America's Top Player

Chapter 129 Taylor Beyoncé, I Want It All
When hearing the lyrics "Look, everyone is saying bad things to you, you need a good girl to make you fall in love with her", Li Ang showed a mysterious smile.

"I really need a good girl right now, but one may not be enough~"

The inspiration refresh mechanism failed to produce the male solo song he wanted many times, but this time he was not angry at all.

This female chorus song "Bang bang" is what he needs most right now.

The highly sexual lyrics, combined with the passionate dance in the MV, make this song tailor-made for Beyoncé.

If this album is released on Apocalypse Music, Li Ang will serve as its producer.

Apart from ceding a portion of sales revenue to Sony Columbia Records, he had no worries about copyright.

The ROC Kingdom couldn't get even a penny from him.

That night, Li Ang's dreams were filled with scenes of the three girls twisting their bodies in the MV.

The next day, in the office of Apocalypse Music.

Li Ang is on the phone with Beyoncé.

Ever since the near-confrontation in her Tribeca apartment a few days ago, Beyoncé has been calling every day asking for songs.

It's like an alternative kind of debt.

"I understand. I completely understand what you mean." Li Ang said, his legs crossed, cigarette in his mouth, looking particularly relaxed. "I recently had a burst of inspiration and just happened to write a song."

"Oh my God~ Is this specially created for me?" The queen's voice could not hide her joy.

"Of course! Everything in this song is tailor-made for you!" Li Ang was indeed not talking nonsense. The opening part of "Bang Bang" has very high requirements on pitch and transition techniques.

But for Beyoncé, the top singer among the new generation of Divas, it is effortless.

"I can't wait to hear the instrumental!"

"Don't worry, this piece is still on paper. I plan to hand over the accompaniment production to Max Martin."

"I've worked with Max, he's a genius!" Beyoncé said. "We can start recording anytime, ROC and Sony Music. Wherever you want to record~"

The diva’s enthusiasm was high.

Li Ang really wanted to tell the other party that he was not the singer who collaborated with her.

But he swallowed the words back when they came to his lips.

"Let's talk about recording after the first version of the accompaniment is out," Li Ang hung up the phone in a hurry.

The original version features three female singers and includes a lengthy rap segment.

Rap is not difficult to solve, just let Cardi B take over.

Her first EP has already gone through its golden sales cycle, and now she is in urgent need of a new work.

Being able to successfully take advantage of the queen's traffic will be of great benefit to Apocalypse Music.

The only problem was who to choose as the other female singer.

Robbie's singing skills are simply not enough to support such a showy work, not to mention that she already has a new work ready to be released.

"Aquilena.Lady Gaga"

Li Ang silently recited the names of these female singers, all of whom had expressed their desire to invite him to sing for them.

He even thought of Rihanna, who was extremely popular at the moment.

But in his heart, none of these star-studded names can compare to Taylor Swift!

Sales volume speaks for itself, awards mean nothing to Li Ang.

Even if Taylor didn't have those golden trophies, she would still be the best choice in Leon's mind just considering sales.

Choosing Taylor means choosing the gameplay with the largest traffic, and it is really hard for Li Ang not to be tempted.

"Award-winning" Beyoncé + "sales queen" Taylor Swift, this song has already won as soon as it was released.

These two most sought-after female singers have never collaborated before, and the possibility of a collaboration became even more remote after Kanye West stole the mic at the 2009 MTV Awards.

If this can be accomplished, we will be invincible in business.

After a while, Phil came to the office, and Leon immediately shared with him the idea of having Cardi B join the new song "bang bang".

"Do you think this is appropriate?" Li Ang asked.

"I think you are the greatest genius in the history of Fxxking music!" Phil shouted excitedly in his smoky voice.

Cardi B is an artist under his agency, and their interests are highly related.

It was hard for Lao Deng not to be excited.

Li Ang then asked, "Then, I'd like to choose Taylor Swift as the third female singer. What do you think?"

"Fuck, I think you're crazy." Phil's face quickly fell. "You know she can't possibly work with Beyoncé."

"This matter shouldn't be that complicated." Li Ang curled his lips.

According to his idea, it would not be difficult to deal with Beyoncé, after all, she was neither the direct perpetrator nor the victim in the microphone-grabbing incident.

Taylor is a bit more difficult.

Not only was she a victim, she also contributed to a historically embarrassing scene in the entertainment industry.

