Life, Once Again!

A music streaming service. A service that you have to pay to listen to music from the computer. He wondered if it would work in a world where MP3 files were illegally being distributed online through peer-to-peer programs, but it seemed that his superiors actually thought that it was a decent business idea. While working on that, the parent company presented the illegal peer-to-peer website with a suspension and quickly released a music distribution platform. Although the reactions were lukewarm since it was still in its beta stages, it didn't seem like a far-fetched idea from looking at the precedents in Japan and America.

Hong Janghae nodded after watching the presentation from the team leaders. It had been around a month since he switched from being a senior managing director of a company under YM Logistics to the CEO of an entertainment company named 'Soul'. In other people's eyes, it might look like a demotion for him, but Janghae didn't think of it that way. First up, the parent company invested a huge amount. Although the agency was built from profits from other subsidiaries, the ones that invested were two of the largest subsidiaries of the YM Corporation: YM Logistics and YM Living.

On top of that, the connections he created while working at YM Logistics were maintained, and he was able to utilize those connections for his new company. It wasn't that his path to promotion was blocked off. It was instead the opposite, it was a proof of trust. During a group meal, the chairman of the YM Corporation named him directly and wished him luck. This meant that this business had grabbed the attention of the chairman. To Janghae, who couldn't be satisfied with being a senior managing director, this was an opportunity. He also received his share when he was appointed the CEO of the agency. 24% of the stocks. There was also a plan to go public in the KOSDAQ market.

Management was just secondary. The main purpose of Soul was to grab ahold of the music distribution industry. They had to be the leading industry platform and eventually take over the market to the point that it would be impossible to distribute any music records without going through the platform provided by them. It was an idea that only YM Corporation could think of, and put into practice since they had a large proportion of the telecommunication market. Although other colossal companies were eyeing the music distribution market, YM was ahead of them by one, no, at least ten steps.

They were even talking to the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) about this. Now that the ship that was the music album market was sinking, they had to move on to the internet. The other music distribution companies were well aware of this. Soul worked in secret with those distribution companies to negotiate on copyrights. As most of the singers, lyricists and composers had left the management of their copyrights to KOMCA, things would go extremely smoothly once they completed developing the platform and released it into the market.

"You should all go have lunch. I'll have lunch on my own."

After sending off the team leaders, he closed his eyes for a minute. Since the scale had decreased in size, the management system had decreased as well. Janghae thought that it was actually quite okay like this. He was working with a select few elites, so it reminded him of the time when he did his team project before. After resting for a while, Janghae picked up the celebrity list on the meeting table. Although music distribution was their primary business, he couldn't just let the agency business handle itself. After all, there was no better publicity than celebrities joining their ranks.

Janghae got a coffee from a vending machine before looking through the papers. Whether it was items or people, the way to handle them was similar. In fact, handling people was easier in some cases.

Emotions did nothing to items, but they did affect people. The item wouldn't change no matter how much love you give it. It wasn't like a stone would turn into gold with enough love. However, in the case of people, they did sometimes turn into gold. Even when it came to useless and incompetent people, sweet words of flattery might cause miracles.

What an efficient way of doing business was that? It was possible to turn worthless things into something that had value by using the psychology of expectation, which was free. Of course, such a thing still wouldn't be useful when it came to work that required a high level of understanding, but the majority of work in this world was simple labor. People that were enchanted by sweet words could be useful in places like that.

One of the team leaders was like that. There was one team leader that did all the menial work for the other, smart team leaders. Janghae gave that team leader some hope. All he had to do was to tell him that he could look forward to next year's performance assessment. He didn't lie about anything. It was based on facts. It was just a matter of possibility. He could be promoted, and he might not be promoted. It was just that. A hope within reach was the best whip and carrot at the same time.

"President. Please take this."

One of the team leaders knocked on his office door and gave him a bottle of vegetable juice.

"Thank you."

"Not at all. Please have a nice meal."

Janghae nodded with a smile. It was him. The pitiful guy that worked hard staking his life for a hope that was vague and abstract while not having any skills himself. Actually, he wasn't even pitiful. People that didn't even know what kind of position they were in were not qualified to be considered pitiful. While other team leaders worked their bodies off in order to heighten their work capabilities, that team leader gave him gifts like this in order to make connections.

It wasn't that Janghae considered bribes as bad. A suitable amount of bribes was like oil. An oiled cogwheel definitely turns better than a not-oiled cogwheel. However, applying grease when one wasn't a cogwheel in the right place couldn't be anymore frustrating to him. That cogwheel would just spin on the spot in vain. If he was planning to use his bribes to survive the corporate life, he would have to be willing to give up his organs for it, but everything about that man was ambiguous. Ambiguous people always stayed on the spot. In this society, maintaining the status quo was the same as regressing. Staying still while others forged ahead? It would be better if he started writing a letter of resignation instead.

"Also, I hate carrots."

Janghae shook his head after reading the label on the juice. He threw the whole thing into the trash can by his foot. A heavy thud could be heard. That team leader's life would also fall to the bottom with that kind of sound sooner or later.

Janghae had a look at the actors that belonged to the three major agencies: NL Company, Jewel Entertainment and Yellow Star. They all had actors that were considered top stars by the masses. Idols that shook the hearts of students also belonged to those three. Janghae rested his chin against his hand. Before he was designated this position, he already studied the history of the entertainment business in South Korea. In the case of actors, their lineage was quite clear. Actors from theater troupes and their acquaintances were still kings in the industry. There weren't many signs of change just yet.

