To the conditions proposed by Zhang Xiaohua, Zhou Yi carefully pondered...
It would be a bit challenging to produce 300,000 records in half a month. However, if they bite their tongues and worked overtime, they could complete it. After all, there were still many people in the factory who just idled around, waiting for work, but hadn't received any orders yet.
In terms of the deposit, the copyright of the song was used as a mortgage. There were no problems with that, taking into account that "Broken Hearted Woman" alone was worth hundreds of thousands.
As for the provision of shooting equipment and sales outlets, this would be even more simple. Although their equipment was old, it was still functional and could do the job with no problems.
And sales outlets were also ready-made. Many shopping malls and multimedia stores had a cooperative relationship with the company. While the scope was not very wide and barely able to guarantee sales, it wouldn't matter. After all, Wang Jingwen's popularity was enough to compensate for it.
The only thing that put Zhou Yi in a difficult position was the profit sharing ratio between the two parties.
Although the other party would provide complete music, and that would save a lot of trouble, the hardware production costs for making the records would not be low. Affected by the current slump in the quality of entertainment being produced, the demand for music records had fallen greatly, leading to a decrease of market price for them to at most 10 yuan: those were the highest prices of the most popular singers.
If one were to put this standard on Wang Jingwen's work, the 300,000 records would sell for about 3 million yuan. If they took 30 percent for their own side, that would be just 900,000 yuan, and this was before even taking away the costs for manpower and material resources; therefore, no matter how he saw it, they would receive a loss or barely break even.
After hesitating again for a while, Zhou Yi finally gathered the courage to speak the words in his heart. He hoped that Zhang Xiaohua would reconsider the problem of dividing the profits because his company really couldn't accept these terms.
Upon hearing his concerns, Zhang Xiaohua just slightly smiled. He leaned back comfortably on the chair like a boss. "Who told you to sell a record for 10 yuan?"
Zhou Yi was puzzled. "What do you mean...?"
"50 yuan, this is the lowest price." Zhang Xiaohua calmly said: "Imagine, if a record was sold for 50 yuan, then how much money would 300,000 records become?"
Zhou Yi immediately calculated it in his mind, and in the next moment, he was surprised and trembling. "That's...15 million!"
"Yes, now calculate the following: how much is 30% of 15 million?" Zhang Xiaohua said with a smile.
"Four hundred... four hundred and fifty thousand!" Zhou Yi could not help exclaiming.
"Yes, these 4.5 million yuan will be your company's dividends." Zhang Xiaohua added.
Zhou Yi suddenly fell into a state of catatonic and could not return to Earth for a long time.
'4.5 million yuan', what does this mean for a small record company that had always been indifferent?
It was no exaggeration to say that just this single deal was enough to make the entire company's yearly revenue and still have surplus!
But the premise was that those 300,000 records must be sold out, and they must be priced at 50 yuan per unit.
Even so, according to Zhou Yi's understanding of the market, a record wouldn't sell for 50 yuan. Even if Wang Jingwen was a popular singer, Zhou Yi didn't dare to guarantee that those fans would be willing to spend 50 yuan just to buy her records.
It seemed that Zhou Yi's worries were seen through. At this time, only Zhang Xiaohua laughed: "I would've liked to sell at 100 yuan, but since it's our companies first album release and in order to build trust with the fans, I can only sell it at 50 yuan for now, just for those fans."
In fact, Zhang Xiaohua was never worried about the sales of the record. Even if he priced a record at 100 yuan, he believed that it would still be sold out smoothly.
Because he had already done a full investigation before, he was surprised to find that people in this country were quite wealthy, and the consumption level was very high. People here were crazy about the entertainment industry even if it was having a downturn. The level of demand in the market has always been high, but the quality was low, never meeting their standards; therefore, they obviously weren't willing to pay high prices for it, leading to the current low prices.
Wang Jingwen now was equal to spring rain after a season of drought. Once her album was on sale, it would surely cause a popular frenzy that would make people rush to snatch it up. It would cause a fierce rebound effect in the entertainment market, allowing people to satisfy their long awaited craving for good music, also making a little contribution to the entertainment market as others were bound to raise their prices hoping to leech of the situation.