"Taylor is notoriously difficult to deal with. Her scandal list is as long as a stockbroker's phone book," Phil said. "Besides, she has excellent creative ability. The quality is good and she is very prolific, even more prolific than you."

In short, he didn't think that a proud woman like Taylor, who had both fame and talent, would lower herself for a song.

"It does seem a bit difficult." Li Ang patted his head.

Don't even think about expecting Robbie to help with this matter as a close friend.

This woman is narrow-minded to begin with. If she knew that her boyfriend wrote a new song but she was not included in it, she would definitely find it hard to accept.

Not to mention persuading your best friend to pick peaches.

This sounds like trying to convince another woman to sleep with her boyfriend.

"What about Katy Perry? 2010 was a perfect year for her. Her album Teenage Dream had two songs at number one on the Billboard Hot ," Phil said. "Even kids can sing 'Firework,' and this woman is making a fortune from royalties."

"Katie?" Leon shook his head.

A former outcast of Columbia Records has only been popular for two years and there is still a certain gap compared to Taylor.

Phil continued to induce, "Are you really not interested in that girl? Think about her Big Mac-like breasts. She was just named the "Most Powerful Male Beauty" by GQ magazine!"

Although he didn't know why the other party kept promoting Katie, Leon laughed out loud when he heard the stupid title of "the most powerful male beauty".

"A bitch who relies on female boxing and awakening organizations to stir up trouble, how can she be associated with the word stunner?" Li Ang showed a contemptuous expression, "Let's talk about Sony Pictures Entertainment."

Following Leon's instructions, Robbie refused to give in on the issue of his role in the movie "Skyfall".

Some senior executives of Sony Pictures Entertainment stated that they could only try to communicate with director Sam.

But no results were achieved.

According to the script, the "Bond Girl" played by Robbie is the villain in the film, which makes her very frustrated.

Sam even threatened that if the stalemate continued, he would shorten her role to just five minutes.

"I've already asked my friends at Sony Music to lobby for this." Phil said with a smile, "I don't think it's difficult. Sony Pictures' entire focus right now isn't on the 007 series."

This statement really made Leon curious. There was only one reason why the 007 series had been so popular for half a century.

This IP can make money!
The cruel film industry does not particularly care about the reputation of a work; box office is the only truth.

Even a film like Harry Potter would be shelved if it underperformed at the box office or even lost money.

Seeing Leon's surprised expression, Phil explained, "The last 007 film, Quantum of Solace, cost $2.3 million to produce, but only grossed $1.69 million in North America."

"Fortunately, the film performed strongly in overseas markets and ultimately achieved a global box office of 5.9 million yuan."

"It's no exaggeration to say that it was the overseas markets of Tokyo and Europe that saved the series. Otherwise, there would be no 007 sequels in the short term."

As a half-filmmaker, Li Ang is very clear about the relationship between movie box office and production costs.

Cinemas and film producers typically adopt a tiered revenue-sharing model, with cinema chains taking 30% of the film's total box office revenue starting from the first week of release.

Starting from the third week, in order to maintain more screenings, the distributor will have to give up more box office share to the theater chain.

Coupled with the expensive film promotion costs and taxes, a film usually only breaks even if its North American box office revenue reaches 2.5 times its production cost.

The overseas box office must triple to have a chance of making a profit.

"Are the executives at Sony Pictures a bunch of fools? Can such an IP lose money?" Le Ang was puzzled.

Big IP is the most profitable category in the current film industry, so just shoot it with your eyes closed.

It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s hard to lose money even if you hire a dog to film an IP like 007.

"The film industry is now undergoing a collective shift, with film producers busy focusing on superhero movies and having no time to focus on anything else," said Phil.

"Sony also has a superhero IP?" This was Li Ang's first reaction.

Since Disney acquired Marvel, only a few copyrights such as Iron Man and Captain America are still entangled with Paramount Pictures.

DC Comics' IP is in the hands of Warner Bros.
Marvel is in Disney's hands.

It is foreseeable that future superhero movies will be dominated by these two companies.

Whoever controls the IP controls the future of the film market.

Phil explained with a smile: "The copyright of Spider-Man was sold to Sony by Marvel a long time ago. They didn't expect superhero movies to be as popular as they are today."

When Marvel was selling the Spider-Man IP, it thought it was smart to add an additional clause - if no sequel was filmed within five years, the IP would be taken back.

Such terms are not a restriction at all for the wealthy Sony.

What makes Marvel even more frustrated is that every Spider-Man film makes money.

