New York 2006

Chapter 57 Viacom and YouTube

"Why did CBS want to smear me? When the previous shooting happened, CBS was very angry with me. The report to smear me this time was obviously very hard work. It only went deep into the RV camp and interviewed many of my former neighbors and classmates. Only then can there be such a report.”

Luo Ji searched the Internet for CBS news about his robbery case, and then pointed it out to Braun and Jeff.

Why didn't Logic promote the song properly and why did he go to the South Side of Chicago?Shootout?Selling?
After reading it, Jeff Basker said: "No, I think it was a coincidence. When they went to interview your classmates and neighbors, they happened to know the news about you, so they reported it. CBS is such a big company. Why are you trying to discredit you for no reason?”

Luo Ji firmly denied: "It's impossible. I have never done these things at all. They are just slander."

After reading it, agent Braun frowned: "Logic, you have a very keen sense. This is definitely not an accident. Look at these two reports. Although they are from different media outlets under CBS, the reporter's name is the same. It means there is a reporter specifically targeting you.”

Luo Ji read it carefully: "It's true, their name is Graeme Cree. But why is he targeting me?"

Jeff spoke from the side: "Personal grudge? Racial discrimination? Or maybe you offended CBS."

Manager Braun suddenly shouted: "You can search CBS and you will find out."

Luo Ji searched the Internet and found out the reason.

In 1999, Viacom acquired Westinghouse, the parent company of CBS, and the two later merged.

In March 2005, Viacom Group announced plans to split the company into two independent listed companies to solve the problem of stagnant stock growth. CBS has been spun off again.On the surface, it has become two media organizations, Viacom and CBS, but the capital behind them is the same.

Luo Ji has been working on YouTube during this period and will promote YouTube on various occasions. The MVs he shoots are only played on YouTube and are not sent to MTV.

The filmed song MV has been played more than 2600 million times, setting an example for other record companies. Countless music MVs have been uploaded to YouTube by major record companies.The growth rate of new YouTube users has greatly increased, and the biggest impact is undoubtedly MTV, which plays music MVs.

MTV is a TV station owned by Viacom and belongs to the same capital as CBS. It is not easy to influence each other.

Summer Redstone, the actual controller behind these two media organizations, started his career on MTV.Now Luo Ji has become an accomplice in destroying this TV station.

If Viacom and CBS are really determined to suppress themselves, this would be very bad.They have companies in radio, news, film companies, record companies, and publishing houses, and these companies are all top-notch in the industry.

"What should we do?" Luo Ji swallowed.

"what happened?"

Jeff still didn't understand the reason, so Luo Ji could only tell him that he had worked hard to support YouTube, which had attracted CBS's revenge.

Luo Ji looked at the two of them. His manager, Braun, was at a loss and had no idea.

Jeff thought for a while and said: "Braun, aren't you Jewish? Can you talk to Mr. Redstone? Explain clearly that Logic is not disrespecting MTV, but because Viva La Vida has oil pipelines For investment, it can only be played on YouTube. Logic’s future MVs will be sent to TV stations for broadcast.”

Braun smiled bitterly: "Although we are both Jewish, he is Redstone, and I am just a manager who works in records. How can I influence him? Whether I can see him or not is up for grabs."

Listening to the argument between the two, Luo Ji recovered from the initial shock and slowly calmed down.The reason why Luo Ji fought so hard for YouTube in the past and mentioned it on various occasions was because of profit.

After Luo Ji became a singer, he signed a special supplementary agreement with YouTube.

All his videos on the Internet can only be broadcast on the YouTube platform. Luo Ji wants to promote YouTube on various occasions, and YouTube will increase the promotion of his videos, greatly increase his share ratio, and give the best of advertising resources for his videos.

This agreement gave Luo Ji a lot of benefits. With the support of Google, the largest search engine, Luo Ji's exposure on the Internet skyrocketed. Now that he is so famous, it is indispensable for Google to promote his videos.

In terms of money, Luo Ji's share from YouTube in the past two months has exceeded one million. According to his contacts, his video playback volume is still increasing, and the settlement may be higher next month.Even if I no longer shoot new videos, I will still earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every month in the future.

After getting so many benefits, and now it is only slightly smeared by CBS, it is actually very cost-effective.But I don’t know if CBS has any plans to expand.Luo Ji thought for a moment and then gave instructions.

"Braun, I want you to find out, what is their purpose of smearing me? They can't simply want to destroy me, it won't do them any good."

"Then who should I go to?"

"Of course I'm going to find that reporter. The report he published must know who is targeting me."

