Chapter 7

In order to prevent theft, the rough demo submitted was encrypted using the company's internal encryption software. After receiving it, Du Ang had to decrypt it before he could listen to it.

While listening, Du Ang casually glanced at the document Fang Zhao submitted. His furrowed brows slightly relaxed, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, and a rare smile appeared on his face: "He knows how to take shortcuts."

Having mentored so many new recruits, even though Du Ang lacked talent in composing, he could still discern whether a song had potential. Although the demo was incomplete and the production was rough, he could hear many differences in just a short segment.

Once this song is fully produced, it should achieve a decent ranking, at least not a poor one.

Du Ang was relatively satisfied with the song Fang Zhao submitted, and he felt it was worth the pressure he had taken to give the kid an extra ten days.

After listening to the demo, Du Ang sent a brief message to Fang Zhao: "Come to the company this afternoon, and get ready to record."

Even with the significant time savings brought by technological advancements, Du Ang felt more at ease if it was completed earlier. Besides, the new talent competition for this season was almost over. If they didn't hurry, would they plan to eat sand?

After hanging up, Du Ang contacted the operations department: "Reserve a spot for the new song promotion in three days."

After scheduling the producer, operations, and others, Du Ang asked his assistant, "How many of the newly signed singers are still idle?"

"Singers... we signed four from this year's graduates. Three have been assigned, and one is left, who seems to be in poor condition recently," the assistant answered, hunching his shoulders.

"Poor condition?" Du Ang's brows furrowed again. He particularly disliked hearing such phrases. "Poor condition" was too broad a term.

"Seems... seems to have broken up..." The assistant's voice lowered as he saw Du Ang's face darken.

Du Ang, of course, was in no mood.

What kind of people did they sign this year? Acting like they were dying at such a young age! He was here to mentor new talent, not to take care of children. Who had the time to talk to them about their feelings?

"One or two, they're just a headache!"

In such a fiercely competitive industry, with such intense battles, who had the time to consider your emotions? Do you think you're a superstar? Wanting comfort? Cry to your parents!

A new recruit had to endure hardships, just like everyone else. No matter what happened, when the opportunity came, they had to grit their teeth and crawl over. If they couldn't handle the pressure, they should leave early!

"Call him in!" Du Ang's voice was filled with irritation.

"Yes!" The assistant quickly left, not daring to face the irritable Du Ang.

Du Ang's mouth had been like a cannon lately, blasting anyone he encountered. The staff below were all on edge, not daring to be careless, for fear of being the target of his anger.

After receiving Du Ang's notification, Fang Zhao rushed over by car. It took more than half an hour to travel from the unified building area to the city center, even with the significant improvements in transportation. In the pre-apocalypse era, it would take at least an hour to get close to the city center, and if there was traffic, it could take two to three hours.

Silver Wing Media had a 150-story tower in the city center, shaped like a tower, nearly 800 meters tall, with a pair of huge silver wings hanging from the top. In terms of height, this building was not particularly prominent in the area, as there were many taller buildings, but as one of the three major entertainment companies in Yanzhou, its reputation was significant.

People in the building came and went hurriedly, paying no attention to the small, unknown figure of Fang Zhao. The big shots had their own channels, and Fang Zhao could only use the regular employee elevators.

Du Ang was on the 20th floor. When Fang Zhao arrived, Du Ang was scolding someone with spittle flying.

Facing Du Ang, a young man in his early twenties was smiling and listening obediently, not daring to wipe the spittle on his face, repeatedly assuring Du Ang, "It won't happen again, absolutely not! I've rested for three days, my voice is ready to sing! Really, if you don't believe me, I can sing for you..."

"Shut up!"

Du Ang stopped the man from trying to prove himself. Glancing at Fang Zhao who had just entered, he saw that Fang Zhao's mental state was not as bad as he had imagined, which slightly improved his mood.

"Alright, no more nonsense, start preparing for the recording. The new talent chart is almost set. If you don't enter the competition soon, you won't even make the top 100!" Generally, in Yanzhou's new talent chart, the new artists from the three major companies wouldn't be ranked below 100. However, if someone did, their contract would be terminated.

Following the procedure, Fang Zhao needed to submit his original song to the company, and the company would choose a singer. He had signed as a composer, and according to the contract, unless there was a supplementary agreement, the songs he created had to be sung by the company's singers.

"Fang Zhao, you only have one song?" Du Ang asked.

"Yes, I've only completed one for now," Fang Zhao replied.

"After so long, others have two or three... Never mind, let's finish this one first. Do you want to arrange it yourself?"

"Yes."

"Alright, do as you please. Even if you wanted to find someone from the company to arrange it, you wouldn't find anyone good right now," Du Ang muttered.

