American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 245 The Terrifying Effect of a Superstar! (5K views, requesting monthly votes at the beginning of the month!)
December 28, 09:22 AM, Eastern Standard Time

Universal Music Group (UMG) Headquarters, Midtown Manhattan, New York, USA
On the first workday after the holiday, the UMG headquarters building was still not as bustling as it used to be.

Only a few employees in core departments are on duty in shifts to deal with any possible emergencies.

Allison Ford is one of them; she hates Christmas, especially the first workday after the holidays.

She'd rather enjoy the warmth and quiet of her office than deal with her relatives' interrogations about celebrity gossip.

She carried a steaming cup of black coffee and strode into her office, ready to receive three days' worth of emails and reports.

However, as soon as she sat down, before she could even open her email, her work phone started ringing incessantly with urgent communications!
She thought it was another celebrity who had been photographed by the media, but when she clicked on it, she found that the intern in charge of social media monitoring was frantically tagging her.

"Allison! Check the backend! The number of mentions of the words 'Bieber' and 'Recovery' has seen an unprecedented vertical growth curve in the past 72 hours!"

"We thought it was a data delay due to the Christmas holidays, but now it seems like this is an ongoing internet tsunami! The source is the same YouTube video!"

Allison's heart sank; this was the kind of unexpected situation she feared most after the holiday.

She quickly accessed the backend data monitoring wall, where the curve representing the number of mentions of "@justinbieber" was no longer rising.

Instead, it pierced straight through the top of the data chart like a rocket being launched.

She made a voice call through the internal communication system and asked, "What happened? Quickly explain the background!"

“It’s a video of… building a wooden cabin,” the intern replied, his voice trembling.

"Posted three days ago, the blogger used Recovery as background music and looped it for more than two hours. Allison... this video... it may have... gone viral."

"Recovery?" Allison's mind raced, searching for the word. It was an old song from over a decade ago, not even considered popular.

A cold smile curled at the corner of her lips. "Another one of those self-proclaimed clever independent creators who think they can get away with using an obscure song."

“I know what to do. Send me the video link,” she replied succinctly.

She clicked on the link she received, and as the familiar melody began to play, her professional instincts were fully activated. But what first caught her eye was the video's astonishing data.

Within three days of its release, it garnered 12 million views on YouTube.

Likes: 1.5 million.

Comments: 100,000.

Allison's pupils contracted slightly; for an extremely long video by an individual creator, this data was already terrifying!
This means that, without any mainstream resources driving it, this video has reached the threshold of becoming a top-tier viral hit solely through spontaneous sharing by fans and YouTube's algorithmic recommendations.

A video that went viral used a song by one of their artists without being reported.

In her world, this was like a giant elephant that had trampled the china shop to pieces, and her job was to tear off the biggest piece of flesh from this giant elephant!

She wasn't even interested in watching the video; her mind was already racing with plans for what to do next.

The system automatically flags the infringement, the legal department issues a strongly worded warning letter, and begins revenue-sharing negotiations with the other party's MCN or the individual involved...

For this level of popularity, Universal Music Group can get at least 50% of the advertising revenue, which could be a windfall of hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

She skillfully switched to the UMG global copyright monitoring system. It was a cold, complex backend filled with data and legal jargon.

She entered the video ID, bracing herself for that familiar, glaring red warning signifying copyright infringement, before transferring the case to the legal department and starting a new week of work.

However, the data status that popped up on the screen made her hand, which was about to pick up her coffee cup, stop in mid-air.

[Video ID: YT7-gXpL3qR]

[Video Title: My Complete Record of Building a Log Cabin in Alaska! - by Lin Yu-an in the Wilderness]

[Matching content: Recovery - Justin Bieber (Audio track - UMG_JB_JOURNALS_07)]

Current status: [Green tag] Inactive - Overridden by 'Creator Music' authorization

[License Type: Standard License - Single Video Use, Global Coverage, Permanent]

[Revenue Distribution: 100% belongs to the creator]

Allison's eyes widened slightly. She had been in this industry for ten years and had seen countless glaring red warnings flashing due to copyright infringement.

That meant legal intervention and endless wrangling. But she could recall very few tranquil green labels like this one, clearly marked "authorized to cover".

Her eyes quickly scanned each line of information, and her brain, like a high-speed processor, instantly deciphered all the business logic hidden behind those lines of code.

[Creator Music Licensing] This means that the creator did not obtain the license through complicated offline negotiations, but instead used YouTube's newly launched "Creator Music" platform.

[Standard License - Single Video Use, Global, Permanent] He purchased the highest-level personal use license.

For a one-time payment, you can use this song permanently and legally in this video worldwide, while retaining all the revenue from your video.