The more Li Ang listened, the more jealous he became. Making a superhero movie was equivalent to robbing money.

But it is quite frustrating that even if inspiration is brought to create a high-quality superhero movie, it will be of no use at all.

Without copyright, nothing can be achieved.

"Listen, please let me know any news from Sony Columbia," said Li Ang.

"No problem~ You left Leonard aside, wanted to publicly break up with ROC, and now you want to play tricks on Sony Music. I really want to see how you decide to end it!" Phil grinned.

"Okay, there's nothing for you to do here."

Leon sent Phil away like chasing a dog, and lay on the swivel chair, lost in thought.

"Shxt is in constant trouble"

He was just about to close his eyes and rest for a while when Bonnie pushed the door open and walked in.

"Sit down and talk. Pour me a cup of coffee, thank you." Leon said, "I hope you can bring me some good news."

Hearing this, Bonnie's expression became quite depressed. After handing the coffee to Leon, she did not speak for a long time.

"Go ahead, it's okay." Li Ang took a sip of coffee.

Bonnie sighed and said, "I followed your instructions and sent an email to Miss Jidada, but they rejected our $600 million offer. She also said in her reply..."

"It's okay if you just tell me what she said." Li Ang squinted his eyes and listened attentively.

Bonnie spread her hands helplessly and replied: "Time Warner has raised the offer to $650 million. Like you said before, they are totally playing tricks on us!"

"Great!" Li Ang clapped the table excitedly.

"Is this a good thing?" Bonnie looked completely confused.

"Of course it's a good thing, we're going to save a lot of money!"

"Save money?" Bonnie scratched her head, confused.

Apparently, all the nutrients that should have gone to her brain during growth were absorbed by her buttocks.

Li Ang excitedly slid the mouse and opened an encrypted folder.

Three days before the inspiration refresh in April, Robinson sent him a mysterious gift.

The evil secret of Quincy Jones.

A "young" girl who ran away from home in Chicago and came to Los Angeles to make a living did it all on her own.

In the video, the girl follows Jones' instructions and puts on a nun's costume.

Old Jones was not satisfied with this and asked the girl to change into a Lolita-style floral dress.

His smile gradually became perverted, and he stretched out his fingers, as rough as dead wood, "Come here, Daddy, let me hug you~"

When he watched it for the first time, Li Ang felt his stomach churning. The whole scene was so weird, like a horror movie.

But the girl in the video had no expression on her face, like a corpse.

She was obviously used to it.

What follows is an indescribable R18 clip.

The entire video is only ten minutes long, and because it was shot with a miniature camera similar to a voice recorder, the picture quality is extremely rough.

But it was enough to sentence old Jones, who had painstakingly cultivated the image of a philanthropist, to death.

Even if we put aside whether it violates the law.

Once the video is exposed, the loss of reputation alone is something that Jones Sr. cannot accept.

For an old man with one foot in the coffin, nothing is more terrifying than being cursed after death.

When he betrayed MJ, he probably never thought that one day judgment would come upon him.

"WTF" Bonnie only watched for three minutes and turned her head away, unwilling to look at it again

The upper class plays in an alternative way that even strippers from the slums can't imagine.

"Copy this video and send it anonymously to Jones's address." Leon patted her shoulder.

As he spoke, Li Ang took out a piece of A4 paper from the drawer.

On it is a printed picture of the "Coconut Crisp Passion."

"Seeing this, I think that old bastard will understand everything."

That night, after careful consideration, Li Ang made the final decision about "Bang Bang".

In order to maximize profits, he wants both Taylor and Beyoncé.

Lying in bed, he sent a message to Taylor, [Did you get some rest, Miss Taylor?]

Soon he received Taylor's cold response: [No.]

[Are you still in Los Angeles? Are you free recently? I'd like to meet you.]

[On vacation in Miami, Jack and I broke up and needed to get away.]

[Break up again? ]

Li Ang laughed as he typed. This was Taylor's third breakup in a year.

This time, her relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal lasted less than four months.

What does "again" mean? Watch your words. I just met a disgusting scumbag.

It is difficult for Li Ang to comment on this. It seems that Taylor has met all the scumbags in the world.

Not surprisingly, when she returned from vacation she wrote a slew of works commemorating this relationship.

I wrote a new song. Are you interested in collaborating with me?

Taylor's attitude was completely different from the enthusiasm Leon had imagined. She replied indifferently: "Let's talk after my vacation is over."

(End of this chapter)