New York 2006

Chapter 226 "18"

On October 2008, 10, Luo Ji visited the filming department of Logic Pictures' song MV.

Although this department is located in Burbank, it is still a bit far away from Logic Pictures. It is the music video studio of director Francis that Luo Ji recently acquired.

The studio occupies a small area, and Luo Ji fell into deep thought after visiting it.Should we move this studio to Logic Pictures, like Tesla and SpaceX, to reduce operating costs through integration?

As the leader, Luo Ji began to issue instructions to the heads of the studio: "Go and discuss with the people at Logic Pictures to move this studio to them. Duplicate positions such as administrative and human resources positions will be given to I merged. The extra employees will be directly laid off or transferred to other positions."

The person in charge of the studio immediately said: "This is a bit bad. Many employees have settled here. If we relocate, many employees will definitely resign."

Luo Ji acted like a capitalist: "Employees who cannot adapt to the environment will resign as soon as they resign. Do we need the company to adapt to them?"

"But the greatest asset of this studio is these experienced employees."

The person in charge of this MV studio is right. This studio does not have many actual assets. The most valuable thing is this group of experienced employees.

The lesser of the two evils.

The wages of a dozen employees are indeed not much in the short term, and may not be worth the cost of relocation.But that's not how the accounts are calculated. If the time is extended to one or two years, this will be a lot of money.

Moreover, the purpose of the person in charge's persuasion may not be so simple, but may exaggerate the seriousness of the matter.

Having run the company for so long, Luo Ji knew these leaders and executives very well.They are no different from government bureaucrats. They all have the desire to expand their power and increase the number of people under their command.

As the boss or shareholder of a company, sometimes I am on the opposite side of them.

Luo Ji adhered to his past thinking: "We try to win over the company's key elites and get appropriate salary increases. As for ordinary employees, they leave as soon as they leave. The most important thing in Hollywood is basic talents in film and television."

The person in charge of the studio said helplessly: "Uh... okay."

Luo Ji patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him: "Work hard, and you will still be the manager of this department from now on. As for your salary, you can increase it appropriately after the merger is completed."

The head of the studio suddenly had a smile on his face: "Thank you, boss."

"Besides the singers from my two music companies, do you have many other clients?" Luo Ji asked about the most important thing.

"There are quite a few. Many singers know that your MV was shot in our studio and come to our company for cooperation."

Luo Ji had some concerns about this. Ever since he became famous, the studio directed by Francis has indeed had no shortage of customers and has been doing well.

But who caused him to encounter the financial crisis?
Of course, Luo Ji didn't take advantage of his crisis and gave him a better offer.

Director Francis was quite satisfied. He kept a portion of the money to resolve his financial crisis, and added a larger portion to Luo Ji's private equity fund.

Luo Ji asked: "Who are the singers who come to the company to shoot music videos?"

"Katy Perry, Pink, Coldplay, Rihanna, Britney Spears..."

"Britney?" Luo Ji asked confused.

"Yes."

The person in charge of the studio narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "Britney will come to the company the day after tomorrow to discuss the MV script. Do you need me to ask her to meet with you?"

"Hum, no need." Luo Ji replied expressionlessly.

Fiona came over at this time: "The person in charge of the CBS Grammy broadcast is here. Do you need me to bring him in?"

"Find me a more private place."

"That was Director Francis's old office, and no one is using it now."

…………

"Hi, Logic." The head of CBS's Grammy broadcast came up to say hello with a smile.

"Hello."

Luo Ji looked at this old white man from CBS and couldn't help but laugh at his original stupidity.

I remember that when I met him for the first time, he made a small plot to get a favor from Luo Ji, but he has yet to cash it in.

Although Luo Ji was slightly tricked at first, it didn't cause any harm and the relationship between the two was pretty good.

The old white man from CBS sat across from Luo Ji: "Today I am here to send a message on behalf of the organizers of the Grammys. They want to invite you to perform "Perfect" on stage next year, and they also want to invite you to attend the award ceremony as a guest."

Luo Ji said unhappily: "Are they trying to embarrass me? "Perfect"? Don't you know that I didn't even promote this song in the media?"

"But this is the influence of this song! Now the MV of this song has become the number one playback on YouTube, and the sales of this single are now number one in the world this year."

"Just because I became number one, I don't want to continue this topic!"

The old white man from CBS began to persuade me.

"You are still too thin-skinned."

"Tyler will definitely attend the Grammy Awards next year. When you perform this song on stage, it will be a very good topic. This can bring you a lot of exposure."

“And it’s so normal for the entertainment industry to be separated and reunited. Look at Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, and then look at Brad Pitt and Aniston. Don’t they just quarrel in the media. It’s okay.”

"Stop, stop."

Luo Ji interrupted directly, looked at the white man from CBS across from him seriously, and said firmly: "I'm not a pure profit animal, and I don't want to hype up my relationship with Taylor anymore."

"Not even a Grammy?"

“Not even a Grammy!”

The old white man from CBS sighed: "Okay, I will help you find a reason to reject them."

"Thank you."

The old white man from CBS then said: "What if you become an award guest? You won't refuse this, right?"

Luo Ji suddenly thought of MTV's previous trick. They asked Taylor to present the "Perfect" award to Luo Ji. This was so embarrassing.

"I can accept it, but there is one condition. I don't want to present awards that Taylor has nominated, or appear on the stage to give awards to others at the same time as Taylor. Can you do it?"