Allison tapped her fingers lightly on the keyboard, bringing up the backend data for this authorization order.

When she saw the payment amount, her expression didn't change, but the fingers that had been rhythmically tapping the edge of the table stopped.

Total cost: $4000.

The details are clearly listed: simultaneous licensing fees (lyrics and music copyrights, belonging to Universal Music Publishing Group) and mastering licensing fees (recording copyrights, belonging to DefJam Records), each amounting to $2000.

Pay a one-time fee of four thousand US dollars to buy the permanent right to use an obscure old song in a video.

Alison's mind raced as she assessed the value of the $4,000. To Universal Music Group, the $4,000 in revenue was meaningless in itself, but the "attitude" it represented was priceless.

This means that a Chinese content creator willingly paid a fee to express their pure love for their idol's works from their youth.

This investment may have brought him considerable returns. Who can say that the video's viral success wasn't due to the music?

This isn't just revenue; it's a perfect market research report demonstrating just how deep Justin Bieber's brand value has penetrated.

This is a top-tier PR tidbit worth well over four thousand US dollars! A sharp smile slowly curved the corners of Alison's mouth.

She realized that this was not a copyright issue that required the intervention of the legal department, but a hype storm that the marketing department had been dreaming of.

A video that is going viral globally, with extremely positive content and a high-class feel of escaping the mundane world.

A mysterious Chinese creator who respects copyright, has unique taste, and possesses superb skills.

This is an excellent opportunity to revive obscure hit songs and solidify and elevate the artist's "artist" image.

A core group of fans who are ignited with passion and are spreading the word wildly on the internet.

All four elements are present! This could unlock millions of dollars in future business value and immeasurable reputational boost!
She quickly shut down the backend and drafted an email using the most precise and persuasive business language.

[Urgent Report: Positive Public Opinion Regarding YouTube Blogger "Lin Yu-an in the Wilderness" and the Potential Opportunities Generated by His Videos and the "Journals" Project]

In the email body, she attached data curves, screenshots of enthusiastic tweets from fans, and a screenshot of the backend showing "authorized" and a payment of $4000.

Then, she sent the email directly to the private email address of Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber's top agent, who is known in the industry as the "Midas touch."

Time: 11:45 AM, December 28th, Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Location: A private mansion in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

The post-holiday blues made even the Los Angeles sunshine seem a little lazy. Justin Bieber was enjoying a rare moment of peace and quiet with family and friends by the pool in his backyard.

It was at this moment that Scout Braun crossed the lawn and walked to the deck chair next to him. He had that smile that mixed shrewdness and enthusiasm on his face, and he was holding a cell phone in his hand.

“Justin, sorry to interrupt your vacation, but you have to take a look at this.” Scout’s voice carried an undisguised excitement.

“Your fans seem to have found a Christmas present in Alaska.” He handed over the phone. “A guy who builds houses in the wilderness paid for the rights to the Recovery track on your Journals album.”

Scout paused, then emphasized, "And then, in his viral video that was over two hours long, he played that song on a loop from beginning to end."

"A cycle?" Justin's face showed a hint of surprise.

Filled with intense curiosity, he put on his noise-canceling headphones and pressed the highlighted play button.

In an instant, the noise of the outside world was shut out, leaving only his own voice, a voice that sounded more than ten years younger, clear, and tinged with an undisguised vulnerability and struggle, which rang in his ears.

He watched as the man named Lin Yu'an appeared in front of the camera.

The song ends on its first verse and begins seamlessly on its second.

The tenth repetition ended, and the eleventh repetition began precisely on time.

……

Bieber initially found it absurd, but as he watched the man intently working day after day to the rhythm of the music, he gradually began to appreciate its unique flavor.

He suddenly realized that this cycle itself was a metaphor.

Isn't life just a cycle? Every day, we wake up, work, eat, and sleep.

Isn't construction just a cycle? Repeating the actions of measuring, cutting, and fixing.

And after becoming famous, aren't you living in a cycle that you can't escape, surrounded by spotlights, tours, and interviews?

This man chose a song about "resurrection" and put himself on repeat within the song.

Then, through the most arduous physical labor, he attempted to break a certain cycle in his own life and build a completely new beginning.

This isn't just auditory enjoyment; it's an expression of behavior. The background music in this video isn't meant to please the audience at all, but rather it's a form of self-dialogue for the creator.

He understood the man's extreme loneliness, extreme focus, and his almost obsessive determination to sever ties with the past and rebuild himself.

He watched the man at the end of the video, sitting on the porch, quietly gazing at the aurora in the distance, his face showing no ecstasy, only a calm that comes after hardship.

