Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 99 Liu Xiaoli Meets Gu Bei (Part )
"call!"

Gu Bei stood at the door of the cafe,
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

To be honest, he was still a little nervous when he heard Liu Xiaoli say she wanted to meet him.

He also couldn't figure out what Liu Xiaoli's purpose was in meeting him.

However, this aspect could not be avoided, so he agreed without much hesitation.

"I can only hope that you didn't lie to me, Old Guan."

Gu Bei thought to himself that Lao Guan was his classmate at Penguin Pictures. He had dealt with Liu Xiaoli several times and said that Liu Xiaoli was a very gentle woman.

He opened the door and entered the cafe.

There is no need to look for her, Liu Xiaoli's temperament is very prominent in the cafe and can be seen at a glance.

"Gu Bei!"

Liu Xiaoli heard from Zhou Wenqiong that Gu Bei was the person she met by chance at the airport.

She stood up and invited Gu Bei to sit down: "Sit down, I ordered a drink for you, do you like it?"

"Thank you, Aunt Liu. You can sit down too."

Gu Bei refused twice.

The two sat down facing each other.

The atmosphere was slightly awkward.

The main connection between the two people is Liu Yifei.

but now,
Liu Yifei deceived Gu Bei,

Gu Bei made Liu Yifei cry again.

No matter who of the two people mentioned Liu Yifei first, it would feel awkward.

Gu Bei looked to the side and found a Bible and a familiar Sundance Film Festival sled keychain on Liu Xiaoli's right hand side.

"When I came out, I told Xixi that I was going to church with a friend." Liu Xiaoli noticed Gu Bei's eyes and took the initiative to start the conversation.

"I bought that keychain at the Sundance Film Festival as a gift for Sissi, but I didn't expect Sissi to give it to my aunt."

Gu Bei pointed.

Liu Xiaoli then remembered,

Gu Bei won the short film award at the Sundance Film Festival.

And Liu Yifei went to Sundance at that time,
The two of them still don’t know what they did at the film festival?

and,

Give the gift someone gave you to your mother.

This child is really...

Liu Xiaoli couldn't help feeling sour inside.

But she still showed a gentle smile, glancing at the document package beside Gu Bei:

"Look, I invited you today and disturbed your work."

"I just met two friends and I plan to invest in their gaming company."

The people Gu Bei mentioned were Mark and Brandon from Riot Games.
After suffering a setback at the GDC Game Developers Conference in March, they were short of money and turned to Gu Bei, with whom they had previously made an agreement.

Gu Bei had a brief chat with them in the morning. Investment was definitely necessary, but the specific situation needed to be discussed slowly.

"Auntie doesn't understand games."

Liu Xiaoli mentioned Liu Yifei, "But Xixi used to like playing games..."

Gu Bei listened quietly to Liu Xiaoli talking about Liu Yifei.

I didn’t expect that Liu Yifei was an internet addict who loved playing games and surfing everywhere.

But in his impression, Liu Yifei mainly reads books and rarely touches the computer.

What brought about all this was the Internet public opinion in 05.

Gu Bei couldn't help but feel sorry for Liu Yifei when he heard this. He had also been plagued by public opinion since the release of Star Luck and the pre-sales of The Hunger Games.

He only had to face criticism from some book reviewers, but Liu Yifei had to deal with constant smears from the public. It is hard to imagine the harm caused by such intense Internet public opinion, and it is hard to imagine the pressure she was under at the time.

"So that's why you signed with Sony Music?"

Gu Bei originally thought that Liu Yifei was two years older than him.
After graduating from college, I want to continue my studies at the Yale School of Drama.

But after knowing that she was Liu Yifei, I discovered that she was at the Sony Music headquarters in Tokyo from 05 to 06.

Even just a month before the two met, Liu Yifei was still busy with music promotions.

"Sony Music headquarters?"

Liu Xiaoli showed a puzzled look.

Gu Bei was a little puzzled: "Isn't it? I heard someone mention this when I returned to China."

This statement came from a time when Lao Guan and I were having dinner together and the two of us were complaining about Sony's inhumanity. Lao Guan once mentioned that Liu Yifei had signed a contract with Sony Music Headquarters.

"That must be because the media made an error when quoting us. This kind of thing is very common in the entertainment media."

Liu Xiaoli saw that Gu Bei was interested in Liu Yifei's affairs,

Naturally, she was willing to say more: “Sony Music’s headquarters is in North America, which is Sony Music Entertainment, or SME.

And in Tokyo is Sony Music Sakura, also known as SMEJ.

But the company that Xixi signed with is neither of these two companies."

Gu Bei showed a puzzled look.

Liu Xiaoli took a sip of coffee and continued, “Xixi is signed to a company called Sony Music Artists Co., Ltd., or SMA, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SME.

If you search now, you may not be able to find this company.

Because in April last year,
SMA has become history and has been split into six subsidiaries.”

Gu Bei suddenly realized: "It seems... you have encountered an internal struggle in a large company."

Sony... this kind of thing is really too common.

The internal fighting among Sony's various subsidiaries is so fierce that it is even more fierce than that against external companies.

There is a saying that goes,
I would rather give it to a foreigner than to a domestic slave.

As for why Gu Bei felt so empathetic,
All I can say is that Penguin is a little better than Sony internally, but that's not much.

"Yeah, the timing of our signing was so awkward.
When Mr. Noda negotiated with us, he made very good promises.
But after we signed the contract and settled down in Tokyo, my mother and I discovered that
Mr. Noda himself has disappeared!"

As Liu Xiaoli spoke, she couldn't help but shook her head, lamenting the impermanence of life.

Afterwards, Liu Xiaoli told Gu Bei a lot about their experiences in Tokyo.

At that time, the two people did not speak the same language.
The only familiar Mr. Noda has been optimized to some unknown corner.

Not to mention the various resources promised at the beginning,

Even the most basic music training was sporadic.

After all, the company was spun off in April 06.
But the chaos before the split lasted at least half a year.

Liu Xiaoli took a sip of coffee and lamented her situation at the time:
"In fact, the song I received from Xixi at that time,
I wouldn’t say the quality is terrible, there are a few songs that I find quite good.

Unfortunately, they are only willing to perform according to the contract and are unwilling to invest any extra publicity resources.

As a result, Sissi's Japanese album,
It didn’t even make it to the bottom of the Oricon charts once.”

"Promotional resources can be large or small. Successors can't add to their predecessors' achievements, and if they don't do well, they can easily be blamed."

As a former worker, Gu Bei naturally knew the ins and outs of it.

In fact, the contract given to him by Random House did not stipulate any publicity resources, but his sales volume was their performance, so they would naturally take the initiative to give him the maximum amount.

"That's the truth."

Liu Xiaoli nodded. "So, Xixi's Mandarin album has achieved its current sales because several groups rushed to release it and invested a huge amount of money in promotion."

(End of this chapter)