New York 2006

Chapter 93 The big autograph session with Taylor

At the Hilton Garden Inn near Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Luo Ji and Taylor were drinking coffee and watching the episode of Ellen's talk show that the two had recorded on NBC.

Taylor picked up the phone and said, "Let me ask Ellen, how are the ratings?"

After a while, Taylor hung up the phone and said excitedly: "The ratings are very good, ranking first in the same period, surpassing the Oprah Talk Show."

Luo Ji said calmly: "If the two of us attack, there's nothing we can't win!"

"Yeah." Taylor happily walked up and kissed Luo Ji on the face.

The two of them instantly fell in love with each other and moved towards the bed step by step.By the time breakfast was finished and things were tidied up, it was already two hours later.

At Fiona's urging, the two got in the car and headed to Amoeba Music (Amoeba Music Store) on Sunset Boulevard.

The Amoeba Music Store on Sunset Boulevard is one of the largest music stores in the world.This store is already one of the famous landmarks in Hollywood, and many musicians come here to perform.

Luo Ji and Taylor are here today. Taking advantage of the weekend, they will hold a two-day large-scale autograph signing event, with performances in between.

Sitting in the car, the agent Braun suddenly called: "Logic, a ski equipment company called just now. They watched today's Ellen Show and they were very satisfied with the love photo of you and Taylor in the snow mountain. So they want to ask you and Taylor to endorse their ski products. Would you like to?"

"Of course I do." Luo Ji quickly replied. There was no business he wouldn't do if he delivered it to his door.

"What about Taylor?"

Luo Ji explained the situation to Taylor, who immediately agreed.Luo Ji then said to Braun, "You should contact Taylor's agent and negotiate with them."

Braun hesitated for a while and said: "But they also have concerns. They want to make sure that you and Taylor will not break up in a short time and will stay together for at least a year. Otherwise, they will have to pay them liquidated damages. If the contract is broken, you and Taylor will I don’t think I can make much money from the endorsement.”

Young people's relationships are always short-lived, and they may break up at some point. It makes sense that Capital has concerns, so Luo Ji explained the situation to Taylor.

After hearing this, Taylor looked at Luo Ji with wide eyes: "Are you so unsure of our relationship?"

Luo Ji quickly explained: "Of course not. Of course I have confidence in our relationship. But I also want to ask for your opinion."

"I don't have a problem with that," Taylor said angrily.

Luo Ji quickly replied to Braun: "Go and talk, we don't have any objections."

Taylor was still a little depressed because of what he just said, and he sat glumly next to him.

Luo Ji held Taylor's hand: "I have confidence in our relationship, but you, you won't fall in love with any handsome guy just because you see him, right?"

Taylor was shocked and said: "How come you are slandering me?"

Luo Ji said seriously: "You have a criminal record!"

“What kind of criminal record do I have?!”

"You forgot what Allen said. How can anyone write a song for someone else when they first meet me? Unless you are fascinated by my appearance at the first sight."

Taylor moved the hair beside his ear uneasily: "That's just the artist's creative impulse, don't talk nonsense. It was obviously you who wrote the song to confess to me, and the TV show proves it."

Luo Ji immediately said, "Don't you even think about changing the subject?"

Taylor's head turned: "No, why are you questioning me? It's obviously me who should question you. Why did your first thought when you heard that we would be a couple for at least a year was that we would break the contract?"

"I didn't, don't talk nonsense. I just respect you."

"you……"

Fiona listened to the conversation between the two and said with a smile: "Hahaha, you two are so interesting. Stop arguing, the Amoeba Record Store is here."

Falling in love indeed makes people wiser. Luo Ji and Taylor looked at each other with smiles.

When the two got out of the car, a Universal Music employee immediately came over with a middle-aged white man: "Logic, Taylor, this is a record distributor in Los Angeles, and this record store is his industry."

"Hello, hello." Luo Ji and Taylor immediately stepped forward to shake hands and say hello.

The middle-aged white man led the way and introduced: "Look, this is a human-shaped stand made by the two of you overnight."

This photo was taken yesterday by Universal Music's contact person. The two people holding the sign stood closely together holding their respective physical albums in their hands.

The human-shaped sign is placed at the entrance to the record store and can be seen as soon as you enter.

