America's Top Player

Chapter 137 Future Layout
"Call Sean over here, I want to talk to him."

"I understand." Bonnie walked away in her high heels, twisting her hips vigorously.

In the layout of the media industry, radio is an extremely important business component that is easily overlooked.

Even due to the strong rise of streaming media, Billboard has repeatedly adjusted the ranking weights.

Radio still accounts for about the same percentage as physical albums and streaming copies combined.

The current market trend is that with the rapid growth of users of streaming platforms such as Spotify, more and more investors are entering the market.
The way you pay for streaming music will change significantly in the future.

Users can pay a small monthly or quarterly fee to have unlimited access to all the music in the copyright library.

This is bound to lead to a surge in the number of users of streaming platforms, and physical records will suffer a greater impact.

It is obvious that the impact on the radio sector will be smaller than that on physical records.

"Boss" Sean entered the office and quietly closed the door.

Singing in that iconic girlish voice.

If this guy didn't really have some brilliant ideas, Leon would try to avoid meeting him after dinner.

But he did show strong public relations skills in the "Second East and West Coast Gangsters".

Traffic is king, no matter what.
This is the basic element to become an excellent media person.

"Have a seat." Li Ang opened the cigarette box. "Want a cigarette?"

"No, it's too strong for me," Sean said shyly. "I like thin ones with rose scent."

"What a fuking freak." Leon spat. "But I understand. Geniuses always have unique ideas."

More than a month ago, at the beginning of the Beef War, Leon handed over the radio business to Sean.

Facts have proved that he is indeed a genius in the media.

Promoting oneself and smearing the enemy are the characteristics of the American media.

CNN, BBC, and FOX all do this.

At that time, Li Ang still owned seven radio stations of various sizes, and the monthly expenses were still a considerable amount.

Sean suggested that they engage in internal struggle and let the fittest survive.

The radio station that can attract the most attention and traffic will be retained and survive in the fierce competition.

At present, it seems that there are only two final winners.

Lion's Den Radio, hosted by DJ Marcus, was undoubtedly one of the winners.

The radio station has been operating for more than 20 years and has launched a weekly podcast program under the reform advocated by Li Ang.

Invite many star singers and underground rap musicians to participate in exclusive interviews.

An in-depth analysis of the history and future development of hip-hop music, while also secretly mocking Apocalypse Music's competitors.

Influential rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have already appeared on this show.

It is currently one of the top 5 pure hip-hop podcasts and is growing rapidly.

The biggest surprise was the Chister Bad Boy Radio station hosted by T-ray.

This small community radio station, which initially had an audience of only a thousand people, saw its audience increase more than tenfold under Sean's leadership, successfully defeating the competition.

Sean didn't give T-ray much information, but to sum it up in one sentence:

"Work, work until death."

They will take advantage of any hot spots, and if there are no hot spots, they will create them.

Chister Bad Boy was originally a radio station that relied on trash talking with fans and didn't even have a clear start time.

The show only starts when T-ray is drunk or high, and randomly selects lucky viewers to greet the family tree.

The audience was made up entirely of lower-class black people, people who just wanted to have fun.

Following Sean's instructions, T-ray instantly found his comfort zone.

Looking at the geometrically growing number of listeners, he had already let go of the vengeance he had with Leon.

After all, he once received a considerable amount of "breakup fee", and now he continues to make money by relying on the traffic of Street Coconut Crisps.

Everything in this circle revolves around money.

There is no longer any conflict between the two.

Since the release of "Billy", he has been firing at all the big guys on the East Coast.

As the producer of the first album of "Son of God" NAS, T-ray experienced the 90s, the most chaotic and glorious period of gangster rap.

Knows a lot of gossip and secrets about the big names in the rap circle.

Sometimes I just improvise.

Revealed that he had slept with Jennifer Lopez;
The bragging stories about having a silver party with Didi’s mom and so on that boosted the ratings.

Now, he is a well-deserved celebrity in Brownsville.

"What do you think about the prospects of the radio business?" Li Ang knocked on the table. "I mean, we've already achieved great results. How can we take it one step further?"

"Spend money." Sean's answer was concise and straightforward.

"Besides throwing money at it?"

"There's no other way except to throw money at it," Sean said, spreading his hands. "The radio business has been around for hundreds of years. Even a radio giant like iHeart has to spend money to expand."

