"Hello? Mr. Amano? …… I'm Gu Yang of the New Wing Band, and I contacted you before when I was in the Empire. ”

“……”

"Our car is now parked in front of the Hengyin headquarters, and the security personnel on duty said that the staff needs to verify it from the inside."

“……”

"Ah—it's our car, but it's not a cash truck."

“……”

"Yes, there are indeed radars and vehicle-mounted artillery, but not cash trucks......"

“……”

"It's a long story, but the car was provided by the Wind. Can you let us in? ”

“……”

After Gu Yang said this, he hung up the phone.

Ziyin, who was sitting behind him, held his stomach and smiled: "Ahahaha...... Do you see that? The green tendons on Gu Yang's neck? ”

Virgil gave him a delightful look: "You really live and die." ”

Sure enough, Gu Yang didn't even reply: "After the newcomer award starts, you must cooperate with the launch of new songs." Ziyin, you took the time to write 10 songs for me to listen to first. ”

"Captain spare your life!"

Hengyin Records Headquarters is a 32-storey modern building. Parking is available on the 1st, 12th, 24th and 32nd floors.

The car in which the New Wings were riding landed on the top floor. The driver went to the garage to park, and the four members and the attendants who accompanied him saw Mr. Nobuo Amano at the front desk on the 31st floor.

Mr. Amano is the commercial manager of Hengyin. Dressed in a straight suit and with hairspray in his hair, he can smell the fragrant cologne before he arrives. Seeing a group of eight people, Nobuo Amano greeted him with a professional smile: "It's hard to come from afar, so come with me to the conference room first." ”

The conference room of the record company really has the atmosphere of a musician. Limited-edition, custom-made guitars hang ostentatiously on the walls, and unerased sheet music is drawn on glass panels for conference attendees.

After Amano arranged for the four of them to be seated, he went to the vicinity of the workstation and called a female colleague from the marketing department, and the two sat down opposite the band.

"To get straight to the point, the New Wings' online performance has been far better than we expected." "So I specially invited Miss Katie from the Marketing Department to join the meeting, and first of all, I would like to introduce you to our Hengyin and the Newcomer Award. ”

Katie is as human as Amano. The young lady was wearing a casual suit skirt and legs wrapped in black stockings, kicking a pair of more than ten centimeters high. Her hair color is dyed at first glance, and there is an abnormal golden light shining in the softness, and her makeup is also very thickly painted, making it impossible to guess her age at all.

Katie sorted out the information in her hand, cleared her throat, and said pretentiously: "Thank you Amano for the invitation, then I'll cut straight to the point." He said thanks, but there was no gratitude in his tone. Typical officialdom.

"You must know a lot about the strength of our Hengyin Records. According to last year's market research report, the number of users who listened to the songs of Hengyin's contracted artists exceeded 400 million throughout the year......" was followed by a lengthy company introduction. The main content is to blow Hengyin's supremacy in the industry.

If sitting opposite these two Hengyin employees is a real civilian student band, listening to her words, the worship of the company is afraid to gush out like a surging river, out of control, and I can't wait to kneel down and beg this industry leader to take him in quickly. However, none of the four members of the New Wing Band are ordinary students. This band, which can be said to be composed of the richest second-generation students in the empire, ***, and the second generation of officials, not only did not show any worship after hearing the other party's nonsense, but instead wandered distractedly, in a daze, and sleepy......

Even the attendants and servants sitting behind them looked bored, and didn't take these two people seriously at all.

When Katie said excitedly, "Our total revenue last year was nearly twice as much as that of the second-place record company. Zi Yin finally couldn't help but let out a long yawn......

That's how cruel the reality is...... Even if Hengyin makes more money by selling records throughout the year, it can't be compared with an arms company like Windwind...... It's just that entertainment companies need to announce their annual income because they are listed, and the Wind Club doesn't need to, so most people don't know how much property a young master like Ziyin has.

In fact, until now, no one has told the four members of Katie about their family situation, so she is even less aware of the situation.

After all, this clerk is just an office worker working in Hengyin, if she can really understand the family property situation of these four people opposite, I am afraid that she will have the urge to eat back all what she said.

Unfortunately, she really didn't know anything.

So in the face of these four students in front of her, who are not serious at all, Miss Katie is very hot......

