booktalesy Chapter 226 Zhou Zhixiong's overtures
Chapter 226 Zhou Zhixiong's overtures
Lu Ran closed his eyes, letting this information flow through his consciousness.
Ten minutes passed before he opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
"Dad, you're truly awesome." He exclaimed sincerely.
He opened the document and began to categorize and organize it.
Jay Chou style: Chinese style, R&B, rap, suitable for male singers with distinctive characteristics.
JJ Lin's style: high notes, love songs, piano playing and singing, suitable for male singers with solid singing skills.
Eason Chan's style: narrative-driven, emotionally intense, suitable for experienced male singers.
A-mei (Chang Hui-mei) type: explosive power, high notes, and full of emotion, suitable for powerful female singers.
Stefanie Sun type: Unique timbre and artistic temperament, suitable for female singers with distinctive features.
SHE series: harmonies, girlishness, and energy, suitable for groups.
...
As he categorized the artists, he mentally matched them with the existing artists at Star Glory.
Although Xingyao hasn't produced any top-tier superstars in recent years, it still has a solid foundation.
Several male singers have good singing skills, but lack good songs; several female singers have good images, but lack representative works; and several newcomers have good potential, but lack opportunities.
"Now we have everything." Lu Ran smiled. "One representative work for each person, two if that's not enough, and an entire album if two aren't enough."
Let's see what price they offer then. If it doesn't work out, let them sing the lower-ranked songs, and keep the higher-ranked ones for our own people.
Just as he was about to continue organizing, his phone suddenly rang.
It's an unfamiliar number, and the location shows "Shanghai," indicating it's a local number.
Lu Ran glanced at the time—11:30 p.m.
Calling at this time is either a nuisance call or something important.
He hesitated for a moment, but still answered the call.
"Feed?"
"Mr. Lu, hello." The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a middle-aged man, sounding somewhat tired but also sincere. "I'm so sorry to bother you so late. I'm Zhou Zhixiong from Starlight Entertainment."
Lu Ran was stunned for a moment.
Zhou Zhixiong?
Zhou Zhixiong, the guy I've been dealing with for half a year, and who I've always beaten to a pulp?
The executive producer of "Reign of Assassins" and the executive director of Starlight Entertainment?
Why did he contact me?
Lu Ran didn't hang up the phone immediately; he wanted to see what the other person was up to.
"Mr. Zhou," he said calmly, "is there something you need calling so late?"
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, then Zhou Zhixiong spoke, his tone surprisingly pleasant:
"Mr. Lu, I know we have some past issues. I won't beat around the bush—I'm calling today to discuss cooperation with you."
Chapter 226
Lu Ran thought he had misheard.
Zhou Zhixiong?
Starlight Entertainment?
Cooperation?
"Mr. Zhou," he said, choosing his words carefully, "I don't quite understand what you mean."
Zhou Zhixiong gave a wry smile on the other end of the phone: "President Lu, to be honest, I also feel like I'm quite useless. But there are some things I've figured out."
He paused, then continued, "You should know about the collaboration between Weibo and WeChat, right?"
"Know."
"So you knew that I had previously collaborated with Weibo?"
Lu Ran wasn't blind. As the same executive director, how could he not know about something that had been making waves on Weibo for so long? But he still wanted to hear what the other party had to say next. "I'd like to hear more details."
Regardless of whether Lu Ran knew or not, Zhou Zhixiong recounted the whole story of his collaboration with Weibo—how he was invited to collaborate by Weibo, how he poured resources into it with great anticipation, how he was kicked out after WeChat entered the market, and how he didn't even receive a notification, etc. He told almost everything.
"President Lu," his voice carried a hint of self-deprecation, "Although I, Zhou Zhixiong, am not a big shot, I've worked at Starlight Entertainment for so many years, and I'm at least an executive director. As for Weibo, they just use it and then discard it, without even a word."
Lu Ran remained silent, but he sensed that Zhou Zhixiong's words contained a hint of goodwill.
How much of Zhou Zhixiong's statement is true and how much is false?