"Shxt" Li Ang shook his head helplessly and fell into deep thought.

Sean's strategy is simple and crude. If he wants to become a top-tier hip-hop music radio station in the Eastern United States in a short period of time, there is no other way except to spend money.

Just like when they acquired more than a dozen radio stations, they kept repeating the big fish eating small fish strategy.

The cost of such an expansion would be very high.

“Is it worth it?” Leon asked. “I mean, you always have to consider the return on investment.”

"Traffic is money," Sean said seriously, "This is the only thing the media industry has taught me in the past ten years."

This idea coincided with Li Ang's.

As long as the traffic continues, the money will continue to flow in.

Those brainwashed listeners will always willingly open their wallets as traffic increases.

"The data of Chister Bad Boy is so good, give T-ray some money to let him do a podcast show as well," said Li Ang.

"No problem, I think he'd be very happy with it," Sean said. "That guy has made radio his main business, and his Black Panther record company is as good as dead."

T-ray was the first person Li Ang met when he entered the music industry.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is a guide.

Li Ang realized very early on that this guy's talent might not be in music.

Otherwise, after experiencing the 1990s when even a dog could become a millionaire by rapping, he wouldn't still be running a small workshop.

T-ray's real talent lies in his trash talking.

Give him a microphone and a chair.

He can hold his big belly and smoke a cigar
Embracing two beauties, he answered all questions in the world.

The kind that operates 24 hours a day.

After a few questions, Sean answered them all fluently, and many of his ideas coincided with Li Ang's.

"I really found a treasure." Li Ang became more convinced that handing Lion's Nest Media over to the other party would be the right choice.

A female accountant with a gangster background;

A young assistant who sells second-hand underwear;

Marketing strategy similar to the Texas Chainsaw
The company is not big and each employee has his or her own unique skills.

"Do you have any ideas about running Vibe magazine?" Li Ang asked.

The acquisition process has now officially begun.

Bonnie has contacted Ernst & Young to conduct a final audit of Vibe's assets before the acquisition.

Since it was suspended for a year, the magazine has undergone several large-scale layoffs.

Each layoff was more than 20 percent, and now only less than employees and one office remain. During the hiatus, they worked for other companies under Jones.

I also have to occasionally write for other media to support myself.

Li Ang felt that 20 employees was still too many, and that in the future, with an online magazine as the main focus, there would be no need for so many employees.

"Continue to lay off employees." Sean's response is always simple and crude.

"Isn't this going too far?" Li Ang looked puzzled. "We have to retain some reporter positions, as well as column editors. We also need people to do the typesetting and copy editing work."

"We don't need so many people." Sean waved his hand. "I mean, how many media outlets still have this stupid reporter position?"

"Tell me more about it." Li Ang leaned forward a few degrees, very interested in this statement.

Sean cleared his throat and replied, "Journalists exist to ensure the timeliness and credibility of news. But in this day and age, that's no longer so important."

"Even news giants like CNN and BBC, which employ a large number of journalists, often report fake news."

"Fxxk! You always surprise me." Leon knocked on the table, his eyes shooting lasers.

In the era of rapid development of social media, everyone’s social platform is a news window.

These platforms do not need to guarantee timeliness and credibility at all, and of course they cannot have their own journalists.

We provide readers with whatever news they want to read!
After some processing and modification, the public opinion it aroused was even higher than that of the original platform that reported the incident.

Sean's plan was to separate "Vibe" from the label of serious rap music in the 90s.

In the future, it should be like "XXL", mainly reporting on romantic disputes and gang conflicts in the entertainment industry.

The focus of publication should not be limited to the glamorous stage of the entertainment industry, but should occasionally turn the lens to the dirty and chaotic underground rap circle.

The events that break out there are always more dramatic and eye-catching.

In the future, it would be best if "Vibe" were published at a high frequency of biweekly, focusing on large quantity and sufficient content.

Let its official self-media channel gradually become a channel focusing on hip-hop music news.

As long as there is traffic, advertising revenue alone will be enough to support the entire company in the future.

After everything was arranged, Leon asked Sean to choose a suitable office location in Brooklyn on his own.

And started interviewing employees for Lion's Nest Media.

The money will be paid by Li Ang personally, provided that it does not exceed the budget.