At that moment, he felt as if he were seeing himself in another time and space. This man must also be a man with a story, and he was expecting some kind of revival.

Scout looked at Bieber and noticed that he didn't immediately take off his headphones, but instead played the last part of the video twice more.

As Bieber looked at the man on the screen and the aurora borealis flowing in the background, his eyes revealed a complex mix of emotions: longing, resonance, and even a barely perceptible envy.

Finally, Bieber slowly took off his headphones. The laughter of his family and friends flooded back into his ears, but his world was quieter than ever before.

That face, which always carried a hint of unruliness and weariness, now held only a calm that came from being deeply moved.

Scout understood him; it wasn't just a simple matter of liking a video. "Recovery," born from chaos and struggle, represented Justin's most tender and least visible side.

Now, a stranger from the other side of the world has responded to this song and his struggles back then in a special way, which is like a dialogue that transcends time and space!
Bieber remained silent for a long time, his gaze shifting from the distant pool to Scooter's face.

“Scooter, I feel like I have to do something.” Bieber’s voice was soft, but firm.

Scout Braun wore his signature businessman's smile.

He leaned forward slightly, his tone filled with undeniable excitement and control: "Justin, this is exactly why I showed you this, and your feeling is absolutely correct."

“Of course we have to do something, and it has to be done by you personally. This is not an ordinary recommendation, Justin; this is a re-coronation!”

Bieber frowned slightly, as if pondering the meaning of the word.

Scout continued to explain, speaking slowly but each word like a precise nail, hitting the most crucial spot.

"Look at how the outside world views you now: a successful businessman, a loving husband, and a global superstar who controls his own business empire..."

"These are all correct, and very successful! Your brand value is impeccable."

Scout then shifted his tone, becoming more pointed: "But Justin, we all know that when an artist is too successful, too perfect, too 'correct'..."

"He will lose one thing—a sense of danger and mystery. People will respect you, admire you, but they will no longer be 'crazy' about you."

"They've forgotten that during your Journals era, you poured all your pain and struggles into your songs, regardless of commercial success or public opinion, and that raw creative impulse you had."

He pointed to the phone that Bieber was still holding, the screen still showing Lin Yu'an's image.

"And this video, this man, has now reminded everyone, and made you and your fans all over the world remember the most precious and authentic part of your music!"

Scout stood up, paced a couple of steps beside the recliner, his eyes sharp as an eagle: "Do you know what this means? It means that this video is your opportunity!"

"A perfect opportunity to reintroduce unpredictable artistry into your public image!"

"No longer just an impeccable, mature idol, but to reawaken the Justin Bieber in people's hearts—a man born for art, even to the point of madness for art!"

Scout lowered his voice, which was full of seductive power: "So what you're going to do now is not a simple business collaboration, or even a simple brand rebranding."

"Instead, you must respond to another soul with the soul of a creator! You must personally step onto the stage and, in your own words, tell the world what you have seen and what you have felt!"

"You want to use this story to declare to everyone that Justin Bieber, who was moved by pure art, has never left."

Scout's words, like peeling back layers of an onion, instantly elevated Justin's vague feelings of emotion to a clear strategic level.

This is not just an expression of personal emotions, but also an opportunity to declare the core of one's art to the world.

Without further hesitation, he stood up from the recliner and said to Scout, "I understand."

He ignored everyone's questions, walked across the bustling lawn, returned to the quiet indoors, and opened his Instagram account, which has over 200 million followers.

His fingers tapped on the screen without hesitation; he wasn't completing a publicity task, but recording a soul encounter.

[Cover image: Lin Yu-an sits on the porch of a newly built wooden cabin, with the dazzling aurora borealis and tranquil snow-capped mountains in the background.]

Merry Christmas everyone! I feel like I just received the craziest Christmas gift ever.

My team told me that a creator from China built a cabin in Alaska and then used a song from my album "Journals" as the soundtrack for his video.

Honestly, I thought nobody remembered this song anymore, haha.

What's the craziest thing? He actually bought the license legally, paid for it, just out of respect. That's true love.

So of course I had to go check it out. And then… my buddy… this guy listened to this song on repeat for over two hours while he was building the house.

At first, I was completely confused... What's going on?? But then I understood. He wasn't just using this song; he was practically living within it.

This cycle... is like a meditation. A ritual to break another cycle that we are all trapped in.

This guy isn't just building a house; he's building a dream, a dream many of us share: to truly isolate ourselves from the world and rebuild ourselves.

A salute to you, Lin. Thank you for reminding me what's real. And thank you for liking the song...you gave it a perfect comeback.

Everyone... should go see it. Seriously. Link below.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)