Luo Ji and Taylor nodded with satisfaction, both satisfied with the humanoid stand.

"Look, your two albums are placed in the most conspicuous places of the record store, at the entrance, cashier, and road junction." The middle-aged white man continued to introduce.

"Ah."

The middle-aged white man continued to lead the way, and several people came to a small stage inside the record store: "Your autograph session will be held here in the past two days. After customers buy your album and pay, they will come here. , after signing in, you can leave through the back door and go straight to the parking lot at the back.”

Amoeba Record Store is indeed one of the largest record stores in the United States. Everything is arranged in an orderly manner. Luo Ji said, "Thank you, everything is very good. We are very satisfied."

"Hahaha, you're welcome." The middle-aged white man continued: "Logic, you don't know, right? When you were in the business war with Universal, I also put pressure on Universal Music as the representative of the physical record distributor."

Only then did Luo Ji recognize him. He was the middle-aged white man who had led the group of physical record dealers to the door of Universal Music. Luo Ji quickly thanked him: "Thank you very much."

The middle-aged white man spoke seriously: "You're welcome, I personally support independent music. But you must not continue to promote iTunes in the media in the future. You can only get seven dollars for a digital album, but for a physical album You can get a ten-meter knife."

"Don't worry, I won't. I know that."

The middle-aged white man smiled and said: "Then you guys wait here for a while, the autograph session will start soon. I'll leave first if I have something else to do."

"Ok."

Luo Ji looked at the leaving figure of the middle-aged white man and fell into deep thought.After the rise of the Internet industry, the struggle between the Internet and traditional industries is everywhere.

Digital record distribution and physical record distribution, YouTube and Viacom, Netflix and Blockbuster, Amazon and traditional retail, Yahoo and traditional paper media, etc.It seems that the confrontation between the Internet and traditional industries will continue.

……

The autograph session began. Luo Ji and Taylor sat at a table, signing records mechanically. There seemed to be hundreds of people queuing up, filling up the space of the record store.

A white boy handed ten albums to Luo Ji: "Please sign them for me."

Luo Ji pointed to the cardboard at the venue: "Sorry, each person can only get one signed album. It's written clearly on it."

"Please be accommodating," the white boy said pitifully.

Luo Ji pointed to the people in line behind him: "Sorry, there are hundreds of people behind me, sorry."

The staff stepped forward to coordinate, but the white boy had no choice but to pick up ten albums and leave.

Luo Ji met quite a few people like this today, and they all wanted to get a few more signed albums.But no exceptions were rejected.Taylor encountered relatively few such people today.

Fiona walked up to Luo Ji and said, "It's dinner time, what do you two want to eat?" Luo Ji looked up at the team of several hundred people, then looked at Taylor: "Do you want to take a break?"

"Need not."

"Is it really not necessary?"

Taylor smiled and said: "No need really."

Luo Ji didn't show any pretense: "Then go buy some hamburgers and coke, and we can deal with them casually."

"Next one." The staff member maintaining order next to him spoke.

A white girl walked up to Taylor: "Taylor, I like you so much."

"Thank you." Taylor took the girl's album and signed it.

The white girl took out her phone and put her face into the camera.There was a click and a photo was taken with Taylor who was signing.

The white girl then came to Luo Ji and handed the album "16" to Luo Ji.

"Logic, I like you very much too. I watched the Ellen Show with you two this morning, and you two are really cool."

"Thank you."

Luo Ji returned the signed album to the girl.With a click, the girl took a photo with Luo Ji on her cell phone, nodded her thanks very politely, and left.

This place is very close to a wealthy area, and most people are very polite, with only a few coming specifically to cause trouble.

Not long after, the two met a handsome young white man about 20 years old, who took out a poster and asked Taylor to sign it.

Taylor was a little angry after reading this and motioned to the staff next to him to handle it.After notifying the staff, Taylor glared at Luo Ji.Luo Ji looked innocent and glanced at the poster.

The poster turned out to be a photo of Luo Ji that had been popular on 4chan.The content of the poster shows Luo Ji and Britney standing together, and the accompanying text is, We wrote the song last night.

M-Fxxk, fuck me!
Luo Ji looked at the young white man with hostility. When the young white man saw the staff approaching, he immediately took out an album and handed it to Taylor.Taylor ignored it and motioned to the staff to continue.