The best arrangers had already been assigned to support major stars and wouldn't be available for new talent. Rather than trying to find a competent arranger from the arranger department, it was better to follow Fang Zhao's wishes. Thinking of the arranger department's people, Du Ang shuddered. Every time he saw them, it was a visual assault.

After scolding the person, Du Ang didn't rest. He quickly drank a cup of water and took Fang Zhao and another new singer, Bei Zhi, who was also in the probationary period, to the recording floor. He no longer had any other expectations, just hoping to get this last person out there as soon as possible. The rest would depend on the interns' abilities. As a manager, he could only ensure that everything was arranged properly.

Fang Zhao watched with a sense of novelty as Du Ang arranged the production process, truly experiencing the saying, "It's easier to succeed when you have a strong backing."

This was also the reason why so many people wanted to join major companies in the rapidly developing entertainment industry. Often, having talent alone wasn't enough to stand out. There were so many creators, and new songs uploaded daily numbered in the thousands. The public's attention and the company's promotion were usually focused on the established stars.

As for the small, unknown figures like them, the new talent competition was a rare opportunity. Missing it meant it would be difficult to get the company to invest heavily in promoting them again, and they might never encounter such an opportunity again in their lives.

This was why the original owner of Fang Zhao's body had placed so much importance on this new talent competition, to the point of committing suicide in despair when he discovered his work had been stolen and he couldn't participate. He felt that his dreams had been stolen along with those three songs.

After three days of production, the song would undergo an internal review to check for significant similarities with other released songs. If the similarity exceeded a certain threshold, it would be marked as "pending," possibly due to high coincidence, plagiarism, or other reasons. The company would not allow it to be released online.

The entertainment industry had developed rapidly, and many rules were different from what Fang Zhao had experienced before the apocalypse. However, it was more orderly. Although absolute fairness was impossible, the rules provided more opportunities for people.

"Tomorrow at 8 AM, entry!"

When Du Ang finalized the release date, Fang Zhao officially obtained a ticket to the new talent season's chart, even though the season was almost over. Fortunately, he had made it in time.

It was already June 10th, and the last month of the new talent season had already passed ten days. The rankings on the chart were still changing, but the fluctuations were small. All companies were focusing on the top ten. The first and second places were already decided, with the two virtual idols definitely occupying the top two spots. The third to tenth places were more competitive.

The artists and staff of Silver Wing Media were also paying attention. After all, a good performance in the new talent season would make the company's boss happy, and they, the small fry, would also benefit, possibly even getting a raise.

"This season's top ten, we have three so far!"

"Wow, not bad! We usually only have one or two, but this year's new talent is impressive!"

It was quite rare to have three of their own in the top ten. Such a result was already quite satisfying for Silver Wing's employees. Although Silver Wing was one of the three major entertainment companies, it had been weaker in recent years, and its performance in the new talent season had rarely been impressive. However, this year was a good year.

Some companies that were smaller than Silver Wing were also discussing.

"This season's top ten are all from the old three major companies."

The "old three major companies" they referred to were Silver Wing Media, Neon Light Culture, and Tongshan Shihua.

"Silver Wing is really strong this year, with three entries. I heard they have big plans."

"I've also heard that. Silver Wing signed ten new composers this year, a big move."

"Wow! Signing ten new recruits at once? That's a significant investment."

"Ten? I only see nine."

"Indeed, only nine in the top fifty. Is the tenth one not good enough to make it?"

"No, I checked the top two hundred, and there's no one from Silver Wing."

"Then the tenth one must not have entered. Although Silver Wing has weakened in recent years, they still have the means. They wouldn't let their reputation be tarnished by not making the top hundred."

...

"Boss, the top ten are pulling away from the rest. Should we still try to compete?" An employee of an entertainment company asked his boss. Their company had also promoted a new talent this year, and one of them had made it to the top twenty.

Seeing the top ten pulling further ahead, the company's boss focused on the last one in the top ten. Pointing to the tenth place on the chart, he said to his subordinate, "Let's focus on him. We'll put in more effort and knock him down!"

The tenth place on the chart was "Soaring," sung by Kong Xie, composed by Fang Sheng, and produced by Neon Light Culture, with 1,502,461 downloads.

There was no choice. The other nine in the top ten had all surpassed 2 million downloads, but the tenth had only 1.5 million. Although the eleventh place and below had fewer than 1.3 million downloads, the gap was still significant. However, with everyone's ambitions burning, they all had their eyes on that spot.

The difference between tenth and eleventh place was only one rank, but the status was vastly different. With twenty days left in the season, putting in more effort might still push their own talent up.

Others shared the same thoughts as this small boss. Seeing the rankings stabilize and the top ten pulling away, some had given up on further competition, while others with strong cards were focusing on the tenth place.

It was like a group of cats eyeing a fat mouse that was still jumping around.