"I know that the four of you are all talented people and talented women of the Imperial Conservatory, but the school and society are different!" Her tone gradually became stern, and she said like a leader's admonition, "I also came into contact with some other student singers before you. They are also like you, they are all talented in school, but once they face the market and the test of users, they will still be hit. Maybe you think what I'm saying is a bit boring right now, but I just want to say that Hengyin has ample resources and experience in publishing. If you are going to cooperate with Hengyin for a long time in the future, it is necessary to know more about the company's situation. ”

By the time Katie said this, Ziyin had already fallen completely onto the table. Virgil was also overwhelmed, took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, and pointed to the cigarette box towards Amano.

Unlike Katie, Amano seems to be a very casual person. Seeing this situation, he smiled and said, "You are free, it's okay." I host all kinds of artists here all year round, and some of them are very addicted to smoking. If you always drive them out to smoke, don't open the meeting. ”

"Thank you then." Virgil smiled politely, lit a cigarette and smoked.

Looking at Katie's increasingly bad face, Gu Yang finally decided to stand up and say two words: "Then...... Miss Katie. After listening to your introduction, I have a question for me. ”

"Please." Katie made a 'please' gesture with a straight face.

"It's a superficial question, I hope you don't mind." Gu Yang said, "Hengyin Newcomer Award project, as far as I know, is not so much a 'newcomer selection competition', but a 'talent show' that is closer to reality." Since it's a 'talent show', shouldn't it be more reasonable for a TV station or media to host it? I don't know why Hengyin, as a record distributor, insists on hosting a talent show every year? ”

Katie's face with heavy makeup showed a look of surprise: "...... you have this question?"

She receives all kinds of collaborators in the company every day, and the ones who ask this kind of question are always the management of large companies or singers who have already become famous. A student band like Xinyi, who has not debuted, asked this for the first time, which really surprised her.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but sit up and said fluently as if she had typed a manuscript: "The reason why we hold the 'Hengyin Newcomer Award' every year is because Hengyin believes that only a publisher like us can really do a good job in this project." Changing to any other radio station or media can make the event beautiful, but it cannot guarantee the same high quality all year round. The first and ultimate purpose of the media is to get ratings. In order to achieve high ratings, they can use unscrupulous means and abuse their power to force singers to memorize lines on the spot like actors. Asking singers to choose their unprepared tracks, or forcing disobedient singers to quit the show – these are inevitable situations. Because the nature of the organizer is the media. A media without ratings has no future. ”

Gu Yang nodded: "That's true." ”

"Compared to the media, if the distributor of the program is produced by a distributor like Hengyin, there is no concern about ratings. For us, the only goal is to find the best singers. Although we are not the most professional in terms of program recording, in the field of music, no one can be more professional than us. Katie added, "There are also experienced producers in entertainment programs on those radio stations and in the media, but there are very few who can be called professional in the field of music. Many producers of pop singer talent shows don't even know the complete process of recording an album, let alone any professional accomplishment and discernment in composition and arrangement. Therefore, we may not be able to make the best talent show, but we can let every singer give full play to their ability at the 'Hengyin Newcomer Awards' and convey their understanding of music to the world. ”

After listening to her answer, Gu Yang showed a relieved expression on his face: "In this case, I have nothing to worry about." ”

"Oh?" Katie raised an eyebrow, "What were you worried about before?" ”

"Fair...... Gu Yang also took out a cigarette from his coat pocket, took out one, and continued, "For a student band like us with no background, what could be more important than fairness?" Fortunately, listening to the meaning of what you just said, the foundation of the 'Hengyin Newcomer Award' is professionalism and fairness. Without these two things, this project probably wouldn't exist, and we wouldn't have anything to worry about......"

Was the original purpose of asking this question to understand the fairness of the project? - Katie's expression became solemn.

Not to mention a student band like Xinyi, even veterans who have been in the music industry for many years will not care too much about whether the evaluation is fair. It's not that they believe that Hengyin Records is impartial and selfless, but they simply think that as long as my songs can win the favor of the audience, then no matter how many tricks you do behind your back, I will still be number one!

However, how can the truth be so sunny and snowy?

What if you sing well? What if songwriters are talented? As the organizer, the media can maliciously guide the audience's attention, so that their attention originally focused on the singer's talent and singing skills will be shifted to the singer's past, scandals, negative news and other innocuous events. What's more, they will fabricate negative news about the singer for hype, so that the audience will immediately turn black to the singer, and the more powerful and talented the singer is, the more it will aggravate the spread of this negative news. As a result, the media that reported on the incident will receive more attention and greatly increase the ratings. And for the singer himself, the blow of this conspiracy is devastating......