The young white man did not resist. When he passed by Luo Ji, he whispered: "You Hapa!"

Luo Ji was already used to this kind of thing. He had encountered it several times and responded with his middle finger.The young white man looked at Luo Ji angrily and wanted to say something, but he was already led away by the staff.

Luo Ji pretended that nothing had happened and continued with the signing.

Taylor heard this from the side and gave Luo Ji a comforting look. Luo Ji responded with a smile, not affected at all.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the autograph session was temporarily suspended. Luo Ji and Taylor stood on the small stage, surrounded by a dense crowd of onlookers, which seemed to number more than 1000 people.

Luo Ji performed the tracks from the album "We are young", "Viva la vda", and "Secrets".Taylor performed three of her album's title songs.Finally, the more than 30-minute performance ended with the two singing "We don't talk anymore".

The first day of the autograph session ended at [-]pm. The staff of the record store approached the two of them and asked, "Can you take a photo with us?"

"Of course!"

"What about the signed album?"

"no problem."

……

It was the afternoon of the second day of the autograph session. Shortly after the two finished their performance today, they continued the autograph session.

Fiona handed Luo Ji and Taylor two bottles of bottled water and reminded them, "It's now 05:30 in the afternoon."

Luo Ji looked at the record store staff and motioned for him to come over: "It's getting late. Why don't we end the signing event if we finish signing all the people who have already purchased the records?"

The record store employee said, "Why don't you wait a little longer? There are still many customers shopping in the record store. They haven't finished shopping yet."

Luo Ji didn't care and looked at Taylor: "Can you still hold on?"

Taylor rubbed his already red and swollen wrist: "No problem, just do as they say. I can still hold on."

"Is it really okay?"

Taylor smiled and said: "Don't worry, I'm not that fragile."

"Okay, then you go make arrangements." Luo Ji said to the record store staff.

After spending this time together, Luo Ji discovered that Taylor, who was born in the middle class, was not squeamish at all, was very strong, and was very dedicated to her music career.The level of professionalism is comparable to that of Luo Ji, a person from a low-level background.

Under this arrangement, the autograph session, which was originally planned to end at 09 o'clock, did not end until 30:[-]. The two of them worked intensively for twelve hours today.

The middle-aged white owner of the record store came out to thank the two of them. He handed a report to Luo Ji and Taylor and spoke happily.

“这两天唱片店的人流量增加了5倍，Logic你的《16》这两天售出6万张，泰勒的同名专辑也售出3万张。你们两人的专辑比平时多售出6倍还多。”

Taylor said doubtfully: "I don't think I signed that many signatures."

The record store owner said: "Many people think that queuing is too time-consuming. After enjoying your performance, they buy the album and leave."

Taylor said slightly: "So that's it. When I signed albums in the past, most people came for the signed albums. There were not so many people."

"Haha, you will adapt. Taylor, you are a genius." The middle-aged white record store owner said.

Luo Ji looked at the time: "If there's nothing else, it's getting late, so we'll leave first."

The middle-aged white record store owner shook hands with the two of them: "It's okay, I won't disturb you anymore. You guys have a good rest. It's been a tiring day today."

Back at the hotel, the two of them ate some food.Then I lay on the bed and put an ice pack on my wrist.

Taylor turned to look at Luo Ji and said softly, "Thank you, Fili."

"Thank you for what?" Luo Ji's wrist felt a little painful and he frowned slightly.

Taylor said sincerely: "Thank you for helping my singing career. Without you, I would not have been able to sell so many records."

Luo Ji said casually: "It's okay, we help each other. When I was at a low point some time ago, didn't you also support me in the media?"

Taylor said solemnly: "That's different. I still have to thank you, Fili."

Luo Ji smiled mysteriously and looked directly at Taylor with ambiguous eyes: "Then how are you going to thank me?"

Taylor saw the look in Luo Ji's eyes and slapped him: "I hate it. Can you be more serious?"

Luo Ji threw the ice pack aside, turned around and pinned Taylor down. The two looked at each other and their breathing gradually became faster.Taylor was moved and hugged Luo Ji's neck, and the two kissed passionately.

(End of this chapter)