Entertainment tycoon since 83

Chapter 56 Successful Contract Signing
The contract is five years, and requires the production of four albums with at least forty English songs, all of which must be written and composed by Huang Ze himself.

As for the record profit, Huang Ze, as the singer and composer, shares 28% of the sales.

The signing bonus was negotiated to be $4 million after tax.

To cooperate with any publicity, Huang Ze’s consent must be obtained.

As for the penalty for breach of contract, it was discussed at 80 million US dollars. The repurchase of the remaining copyrights held by the record companies will not begin until fifteen years after the signing of the contract. If Huang Ze chooses to repurchase the remaining copyrights, he must repurchase all the songs at one time, and the price of each song is 4.5 million US dollars.

Four and a half million dollars for one song, and an album has ten songs, which rounds off to fifty million, or about one hundred million!

“It’s a whopping price!”

The other party has proposed such a high number, I am afraid that even if we can negotiate further, it will not be able to be reduced much.

Huang Ze smacked his lips.

However, being able to negotiate these terms, no matter how high the price is, it was fifteen years later, and the US dollar at that time was obviously not as valuable as it is now. The key point is that $100 million at that time might not be as important to me as one million US dollars now.

"It's hard for me to negotiate, they're biting very hard." Susanna shook her head. After explaining the main terms, she handed all the papers in her hand to Huang Ze. "There are still many details. Huang, take a look and see if there are any problems."

"Forehead."

Huang Ze looked through it carefully and found that it was basically reasonable.

So, the only thing left to discuss with Warner is the specific numbers.

Although he could accept the current contract, Huang Ze still subconsciously wanted to bargain. It would be a waste not to bargain. Anyway, it was impossible to bargain until both sides went their separate ways. Everyone would always be able to reach an agreement in the end.

So Huang Ze and Susanna spent a week negotiating with Warner.

As other record companies found Huang Ze, Warner also felt a lot of pressure.

In the end, they successfully reduced the penalty to 55 million US dollars. The remaining copyright of a song would cost 2 million US dollars to buy back after 15 years, and the number of albums was also reduced from four in five years to three in five years, and then they could no longer reduce the amount.

As for the signing bonus, the other party was willing to increase it by another million, to 5 million US dollars after tax.

Got it!
Huang Ze didn't want to waste time anymore and wanted to get his first pot of gold as soon as possible to avoid any more trouble, so he signed the contract.

As the two parties signed the contract, the other party extended his hand, "Huang, let's work together to become a world-class superstar."

"Happy cooperation!"

"Jerry, when will you go to the United States again? Taking advantage of the current popularity, we need to produce a new album to completely promote you to the world."

"I may need to arrange some domestic matters. Give me a week."

"Okay, then we'll leave James here, and when you leave, the two of us will go to New York together."

"it is good!"

……

Three days passed.

Huang Ze found a way to make an international long-distance call and found out that the account opened in Hong Kong Island had already received the money, excluding the one for CAA, a total of US$4.65 million, not a penny less.

"Ha ha……"

When the first pot of gold arrived, Huang Ze couldn't help but laugh out loud.

I can finally make movies with peace of mind.

More than four million US dollars!
It's nonsense to say that you can make any movie you want.

But for most movies, this amount of money is enough, and it is much better than the cost of less than one million RMB, which is not something that can be done with a pinch of salt.

After confirming that the money had arrived and the other party was straightforward, Huang Ze was not the kind of person who was not straightforward, so he set off immediately and went to New York again with James.

He also had with him the lyrics and music scores that Huang Ze had written in the past few days in preparation for producing the new album.

There are seven songs in total.

One of them is "One Day" which I made when I was filming "Spring of the Underachievers". As for "Tell Me Why", it is really not suitable for me to sing, so I simply did not choose it.

As for the other six songs, there is one "You Are Not Alone." by Michael Jackson in his previous life, and two songs by Michael Learns to Rock, "That's Why You Go Away." and "Take Me To Your Heart."

A song by the most popular boy band in the previous life, "As long as you love me" by Backstreet Boys and "My love" by Westlife.

The last song is "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden.

To be honest, it's a bit of a waste to put so many classic songs from the past in one album. But Huang Ze still did it.

There is no way not to do this.

One is that he wants his first album to be a hit and completely secure his position in the world pop music scene.

Two.

Huang Ze doesn’t even know about this English song that wasn’t popular in his previous life!

You can't just do something shoddy and end up with your first album turning out like this.

However, since it is a replica and not my own bike, I not only stand up and pedal, but also do stunts on it without any regrets.

……

New York, Warner Records.

The producer who was in charge of making Huang Ze's album saw the lyrics and music sheet that Huang Ze brought out, and after quickly going through them, he was completely speechless.

His two round eyes looked at Huang Ze.

"Huang, you are a genius!"

“How do you manage to write so many songs of this quality?”

“Although most of the songs here can’t reach the quality of that EP, they’re not too far off. If given to an average singer, any song here can be the title song of their album.”

“It’s just, just…” The other party sighed with emotion, “I have never made an album like this in my life.”

"The only flaw, well, I can't say it's a flaw, it's something that can be improved. 'One Day' doesn't fit in this album. The other songs are about love, but this one is anti-war."

"However, let's just leave it at that. Actually, nine love songs are more than enough."

Of course, Huang Ze’s real idea is to make the best use of everything.

It's just one song anyway, it shouldn't be any big deal.

"Yeah, that's fine." The producer nodded repeatedly and imagined it in his head.

The three songs from that EP plus the seven songs here make one album.

This album is great news for fans!

As the producer of this album, I am also proud of it.

Once the quality of the seven songs was confirmed, album production began immediately.

Huang Ze also entered a busy life, spending eight hours a day either singing or discussing music arrangement with the producer.

Because Huang Ze already had the song in his mind, and he had also achieved some success in music, everything went smoothly during the production process.

The only time Huang Ze felt suffocated was when he was filming the song MV.

No one listens to themselves.

The cameraman and lighting staff are all experienced staff, so each one is more capable than the other.

They have already drawn the storyboards and won’t care about your ideas at all.

After trying twice, Huang Ze stopped struggling.

Just shoot it however the other party says.

"I have experienced the pain that Jackie Chan went through when he wanted to break into Hollywood, right?"

Huang Ze could only smile bitterly in secret.

……

After staying in New York for nearly a month, appearing on shows at night and working on the album during the day, Huang Ze finally completed all the songs needed for the album.

The rest depends on Warner's distribution capabilities.

Anyway, Huang Ze can't stay here any longer, as the new Venice Film Festival is about to begin. As the director of the main competition film "Good Will Hunting", which is also his debut film, he has to go.

(End of this chapter)