Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 169 Information Distribution Center
By mid-December.

A large number of popular singers began to flock to Tianjin, and Zheng Zhihua also rushed over from Taiwan early in the morning.

Originally, Su Yue planned to invite one or two more singers from the island, but Zheng Zhihua stopped him, saying that a hero should take responsibility for his actions and there was no need to involve others.

Clearly, he was well aware of the kind of suppression he would face on the island for publicly expressing patriotic sentiments—this singer with disabilities in both legs obviously has a more resilient heart and beliefs than most able-bodied people.

Since only Zheng Zhihua from Taiwan was present, they didn't invite many people from Hong Kong. Apart from Wang Fei, the Miss Hong Kong from Yangcheng Lake, they only invited Anita Mui, who organized a charity performance during the East China floods last year.

Before December 20th, nearly thirty people had arrived, almost all of whom were well-known young singers in the domestic pop music scene.

Not many people from Li Guyi's generation came, but quite a few called to express their support—almost no one wrote letters. After all, the older generation had lived through that era, and when it came to illegal and gray-area activities like performing at various venues, how could they dare to leave a written agreement as proof?

After two rehearsals, Zhang Yan was basically at ease about what would happen on stage.

The singers who are emerging nowadays generally have no major issues with stage presence or singing skills. Even Huang Gexuan, who is just starting out, has shown remarkable talent.

Kang Hui also performed well. Although he was slightly less adept at engaging emotions than Zhou Tao, his stage presence was more stable.

Most importantly, the young man demonstrated a high level of organizational and coordination skills, which is definitely a huge plus at the TV station, and he might even be able to get a leadership position in the future.

So he handed over the remaining work to Wang Jinghua and Wang Zhongqi, and Zhang Yan first convened the first 'private commercial performance' industry conference.

Those attending this meeting were mainly representatives from record companies, as well as top figures in the industry, such as Guo Chuanlin and Liu Xiaoqing.

The reason for meeting with them first is that record companies and promoters are the people directly involved in commercial performances. They are more familiar with the current commercial performance environment and various unspoken rules than most singers.

To establish new industry rules, one must first gain the approval and support of these people before forming an alliance with the singers.

Otherwise, if the singers shout loudly on stage, but the people actually in charge are outwardly compliant but inwardly contradicting them, even if the rules are well-made, they will not be able to be implemented.

The meeting had barely begun when it proved that Zhang Yan's worries were not unfounded.

The representative from Yangcheng New Era Audio-Visual immediately raised a question in broken Mandarin: "Who will supervise this rule after it is set? If someone is in charge, doesn't that mean everyone has an emperor emeritus?"

Thanks to the successive introduction of Yang Yuying and Mao Ning, New Era Audio-Visual has also shone brightly in the past two years. If it weren't for the emergence of the Dream Five Tigers, 1992 should have been their highlight.

Now that their limelight has been stolen, Yuanmeng, this upstart, still wants to be the rule-maker, and New Era Audio-Visual is naturally not going to accept that.

These remarks immediately sparked a flurry of whispers and discussions among the crowd, quickly forming a wave of opposition.

the reason is simple.

Most record companies that actively engage in commercial performances are dominated by capital from the south and Hong Kong and Taiwan, and naturally do not want to be controlled by the suddenly emerging Dream Come True.

The ringleaders in Beijing, who themselves are a gray area that has emerged in the gaps between various song and dance troupes, naturally have a resistance to being regulated.

After Zhang Yan and the others discussed for a while, he tapped the table with his finger. Only half of the room fell silent, while the other half pretended not to hear.

"Quiet down, everyone, quiet down!"

Finally, Liu Xiaoqing shouted at the top of his lungs, which finally quieted the meeting room down again.

However, Liu Xiaoqing wasn't trying to side with Zhang Yan. After everyone quieted down, she stared at Zhang Yan and said, "Mr. Zhang, I don't know what others think, but I certainly can't accept having another mother-in-law. My friends and buddies wouldn't agree either."

It would be laughable for 70-year-old Liu Xiaoqing to play a young girl, but 40-year-old Liu Xiaoqing was a legend.

She won the Best Actress award five times in the late 80s and even set a record of winning the Hundred Flowers Award three times in a row—the prestige of the Best Actress award at that time was incomparable to what it would be twenty or thirty years later.

In the 90s, she started another company, involved in real estate, food and beverages, clothing, health and beauty, import trade...