In the final analysis, musicians who concentrate on creating every day are simply no opponents if they have to fight with the media. Therefore, whether it is for a new singer or an old man in the industry, it is very important whether the organizer of the talent show is fair. However, I was able to realize this problem before my debut...... The captain of this student band...... It's surprisingly smart.

"That's nature. Since it is a debut stage for newcomers, fairness and justice must be a must. Nobuo Amano, who had been listening, stood up and summarized, downplayed the previous questions, and continued, "I see that Katie also talked a lot about the company's situation, so I'll add some introductions to the process related to the newcomer award." ”

With that, he casually turned on the projection screen on the wall, and a page for an online voting campaign was displayed on it.

Ziyin, who was originally sleepy, woke up in an instant, and Virgil, who was swallowing clouds and mist, also subconsciously pinched out his cigarette. Eliza already had the ability to concentrate on the surface and actually wander, so she immediately came back to her senses and looked in the direction of the projection screen with everyone.

Nobuo Amano watched their reactions with satisfaction, picked up a highlighter from the table, pointed to the screen and said, "This is the online voting situation of all singers, bands, and group groups that have signed up for the competition as of June 30. It is also based on the results of this voting that we decide which five groups of contestants to invite to participate in the play-in round. Don't be nervous...... If you can be invited here today, it means that the New Wing Band has passed the online voting and has been shortlisted for the Newcomer Award. First of all, congratulations to all of you. ”

Whether it is the style, content or tone of his speech, Nobuo Amano is obviously much more sophisticated than Katie. He would look at the screen and the four members of the band, and he would infer the mental activity of the four from their facial expressions, so that he could change their rhetoric at any time.

"This is your country's website, right?" Virgil asked, "Are the voters from the Kingdom of Blaze?" ”

"More than 80 percent. Yes. Amano nodded, "But because there are two groups of foreign singers, you and Song Nanhe, among the singers participating in the election this time, this year's website records that nearly 20% of the votes came from the Qingyun Empire and the Human United Alliance...... I have to say that your two groups of players are really charismatic. In previous years, it was usually less than 5 per cent. ”

The page opens to the page where the votes are counted. The names of various singer groups are listed, and one screen is not enough to display.

But just as the 28 rule exists in every industry, 20 percent of people get 80 percent of the vote — and most of the votes are focused on the first few options.

Because the voting rule is a one-person-one-vote system, the webpage shows the percentage of votes received in addition to the number of votes. The first few contestants from the first place onwards received the following votes:

1st place: Song Nanhe, 19.3%

Second Place: Guanyue Ling (Ribbon Classroom), 16.9%

3rd Place: New Wings, 16.2%

4th place: Heidi group, 10.1%

5th Place: Full Strength Boys, 7.9%

6th place: Aikong, 6.2%

7th place: Flora, 5.2%

None of the singers in the future can exceed 3%.

The top seven received more than 80% of the vote.

"That Guanyue Ling, the number of votes is actually higher than ours!?" Zi Yin was really the fastest to speak, "Hey, what kind of website are you?" Why haven't I heard of it? I knew that I would have pulled some classmates over to vote...... The second place must have attracted a lot of fans to inject water! ”

Amano smiled awkwardly, "This is the official website we use every year for the New Offer. Your band information, singing videos, and electronic playlists are all uploaded here. In the future, the information will be updated as the newcomer award process progresses. ”

You don't do a good job of collecting information yourself, but you want to blame us for not notifying, where did a mere student band get such a big breath!? - Katie didn't say this, and her face still turned white with anger.

Fortunately, Zi Yin was looking at the website with interest and didn't notice this, otherwise with his open-mouthed character, he really wouldn't have scolded her for something.

Hearing what Amano said, Gu Yang also immediately came out to say: "It's that I haven't told them about the online vote." We were busy recording new albums until last month. I'm afraid that they will be distracted when they speak out, and they are busy canvassing for votes every day and don't do their business. ”

Zi Yin thought carefully along the captain's train of thought, and said honestly: "It's really possible......"

Gu Yang spread his hands.

"I have a question." Eliza suddenly raised her hand politely.

"It's Miss Vocal......" Amano grinned and narrowed his eyes, "Please speak." ”

"Since you have been saying before, the Hengyin Newcomer Award is a very professional selection activity in the field of music." Eliza flicked her forehead, blinked her eyes and said, "So just relying on the votes of these fans who can't see faces on the Internet to decide who can be shortlisted for the competition, will it be a loss of your professional standards?" ”