New York 2006

Chapter 72
Luo Ji held the phone in his hand and engaged in a verbal exchange with Universal Music President Doug Morris.

"Logic, aren't you satisfied with 4000 million? Which singer can get such treatment before releasing an album? Now that the record industry is in recession, I am also taking a gamble."

"Gambling? You have my single sales data, all the songs in my first album, and my mobile phone ringtone sales data. You elites can gamble. I am not a child. Don't think I am a fool."

After Doug Morris was silent for a moment, he said loudly: "We don't treat you as idiots, but you treat us as idiots. You relied on your familiarity with new media to get all the copyrights of the MV into your hands. Do you think we don’t know how much money you’ve made on YouTube in the past few months from your music videos?”

"I didn't. It was because I had an exclusive broadcast agreement with YouTube that I proposed that clause."

"Still thinking I'm a fool?"

Before YouTube launched the advertising sharing plan, the MV was produced and sold to MTV stations for broadcast at most, but it could not sell for much money. The MV was mainly used for promotion, so Universal did not care about this clause.But after the oil pipeline sharing plan came out and there was more money, everything changed.

Luo Ji said in a deep voice: "Is this the reason why all this has happened recently? You went to Joe Cecchini to disgust me, slander me on NBC, and dig up dirt about my past. This is not a normal business attitude. .”

"Universal Music does none of this."

"Since you are not satisfied with the relevant terms of the MV, why don't you come to me directly to discuss it? This reason is just an excuse. You don't want to swallow up all my company."

"so what?"

"I'm only 16 years old. You know my experience and my past. Don't treat me as a rational businessman. How bad can life be, no matter how bad it is? I don't lack the courage to start all over again."

"Hahaha, kid, I'm waiting for your performance."

Doug Morris said that and hung up the phone.Luo Ji looked at everyone in the company: "The talks have collapsed, let's take action."

Lawyer Jamie took a step forward and whispered in Luo Ji's ear: "If you take this step, you will immediately break up."

Luo Ji looked at Jamie seriously: "If I don't let them see my will, how can they treat me as an equal? ​​Universal Music thinks that I am just a 16-year-old Chinese singer, and they can easily manipulate me. They have a psychological advantage. Continuing to talk is useless."

After Luo Ji finished speaking, he stopped looking at Jamie and said to everyone, "Let's all take action and act according to the plan."

In response to this crisis, Luo Ji established the company's online distribution department.The company's distribution department immediately began contacting Apple's iTunes, Amazon MP3, and other influential online distribution channels to upload Luo Ji's first album "16."

"Is it the iTunes department of Apple? This is Future Records. We will upload Logic's first album "16" on iTunes today."

"Is it the album where I bet that if the album didn't satisfy everyone, Loigc would run naked on Broadway?"

"Yes, we have uploaded it to Logic's account, so can you recommend a location on the homepage?"

"His album has been very popular in the past two days. In principle, there is no problem, but we want to listen to it. How is the quality?"

"We can reveal another important news to you. Logic has broken up with Universal Music due to the issue of physical album release. In other words, at least for a week, the entire album will only be sold online. If you can start the relevant We will promote it through the media, and I believe many new users will go to your platform to purchase the entire album.”

"Really?" the other person said excitedly.

"Of course. It's a win-win situation."

"I'll contact the head of our department right away."

In the future, people from the record online distribution department will make phone calls and contact major online distribution platforms to find media support.Luo Ji has not been idle either, announcing the release of his first album "4" on major online media platforms, including Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, Facebook, 16chan, reddit, etc.

"My first album "16" has been released and can be purchased directly on iTunes and Amazon MP3. The physical album has not been released yet, but this is not my fault. I also want the physical album to be available to everyone as soon as possible, but Universal Music has been They are not willing to talk to me at all about the release of my physical album. I don’t know where I offended them. I hope Universal’s executives can hear my voice.”

In the afternoon, manager Braun knocked on the door of Luo Ji's office and took him to a small office.This small office had been empty before, but now there were five computer professionals inside, executing the projects assigned to them by Luo Ji.

Project leader Yang Jian saw Luo Ji arriving and led him to a computer.

"Logic, the program you want has been completed."

The average age of these five computer industry professionals is less than 24 years old, and three of them are Chinese and two are Jewish.This was what Luo Ji ordered Braun to find.

Luo Ji actually wanted to find top talents in the computer industry at the beginning, but most of them gathered in Los Angeles and were unwilling to come to the cold New York.

The Internet industry has recovered. There is no shortage of places for these top talents, and their annual salaries are high. Luo Ji can only do the next best thing and recruit a few talents in the computer industry who are still studying at major universities near New York.

Among them, the one who received the most attention from Luo Ji was a Chinese named Jian Yang, whose Chinese name was Yang Jian.He is a top talent majoring in computer science at Harvard University and has won No. 1 in many software competitions.Better than the resumes of the other four of them.He is also the project leader.

"Introduce me."

Luo Ji walked to the computer and Yang Jian began to give a general introduction.

"The comparison software of major copyright companies is very rough, not accurate enough, and runs very slowly. Their bureaucracies have no motivation to study this aspect. Now we use algorithm-optimized programming techniques, and the accuracy is greatly improved. Improve. Look at this, we can set eight syllables to be the same, or sixteen syllables to be the same, which can be adjusted at any time. It can meet the needs of music comparison in any scene." "How is the effect?"

