It's unlikely that there will be any changes to the fact that we're making our own guitars; Fender's are definitely flawless. However, the production and sales volume of these guitars are limited. We'll only be able to make money from sales once the second and third reissues are released and the prices become more affordable.

Therefore, they naturally hope that Bian Lang can endorse one of their series.

Just as these three companies started their verbal battle, Ovation didn't hesitate to approach Dili directly: "DI... I'm sorry, I really don't know how to pronounce your name. Your performance tonight was absolutely masterful!"
I think you might not know this, but Music magazine doesn't intend to include your name or Strauss's name in the shortlist. Therefore, Ovation will be declining further advertising to show our support. So we very much hope to achieve further cooperation with you personally…”

Hearing that Music wasn't planning to include him and Strauss was somewhat surprising to Dili. Given his current assessment of DGM, he knew they would go to great lengths to handle this kind of situation through public relations. Even though it was just a nominal title, it was still part of showcasing their resources and capabilities.

But judging from the current results, DGM seems to have encountered a formidable opponent, to the point that even these instrument manufacturers have to come out and support the Rolling Stones.

"Thank you for your kindness, and thank you to Ovation for such a wonderful instrument, which gave me the opportunity to perform 'The Great Gig in the Sky' so perfectly. Please discuss the details of the collaboration with Ms. Evelyn; I have no objections and would be very happy to collaborate with Ovation."

The Rolling Stones musicians had already made an agreement regarding this endorsement.

As long as it doesn't violate the band's principles, everyone can use whatever they want, but they can't overlap with each other. As for the band's principles, the first one, of course, is that they cannot insult China!

Dili himself quite liked Ovation's Jean, and since they were willing to publicly take sides, he had nothing more to say. As for the issue of potential clashes, Evelyn would naturally handle that.

Seeing that both Martin and Gibson were getting carried away, Fender's Churchill took his champagne and left the main battlefield to talk to Strauss.

Strauss was certainly not new to this type of business, but her previous band projects were all relatively small ones.

So it would be a lie to say she wasn't excited when Fender offered her a series of endorsement deals. But after hearing Churchill's terms, she immediately waved her hand and refused: "Mr. Churchill, thank you Fender and for your appreciation, but the piano used for 'Free Bird' is not something I can decide..."

The two of them weren't far from Bian Lang's core area to begin with, and with Strauss's unique female voice, Gibson's Mobeck certainly wouldn't miss a single piece of information related to Gibson.

Upon hearing the name "Free Bird," he immediately envisioned a scene of three Gibson guitars playing together.

Of course he wouldn't just run over and dismantle Churchill's stage, but with Novell's sharp tongue, he really didn't have many chances right now. It was just that his fourth brother's words gave him a brilliant inspiration.

"Wave, I don't think we can discuss the specifics of endorsements and such clearly here today. I suggest we discuss the details with you later using a proposal, how about that?"

Bian Lang sipped the champagne, feeling his stomach acid almost rising without quenching his thirst—it was truly unsettling. Now that Mobeck had given this signal to move on, Bian Lang naturally responded: "No problem. Just discuss the specific business matters with Ms. Evelyn. My stance is that results come first!"

Seeing that Bian Lang had agreed with his suggestion, Mobeck then proceeded to state his own request: "All three guitars used in 'Free Bird' are ours, so I was thinking, how about we collaborate on a series called 'Free Bird'..."

Novell never expected that Mobeck would come up with such an idea. Putting everything else aside, he himself thought the plan was excellent. If they and Bian Lang had expressed their interest first, then even Martin would have a headache.

Fender has collaborated with Bianlang to customize guitars, and also has a partnership with Dili to have a designated player as their spokesperson in China; if Gibson takes the lead now, then they will be at the bottom, and they will definitely lose their advantages and can only rely on spending money.

As for Ovation, he didn't care, since there were still differences in the product lines and no direct competition!

Just as he was thinking about how to break the deadlock, he heard Bian Lang speak up directly: "Sure, you can contact Ms. Evelyn for the specific business details... Excuse me, I have to go to..."

Unsurprisingly, Hua Yan and Dayong were also targeted by musical instrument dealers. Even Huang Kai, the bassist, had musical instrument dealers come to talk to him.

Seeing this, Evelyn asked Elf, "Have there ever been any bands where all members were instrument ambassadors?"

Elf shrugged, indicating he didn't know, but he was clear about the level of Silva's endorsements. Then he looked at the mains of several high-end luxury brands surrounding Guo Sichu and said, "That one is the real money-making monster!"

(End of this chapter)