Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Chapter 164 Officially Signs a Contract with Sony

The entire recording process went very smoothly.

After stepping down from the stage, the group returned to the waiting room to pack up and then left the TV station, heading back to their hotel to rest for the time being.

In the evening, Jiang Yan took all the TWICE members to another local restaurant for dinner.

Kang Jin-nam also returned on time this time, bringing a bunch of local specialties for TWICE.

They originally planned to go to the night market together after eating, but JYP's team manager didn't want TWICE to go out at night, so the plan had to be abandoned.

Since Jiang Yan's hotel was not in the same building as TWICE's, the two parted ways at the hotel entrance.

Before leaving, Jiang Yan glanced at Mina standing next to the members.

This afternoon and into the evening, he had been trying to find opportunities to speak with Mina alone.

Unfortunately, he barely had any chance, as the nine of them stayed together almost the entire time, leaving him no room to make a difference.

Left with no other choice, Jiang Yan had to put this matter aside for now and deal with it after returning to South Korea.

After briefly saying goodbye to all the members of TWICE, he got into his car and left for his hotel.

The next morning, Jiang Yan led his team to Yanjing International Airport.

TWICE and he were not on the same flight, so they did not arrange to meet at the airport.

A few hours later, the plane arrived at Seoul Airport.

As soon as Jiang Yan got off the plane, he took a private car back to the CUBE office building and went straight into his studio on the third floor.

He needs to continue working on the new song he will be using for his upcoming performance.

As for Yuehua Entertainment, they have completed internal adjustments during the time Jiang Yan was away.

The contract process has been completed, and Jiang Yan's studio has been independently registered and affiliated with South Korean entertainment company Yuehua Entertainment, signing several in-depth cooperation agreements with them.

This is a very common collaboration model between independent studios and entertainment companies.

Although Jiang Yan's studio began to operate its core business independently, it could still use company resources as needed.

Yuehua Entertainment only needs to provide administrative support, but will not intervene in daily decision-making.

As for what the core business of Jiang Yan Studio is?

Currently, there are only two segments: music production and commercial revenue.

In layman's terms, it means songwriting, personal endorsements, and commercial performance negotiations.

As for marketing and other businesses, they are currently being handled by Yuehua Entertainment. The business will be gradually transferred after the studio becomes more proficient.

However, in theory, Jiang Yan should have his own office space when he sets up an independent studio, but because Yuehua Entertainment's building in South Korea has not yet been completed, he can only use CUBE's studio for the time being.

However, Jiang Yan didn't want to keep using CUBE's studio.

He's never been comfortable using other people's offices, so he's decided to find a place to set up his own private office.

As for whether to rent or buy, we'll decide after we find a suitable option.

This can't be rushed, because once you've chosen a good location, the renovation and equipment procurement and installation alone will take a long time.

Jiang Yan had anticipated that his own dedicated office space would not be ready for use until the second half of this year at the earliest.

On the other hand, after the contract was amended, negotiations for a signing with Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, began soon afterward.

Epic Records sent a team to South Korea with the contract to meet with Kang Yeon.

The negotiations went smoothly, and Jiang Yan's studio signed an agency distribution contract with Epic Records.

In the coming year, all of Jiang Yan's albums or singles released outside of Asia will be distributed and operated by Epic Records.

The revenue split between the two parties is 5% for Epic Records and the remainder for Jiang Yan.

The reason the other party can take 50% is naturally because it includes publicity and promotion; if it were just simple distribution, it wouldn't need to be given so much.

In other words, Jiang Yan himself bears the production costs; otherwise, the other party's share would have to be increased.

There's no way around it; that's the price set by major record companies that control global distribution channels.

Only when Jiang Yan becomes a top-tier or even elite singer globally will she be qualified to negotiate more favorable profit-sharing terms with a company of this caliber.

In fact, Epic Records didn't have much ambition in signing Jiang Yan. They just saw his potential and that he had a considerable number of fans, so they approached him according to the company's policy of discovering new talents.

As for whether Jiang Yan can become even more popular after signing, they don't particularly expect that, but rather let things develop naturally.

Warner, Sony, and Universal sign many new artists every year, but only a very few singers can truly become top-tier artists in Europe and America.

After officially signing the contract with Epic Records, the other party immediately inquired about Jiang Yan's upcoming song release plans.

This is normal; after all, the purpose of signing Jiang Yan was to make money.

Jiang Yan didn't try to hide anything and shared the recently completed film, "Standing NettoYou."

I generously played a clip for them.

Those who came from Epic Records were all shocked after listening to it and exclaimed, "OMG!!! Michael's style?!"

Epic Records owns the copyright to MJ's music legacy, and they immediately recognized the strong MJ influence in Jiang Yan's song.

"Yes, MJ is undoubtedly my idol, and this song is an English single that I made inspired by his music."

Westerners love listening to stories, and Jiang Yan is currently making up stories for them.

His words clearly appealed to them, and the people at Epic Records immediately smiled and said, "A pretty good song. When do you plan to release it?"

Jiang Yan calmly stated, "The NFL will soon officially announce me as their promotional ambassador, and I will be performing at the Super Bowl next month."

How about we schedule the first public performance for that day?

"It's a great time, let's set it for that day, and we'll cooperate in promoting the song."

"Okay, I'll deliver this song to you in a couple of days."

The release date of the new song was decided in just a few words, and then the two teams went to a Michelin-starred restaurant for dinner that evening.

After the meal, Jiang Yan did not participate in the remaining social activities.

It was nothing more than inviting these foreigners to a nearby nightclub. This kind of thing could be left to Jiang Zhennan, a professional, to lead the way. A dozen minutes later, Jiang Yan returned to his apartment and first washed up briefly.

Then, he sat on the sofa in the living room, picked up his phone, and first browsed social media.

After browsing around and finding nothing of interest, I opened Kakao to chat with my partner.

Speaking of which, Jiang Yan has been quite busy these past few days since returning to South Korea, and has been chatting with her partner less often.

Of course, this just means he's been contacting them less often.

Kim Seolhyun would send him selfies or share interesting things she saw almost every one or two days.

As for Mina, although she had a little tiff with him that day, after returning to South Korea, she was still the same as before, calling and chatting online without missing a beat.

She seemed to have forgotten about it.

But Jiang Yan knew that someone as thoughtful as Mina wouldn't really forget something like this; she just didn't bring it up herself like last time.

Or rather, Mina would only confront him when they were alone together.

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