As an independent agent, Braun has no problem accepting commercial performances and contacting distribution companies. However, compared to those established agency companies, his connections in the United States are too poor. Whenever something like this happens, he will immediately be at a disadvantage.Luo Ji was not polite and criticized him directly in front of Jeff Busker without saving any face: "Braun, you have made a lot of money from me in the past few months, right? I have been We are making progress, and I hope you can make progress too. Look at how those established agencies serve celebrities. Do you want me to go to agencies like William Morris or CAA to resolve such small matters?"

This was the first time Luo Ji lost his temper at Braun. He was in disbelief at first, and then when he saw Luo Ji's serious eyes, he was not joking at all. After a while, he finally softened: "Of course not, I Let’s do it.”

After sending Braun away to do his work, Luo Ji called the YouTube contact and explained to him what had happened.

"I have been promoting YouTube during this period. I think I have a share of the credit for the number of YouTube users growing so much during this period. But now I am being targeted by Viacom, and their media has begun to discredit me. You Tell me what should I do?"

"Impossible, how could Viacom's slander against you have anything to do with us?" the contact person on the other end of the phone shied away, and then hesitantly said: "You, don't worry too much, or just promote the YouTube channel normally. "

Luo Ji heard that the contact person on the other side was obviously not normal, so he said, "Do you know what you are hiding from me? We have always had a good relationship, and I have given you gifts. Now you are treating me like this." .”

"Okay, okay. I'm scared of you." The contact person on the other side lowered his voice: "But I told you, you can't tell anyone. Especially not let the media know."

"I promise you."

“As major record companies upload music videos to YouTube, MTV’s audience has been losing rapidly during this period. Many people have come to YouTube to watch music videos. Viacom, the parent company of MTV, has been forced to piracy. Negotiate with us. Want to threaten us or initiate litigation."

No wonder Viacom is dissatisfied with itself and directly discredits itself in the news.They hate to rob their own audience of YouTube.In the past few weeks, Luo Ji has frequently mentioned YouTube in front of the media to support YouTube. Isn't this specifically trying to bring trouble to Viacom?

"How long ago was this?"

"It happened at the end of last year."

Luo Ji was furious and scolded: "Fxxk, you told me now at the end of last year? You told me that I had lowered my profile a long time ago. How could I be targeted by CBS?"

The oil pipeline contact said: "The company's senior management issued a hush-hush order, fearing that media reports would cause the parent company's stock price to fall."

Luo Ji quickly accepted the reality: "Then what advice do you have for me now?"

The YouTube contact person said, "You try to keep a low profile during this period. This is a game between traditional media platforms and Internet media platforms. It has nothing to do with you singers. There are so many singers uploading MVs on YouTube, how can they target them?" Come here. Maybe Logic, you became famous from YouTube, and you have been promoting YouTube in the media, so they targeted you because they didn’t like you.”

This is really a fight between gods and gods, and the kid suffers.

"Okay." Luo Ji was about to hang up, but it was not his character to suffer losses: "I was also affected this time. Can you report it to your superiors and help me get some benefits?"

The person on the other side hesitated for a moment before agreeing: "Okay, wait for my news."

Luo Ji smiled and said, "Remember to make me miserable. Just say that I am an ethnic minority and was bullied by large media organizations because I promoted YouTube."

"Okay, I know."

Luo Ji felt much relieved after hanging up the phone.But the contact person of the YouTube channel may have simply tried to shirk responsibility and deliberately downplayed the seriousness of the matter to reassure himself.

The outcome of the matter still depends on the communication result of agent Braun. He went out to contact the reporter and has not returned yet.Luo Ji called and asked. He said he was going to MTV headquarters and it might take some time.

Luo Ji and music director Jeff continued to select songs for their own album.They have collected more than 50 songs, some of which are just music scores, and some of which also have demos.

Luo Ji needed to play them one by one and listen to the results before he could decide which songs to choose.Those whose style is not suitable will be eliminated first, those who are too cheerful will not be rejected, those who are too noisy will not be rejected, and those whose lyrics and style are not suitable will also be rejected.In the end, Luo Ji and the others narrowed it down to ten songs.Three of them are demos.

To be honest, the quality of these ten songs is really average, but there is one demo of "Lost!" that impressed him deeply. It uses a lot of electronic music and is very similar to his "We Don't Talk Anymore" style.

"Who wrote this song "Lost!"?"

"Brian Eno, he is a British composer. He also has several songs, and I only chose this one at the time."

Luo Ji pondered for a moment: "I like his style very much. Go and find his other songs."

(End of this chapter)