"Of course there is no problem. We first used the syllable search of the same melody of your "Viva La Vida" and Joe Cecchini's "If I Could Fly". Your guess is very correct. We really searched the global music database. The search found the same melody. Not one, but two, one of which is classical music and belongs to the public domain. You did not plagiarize it at all."

"Haha, really? This idiot Joe Cecchini still wants to use this to threaten me. Which two songs are they? Let me listen to them."

The music industry has been developing for too long, and it often happens that the melodies are the same.

After the plagiarism incident broke out, Luo Ji's solution was to look for similar melody from historical music.When it came to large-scale searches, the first thing Luo Ji thought of was programming, so he asked Braun to find five programmers, and it was done in less than a week.

At the entrance of Future Records, Luo Ji was holding a large stereo in his hand, and reporters surrounded Luo Ji.

"Logic, do you have anything to say about the dirty stuff from your past?"

Luo Ji didn't say anything and directly played his Viva La Vida on the loudspeaker. The reporters looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what Luo Ji was up to. Luo Ji waited for the reporters to quiet down before speaking.

"Some time ago, Joe Cecchini said that I plagiarized his songs. This is nonsense. Now I have proof."

"What evidence?"

Luo Ji was not in a hurry, and instead introduced his software: "I have long said that the music industry has been developing for too long, and the same melody often happens. So when I heard Joe Cecchini's plagiarism accusation against me, After that, I asked someone to write a music comparison program. The accuracy and speed of this program surpass all comparison software on the market. If any company or individual is interested in this, you can contact Future Records to place an order."

"No one wants to hear your advertising, so hurry up and provide evidence."

Luo Ji got to the point: "My "Viva La Vida," Joe Cecchini's "If I Could Fly," and British singer Wildcat Stevens' "Foreigner Suite." The songs all have similar melody structures. , these melodic structures are very similar to "Se tu m'ami" composed by Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi in 1736, which is a public domain work."

The reporter was stunned for a moment. He did not expect that the plagiarism incident that had been making a lot of noise during this period would eventually turn out like this.Luo Ji started to play similar fragments of these four songs on a loudspeaker and finished playing.

An NBC reporter yelled: "Logic, do you have anything to say about the dirt in your past?"

"Fake News! Fake News!" Luo Ji turned around and left after saying this.

Three days later, Luo Ji, his agent, and the head of publicity watched a TV station owned by Warner Bros., where two hosts, a man and a woman, were discussing recent hot events in the entertainment industry, including the conflict between Logic and Universal Music. Both exposed each other's faults in the media, and the heat began to heat up.

The male host said: "Logic just tweeted that Universal Music has not given him a release plan for a physical album at all. After the release of his digital album, he contacted Universal Music many times, but Universal Music did not reply."

The female host said: "What happened between Logic and Universal Music?"

The male host said disdainfully: "What else could it be? Logic has obviously violated the distribution contract. I feel like he is just a spoiled child. Universal Music has said that they have already formulated Logic's album release plan. He is very I don’t want to wait for days.”

The white female host in her 40s immediately retorted excitedly: "You still speak for those big companies. He rose from the bottom and got to where he is now step by step. Is it easy for him?"

The female host started crying after speaking: "His latest YouTube video edited all his past experiences. Look at this video. At that time, he was singing on the street, and his face was red from the cold in the winter. Is it easy for him to get to where he is now? ? Now we have to be bullied by these big companies."

The male host did not expect that the female host suddenly lost control of her emotions and immediately started to use jokes to resolve the embarrassment.

When the agent Braun saw this scene on TV, he smiled and said: "Your latest video is very well done. It is a summary of your past. You see, the tone of the misfortune I proposed is very good. Although Universal They are still attacking you in public opinion, but public opinion in the United States is gradually leaning towards you."

Universal Music has been going crazy these days, influencing the media on a large scale to slander Luo Ji.Many of her self-defense voices were not reported by the media at all.

Fortunately, he is not alone. Last time due to the Viacom incident, YouTube's rewards came, and they asked the parent company Gugou to support them through Internet channels.In addition, Apple and Amazon also support him for their own interests.It affected a lot of media.

The male host said: "Don't cry. Think about it and be happy. Logic's album has been sold out on iTunes these days."

"Alright alright."

After watching the TV show, the publicity manager walked up to Luo Ji and said worriedly: "No singer has dared to provoke the four major record companies in this way before."

Luo Ji looked at the cars passing by outside the window and said leisurely, "Times have changed."

At the Universal Music headquarters in Los Angeles, more than a dozen physical record dealers blocked the head of Universal Music's distribution.

One of the representatives, a white man in his 40s, directly cursed: "M-Fxxk, the record industry has declined this year. We can hardly survive, and you are still causing civil strife. Logic's albums are so good and of such high quality that all the listeners Everyone is buying digital albums, who will buy physical albums in the future. Are you M-Fxxk trying to force us to death?"

"me……"

"Fxxk, solve it for us immediately today, otherwise Universal Music singers will not have an easy time in the future."

(End of this chapter)