Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 453 The Singer of Gold Typhoon

Wu Zhuo did not personally get involved in the acquisition of Gold Typhoon.

This matter was handed over to Zheng Jianfeng to handle.

His mind has been almost entirely focused on his new album lately, and he only occasionally pays attention to this highly anticipated acquisition in the music industry.

Yes, it certainly has garnered a lot of attention.

Not only are industry peers eager to know if Gold Typhoon, a top-tier domestic record label, will fall into their hands, but netizens are also paying close attention to this matter.

There are two reasons why netizens are paying attention.

One of them is Wu Zhuo, who has been frequently acquiring companies in the past two years, each time making a significant move, often spending billions of yuan.

Netizens are eager to know how much money will be spent this time.

However, the netizens' opinions are actually a bit one-sided.

They only focused on Wu Zhuo's acquisition of Gold Typhoon, but failed to notice that although Wu Zhuo has frequently made headlines in the past two years due to acquisition deals.

However, the identities they represented at the time of the acquisition were different.

Just like this acquisition of Gold Typhoon, this was not a personal acquisition by Wu Zhuo, but an acquisition by Legendary Entertainment.

Companies and individuals are completely different.

Not to mention, Legendary Entertainment is a publicly traded company.

Although Wu Zhuo holds a large stake, Legendary Entertainment represents far too many people.

Whether it's Wanda, which owns a certain number of shares, or other investment institutions.

Or perhaps it's shareholders who bought a large amount of Legendary Entertainment stock.

Especially for stock market investors, Legend Entertainment's stock price is generally on the rise, especially after "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons". Legend Entertainment is now seen as a potential stock by stock market investors.

Many people hold onto their stocks, hoping for a price increase.

And clearly, Legendary Entertainment did not disappoint them, as the news of its acquisition of Gold Typhoon once again became good news for the stock market.

Then, another topic discussed by netizens about Gold Typhoon's acquisition is related to Warner Music.

Shortly after the Spring Festival, Warner Music artist Khalil Fong had a falling out with Warner Music.

Then, Khalil Fong switched to Gold Typhoon.

In fact, this kind of job-hopping is not uncommon in the entertainment industry.

Did you not see the huge buzz surrounding JJ Lin's move to Warner Music last year?

However, Khalil Fong is now facing an awkward problem.

That is, he just left Warner, but he might have to go back soon.

Netizens are joking that he can't escape Warner.

This is indeed quite awkward. You just switched jobs, and before you've even been at the new company for a few months, it's going to be sold, and the buyer might be your old employer.

"Gold Typhoon has some promising talents under its wing. If we take down Gold Typhoon, these people will come over and keep us busy."

After recording the song "The Only One" in the recording studio, Wu Zhuo came out and saw Shi Rencheng sitting on the sofa.

He handed over a list.

Wu Zhuo took it and looked at it.

The list above is of the artists currently owned by Gold Typhoon.

To be fair, Gold Typhoon does have some people under its command.

David Tao, Elva Hsiao, Leo Ku, Xu Wei, Bibi Zhou, Khalil Fong...

These singers, who currently hold a good position in the Chinese music scene, are all under contract with Gold Typhoon.

but……

Touching his chin, Wu Zhuo suddenly spoke up, "The lineup is indeed impressive, but these people's contracts probably won't last long."

Moreover, record companies are most averse to management changes; it's likely that these individuals won't renew their contracts when they expire.

Wu Zhuo remembers very clearly that many of these singers didn't release many albums after that.

Moreover, the situation has changed rapidly in recent years. Most of the more well-known singers have chosen to go solo.

It's not as difficult to go it alone as it was in the early 2000s.

After 10 years, music platforms have gradually gained control of the traditional market.

This significantly reduced the singers' earnings.

But releasing songs is not as difficult as it used to be.

In the traditional record era, singers basically had to rely on record companies to release albums, as only record companies had the channels to distribute them.

Nowadays, traditional records are basically not selling well.

Apart from those who have retired, the other singers who remain in the industry have all set their sights on the internet. They can directly negotiate with platforms and then release and sell their songs online.

In addition, with the emergence of various music production software in recent years, producers can even create songs using just a computer.

For various reasons, singers with some influence have begun to choose to go solo rather than rely on record companies.

"Then...should we send someone to stabilize morale and leave them here when we are confident of winning the gold medal?"

Shi Rencheng had clearly not considered this aspect, and couldn't help but be taken aback.

He was so happy that he didn't think of that.

Wu Zhuo shook his head. "It's impossible to sign him. Didn't you see that Warner and Universal Music both chose to give up?"
We need to do the same on our end.

Why did Gold Typhoon sell its record label?

It's not making money anymore, is it?

Basically, the income is less than the expenditure; the money coming in is not as much as the money going out.

Looking at the people mentioned above, some of them still release songs every year.

But almost none of them actually became bestsellers.

Some even went so far as to simply give up and stop releasing records.

In other words, Wu Zhuo knew that the song copyrights held by Gold Typhoon would be very valuable, otherwise he wouldn't have acquired them.

In short, record companies are becoming increasingly worthless these days, except for song copyrights.

The larger the company, the greater the impact of the internet.

The rise of online music has almost directly destroyed the physical distribution channels they had painstakingly built up.

"To be honest, I don't know whether the internet is good or bad."

Another friend of mine in Taiwan has retired because his company went bankrupt.

Shi Rencheng felt somewhat sentimental.

Indeed, one by one, familiar old friends have left the industry.

Looking back at the booming industry back then, anyone would feel sentimental.

Even Wu Zhuo couldn't help but sigh when he thought about it.

Some of the people I know at HIM International Music have also left the industry.

Let alone ordinary employees.

It's about singers. Most of the singers from HIM International Music are now a thing of the past because the company's revenue has decreased, they couldn't hold on, and their contracts were terminated.

However, this feeling only lasted for a moment before Wu Zhuo put it out of his mind.

The industry has almost completely declined.

In fact, starting this year in 2013, with the formation of digital album music, this market will slowly rise again.

Although it cannot reach the glory of the past.

However, the streaming method has created a new music industry.

However, the quality of future songs simply cannot compare to that of the past.

(End of this chapter)