The best bit of news for him was that was that this country, in order to support the entertainment industry and stimulate the entertainment market, had passed regulations allowing newly founded entertainment companies to be exempted from tax for three years, so, for him, regardless of how much money was made from selling the for 300,000 records, it would be pure profit.
What was more worthy of mentioning was that, in order to maintain the balance of the entertainment market, the relevant departments had fiercely cracked down on piracy and had even specifically set up criminal laws to deter and punish others. As a result, people consciously refused piracy, promoted the genuine products, and fully maintained the entertainment scene. The basic rights and interests of the company were fully protected.
Zhang Xiaohua was full of confidence. But Zhou Yi still dared not jump in it easily because the risks involved were really too high.
However, after thinking it over again, he realised he had no real choice. The company hadn't done any business for over two months now. While the company's upfront looked solid, the interior had many issues. If the situation would not change, they would soon be forced to make changes like reducing the amount of staff, but those people were all his colleagues he invited into business with him personally, thus he couldn't bear to fire them. Now that there was a chance to receive big business in front of him, he decided to go for it.
At least, in this way, no matter what, they would have fought and tried their best, instead of slowly allowing the company to fall apart.
"When do we sign the contract?" Zhou Yi temporarily put aside all his concerns. At the moment, he just wanted to finalize the deal as soon as possible. Could not be missed!
Seeing that Zhou Yi was anxious, Zhang Xiaohua, however, was unhurried. "I'm not in a hurry. The songs have already been directly recorded by our company. Everything is good on our side. I'm only worried about one thing: Will the quality of the records produced by your company be able to reach my desired level?"
Zhou Yi understood the meaning of Zhang Xiaohua. Before the cooperation, he first wanted to inspect the goods. These were the rules. Then, he took out a CD from the bag and gave it to Zhang Xiaohua. "This is our sample. Please listen to it for a moment."
Zhang Xiaohua put the CD into the CD-ROM drive of the computer and opened the player. Soon, he saw a small sparrow on the screen showing the logo of Sparrow Records on his back, flying around the screen and chirping. There were many unique scenes on the screen. Beaches, mountains, forests, cities, and various special scenes; regardless of the quality of the pictures or the music, it reached an exceptional level, and Zhang Xiaohua was greatly encouraged.
However, despite the fact that the level of record production reached Zhang Xiaohua's satisfaction, Zhang Xiaohua did not show a trace of surprise or happiness.
As a boss, you must have your own dignity. You can't behave like a child and put all your emotions on your face. If you did so, then others can see at a glance what you're thinking. By then, you could only wait to be taken advantage of.
At this time, in the eyes of Zhang Xiaohua, he did not regard Zhou Yi as a partner. Instead, he saw Zhou Yi as his subordinate, including the record company of the Sparrow Records under the name of Zhou Yi, they were all treated the same by Zhang Xiaohua—As soon to be subsidiaries of HuaXiang Entertainments.
Although it was too early to hold this idea, Zhang Xiaohua was confident that it would not take long for Zhou Yi and his company to become theirs.
If they wanted HuaXiang Entertainment to have a complete system, it was inevitable to start a record company of their own. However, Zhang Xiaohua did not want to waste time in this area, so he planned to 'find an already-made version'.
Although this Sparrow Records was a small company, their development was very inclusive. Because of its small scale, it would be easier to win over and gain control of them, and it could be slowly developed in the future. In short, all aspects were very much in line with Zhang Xiaohua's plan.
"Not bad, barely good enough to use." Zhang Xiaohua turned his gaze to Zhou Yi, saying lightly, "I have a request. If you agree, we can immediately sign."
"What are the requirements?" Zhou Yi asked nervously.
"The logo in the picture has to be changed to our company's LOGO, which is 'HuaXiang Records'."
Zhang Xiaohua was serious and concise, but when he spoke, he felt that he was not asking Zhou Yi for it. Instead, he was ordering Zhou Yi to do things in the tone of the commandment, as if Zhao Yi work for him. He exudes the spirit of pure arrogance, but it was not the vulgar type; instead, it demonstrated the style of a boss but also reflected his vigorous ambition!