America's Top Player

Chapter 81: Cooperation with the NBA (4000 words, please pre-order)
After returning to New York from Atlantic City in a Porsche, Li Ang's life was like this for a long time.

Commercial performances, radio promotions, vocal training, and managing business for the Apocalypse and Evil Angel labels.
Despite her busy schedule, she still flies to Los Angeles from time to time to inject positive energy of love into Robbie.

Li Ang drove to the Apocalypse Music office, sleepy-eyed.

As usual, Bonnie handed over a cup of refreshing American coffee, then immediately ran downstairs, twisted her hips from all angles towards the eye-catching Porsche 997, took photos and uploaded them to social media.

Li Ang smiled helplessly. He didn't mind this behavior.

Bonnie is already a blogger with 5 followers on social media, and the sales of the two offline stores of the Evil Angel brand exceeded knives in just two weeks after opening.

In addition to the contributions of brand designers Jones and Cardi B, this is also inseparable from Bonnie's hard work in promoting it on the Internet.

Whenever Evil Angel launches a new product, Bonnie is always the first to record a VOLG wearing it to show her fans how it looks on her body.

Of course, she also sold the underwear she wore to people with special hobbies at dozens of times the price, and she made a lot of money from it.

dong dong——

"Come in."

Aisha held a thick stack of documents in her hand, which was the routine weekly financial report.

The popularity of "Take Me to Church" has completely passed, and its current weekly sales remain at around 30,000 copies.

Cardi B's debut album "Bodak Yellow" sold a total of 160,000 copies in the first month, and currently its weekly sales are hovering around 50,000 copies.

The most outstanding performance in the company is undoubtedly Robbie. "FADED" has been through the roof and is even competing with Rihanna's "Only gilr" on the Billboard chart.

After only one month online, sales on streaming platforms and physical sales both exceeded 70 copies, a truly phenomenal performance!
Li Ang has asked Bonnie to organize the information and apply for "Gold Record" certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Three months ago, he could never have imagined that the company's first "Gold Record" honor would be achieved by a Hollywood vase actor like Robbie.

Robbie's agent Maggie was very strong-willed on the initial contract issue and put forward very harsh conditions in order to prevent Robbie's acting career from suffering losses.

According to the contract, Robbie will take 30% of the record sales.

Including 30% of copyright income, the final share ratio is as high as 33%. Another 20% of copyright income will be given to the accompaniment producer DJ David Guetta.

This kind of profit sharing ratio is a contract that only a superstar like Rihanna can get from a record company.

According to Aisha's calculations, "FADED" was sold on the streaming platform at a price of $0.99, with total sales of $687261.

The Spotify platform takes a 20% commission, and the Apple Store is even more unreasonable, taking a direct 30%.

"Those fucking Silicon Valley freaks are robbing me?"

As the most powerful streaming platform today, Li Ang had to endure the Apple Store even if he was extremely unhappy.

In the end, after layers of exploitation, only about $26 in streaming revenue from "FADED" remained in Le Ang's hands.

The real bulk of the revenue still comes from physical records.

After a series of complex calculations, the total sales reached a terrifying $330 million.

Among them, 5 vinyl records alone contributed more than $70 in revenue.

After deducting printing, publicity, recording, filming, staff salaries, and the share given to Robbie and David Guetta.
Li Ang received $130 million before tax.

A few days ago, due to the acquisition of clothing studios, the opening of offline stores and the acquisition of a large number of radio stations, the wallet that had just become rich quickly shrank.

The reason why he dared to spend money so recklessly was entirely due to the popularity of the Apocalypse label.

The two female generals printed money with their bodies day and night, and Leon's wallet was constantly replenished.

After reading the financial report, the two of them lay on the sofa to rest, and opened social media to see if Chris Brown continued to act crazy today.

Now Chris and Kanye have become "electronic pets" in his mind, and reading their imaginative tweets every day has become his pleasure.

"Stop taking pictures, Bonnie. Although the taillights of this Porsche are beautiful, in my heart your taillights are the most perfect!"

"I'll take good care of you sometime."

“There is no woman who doesn’t praise my technique!”

This was followed by Bonnie's response of "Fxxk off".

The wonderful rest time was interrupted because the old scumbag Phil came to the door.

