Chapter 4: After Becoming Famous

The next day, the first thing Luo Quan did when she woke up was to open her phone to check the click-through rate of her three videos.

Originally, she thought that the total views of the three songs overnight would be at least 100,000, but to her surprise, the views of each video had actually exceeded 200,000!

And every time she refreshed the interface, the views would jump up by dozens and dozens!

It was only 9:00 AM now. If it reached noon, wouldn't the cumulative views exceed a million?!

Glancing at the comment section, Luo Quan found that a considerable number of views were contributed by Shimizu Daisuke's fans. Entering Shimizu Daisuke's homepage again, she saw that he had released a new video at 1:00 AM last night, titled: Tokyo Tour Part 3—Encountering a Beautiful Foreign Girl!

At the beginning of the video, Shimizu Daisuke emphatically recommended "Lemon" sung by Luo Quan to his fans, and in the middle of the video, there was also an incomplete version of Luo Quan singing on the street.

It sounded like Shimizu Daisuke had tuned this part, making it sound even more comfortable than the version Luo Quan recorded herself.

It was this video that made tens of thousands of fans who watched Shimizu Daisuke's video swarm into Luo Quan's personal homepage like bees finding the fragrance of flowers.

What surprised the fans was that in addition to "Lemon," there were two other songs in Luo Quan's personal space. Although the sound quality and image quality were not great, the quality of the songs themselves was quite high.

Especially the song "I Once Thought About Ending It All," which resonated greatly with many young Japanese people.

Because most Japanese people were already asleep when the video was released, there was no movement on mainstream news websites like Livedoor until now, but Twitter was already on the verge of exploding.

A user named "Airi-chan" forwarded the chorus of "I Once Thought About Ending It All" and captioned it: I once thought about ending it all, because there are people like the sister living in this world, I have some expectations for this world!

This tweet was posted at 4:00 AM, and by now it had gained 4,000 likes, and the number of likes was still rising at a visible speed. The number of comments had also exceeded 1,000 in a short time, all encouraging "Airi-chan" to live bravely.

Searches related to Izumi and "Ending It All" had rushed onto the trending list in Japan on Twitter, and entering the top ten was just a matter of time.

Just as Luo Quan was preparing to apply for a Twitter account for promotion, two emails appeared in her Gmail.

One was signed by Avex Music Entertainment, and the other was signed by Sony Music.

Luo Quan's heart couldn't help but beat wildly. These two record companies were undisputed music giants!

The former occupied the largest share of the Japanese record market, while the latter was one of the world's three major record companies with an international reputation. Now, both were looking for her!

What did this mean? It meant that these big companies had already seen her potential and intended to recruit her.

The content of the emails first introduced the glorious history of their own companies, such as the artists under their banner and their status in the Japanese record market, and then mentioned wanting to sign Luo Quan to become a newcomer under the company.

In addition to the signing bonus, many promises were made regarding resources in various aspects. Such conditions were already quite generous for a newcomer.

But because of the system's restriction task, Luo Quan could only say sorry to the various signing conditions of these companies.

Subsequently, Luo Quan sent emails refusing to sign with a relatively sincere and tactful tone to the two record companies.

In less than a minute, Avex gave a reply: Our company has quite a lot of big-name divas (equivalent to music queens) and has a complete and mature system for cultivating female singers. Please consider it again.

Luo Quan could only find an excuse to reply: "I am a college student, and I don't have any plans to be a professional singer for the time being."

"That's a real pity. Then would you be willing to sell the copyright of those three songs to us? We can give you 1 million yen for each song!"

Seeing Avex's offer, Luo Quan couldn't help but frown. 3 million yen sounded like a lot, but converted to RMB, it was only 200,000.

She didn't know if this company saw that she looked like a foreigner and was bullying her for not understanding the Japanese record market, or if they really intended to slaughter her like a pig.

If it were an ordinary college student who hadn't seen much of the world, they might have really sold the songs at such a cabbage price. However, Luo Quan, who knew the value of these three songs, how could she make such a short-sighted decision?

She just replied faintly: "Let me consider it again."

Reality also cooled Luo Quan down, who was slightly carried away. She overestimated her attractiveness to these big companies and underestimated the degree to which capitalists exploited the broad masses of working people.

There is a good saying: be kind when dealing with people!

After sending Avex away, Sony Music sent a reply, but the conditions given by the latter were simply worlds apart from the former.

After the signing request proposed by Sony was rejected by Luo Quan, they didn't dwell on this point, but instead turned to want to buy the exclusive distribution rights of these three songs from Luo Quan.

Just distribution rights, not copyright. Even if the contract was signed, the songs still belonged to Luo Quan. The key was that the price was very sincere: ten-year exclusive authorization, a package price of 20 million yen, and it was after-tax! The profit sharing from sales would be calculated separately!

This price was nearly seven times that of Avex, and they didn't even buy the copyright. For a newcomer, this was absolutely a super conscientious price!

The system only restricted her from signing with these companies as an artist, but letting record companies distribute her music was still possible, not to mention that Sony Music's price was so fair.

Why else would they be one of the world's three major record companies? Look at this pattern. They were both record companies competing in Japan, so why was the gap in treating newcomers so big?

Luo Quan was not greedy. Seeing that the price was reasonable, she immediately made a decision. The reply email was only two words: "Deal!"

Japan is different from China; there is no special ID card to this day. Although the government has been promoting something called a My Number card in recent years, less than 20% of Japanese citizens have applied for this type of identification.

So when Sony asked Luo Quan to provide identification, she gave her student ID.

Two minutes later, Sony Music sent Luo Quan an electronic contract regarding the sale of exclusive distribution rights.

After receiving it, Luo Quan went downstairs to find a convenience store with a printer nearby, printed two copies of the contract, and signed her Chinese name and stage name.

The Chinese name was Luo Quan, and the stage name was the nickname the original owner had chosen for herself, which was Izumi.

In a while, Sony Music would send someone to collect the contract. Once the other side signed it, the contract would take effect immediately, and the 20 million yen should be transferred to her account before long.

Thinking that such a huge sum of money was about to be credited, Luo Quan skipped all the way home, her face filled with a happy and brilliant smile, her golden hair shining brightly under the sun.

Soon, the person sent by Sony Music to collect the contract arrived outside Luo Quan's door. Hearing the knock, Luo Quan hurriedly took the contract and opened the door.

"Hello, are you Miss Luo Quan?" The person who came was a young man, wearing a decent suit even in the scorching midsummer, and his tone was very polite.

"Yes," Luo Quan nodded.

The young man took out his work ID and said, "I am the contract collector delegated by Sony Music. Just call me Miki."

"The contract is here. I've already signed it." Luo Quan handed the distribution rights contract for the three songs to Miki.

Miki checked it and, after confirming there were no problems, said, "After the contract takes effect, the money will be transferred to your account as soon as possible. If you encounter any problems later, you can contact us via email. I need to take the contract back to headquarters for signing immediately, so I won't disturb you further."

After speaking, he turned and ran downstairs.

The harsh friction sound of car tires against the ground suddenly rang out on the quiet road. By the time Luo Quan looked over, she could only see a cloud of flying dust, and the car had already disappeared at the end of the road.

"Is it necessary to be in such a hurry?" Luo Quan scratched her head and complained. ===== CHAPTER 5 =====