Chapter 74

After leaving for just five days, Li Jinlong returned to Jinan with the sisters of the Wu Xing Wu Su group. ≤≤Dian≤Xiao≤Novel,

This time, he brought Li Qian a major contract.

After signing the contract, Li Qian officially became the producer of Wu Xing Wu Su's second album.

According to the rules of the music industry in China, the producer and the executive producer are often the same person, which gives the most power. However, if the two positions are separated, it must be because a big-name musician has joined, and the executive producer will be responsible for all music-related matters and have the final say, while the producer will move to the background, handling other powers such as financial and personnel matters.

To put it in a more similar analogy, the record producer is like a film producer, and the executive producer is like a film director, while the singer is the actor.

Of course, unlike many film directors who do not have the final cut of the film, the executive producer of a record, especially a big-name one like Li Qian who signed this contract, must have the final say over the album's content.

In short, with this contract signed, Li Jinlong, who was the boss of Wu Xing Wu Su, became a major manager serving Li Qian and Wu Xing Wu Su, responsible for preparing and managing other affairs, while Wu Xing Wu Su's music boss became Li Qian.

Of course, signing this contract means that Li Qian and Wu Xing Wu Su have become a community of interests.

If Wu Xing Wu Su's album sells well, Li Qian will make money.

If the album sells poorly, Li Qian might not even get a single cent, let alone waste several months of hard work and several songs.

Specifically, according to the conditions Li Qian proposed, which were implemented without any changes in the contract: at a unit price of 10 yuan, if the new album sells 1 million copies, Li Qian gets 5%, which is 500,000 yuan; if it sells 2 million copies, he gets 7%, which is 1.4 million yuan; if it sells 3 million copies, he gets 10%, which is 3 million yuan!

As for 5 million copies... if it really sells that many, according to the high royalty of 15% stipulated in the contract, Li Qian's income for making this album for Wu Xing Wu Su will be as high as 7.5 million yuan!

This income model is completely different from selling songs for a fixed price!

Even those songwriters with considerable strength and fame, who can sell at a relatively high price, if they do not have the qualifications to get a share of the sales, they might not be able to earn this much even after writing for several years and dozens of songs!

Of course, according to the current market in China, even if Li Qian were to take action and put in all his efforts, he does not have the confidence to achieve such a terrifying sales figure.

Isn't Liu Mingliang impressive enough?

He is a king of the music industry and, in terms of sales, is absolutely number one. His best-selling album, which once set a record of 370,000 copies sold in a single week, has only sold six platinum since its release in 1992, which is more than three years.

Moreover, this is one of only three six-platinum albums in China.

Apart from this album, the Flying Band's "Ride the Pig West" took eight years to achieve six platinum, and Zhao Xinfu's representative work took six years to achieve six platinum.

Further down, there are eight albums that have achieved five platinum, but... yes, all of them are by male singers! Liu Mingliang, Zhao Xinfu, Hu Yang, the Flying Band...

The highest level for female singers is Zhen Zhen's one four-platinum and two three-platinum albums, and He Runqing's two four-platinum and two three-platinum albums, as well as Feng Feifei's one three-platinum and Zhou Mo's one three-platinum.

For singing groups, the highest record in China is the "Sisters" group's first album, which only achieved gold certification after more than half a year on the market and has not yet achieved platinum certification after more than two years on the market...

This is the market situation that Li Qian and Wu Xing Wu Su will face next.

Of course, apart from Li Qian himself, no one would expect them to produce a five-platinum album. Even the sisters of Wu Xing Wu Su would not have such high hopes.

At most, they hope to achieve a platinum certification!

If they can get two platinum by chance... that would already mean they are very popular. What more could they want?

Like Liu Mingliang, like Zhao Xinfu, like the Flying Band, they are already phenomena, representing the pinnacle of folk songs, country music, and rock.

In everyone's eyes, they are already impossible to surpass in their respective fields!

...

After signing the contract and keeping his copy, Li Qian took out three new songs in one breath.

Next, his task was to listen carefully to the six songs that Li Jinlong had already made and try to select one or two that could be used, to help Hu Ge Records and Li Jinlong, the producer, minimize the previous production losses, after all... the money has already been spent.

The task for the sisters of Wu Xing Wu Su was... to practice singing, practice singing, practice singing!

As for Liu Jinlong, his task was even heavier because he had to go back to Shuntian to make the accompaniment, including the accompaniment for "Sisters Stand Up" and "Let's Row the Boat" among five songs.

After all, the two songs that had already been recorded were only demos. First, they were live recordings with the accompaniment, and even with post-production, they could not fully meet the requirements of a studio album. Second, the musicians that Hu Ge Records headquarters could contact in Shuntian were definitely better than the musicians temporarily assembled in Jinan, right?

So, of course, they had to strive for perfection!