Lao Deng's style is getting more and more exaggerated day by day. He is dressed like an old-school British gentleman from head to toe.

Li Ang could guess blindly what the two most consumed daily necessities in his home were.

Shoe polish and hairspray.

"Good morning, Leon~"

"Look at you now. Luxury cars, beautiful women, fame. You have it all~"

“There’s no young person in their early twenties who doesn’t want to be like you.”

Phil, contrary to his usual behavior, spoke in an extremely greasy tone.

This kind of flattering attitude actually made Li Ang very uncomfortable. The old man's words usually started with "Fxxk" and ended with "bitch".

I say "Fxxk" at least a hundred times every day.

Li Ang got up from the sofa, sat on the swivel chair and took a sip of coffee

"It's rare that you came so early today."

"Hehe~" Phil said with a treacherous smile, "I am a messenger who spreads happiness and positive energy. Look what good news I have brought you~"

Phil threw down a newspaper, a daily sports paper.

The eye-catching full-color page features the two teams participating in this year's NBA Christmas game.

Los Angeles Lakers led by Kobe Bryant vs. Miami Heat led by James.

On one side is the Los Angeles hero who just delivered the most exciting finals in history this year and led the Lakers to win the championship.

On one side is the "Little Emperor" who is considered to be most likely to approach Jordan's achievements.

This matchup is far more exciting than any previous Christmas game.

Almost all sports newspapers and magazines are warming up for this big battle in advance.

Li Ang is very interested in basketball, and this is a peak showdown that cannot be missed.

He immediately asked: "Do you have a ticket?"

"No."

"Do you have any channels to buy cheap tickets?"

"You're a supernova now. As the boss of a record company, you'll be ridiculed by the media if you don't sit in the front row!"

Li Ang rolled his eyes and said it as if no one wants to sit in the first row.

For such a heavyweight matchup, the first-row tickets are either given by the NBA to sponsors or celebrities, or they have to be purchased at a sky-high price.

Given the popularity of this year's Christmas game, the most conservative estimate is that the first-row ticket price would be more than 50,000 US dollars.

Pay $50,000 to watch a game?

This is impossible for Leon, he is rich but not stupid.

"So what do you mean by telling me about the NBA Christmas Day game?"

"I mean you can watch the game for free!"

"Free?" Li Ang became alert when he heard the word.

"Yes. To be precise, the NBA will also give you a sum of money, which is a considerable income!"

Leon stared at Phil with a puzzled look on his face, unable to understand how such a good thing could happen.

"Stop keeping me in suspense! Tell me what's going on!"

Phil walked over to Leon's wine cabinet with a reckless gait and casually picked up a bottle of Macallan 21-year-old whiskey. He let out a lewd laugh and asked, "Didn't you say you don't like extravagant consumption? Why did you buy such an expensive bottle? I've known for a long time that you're a hypocrite."

"Hurry up and don't wear out my patience."

Phil put the bottle of wine on his arm and explained the whole story to Leon.

Simply put, he was officially invited by the NBA as a guest to sing during the halftime performance of the Christmas game!

The organizers asked Li Ang to sing two songs in a row, one of which must be "sucker for pain", a song that fits the main theme of the NBA.

Kendrick Lamar, a Los Angeles native star, will perform with him at the Staples Center.

"What?"

Li Ang showed a surprised expression. This was indeed a huge surprise.

Performing in this nationally watched event will be a huge boost to his fame!

The NBA requires him to sing two songs, so he will definitely choose the title song of his unreleased new album, "Demons", as the second song.

No other promotional method is more effective than this!

After a brief moment of ecstasy, Li Ang quickly calmed down.

"Why would the NBA choose me?"

It is very unlikely that a singer who doesn't even have an album will attract the interest of a giant like the NBA.

Phil opened the whiskey with a smile on his face, poured a glass for Leon first and then poured a glass for himself.

He grabbed the wine glass and took a big gulp.

"That's because you have the best agent in the country~"

"you?"

Leon didn't believe even a single punctuation mark in Phil's boasting.

After repeated questioning, he finally learned the whole story.

Originally, he was not considered by NBA Commissioner David Stern, and the achievement of this cooperation was entirely due to the efforts of ROC.

Rather, it was Beyoncé who leveraged her strong personal relationship with Stern to facilitate the performance.