Meanwhile, music was a different story. They were in a period of change. The ballad-centric industry was shifting towards idol music that was focused on dance music. No, it had already changed. He honestly laughed when brats that reeked of their mother's milk were singing on TV, but he changed his mind after switching his job. The more he knew, the more he saw. Idol music was currently the center of pop music. In the case of teens, there were many fans that were willing to give up on going to school in order to watch an idol that they loved. Just because they were younger in age didn't mean that they had less purchasing power. Most of the album sales were due to teens and people in their twenties, with teens being overwhelmingly higher. Although album sales had plummeted thanks to the introduction of MP3 players, women in their teens and twenties still bought most of the albums.

"Idols, huh."

The first choice when it came to scouting people for an advert for YM Living was a beautiful actress, a young one if possible. The very foundation of advertising lay in giving the watcher a misconception that it was possible for them to become like the actor or actress in the ad with the product shown in the ad.

However, recently, that flow was shifting towards idols. Like the literal 'idols', idol bands had a lot of influence. Just like how a hat worn by an actor would sell like hotcakes, there was already a precedent with idols where a scarf that an idol was wearing was sold out. It was already proven that using a variety of idols was much more effective in creating ads rather than scouting a super expensive actress.

A business pursued profit. It wouldn't be a business if they left a profitable business idea alone. YM Living also switched its telecommunication adverts from actresses to idols. There were visible results very soon. Sales had increased this year compared to last year. They conducted a survey with new registrants, and the percentage of people that registered after seeing the advert on TV was significant.

Of course, the top stars still monopolized the peak of advertis.e.m.e.nts like cosmetics, apartments and refrigerators, but it was unknown what would happen in a few years' time. There was a possibility that idols would enter that scene. Though, they would first have to undergo a process to make them look high class.

Moreover, there was the Korean wave. Although actors started off the trend, the idols followed suit. Although all they did right now was to appear in late-night shows as guests, the current industry outlook was that it would soon be their era. Of course, it was unknown how long that flow would last. However, no one denied the fact that there would be profits in the short term. As for the flow, no one would know when such things would end.

Janghae slowly flipped over the pages. In regards to actors, they were contacting some people under the rug. Although Yellow Star, which started off as an agency for actors, possessed several 'A-tier' actors, the ones that were considered 'S-tier' were currently scattered throughout multiple companies. Park Taeho, who got the best actor award in the Daejong Festival last year and had clearly become one of the top-tier icons of popularity, also belonged to a place named Jewel Entertainment and not the three major agencies. Gong Yeonsoo, actress of the main heroine of a drama that hit 50% viewership on TBS last year also belonged to a run-of-the-mill agency with not many actors in it. Other S-tier actors were in similar positions.

Actually, it didn't matter what agency an actor belonged to as long as they had ticketing power. Thanks to that, the majority of them stuck with the agency they started off with since they had been through thick and thin together. Although the big agencies were putting in their effort to house S-tier actors in their ranks, the reason they failed each time was because they couldn't cut off connections that were tied through 'emotion'.

Stars. Lofty beings in the skies. Everyone's idol. It was a place that one could only climb up to with skill, personality and even luck. Many people defined stars as such.

However, Janghae thought differently.

'It's all a matter of exposure in the end.'

As long as he gathered actors with potential and exposed them to the media frequently, they would become stars with a high probability. They said people always wanted new things, but in reality, that wasn't the case. People preferred what they were used to. When developing new products, ideas that were too new were always rejected. The reason was simple. The risks were too high. Businesses preferred profit models with stable profits. A business' preference was equivalent to the mass' preference.

The current idol market was like that as well. Although the internet talked about how it was copy and paste everywhere and that the music market is dead, the industry was seeing never-seen-before highs. Although the internet proclaimed the death of pop music in South Korea, idols were in first, second, and third places in music programs. Business targeted people that actually had purchasing power rather than those that typed away on the keyboard. It was natural for their focus to be on that as well. This was why idols had great achievements. It was extremely logical.

Groups that proclaimed they would breathe new life into music culture in the form of band music, ballads and hip hop had all died out without any achievements. They disappeared.

The public wanted something new? Those were just the immature words of the pioneers. If they really wanted new and fresh things, the structure of the industry would have changed already. Just like how the old music market was taken over by idols.

"So the priority is to get actors that are actually popular, huh."

The internet made everything so much simpler in this era. It was easy to find out who and what the younger generation was passionate about. Janghae gave orders to standardize the faces of actresses that were popular amongst women in their teens to thirties. After that process was done, he would have the team leaders start casting people. In this agency, the structure was such that each team would compete against each other. If the value of the actor they scouted rose, they would receive appropriate compensation.

"A star is not born, but created."

Janghae stretched out his neck and stood up from his seat. After matters about contracting actors were somewhat done, the next would be idols. As they were the latecomers in this industry, they had to put much more effort into it. However, Janghae had the confidence. In the end, everything came down to fighting with money. As long as the parent company did not stop its support, this competition was something that he could not lose. He opened the door to the meeting room and left. He decided to have a sandwich for lunch. He had to start using his brain again after eating a light meal.

Janghae smiled at the team leader that came back while tapping on his belly saying that he was full. To Janghae, that team leader was out of his mind. The only ending that awaited a fat pig was to be butchered.