The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 414: Wouldn’t it be just right to let the newcomers crawl at our feet?
At dawn the next day, after spending a comfortable night, Zhang Chen completely overcame the jet lag.

After completing the daily required vocal training in the morning, Zhang Chen had to give up the idea of going back to bed and rushed to the company.

"Mr. Iger, did you guys rush here overnight?"

Zhang Chen looked at Robert Eger and others who looked exhausted, and glanced at the clock on the wall with some surprise.

Even if you come from the west coast of the United States, the voyage would take more than 12 flights, right?

It's just past 10 in the morning.

In other words, these people took the flight overnight after hearing Zhang Chen’s reply?

"Leon, were the things you said at your Shanghai TV Festival last night true?" Robert Iger wanted to rush up and question Zhang Chen the first time he saw him, but he stopped after taking just one step. He realized that this was not the time to vent the resentment that had accumulated along the way.

"Last night?" Zhang Chen's mind flashed with a blur of things before he remembered what Robert Iger had said. "Oh, you said to hold a new award?"

"Yes!" Iger said firmly, "Leon, do you know how much impact this award you proposed will have on our production industry and record companies?"

"Of course I know how big of an impact it will have." Zhang Chen nodded and admitted, and before Robert Iger could continue, he added, "But I still want to do it!"

"Why?!"

Robert Eger couldn't figure it out.

Because these production companies and record companies have become shareholders of Morning Glory Music and CGT Player in the past two years, they have signed a long-term cooperation agreement directly with these two companies.

From now on, the online digital copyrights of movies, TV series and music produced by these companies will be exclusively authorized to these two companies.

But Zhang Chen turned around and sold them out.

Wouldn’t it be nice for us to all make money while doing nothing?
If you have to add some obstacles on your way to making money, isn't that crazy?
"Robert!" Zhang Chen suddenly called his name, then casually put his arm around his shoulders and sat down, smiling at the others around him, "Come on, sit down."

Although other people didn't understand what Zhang Chen was trying to do.

But they looked at each other and sat down.

They wanted to hear what twisted ideas Zhang Chen could come up with.

However, this does not include a new face.

"Leon, I just took over Warner Music not long ago. I didn't wait for Warner Music to renew your contract, but I waited for you to backstab our entire music industry. How can I explain this to the shareholders?"

Zhang Chen looked at the unfamiliar face of the person who was speaking and asked curiously, "Who are you?"

The man was not annoyed. He smiled and extended his hand to introduce: "Edgar Bronfman Jr., previously worked at Global Group, and now manages the Bronfman family's investment group."

Zhang Chen understood and shook hands with the other party, thus becoming acquainted.

Two years ago, the day he announced his withdrawal from the Grammy Awards, Warner Music's stock price fell.

Zhang Chen and Warner have a long history of cooperation. Since his debut, Zhang Chen's initial album operation contract was signed with Warner.

After the contract expired, Time Warner wanted to obtain the filming rights of "Harry Potter" again, and gave Zhang Chen an unconditional contract worth $2 million for free.

It was this contract that gave Warner Music, whose business had begun to shrink and was suffering losses, signs of revival.

But the good times did not last long. After Zhang Chen released an album and won the Grammy Award, Warner Music’s stock price plummeted the next day because Zhang Chen announced in front of the whole world that he would no longer participate in the Grammy Awards.

Everyone's optimism about Warner Music has been focused on Zhang Chen since 98. Without Zhang Chen, the world superstar, Warner Music has gone from being a hot commodity in the eyes of investors to being abandoned.

The magnitude of the change caught Time Warner's top management off guard.

Finally, due to the group's various businesses suffering losses year after year, Warner Music had no choice but to sell it to Zhang Chen for US$50 billion.

But at that time, Zhang Chen did not take over this hot potato because of the outrageous price and his layout in the music industry.

Then came the news that former Universal Group President Edgar Bronfman Jr., on behalf of the Bronfman Investment Group, would acquire Warner Music for $26 billion.

Zhang Chen did not feel any loss about this.

