The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 909 I'm Here to Join You
Shakira, a woman who has dominated the World Cup stage three times.

Electric motor hips, wolf sister, sexy, energetic, and dancing—these are all labels that have made this Colombian singer famous worldwide.

Of course, it was only 06, and her iconic hit song "She Wolf," which earned her the nickname "Wolf Sister," had not yet been released.

But besides "Wolf Sister," several other labels have now been attached to this Latin American diva—

She doesn't like wearing shoes at concerts, preferring to jump and run barefoot on stage. The innate fiery spirit of Latin America is perfectly embodied in this woman; her wild yet feminine sexy twerking has captivated countless men around the world.

Especially after the huge success of their new album last year.

"I didn't expect you to agree so quickly, Spike. I thought you were going to tell me that this wasn't part of your plan."

Shakira, having taken off her sunglasses, smiled as she put down her handbag, ordered a coffee from the waiter, and then turned around to greet him, saying, "After all, you're in high demand now."

"Come on, do you really think I'm such a shallow person?"

As Zhou Yi stirred his teacup with a spoon, his gaze naturally fell on the woman's emerald green dress. He picked up the teacup and took a sip: "Besides, didn't you see what they wrote in the newspaper? They all say I never know how to refuse beautiful women."

Shakira isn't very tall, barely reaching 1.6 meters barefoot. But thanks to years of dance training, she has a very well-proportioned figure—

Both her body proportions and complexion exude a vibrant and healthy beauty.

"So I still came out ahead."

After opening her handbag, Shakira handed one of the envelopes to the man, raising an eyebrow and saying, "I still have to give the expected token of appreciation, don't I?"

She can do without the Book of Changes, but she cannot be ignorant of it.

Especially now that the two sides are no longer on equal footing as they used to be.

To put it bluntly, in the global record industry, Zhou Yi is now the only dominant player – he is a shareholder of Warner Music and possesses the power to dominate the world music scene.

And what about her?
She's just an ordinary Latin American pop star.

"That's really heartbreaking. I considered you a friend. You know I don't have many friends." Zhou Yi didn't even touch the thin envelope to see if it contained a check or something else. Leaning back in his chair, his feigned sadness perfectly illustrated a truth—

When it comes to women, just put on an act first.

Shakira smiled and said, "Not many, but they're all actresses. I understand."

"No, you don't understand." Zhou Yi continued his performance—

I tried my best, but my acting was a bit like that of a human playing against a machine.

Shakira couldn't stop laughing: "This doesn't look like the Godfather in 'In the Name of the Father,' Spike. Was it your brother who played the role?"

"That was a bastard who forced me to act, and I suffered a lot..." As soon as Jiang Wen was mentioned, Zhou Yi started to breathe heavily, and his mouth kept babbling non-stop.

Shakira, who was hearing this kind of secret for the first time, listened while eating dessert, occasionally interjecting with her own comments, which resonated with Zhou Yi, who nodded vigorously.

Only those who are also singers can truly understand each other.

"Spike, I have a question for you."

"what?"

"Warner, are you interested in representing my next English album?" Shakira cut straight to the point, no longer beating around the bush, and asked the real purpose of her meeting with Zhou Yi today, her face very serious.

"Are you kidding me? Your contract with Sony hasn't expired yet." Zhou Yi wasn't surprised that she wanted to talk to him about something, even though he was already prepared for the meeting. He just didn't expect it to be about switching jobs.

"In fact, my English album was not released by Sony, but by Epic Records."

Seeing that Zhou Yi wasn't surprised, Shakira seemed relieved and laid out her current predicament in its entirety: "But Epic Records' distribution capabilities are getting weaker and weaker, especially with Avril Lavigne becoming more and more popular..."

Epic Records, founded in 1953 and headquartered in New York, USA, is one of the representative independent record companies in the long-established American record industry.

The reason it wasn't acquired by international giants after the turn of the century was because they found a trump card—the Canadian little witch Avril Lavigne.

As a long-established American record company, Epic Records became more than 90% dependent on Avril Lavigne after the turn of the century.

To give a more intuitive example, G.E.M.'s importance to Hummingbird Music is basically equivalent to Avril Lavigne's importance to Epic Records.

The entire company only has this one wildly popular singer.

Avril Lavigne's position within Epic Records even surpasses that of the CEO; essentially, the entire company works tirelessly to serve her. There's no way around it, since she's Epic Records' primary source of revenue.

However, this meant that they naturally couldn't devote enough energy to Shakira, an outsider who only distributed English albums.

It was fine before; the record market was booming, and Shakira, who was new to the English market, could accept it.

But now, the global record market is declining, and the English music scene is no exception, with only a minority like Zhou Yi able to remain unaffected.