Of course, in fact, even the recording of the accompaniment should be the job of Li Qian, the executive producer. But since he was still in school, he could not go to Shuntian to do this work, so he had to entrust it to Li Jinlong, and he would only be responsible for reviewing the semi-finished products, and if he did not approve, he would give feedback and send them back.

...

On September 11, Saturday morning.

After spending the morning at Lao Dou Records giving singing guidance to the sisters of Wu Xing Wu Su, Li Qian politely declined the invitation of their agent Wu Min and completely ignored the pitiful looks of Zhou Pingping, Sun Ruoxuan, and Xie Bing. He left them with the words, "Don't think about sneaking a meal. Go back and eat your apples honestly. Brother Jinlong specifically instructed me to keep an eye on you!" He then went downstairs, got on his bicycle, and headed to Jing San Xiao Wei Liu.

He went there for two reasons: one, he had agreed to have a meal at Cao Zhan's place, and two, to deliver and invite songs.

Delivering the song was to help Cao Zhan repay his past debts, and inviting songs was his duty as the executive producer of Wu Xing Wu Su's album.

However, the ride from Lao Dou Records to Bu Wen Bookstore was about seven or eight kilometers, and although he often exercised and practiced boxing, he did not feel tired, but it took him about twenty to thirty minutes, which was a waste of time.

Actually, while waiting for the red light and looking at the various cars stopped at the intersection, he really felt the urge to buy a car. Before, he thought it was unnecessary and felt that riding a bicycle was already good enough, mainly because he did not expect so much work to come his way immediately after, and he thought he would have a quiet high school life for a year.

But now, during school days, riding a bicycle to and from school was quite comfortable and enjoyable for him, mainly because it gave him a strange sense of blending into the era and finding his youth, like an old vegetable leaf trying to look young.

However, on weekends, he had to run to Lao Dou Records every day, and the problem of riding a bicycle being too time-consuming became apparent. If he also had to meet Cao Zhan for a movie or go somewhere to climb a mountain or go fishing, he would have to wait for someone to pick him up by car.

This felt a bit stifling!

But after careful consideration, Li Qian decided not to buy a car before graduating from high school.

Whether to show off or not was not within his consideration. The main reason was the psychological habit of being a high school student—what kind of car would a high school student drive? Do you think this is America?

About half an hour later, he arrived at Bu Wen Bookstore. Since they had agreed in advance, Cao Zhan had already ordered takeout for two people. So when Li Qian went upstairs, he handed the songbook he had prepared to Cao Zhan and picked up his chopsticks to start eating.

Cao Zhan was also hungry and was about to start eating when Li Qian arrived. He glanced at the songbook and was surprised, saying, "You even did the arrangement?" Then he started to read it seriously.

The more he read, the more surprised he became.

Later, his fingers kept tapping lightly on the paper, as if he was keeping the beat.

After finishing the first read, he went back to read it again.

After ten minutes, Li Qian had finished his meal, but Cao Zhan was still reading, his eyes shining.

Li Qian did not feel out of place, got up, opened the drawer, found his tea, boiled water, and made himself a cup of green tea. Then he sat on the sofa, drinking tea to aid digestion while smiling at him.

After a while, noticing Li Qian's gaze, Cao Zhan finally stopped.

He put down the songbook and looked at Li Qian, "You are very interested in Buddhist things? Have you studied them?"

Li Qian smiled, thinking he knew Cao Zhan would ask this, and said, "I wouldn't say I've studied them, but I know a bit. I just thought this style would be more suitable for He Runqing, so I tried writing a song. You can send it to her later. If she's not satisfied, I'll try another style, definitely to help you repay your debts!"

Cao Zhan picked up the songbook and glanced at it again, then finally picked up his chopsticks and said, "Not satisfied? If a song of this level is not satisfactory, they should go find someone else to write for them!"

He took a bite of the dish, glanced at the songbook again, chewed a few times, as if savoring something, then nodded, "Half a Pot of Tea, what a great name! A great song!"

Li Qian smiled and said nothing, thinking that although this song did not become a big hit in the original timeline, it was only limited by the extremely shrunken market and the highly developed internet at that time. In this era, with He Runqing's sweet voice, this Chinese-style song might just become a big hit.

Of course, the main reason for his visit was to invite a song.

So, while drinking tea, he said with a smile, "Brother Cao, we talked about it last time, asking you to write a song suitable for young girls. How's it going? Any ideas?"

Although he asked, Li Qian did not expect to get the song immediately.

Cao Zhan started as a rock musician and became famous, but his albums flopped. Later, he returned to Jinan and turned to writing ballads, folk songs, and country music, and became famous. He was certainly a skilled songwriter, but writing a song suitable for a young female group like Wu Xing Wu Su was not something he could do well, and even if he could, it would not be quick.

However, to Li Qian's surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, Cao Zhan