After all, Warner Music, whose future had been hollowed out by him, was a huge loss-making business, let alone the $50 billion price that Edgar Bronfman Jr. got, even the $26 billion price he got.

The entire company's digital music copyrights have been sold to him for $1, and the company has lost the possibility of survival.

Perhaps no one could have predicted that the physical music industry would decline like that in the future due to the rise of the Internet.

"Everyone, do you really think I'm doing this to go against you?" Zhang Chen sat down and glanced at more than a dozen bigwigs in the cultural industry. "Shouldn't you think positively?"

Robert Iger was about to speak when he heard Zhang Chen say that, but was interrupted by Edgar Bronfman Jr.: "Leon, do you know that doing this will allow those fans to take advantage of us? Why do we have to let those who don't understand art comment on our works?"

"Do you really think so?" Zhang Chen's face darkened, "Or do you all think so?"

Robert Iger was shocked when he saw Zhang Chen's expression suddenly change.

Before he could figure out how to explain, Edgar Bronfman Jr. ignored Zhang Chen's already dissatisfied expression and continued to speak slowly: "Ordinary people are not qualified to choose what to watch or hear. We should let them watch or hear what we want them to watch or hear, and that's what they should watch or hear."

Hearing this, Zhang Chen suddenly laughed.

When Edgar Bronfman saw Zhang Chen laughing, he also laughed. "Leon, do you think so too?"

"That's right!" Zhang Chen narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "Then can't you think of the benefits of my idea?"

"What do you mean?" Edgar Bronfman Jr. was stunned.

“Since we want ordinary people to see what we want them to see, we must firmly grasp the source of the works.”

Little Edgar Bronfman frowned in thought.

After a moment, he reacted and asked in surprise, "Could it be..."

"Well, it's what you think."

"This is really true."

The conversation between the two people was basically understandable to everyone at the scene.

It can be seen from everyone's expressions that the way they look at Zhang Chen has changed.

There was a hint of fear in his eyes.

How could you come up with such a sinister trick?

In fact, what Zhang Chen said was very simple, which is to use "public ratings" as an excuse to control the right to evaluate all literary and artistic works.

If any new forces want to enter this industry, they will inevitably be suppressed by the interest groups headed by Zhang Chen.

The way to suppress is "scoring".

For a new artist, his first work did not receive high reviews, which can be said to be an attempt and growth.

What about two or three?

This newcomer will disappear from this industry within two years.

Unless they are willing to give up their freedom and join their forces.

The CEOs of Universal, Sony, Warner and other companies all smiled with satisfaction when they thought of this.

But there was one exception: Robert Eager sat aside, thinking.

He felt that things shouldn't be that simple.

When he looked at Zhang Chen with doubt, Zhang Chen happened to look at him as well.

When Robert Iger saw Zhang Chen's eyes with ulterior motives, he immediately reacted and nodded slightly.

On the other side, after listening to Zhang Chen’s explanation, the others were happily discussing with each other how to use this function to suppress newcomers in the future.

Some people have even started allocating new people who may rise in the future according to regions.

In their view, the future of the cultural industry is firmly in their hands.

Regardless of whether these people really think so or just want others to think so.

At least they came all the way here and confirmed that Zhang Chen was not really going to put this system, or this award, into action. It was just a tool to consolidate their status.

As long as their interests are not affected, everything will be fine.

In the next few hours, Zhang Chen also chatted with them about everything and the development of the world.

They also discussed when China would be able to truly open up its film market so that their company's films would no longer be restricted by import quotas and would be able to enter the market without any obstacles.

Zhang Chen rejected this question by saying that he was not capable enough and it was not his responsibility.

Others also knew that this matter was under the jurisdiction of China Film Management Corporation, so they did not mention it again.

Finally, Zhang Chen had a meal with these bigwigs who could influence the world's cultural industry with just a stomp of their feet, and invited them to visit the Great Wall the next day.

Throughout the whole day, except for some tension when they met, the scene afterwards was unusually harmonious.

After returning to the office, Zhang Chen also met Robert Iger, who had been confused during the day.

“Leon, do you have any deeper plans?”

