Inside the café.

The hot cocoa was served by the waiter.

Kiyoshi Sakamoto spooned the cup and stirred it constantly, trying to cool it a little faster.

The rising smoke in the cup made Kitagawa Kenji even more unable to see Kiyoshi Sakamoto's eyes.

"What do you mean? I don't quite understand. ”

Although he said "I don't understand", Sakamoto Kiyoshi's expression under the mask became solemn.

Because, from Kitagawa Kenji's words, he thought of a news that he had heard a little in his previous life.

2008, AKB48, Sony...

These three key words reminded him of something that may not have much to do with him, but it has a very far-reaching impact.

"Could it be ... Is that the thing?!"

Thinking of this, Sakamoto Kiyoshi's thoughts gradually drifted into the distance.

。。。。。。

AKB48, as a new girl idol group founded by well-known producer Yasushi Akimoto, received strong support from Sony at the beginning of its establishment, and it can be said that it attracted the attention of the public well when it first debuted.

Tied up by Kiyoshi Sakamoto's popularity as a lyricist and composer, AKB48, which has not yet made its official mainstream debut, sold more than 70,000 copies of its first underground single!

Such an achievement once made Akimoto Yasushi and Sony smile.

However, without the help of Kiyoshi Sakamoto, AKB in theater mode does not seem to have received more public attention.

Although every theater performance is full, it is reflected in the sales figures of the record, which is so pale and thin.

In the next few singles, sales did not rise, but continued to decline.

This made Sony and AKS led by Yasu Akimoto puzzled.

In the beginning, in their opinion, under the fame of Yasusu Akimoto, AKB was bound to become the next influential kitten club.

However, they can't imagine that it will take some time for the public to accept a new thing.

However, even in the face of declining single sales and increasing spending, Sony still trusts Yasushi Akimoto very much.

Since the establishment of AKB, Sony has given Yasushi Akimoto resources and assistance as much as possible.

AKB's record label, DefSTARRecords, is a subsidiary of Sony Music.

And AKB's music library, Sony Music also owns a part of the copyright.

In other words, AKB's single sales are directly tied to Sony Music's profits.

That's why Sony Concert asked Kiyoshi Sakamoto to help AKB.

Because, at that time, with the super popularity of Kiyoshi Sakamoto, he could just pull a hand, this is the new girl group of his junior sister group, so that this girl group can receive the attention of the public.

Of course, the purpose was achieved.

The underground single sold more than 70,000 copies, which is the best proof of this.

Although compared to the AKB in the previous life, the AKB in this life is better developed.

However, the sluggish record market, the change of public aesthetics, the different times and other factors have all made the fledgling AKB unable to regain the glory of the kitten club in the 80s.

Even with Kiyoshi Sakamoto's personal help, it was not of much use.

You can't make AKB a kitten club again, so forget it.

However, what Sony never expected was that in just over two years, AKB brought Sony Music not the imaginary mountains of gold and silver, but hundreds of millions of losses.

Sony has lost more than 2 billion yen on this girl idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto!

In the end, it still came.

The torrent of history, like an unstoppable train, crashed into the AKB again with a bang.

As with Kiyoshi Sakamoto's known history of his previous life, the time node is still the beginning of 2008.

AKB, a new girl idol group, has encountered the biggest crisis since its establishment in the face of increasing operating expenses, the group's slow popularity, AKS's serious deficit as an operating company, and the bottoming out of the company's financing and borrowing funds.

Sony is about to abandon AKB!

Although Kiyoshi Sakamoto is the music producer of AKB, he, the producer, except for the creation of the first underground single, is equivalent to a hands-off shopkeeper and does not pay attention to anything.

Compared to his understanding of AKB, he may be even more shallow than Kenji Kitagawa sitting in front of him.

However, it is not that he is ignorant of the current state of the AKB.

Because, he also has a teammate who is a disciple of Yasushi Akimoto - Masaki Chiba!

Some time ago, at the usual band dinner, Kiyoshi Sakamoto learned more or less about the situation of the AKB group from Chiba Masaki's bitter complaint.

At the end of 2007, it was clear that AKS had already had a big problem with its revenues and expenses.

According to Masaki Chiba, AKS has been in an imbalance for several months, and its books are full of deficits.

However, at that time, Kiyoshi Sakamoto did not realize that AKB was about to reach the predicament of development.

He just went to the AKB theater once in a long time, visited the AKB girls, cheered them on, cheered them on...

It wasn't until just now, from Kenji Kitagawa's mouth, that Kiyoshi Sakamoto directly heard the words that Sony was about to give up AKB, and he suddenly realized.

