Chapter 129: Will Warner Start a Company?

July 4, 2001. After all negotiations concluded, the production team of "My Fair Princess" publicly announced the true reason for Zhou Yi's recent appearance near the set and his meeting with cast member Chen Hao—

"Besides visiting because of their close relationship, Zhou Yi will also compose a new song that will not be included in his next album, to serve as an insert song and promotional track for this drama, giving his fans a surprise.

"At the same time, Zhou Yi will also make a cameo appearance in this drama. Furthermore, the promotional music video for this new song will be filmed on location within the production team..."

Accompanied by the smiling confirmation from the director of "My Fair Princess," once this definite news spread, some fans who had "archaeologically" dug up Zhou Yi's pre-debut performances immediately got angry—

As everyone knows, up to now, there has been a very bad "fault" in Zhou Yi's albums—he never includes even a single song that he has previously publicly performed in his new albums.

After the first album "Zhou Yi" exploded in popularity, resourceful fans managed to obtain videos of Zhou Yi singing for fun in the bar streets of the Imperial Capital, which were folk and rock styles completely different from the hiphop style of the first album.

That was a charm different from hiphop, allowing many fans to see another side of Zhou Yi before his debut.

They originally thought that Zhou Yi's second album would most likely re-record these songs with the highest specifications and include them, but Zhou Yi stubbornly didn't include a single one; they were all new songs.

Up to now, what circulates among fans of various groups is still the live DV-shot version with average video quality and terrible audio recording.

This made those fans who prefer folk and rock styles extremely anxious.

Especially since Zhou Yi seemed to have absolutely no intention of releasing an EP to rework songs like "South of Nanshan" and "Beautiful Land."

Yes, the album "Jiangnan" is more important, but aren't the songs you wrote and sang before your debut songs too?!

Stepchildren, just ignored like that?!

At the very least, release a greatest hits album to make money, rework a few songs, stuff them in, and sell them as new songs!

Originally, writing an insert song for Jackie Chan's "Rush Hour 2" was enough to make people expect what sparks Zhou Yi and Big Brother Chan would create, but at that time, Warner officially responded by saying this song would not be included in Zhou Yi's personal album, which truly poured cold water on many fans who wanted to hear Zhou Yi's English songs in advance.

Some fans at that time had already realized this "quirk" of Zhou Yi's, but after seeing Warner's official explanation, they just assumed that putting English songs in a Chinese album obviously destroyed the overall coherence, so they reluctantly believed this explanation.

But this time, when it was explicitly stated that the song for "My Fair Princess" would also not be included in the next album, some loud-voiced fans were truly furious—

After this news was announced, they started forming cliques and constantly wrote letters to Warner, demanding that Warner pay attention to their own company's Little Heavenly King; this is Warner's number one star after Guo Fucheng's age gradually increased!

"Look at Dai Peini! The song she wrote for "Meteor Garden," "The Love You Want," was directly included in her second album released in January; after "Meteor Garden" aired, she surged in popularity in reverse and now has surpassed most of Zhou Yi's second album songs! Strongly suggest letting Zhou Yi..."

"Does Warner even know how to run a company?! If you don't, let me do it! Zhou Yi's songs are so good..."

"What is Zhou Yi's manager doing?! Make Zhou Yi work harder! He is only nineteen, don't let him..."

"..."

In the hotel room, looking at these impatient letters sent by fans to Warner, Zhou Yi, sitting on the living room sofa, found it somewhat amusing.

As one of the objects of these fans' "abuse" and "humiliation," as Zhou Yi's manager, Qian Jiang wore an expression of helplessness: "Because of your habit, you have almost made me and the company get scolded to death by your fans who are so concerned about your career."

Was it that he didn't want to urge Zhou Yi to rework and release an EP? Was it that he didn't want to make money?

To put it bluntly, Zhou Yi's priority and level of importance internally are now basically equivalent to Guo Fucheng, whose focus has already shifted to the film industry.

This is a terrifying thing.

Now the company has to coax him; otherwise, once news spreads that Zhou Yi is unhappy at Warner, giants like Sony and EMI could laugh to death and rush to Zhou Yi's doorstep overnight with the breach of contract compensation.