While offering him the position of Executive President of Lion's Nest Media, he retained his position as Head of Marketing Planning at Apocalypse Music.

A day later, Bonnie received an email reply from David Fincher's studio.

In order to present a top-notch MV effect, Li Ang asked Bonnie to send an email yesterday with a try-it attitude.

David has a strange temperament and is taciturn.

Li Ang didn't expect to receive a reply within one day.

The content of the email was not long, with only a few polite spam sentences.

What David meant was that he hadn't participated in a music video shoot in at least six years.

The last time he participated was in 2005, in a work by the famous industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

The reason is that he himself is a fan of this band.

This is because David's previous drama "The Social Network", which tells the story of Zuckerberg's entrepreneurship, friendship and betrayal, was a huge success at the box office.

He currently has a lot of film offers.

It swept away the shadow of the previous films he directed that had failed one after another.

In the past, the film industry's evaluation of David Fincher was that he was a genius, paranoid, and highly personal top director.

His characteristic is that he is well-received but not commercially successful.

The studios have always had a love-hate relationship with him.

David expressed great interest in this MV collaboration, mainly because of Taylor and Beyoncé's historic collaboration.

But when he saw the last sentence of the email, the smile on Li Ang's face gradually froze.

Until I couldn't laugh anymore.

150 million US dollars is the salary David offered himself.

This does not include other expenses such as photography team, actors, backgrounds, props, etc.

This is just the remuneration for shooting a music video of more than three minutes.

James Wan's salary for filming a movie like "Straight Outta Compton" for Leon was only $100 million, plus an additional % share of the box office.

He was reading the email while playing with the Knicks championship ring in his hand, and glanced up at Phil:

“Do people become more greedy as they get older?”

"Fuck! Don't count me in." Phil said with a smile: "I have never received so much money from you at one time."

"How should I respond to Mr. David's email?" Bonnie asked. "Agree to his offer? Or reject it?"

Phil held his stomach and laughed, "What did I say before? Your head is as plump as your butt?"

“That was a mistake.”

"Think carefully with your ass. Is this your first day meeting your boss? How could this greedy guy agree to this offer?"

Li Ang played with the pen, then stood up and looked out the window.

To be fair, David Fincher is indeed worth the money.

On the one hand, he is a widely acclaimed film master. Even though his box office is not top-notch, his artistic achievements are widely recognized.

And he hasn't participated in MV shooting for a long time.

Many historical superstars have worked with it.

The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson.
He joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1980 and participated in the production of the action science fiction film series "Star Wars".

He was also in charge of the visual effects work in Star Wars 6.

In 1992, his first film as a director was the third installment in the famous Alien series.

It is also widely considered to be the darkest and most religious film in the series.

"I think Old Mike is totally capable of doing this job," Phil suggested. "I hate idiots like David who pretend to be profound. Maybe he's even more shameless than Old Mike behind the scenes."

"Mike?" Leon thought about it carefully.

Although Mike is very capable, he also has experience working at Industrial Light & Magic.

However, it is seriously insufficient for him to direct such a heavyweight MV.

But this remark did enlighten Li Ang. "Mike worked at George Lucas's company in the 80s. Maybe he knows David Fincher."

Phil overheard and shook his head. "I don't think that weird bastard would lower the price for the sake of so-called friendship. You'd better not even think about it."

"Give it a try. Any savings of a few thousand dollars is good news," said Li Ang.

"Why the hell are you so stingy?" Phil sighed. "I now understand why those books published in 19th century Germany portrayed capitalism as so evil."

“Capital came into the world dripping with blood from every pore, and you have sealed all of them.”

Li Ang raised the corner of his mouth and remained silent.

In order to buy a house as soon as possible, he must try every possible way to save as much as possible.

After seeing Beyoncé's mansion, he was eager to own a property of his own.

Living environment is an important way for the upper class in the United States to divide classes. The community where a person lives can be used to determine what class he or she belongs to.

So far, he has viewed houses in many luxury residential areas in New York.

They each have their own advantages;

The Upper East Side needs no introduction, it is the dreamland of money and the first choice for old money;
Battery Park City is located along the Hudson River and has some of the best views in all of New York;

Tribeca can always take advantage of the night to have a thrilling Western cowboy showdown with Beyoncé.

The only downside is that you might actually get shot one day.

(End of this chapter)