"This... Isn't it just the eve of the rise of AKB?!!"

Surprised, he unconsciously sped up the speed of stirring the hot cocoa in his hand.

"I know this from my dad, and I'm the first to tell you, so don't reveal it!" Kenji Kitagawa couldn't help but lower his voice.

"Well, what the hell is going on? Why did Sony want to give up on AKB?"

"It's not because AKB's single sales in the past two years have not been able to go up... ”

"In addition, the performance in all aspects is not satisfactory... Kitagawa Kenji was also a little sad.

This prince of Sony, for idols, it can be said that among the rich second generation, he is more familiar with and is more fanatical.

He also didn't want to see AKB go to the point where it was abandoned by Sony...

However, it has to be said that Sony is definitely very dissatisfied with AKB's performance during the DefSTAR period.

You must know that AKB, which has been established for more than two years, has already enrolled the third phase of students, and the entire AKB adds up to nearly 50 people.

With so many members, it is also the reason why AKS's funds cannot make ends meet.

Therefore, in order to recover some funds, AKS's operation decided that those who purchased the single at the AKB48 theater would receive one of the 44 members' posters at random, some of which also had signatures.

Those who collect all 44 posters will receive tickets to the 10th anniversary concert of AKB48.

The people who run AKS actually thought of such a bad idea as pre-selling tickets for the 10th anniversary, and it was enough to do so.

But there's no way around it ...

However, not to mention the strong condemnation from fans and the media, the fact that it is suspected of violating RB's anti-monopoly law and being forced to accept the result of the investigation has made AKS's predicament even more serious.

This also prompted Sony's patience with AKB, and almost reached the bottom line.

The sales of singles can't rush, there are too many people to support, it's too resource-consuming, and the only way to make money by pumping otaku blood is also explicitly forbidden by the relevant departments, and at this time, for its own interests, abandoning AKB seems to have become a foregone conclusion.

"I've heard that in a few days, Sony will urgently hold a board meeting, and at the board meeting, we will discuss whether to terminate the cooperation with AKS... ”

"Whether to abandon the group, which caused them to lose more than 2 billion yen, or to continue to believe in Yasushi Akimoto, all this should be known after that board meeting. ”

Hearing Kitagawa Kenji's words, Kiyoshi Sakamoto also stopped stirring, wordlessly picked up the hot cocoa, and took a sip gently.

At this time, Kiyoshi Sakamoto had a lot of thoughts in his mind.

He wondered what kind of role he was playing in this AKB crisis...

Although his current status at Sony is infinitely close to the first brother of Sony Music.

Whether in the music industry or in the film industry, he is a signature artist under Sony Music.

Moreover, he is a pivotal figure in front of Sony Music's bigwig, Naoki Kitagawa.

But, at the end of the day, he's just an artist who has a lot of influence between AKS and Sony...

That's all.

However, others may not know, but Kiyoshi Sakamoto knows!

The history he knows is that AKB not only did not disband in this crisis, but under the leadership of Yasuya Akimoto, a god-like fat man, in just two years, it became Japan's gold-absorbing artifact, and was even called

"The Inspiration of the Japanese Economy"

So, after hearing Kenji Kitagawa's mouth about the wrong decision that Sony Music was about to make, Kiyoshi Sakamoto had an urge to stop this from happening.

In his opinion, he plans to become the owner of Sony Music and become the leader of Sony Music, so at this time, let AKB, a gold-absorbing artifact, slip away from Sony's hands, wouldn't it be a company that will let himself control the future for no reason, and lose a cash cow?!

Therefore, in just a few seconds, he made up his mind.

Be sure to stop Sony's exit!

Thinking of this, Kiyoshi Sakamoto could no longer drink that cup of sweet and greasy hot cocoa.

I saw him suddenly get up, take out a banknote from his trouser pocket, and gently press it under the cup, before he said to Kenji Kitagawa.

"I'm sorry, I suddenly remembered a very important thing, I may have to go first, I invited a drink, but next time don't choose to meet in this kind of place, bye!"

After speaking, Sakamoto Kiyoshi pressed along the brim of his hat, blocked his eyes, and walked out of the café.

Only Kitagawa Kenji was left looking at his back with a confused face, muttering to himself, "What's the matter?"

He turned his head and pulled out the note that Kiyoshi Sakamoto had pressed under the cup.

In front of him, Kitagawa Kenji's expression turned into a constipated face.

"Damn, how did I know each other, such a guy... ”

I saw that the banknote he was holding in his hand was just a thousand-dollar banknote.

However, the drinks of the two are completely more than that...