After Robert Iger entered the office, he glanced around and found that Zhang Chen was the only one there. He couldn't wait to ask about his doubts.

"Don't be in a hurry, sit down first." Zhang Chen sat in the boss chair and pointed to the chair opposite to Robert Iger.

Seeing this, Robert Iger could only suppress his anxiety and sat down steadily.

But after he sat down, Zhang Chen didn't say anything. Instead, he took tea leaves from the side and started to make tea.

It was not until this time that Robert Iger discovered that there was an extra set of Chinese tea set on Zhang Chen's desk compared to the daytime.

He suppressed the anxiety that was about to overflow in his heart, staring at Zhang Chen without blinking as he slowly made tea.

"It seems that you Westerners prefer black tea?"

Zhang Chen took the covered teacup, pressed down the lid and poured out a stream of bright red tea with a rich tea aroma, and used a tea dispenser to pour seven parts of the tea into the teacup in front of Robert Iger.

Robert Eagle looked at the black tea in front of him, and his nostrils were filled with the rich tea aroma.

He couldn't help but close his eyes and take a deep breath, greedily inhaling the tea fragrance that filled the room into his lungs.

Only at this time did his annoyance dissipate a little.

"What kind of tea is this?" Robert Eager said, putting the teacup to his nose, sniffing it again, and then taking a sip of the hot tea.

"Old Tree Dahongpao." Zhang Chen also took a sip of tea and replied calmly.

"Why haven't I heard of it?" Robert Iger couldn't help but take another sip, but he had never heard of such a kind of tea in the world.

"It was a tribute from our country in ancient times."

"This?!" Even if Robert Iger didn't understand, he knew what the so-called tribute from China was.

"Well, only your President Nixon has ever received four ounces of this tea."

Zhang Chen began to introduce to him the origin of the Dahongpao mother tree.

The mother tree of Dahongpao produces only eight taels of tea a year.

In modern times, only Nixon received 4 taels from a great man.

In the late 20s, at the first Dahongpao Cultural Festival in Wuyi Mountain, 15.68 grams of mother tree Dahongpao tea was auctioned for a staggering yuan.

This was nearly 20 yuan at that time, which was almost enough to buy a house in the second ring road of the capital.

If it were today, these 20 grams of tea would be worth at least 100 million.

That is 2500 million per kilogram!
Of course, what Zhang Chen has in his hand is not actually a real Dahongpao mother tree.

Instead, the tea trees are cultivated from branches that "fall" off the mother tree.

This tea tree is the greatest harvest of his dear mother, Ms. Sun Fangping, in the past two years.

Zhang Chen didn’t know where his mother got it, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying it.

The mother tree produces 8 taels of tea per year, and his tree only produces about 6 taels of tea per year. Half of this year's tea goes into his pocket.

If it weren't for the purpose of intimidating Robert Eger, he would not have been willing to treat him with such a good thing.

And looking at Robert Iger's expression, his eyes were full of shock.

"Nixon?!" Robert Iger couldn't help but take another sip, but found that he had already finished the last sip of tea in the teacup while he was listening to Zhang Chen's introduction.

He completely forgot that he didn't come here to drink tea.

"Robert, are you still in a hurry now?"

"Seeing Leon stay calm, I feel relieved."

"Aren't you afraid that I am trying to deceive you on purpose?"

"Hahaha, if that's the case, it's worth it just for this cup of tea!"

Of course Zhang Chen would not believe Robert Iger’s nonsense.

If a capitalist really gives up his profits for a cup of tea, he is no longer a capitalist.

However, he did not expose the other party's hypocrisy, but smiled and responded: "Yes, sometimes for the sake of something, giving up some small interests is the code of conduct for people like us."

"What?" Robert Eager sat up straight.

He knew that today's main meal was coming.

“It’s actually quite simple to explain.”

　It was a bit of a headache to code this chapter. I will sort out the plot after dinner and will release it to you all before you go to bed.

　　I'd like to remind everyone that there will be extra chapters for every monthly vote in November, 11 extra words for every 100 votes! Come on everyone!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)