The old white guy from CBS said, "You're not giving Grammys a chance to get hype!"

Luo Ji looked at him directly.

The old white man from CBS couldn't stand it when Luo Ji looked at him: "Okay, okay, then only the best newcomer will be left. This is more in line with your status."

"Thank you." After Luo Ji finished speaking, he reacted: "So the Grammy nominations have already come out? Didn't they come out in mid-November?"

"Not all of them have been released yet, but albums like Taylor's and Coldplay's are of higher quality and have better sales figures. They will definitely be nominated." "Okay, what about my "Twilight" movie soundtrack?"

"I'm not sure about that. But..."

"But what?"

The old white man from CBS thought for a while and continued: "You should know that the record range for Grammy nominations is the records released in the United States between October 10st of last year and September 1th of this year!"

"I know that."

"Then do you know how Grammy nominations are made?"

"The Grammy nomination process is not as transparent as the Oscar nomination process. It has always been kept secret."

Luo Ji muttered to himself, then looked at the old white man opposite him in surprise: "Do you know how the nomination was made?"

The old white man from CBS smiled: "If you stay in this industry for a long time, you will always know some secrets that you young people don't know."

Luo Ji said nothing and quietly watched him show off.

There is no praise, the old white man at CBS is boring.

"Okay, let me give you a tip. You can go to Universal Music, the publisher of your record. Their four major record companies have a lot of control over whether a record can be nominated for a Grammy."

…………

The next day, Luo Ji came to Universal Music to visit CEO Doug Morris.This old white man has not been seen for several months and looks quite haggard.

Luo Ji fell into deep thought. He wondered if it was due to the financial crisis.

Now during the financial crisis, it is normal to watch assets shrink every day.Those that make money, or those that remain flat are abnormal.

Luo Ji saw a lot of unlucky people during this period and suffered serious losses.

Just like the old white man from CBS whom I met yesterday, he lost a lot. He used his favor to get a place in Luo Ji's private equity fund.

Doug Morris took the initiative to say hello: "Welcome, Logic, long time no see, what's the matter with your visit this time?"

"I want to ask about Grammy?"

"That's what happened!"

Doug Morris smiled heartily: "Universal will still support you this year, as well as your own Lady Gaga. She has performed very well during this period."

Luo Ji asked: "What nominations do you think Lady Gaga will receive?"

"Her? The four major categories are Best Newcomer, and the minor awards are nominations in the dance music category. There shouldn't be any problem. Her current influence is here."

Luo Ji nodded, as expected: "What about me?"

"You only have the soundtrack this year. There is definitely no problem with being nominated for a small award like the film and television category. After all, this is the best-selling soundtrack this year. But it's hard to say whether it will win or not. The reviews of the movie "Twilight" are so bad. This will It affects a large part of the judges.”

"Okay, what about the four major categories?"

Doug Morris looked embarrassed and said: "There should be no problem in being nominated for Single of the Year. The sales data of "Perfect" are still influential here. But it is hard to say whether it can win the award?"

"Uh……"

Doug Morris hurriedly said: "But don't worry, you are the number one brother of the company, and we will definitely use our resources to give you the greatest support."

It would be surprising for "Perfect" to win an award.

Such a romantic love song turned out to be sung by a scumbag who killed someone at a young age. The old white male judges were so stupid that they voted for him.

Don't say music is just music.

A singer's media impression greatly affects the voting tendency of these old white male judges.

Although Luo Ji's public relations were very good, after the child's incident came out, the media still understood the cause and effect.The public's sympathy now rests entirely with Taylor.

Luo Ji didn't want to insist: "Uh... I mean, since the hope of winning Single of the Year is slim, there's no need to nominate it for me."

"This...is somewhat unexpected."

Doug Morris paused for a moment and understood the cause and effect: "Okay, then I will help you get it done. If you don't seek to be nominated for Single of the Year, other companies will be very happy."

"Thank you."

Doug Morris continued: "However, film and television awards will not appear on the live broadcast. You may still win, and it is worth fighting for."

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Luo Ji nodded.

Doug Morris laughed and said: "Haha, I didn't expect you to be an innocent boy who cares so much about the past. However, this is a bit inconsistent with your media image!"

Luo Ji Youyou said: "Let her let go of the past. I don't want to make too much noise. This will also be very bad for my media image."

Both of them fell into silence, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense.

Doug Morris changed the subject: "Have you read the report on the recording industry for the first half of the year recently released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry."

Luo Ji asked curiously, "I've been too busy to read it these days. Is there anything I should pay special attention to in it?"

"In the first half of this year, global record industry sales shrank by another 14%."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Luo Ji said helplessly.

Because of the emergence of MP3, listeners' listening media have changed.

The sales of music albums using CDs as a medium will definitely become lower and lower, and the same goes for DVDs in the film and television industry. They may one day completely disappear.

This is a historical trend and it is really difficult to change.

Doug Morris cautiously probed and said: "Logic, can you make an album next year? I heard from people at Future Records that you have a lot of songs in your hands."

Luo Ji smiled and said, "Of course, that's what I planned too."

“Excellent!”

Doug Morris finished speaking excitedly and smiled slightly: "Let me guess, is the name of your second album "18"?"

Hahaha!
Luo Ji smiled heartily and gave a thumbs up to the old white man in front of him!

(End of this chapter)