If Zhou Yi could decide to make an EP with a graduation theme, Qian Jiang would almost be moved to tears.

"Don't say anything, looking at these letters is quite moving."

Zhou Yi, with absolutely no intention of repenting, instead laughed somewhat carelessly.

In this era where the internet was just rising, besides offline activities and album signing sessions, the most cost-effective way for fans and singers to communicate was undoubtedly writing letters to the record company.

Those were the fans' most sincere love.

Qian Jiang gave him an annoyed sideways glance: "You are still laughing; now I am the one bearing all the blame. And these here are just the tip of the iceberg; there is a huge pile at the company.

"And there are huge piles of letters at the company branches in the Taiwan Region, the Mainland, and Hong Kong. How do you want to handle them? You definitely can't finish reading them all, and keeping them takes up space."

"Let the company suffer a bit, you bear the blame, no big problem."

Zhou Yi smiled and placed the letter in his hand back into the messy pile of letters on the coffee table: "Help me buy a few houses in good locations in the Imperial Capital; in the future, just send these letters directly to my house."

"..."

As a Hong Konger, Qian Jiang, who instinctively wanted to say a few words about buying houses, thought of the housing prices in the Imperial Capital now and immediately swallowed the words that had already risen to his lips.

With Zhou Yi's current net worth, buying a few houses in good locations in the Imperial Capital really isn't considered a problem.

Just the two endorsements plus the various revenue shares from the first album "Zhou Yi" up to now have already exceeded ten million, and the song copyrights can continue to bring revenue to Zhou Yi.

A ten-millionaire in 2001, and this is without counting the revenue from the second album "Jiangnan."

"Endorsements really bring money fast."

After calculating his income, Zhou Yi couldn't help but sigh. Album income can only explode for a while in the beginning; afterwards, it is a steady stream.

If it weren't for Coca-Cola's ten-million endorsement and Anta's nine-million endorsement fee, it really wouldn't be so simple for his income to break ten million.

"Not every endorsement has this much money, but I will try my best to negotiate a higher price for you."

As a professional manager, Qian Jiang, who helped Zhou Yi secure these two high-value endorsements, immediately smiled when talking about his area of expertise: "Currently, with the explosion of your second album, several clothing brands have come to find you. Even several DVD manufacturers have made contact, such as Philips and Ai Gao.

"Thanks to the high fee baseline set for your endorsements previously, their first-round quotes are very substantial."

Against the backdrop of Coca-Cola offering ten million and Anta offering nine million, manufacturers willing to come find Zhou Yi for endorsements this year are not as shabby as last year.

Anything below four million can't even get a seat at the table to negotiate business.

Unlike last year, when offers of one or two million for a few years could come to talk to Qian Jiang. Hindered by the fact that Zhou Yi was just starting out last year, even though Qian Jiang looked down on such low quotes, he still had to sit at the table.

"In that case, won't you be able to earn a lot again this year?"

After Qian Jiang left, Chen Hao, who came by to invite Zhou Yi to eat, couldn't help but express surprise upon hearing this.

"About the same; it's hard to say exactly how much right now, mainly because there are too many channels for album revenue shares." Zhou Yi, who didn't need to worry about his figure and was eating heartily, formed a sharp contrast with Chen Hao, who was eating her meal in small bites.

"Singers are so good; pity I can't be one."

Chen Hao curved her eyebrows, smiling and teasing: "But in terms of acting, you are not as good as me; be careful I crush you during scene rehearsals."

The fact that Zhou Yi chose the role of Li Bai in his second choice gave Chen Hao, the actress playing Wan Ren Mi, a reason to come to Zhou Yi's place whenever she had nothing to do.

After all, the character Li Bai is the destination of Wan Ren Mi in the drama. As Wan Ren Mi herself, helping a newcomer like Zhou Yi get familiar with the lines shouldn't be excessive, right?

Especially since Zhou Yi's own personality has absolutely nothing to do with this pure and innocent, slightly silly character named Li Bai.

(End of Chapter)