Conservative estimates suggest she now has a net worth of at least tens of millions, and by 1993, she had earned the title of 'Billionaire Woman'.

Therefore, Zhang Yan dared not be negligent in the slightest and hurriedly said with a smile, "Sister Xiaoqing, please calm down. We are mainly proposing an initiative this time, and there is no need for mandatory supervision..."

“Then, according to what you say, Mr. Zhang.” Before Zhang Yan could finish speaking, the representative of New Era Audio-Visual stepped in again: “This initiative has no binding force, so what’s the point of doing this empty rhetoric?”

"The lack of supervision does not mean that no one will comply."

Zhang Yan stared at the man and said, "It's like I haven't even said we can speak freely, and you're still nitpicking one thing after another?"

"What, can't we speak?"

"Then you should at least hear what I have to say first, right?"

As Zhang Yan spoke, he stood up and said loudly from his superior position, "Gentlemen, you may have some doubts about what rules or regulations I'm going to talk about, so I'll just be blunt. All you need to do is four words: complain and share information!"

These four words are both simple and baffling to everyone present.

Guo Chuanlin, playing the straight man, said, "Zhang Yan, why don't you explain yourself more clearly? What exactly does 'complaining and exchanging information' mean?"

"It's very simple."

Zhang Yan looked around: "If he deducts from the agreed-upon performance fee or delays paying it, wouldn't you be angry?!"

"Of course I'm angry."

Liu Xiaoqing gritted his teeth and said, "But there aren't many good guys who dare to do this. In big places, people have connections everywhere, but in small places, they're like pigs that don't fear boiling water. You can't do anything to them!"

"So."

Zhang Yan said, "We can't do anything to them, but we can share our grievances and discuss things among ourselves so that we can avoid this pitfall next time and not take on this job. That should work, right?"

In our line of work, most of us have a few media friends. When the other side is powerful, if something happens in the north, the south will be the first to report it, and if something happens in the south, the north will be the first to report it. That shouldn't be too difficult, right?
This method can put some pressure on the organizers—of course, only on organizers of a certain size; for those who only perform at weddings or funerals, no amount of pressure will be effective.

As he spoke, he looked at the representative of New Era Audio-Visual: "This kind of thing is beneficial to everyone and doesn't require any sacrifice. I think even if no one supervises, everyone should be able to consciously maintain it, right?"

The representatives of the new era of audio-visual media also fell silent. No one in the industry would object to Zhang Yan's idea of ​​a mutually beneficial and complementary model. If he were to jump out and sing a different tune, he would just be a clown.

Having suppressed the biggest troublemaker, Zhang Yan continued, "And on this basis, let's fix the charging model for popular singers. I don't think anyone will object, right?"

"I support!"

Liu Xiaoqing was the first to raise his hand: "With this agreement becoming the norm, we can be more assertive when collecting money in the future—who would want to beg and plead for the final payment when they can earn money standing up?!"

Guo Chuanlin was the second to raise his hand.

Record company managers are generally quite proactive, because whether the record company makes a profit or a loss, it's the company that benefits, while the managers themselves lose money if they can't get their money back.

Of course, no one at the record company objected, and Zhang Yan's proposal was ultimately passed unanimously.

Next came the discussion of details, such as how people would vent internally, whether to set up a telephone contact center or publish a commercial performance newsletter.

Finally, at Zhang Yan's suggestion, an information distribution center was set up in both the north and south. Major record companies and entertainment organizers could report any problems they encountered during commercial performances to the information center.

When accepting commercial performances, you can first check with the information center to see if the other party has a criminal record.

Every six months, the North and South information centers exchange information and then expose the worst cases to the media, which avoids a lot of trouble—of course, if they run into a big shot who has influence in both the North and South, they can only accept their bad luck.

Finally, at the end of the year, the North and South Centers will extract the most typical cases and compile an anti-fraud booklet, which will be sold to companies, entertainment venue operators, and singers for a fee.

Because Yuanmeng was the initiator and currently has a strong enough presence, the northern information center naturally took control of it. This is mainly because the north is dominated by local leaders, and apart from Yuanmeng and Liu Xiaoqing, no one else has the scale to support this project.

The situation in the south is more complicated. After much arguing, neither Shanghai nor Guangzhou would give in, and in the end, they created a hybrid information center for the central region, mainly serving Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, and Hubei and Hunan.

(End of this chapter)