For this world-renowned Christmas game, NBA Commissioner Stern originally considered paying a large sum of money to invite Beyoncé, the Grammy Queen, to appear.

But Beyoncé declined the offer, saying she wanted to watch the game with her family and spend a relaxing Christmas holiday.

She made a very cost-effective suggestion to Stern - "Street Coconut Crisp" Li Ang.

Stern has always been known for his excellent cost control and is an excellent manager.

With the queen's strong recommendation and the recent popularity of Li Ang and West Coast, it didn't take him long to make the decision.

"The American Music Awards at the end of this month. The NBA Christmas game in December."

"These are all great opportunities to show off!"

"Congratulations, kid, you're on the road to superstardom!"

After drinking a glass of wine, Phil became obviously more excited.

Speaking of the American Music Awards, Leon suddenly remembered that Robbie would perform as a guest at the awards ceremony.

As 2010 draws to a close, there has been a lot of good news for Apocalypse Music.

After Phil left, Li Ang came to ROC's vocal practice room to practice his singing skills.

It was already evening when it was over.

In the corridor, he noticed many young girls walking out of the company building one after another, looking lonely.

Some girls still had tear marks on their faces.

He sees such scenes almost every day at ROC.

Girls from all over the United States who have dreams of becoming stars come here to audition, but only one in a thousand will be qualified to release a record.

This not only tests their appearance, voice, and creative talent.
They even had to compete in bed skills. If they couldn't satisfy Lenny, the artist supervisor, in this skill, then no matter how talented they were, they would have a hard time getting a chance at fame.
Li Ang once heard Lenny say that many girls would watch the action and love teaching films of "Bazes Film Studio" repeatedly before attending the audition.

Arm yourself with those challenging moves to handle even the toughest interviews.

After returning to her apartment on Henry Street, Bonnie was constantly changing into various styles of crotchless T-pants to record VOLG.

Li Ang went to the bathroom and filled the bathtub with hot water.

I opened a bottle of red wine and started drinking it while taking a bath, enjoying the rare quiet time.

Ring ring ring——

At this moment, his cell phone suddenly rang, and the caller was Robbie.

Even though they live in different places and both of them have busy schedules, Robbie still talks to Leon for at least an hour every day.

Sometimes it may be longer.

Many times, Robbie, tossing and turning at midnight, needed the verbal guidance of Leon on the other end of the phone to reach the peak of pleasure on his own.

"Honey! Why didn't you read the private message I sent you on Bluebird!"

"I can't keep staring at social media. Wait, I'll take a look."

Li Ang reduced the call window and opened the social software.

The moment he clicked on the picture, he almost couldn't hold the wine glass steady.

In the photo, Robbie is wearing a white wedding dress, just like the elf queen in the novel.

But she lifted her skirt.

There is nothing there.

Even Li Ang couldn't help but enlarge the photo and take a closer look at it because of its strong contrast.

While watching, he also lectured Robbie: "Shxt, don't send me these weird photos on social media next time."

"You know, information leakage is a serious problem nowadays. What if you accidentally send it to the wrong person?"

Robbie on the other end of the phone laughed and responded, "I know, I know. This is the costume I wore for the Chicago tour. I thought it looked good during the makeup test, so I took these pictures."

"You mean you took a picture like this in the dressing room?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? I think it's quite exciting!"

Faced with the provocation of the little witch, Li Ang was stunned for more than ten seconds and then said, "It's a good shot. Don't shoot in such a dangerous place next time."

The two had a heated chat that lasted for an hour, during which Robbie kept complaining about her agent Maggie.

Since the hit of "FADED", Maggie's attitude towards Robbie's singing career has undergone a huge reversal.

Now, she prioritizes touring, even letting Martin Scorsese's films take a backseat.

But at the same time, she had higher expectations for Robbie's singing career.

As Christmas approaches, she hopes Robbie can take advantage of the momentum of "Faded" to get some Christmas traffic.

For example, release a Christmas love song or something.

Robbie, with his empty head, naturally couldn't accomplish this task on his own, so he had no choice but to ask Leon for help.

When he learned about the other party's needs, a melody popped up in Li Ang's mind almost instantly.

The song "Senorita (My Girl)" which he had once shelved as a waste of inspiration.

(End of this chapter)