In this situation, Epic Records naturally wouldn't risk losing the big picture for a small gain. Shakira, despite being a Latin American superstar, wouldn't make much of a splash in the English-language record industry—unless she completely ties herself to Sony.

But that's not what she wants, because Sony can't give her the status she desires. At least not right now.

"So, you want to release your next English album with Warner Music?"

“Warner Music (USA) currently only has Rihanna as its female singer, and I think my joining should enrich Warner Music’s revenue structure.” Shakira smiled slightly, confident.

She had a background check done.

Edgar Allan González Iglesias continued his consistent performance, rejecting the female singers who initially declined his invitations. As a result, Warner Music's male singer lineup is now raking in profits, while the female singer lineup is feeling empty after Madonna and her group left.

For an international giant like Warner to behave like this, it can only be said that Edgar Allan Powell Jr. is indeed willful.

He just has the right to be willful now.

"Perhaps, but have you considered that if you approach Warner, you might offend Sony?" Zhou Yi asked with interest, his arms propped on the table.

From a later perspective, Shakira's status in the English-speaking world is not as high as in the Latin American world, and in fact, both Sony Music and this epic record company are to blame.

The former was unhappy that Shakira was being sold off, while the latter simply felt that they no longer had the capacity to support two global superstars simultaneously after the turn of the century, and Shakira, who wasn't their "favorite daughter," was naturally strategically abandoned.

The reason Sony Music turned a blind eye to Shakira's decision to release her English albums through Epic Records was because they had long had their eye on the company, but the acquisition plan had to be repeatedly postponed due to Avril Lavigne's immense wealth.

Until 09, when Avril Lavigne left Epic Records due to utter disillusionment with the company, the record label instantly lost its power to resist Sony's acquisition, thus becoming one of Sony's subsidiaries.

Shakira's 09 English album "She Wolf" naturally returned to Sony's label—but whether it was due to Sony executives sabotaging her or something else, she didn't receive enough promotional resources, and this album, which can be considered the representative work of her English career, only sold a little over two million copies.

Sony, who thought they had Shakira under their thumb, encountered the 10 World Cup. Shakira, with the high exposure of the World Cup stage, soared to the top with "Wakawaka," a song she wrote herself, which became the best-selling World Cup theme song in history.

Well, top-tier singers with excellent independent creative abilities are truly both loved and hated by record companies.

Shakira smiled and answered irrelevantly, "My contract with Sony is about to expire, otherwise why do you think I would hold 119 concerts?"

Even if some concerts only gross a few hundred thousand dollars or even just a hundred thousand dollars, she still goes to hold them.

First, it buys time; second, it generates revenue; and third, it showcases the global appeal of one's concerts—giving one a strong bargaining chip when negotiating contract renewals or switching companies later.

"Thanks for reminding me, but do you know that your behavior of holding so many concerts is disrupting the market? My fans have been putting a lot of pressure on me on my blog about the number of shows you're doing." Zhou Yi rolled his eyes.

Although the answer was irrelevant, it made Shakira's smile instantly brighten: "You're different from me, you're a god."

Her 119 screenings sound impressive, but the estimated total box office is only around 80 to 90 million US dollars, at most no more than 110 to 120 million.

Based on the average box office revenue per game, the average revenue per game would be around $800,000 to a maximum of just over $900,000.

This even includes the revenue from scalped tickets.

Compared to the box office revenue of Zhou Yi's concerts held abroad so far, this is a performance report that should be thrown in the trash.

"I'll talk to Ed in the next few days, and you can transfer over then."

Zhou Yi sighed and lost all interest in dessert.

Since sweeping the Grammys, discussions about his concerts on his blog have almost turned into a frenzy.

Yes, his outrageous remarks.

This is a unique phenomenon in the world music scene—fans beg their idols to hold more concerts to make money off them, but the idols just don't, holding very few concerts.

Then the fans went from begging to fighting and cursing, hoping to wake up Zhou Yi so he could make money quickly.

“If you release news about a new album, I think they’ll probably stop all the news about you and Warner.” Shakira was amused by Zhou Yi’s frustrated expression.

To be honest, Zhou Yi is the first singer she has ever met who doesn't like holding concerts.

Especially considering that the Zhouyi single-movie box office champion is the world's largest.

Of course, this was the first time she had encountered a singer like Zhou Yi whose concerts were of a different scale each time.

"That's right, we'll release it when you're a guest at your concert."

—?!

???

Dude, I was just kidding, you really have a new album?
"Are you going to pay again?"

Why not take advantage of the Grammy hype and sell the singles from last year's album separately?
"What do you mean by 'still publish'? Don't I usually publish English major papers in the first half of the year?"

Perhaps because she was shocked, Shakira didn't even have time to wipe her mouth. She was genuinely curious: "What are you planning to call your new album?"

"25".

(End of this chapter)