Based on his understanding of Zhou Zhixiong, if what Zhou Zhixiong said was true, being treated like this by Weibo must have been quite upsetting for him.
"So you contacted me because you wanted to..."
"I've figured it out," Zhou Zhixiong interrupted him. "I was stuck in a dead end before, thinking that Starlight and Starshine were rivals and had to fight to see who was better. But later I realized that's not the case at all."
"Oh?" Lu Ran was also a little puzzled.
Isn't that right? It doesn't really seem like it. It's just that my previous works happened to be similar in style to theirs and completely outshone them.
Ju Luran later learned that before he joined Xingyao, the relationship between Xingyao Entertainment, Xingguang Entertainment, and the former Xinghua Entertainment was not so strained.
"That's right," Zhou Zhixiong said. "What were we fighting over? Market share, audience attention, and artist resources. But now? Now Weibo and WeChat have joined forces, and Tencent is throwing money at it. They're not competing with us for these things at all—they're trying to take our livelihoods away directly."
He disagreed with Zhou Zhixiong's words.
This time, the Weibo and WeChat posts were clearly aimed at their own Tutu Technology, not at Xingyao.
How could they possibly ruin Starlight Entertainment's business?
It's true that tech companies fundamentally look down on entertainment companies.
Zhou Zhixiong continued, "President Lu, do you know how much money the WeChat gambling platform lost in just three days? Seventy million. In seven days, it's at least a hundred million. A hundred million! How much is Starlight Entertainment's net profit for a year? They've lost several months' worth of our profits in just three days."
Lu Ran pondered. This data was different from what they had received. He thought that if Zhou Zhixiong was really the other party's partner, the data should be more accurate. It seemed that the situation was more troublesome than he had imagined.
Seeing that Lu Ran didn't seem inclined to ask any questions, Zhou Zhixiong continued, "This is just the beginning. Once they've captured the user base, what's next? Film and television, variety shows, music. They have users, traffic, and money; what can't they do? At that point, entertainment companies like ours will only be able to work for them. They'll reap the rewards, and we'll just get the scraps, and we'll have to be at their mercy."
Zhou Zhixiong's voice grew increasingly agitated: "President Lu, I don't want to work for someone else. I don't want the team I've painstakingly built to have to rely on charity to survive. So I've come to a decision—rather than fighting amongst ourselves, we should join forces."
Zhou Zhixiong's words did make some sense.
Lu Ran also felt that it wouldn't be long before these tech giants would no longer be satisfied with just technology.
With a better platform, they will definitely get involved in entertainment projects as well.
They haven't entered the entertainment industry yet because they are still keeping each other in check.
Even in the realm of social networking, WeChat cannot achieve a monopoly.
Therefore, the collaboration between Weibo and WeChat may not be aimed at just TUTU.
TUTU was just a starting point, a pretext.
Their real goal is the entire entertainment industry.
Social media + gaming + celebrities + internet traffic – if this combination really works, traditional entertainment companies simply can't withstand it.
Whether Zhou Zhixiong's words were just needless worry, an attempt to get closer to Lu Ran, or something he had actually discovered, Lu Ran couldn't be sure for the time being.
"President Zhou," Lu Ran began slowly, "have you discussed this idea with the senior management of Starlight Entertainment?"
"We've talked," Zhou Zhixiong said. "I just spoke with the chairman this afternoon. He said that as long as you agree to cooperate, he can authorize me to act as your agent. I can go to your company tomorrow to discuss the cooperation with you in person."
Lu Ran raised an eyebrow: "Seriously?"
"President Lu," Zhou Zhixiong said earnestly, "I used to be prejudiced against you, thinking you were just a lucky young man. But after watching you for the past six months, I admit I misjudged you. I can't do what you've done. I can't write the songs you've written. I can't make the TUTU you created. And I certainly can't make the film 'That Rabbit' that you directed."
He paused, a hint of relief in his voice: "So, instead of continuing to fight you, I'd rather learn from you. At least we're both content creators, we both make a living with our skills. Compared to those who rely on throwing money at the market, we're on the same page."
...