After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 616 Plagiarism is the Real Essence
Tangren Records acquired and integrated Huaxing Records and Fitto Records, and Zhou Haoran made frequent appearances during his visit.

He also personally explained the significance of the partnership system.

The goal is to liberate all singers from the restrictive contracts of the past and restore their creative freedom. Artists are not money-making tools for management companies; the relationship between artists and management companies is one of partnership and collaboration.

Say so.

There are actually trap clauses.

Profits can be shared between the company and the studio, but the copyright of the songs belongs to the company.

Copyright is the cornerstone of long-term operation.

To make Tangren Records a dominant force in the music industry, there is still a very tricky problem to solve.

Roman Tam, a well-known singer signed to Fitto Records, is actually from mainland China, but later moved to Hong Kong.

With connections in mainland China, I was able to speak with Zhou Haoran.

"Mr. Zhou, in my opinion, the record industry right now has three problems, and each of them could be a fatal blow to a record company!"

Roman Tam is over fifty years old this year and has even appeared on the Spring Festival Gala.

He has a long and distinguished career.

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Then please ask Mr. Luo to teach me."

"You flatter me..." Roman quickly replied politely, sighing, "The Hong Kong government's culture is biased; they're not very friendly to friends from the mainland. But nobody turns down money. If Tangren Records can release a series of best-selling albums in a short period of time, it might be more attractive."

"Yes, interests."

Zhou Haoran had actually already summarized it.

It's nothing more than interests and ideals.

Roman Tam said, "Record companies nowadays generally face three difficulties. First, piracy; second, artists leaving the company; and third, albums not being accepted by fans."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "There's no good solution to the piracy problem for now. But I've already made arrangements for the latter two, so Mr. Luo doesn't need to worry too much. Tangren Records can handle it."

"The partnership system is good; it can effectively prevent artists from leaving. But now the market has changed, the music creation environment has changed, and many new songs that creators are very confident about are not recognized by fans after release."

What Luo Wen said was both a common phenomenon and his personal insight.

He was once a top singer in Hong Kong.

Things haven't been going so well these past few years.

His music was no longer popular with fans.

Zhou Haoran nodded and smiled, "So, for Tangren Records' model innovation, relying solely on a partnership system is not enough. We have new plans to satisfy both our ideals and our interests."

"New plan?"

Rowan's eyes lit up.

If the partnership system can fulfill ideals, and if there are new plans that can satisfy interests... then Tangren Records, under the new model, could really dominate the music scene within two or three years.

Zhou Haoran frankly stated, "Yes, the creation of the song... is actually quite simple. The core idea is to abandon the pursuit of those top creators. Instead, we should support a group of young, relatively unknown songwriters from the fifth or sixth tiers, and let them guide the new market."

"what?"

Rowan was stunned.

I really don't understand what that means.

Should we support new talent and replace top songwriters?
Can this create good music?

This gentleman doesn't seem very reliable.

Not to mention Rowan, even his own people were puzzled.

Wang Changlian then took the opportunity to quietly ask Zhou Haoran, "Are you really going to support newcomers to create new songs? I overheard you guys talking earlier, and that Roman Tam doesn't believe it at all."

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "It's normal not to believe it. Many people's thinking is limited by rules. Obeying laws and regulations and respecting industry norms are often the biggest obstacles to innovation."

What rule are you going to break this time?

Wang Changlian understood what he meant.

In front of this senior, Zhou Haoran no longer needed to hide anything from Luo Wen as he did in front of him, and spoke directly about "copyright rules."

"what?"

Wang Changlian was completely bewildered.

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Looking back at the golden age of Hong Kong music over the past two or three decades, many hit songs were adapted from foreign songs. However, Hong Kong is an international city and must abide by international copyright. Behind every adaptation of a hit song is a large copyright fee."

"Ok?"

Wang Changlian still didn't quite understand what he meant.

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "But many classic foreign songs, even if you pay the copyright fee, they won't let you change them however you want. Like the Beatles, copyright is gold."

"You mean?"

Wang Changlian opened his eyes wide, as if he understood what he meant.

Zhou Haoran downplayed the issue, casually saying, "As Roman Tam just mentioned, the record industry faces one insurmountable crisis: piracy. What do we do if we can't overcome it? If we can't change the environment, we adapt to it!" "Adapt to the environment..." Wang Changlian took a deep breath, "...go for piracy!"

"Since we can't stop piracy, let's join in! The music industry abroad has been developed for decades and has too many popular classic songs. Plagiarism is the true essence of the world's development."

Zhou Haoran is an internet professional.

"Adapting to the environment" and "plagiarism" are important treasures in the business spirit of the Internet.

He was prescient.

He knows many of the future famous pop songs.

But he doesn't know how to use a single one.

Relying on foresight to plagiarize poems, songs, and novels is a rather low-level approach. Leaving aside whether future hit songs will be suitable for the present era, even if they are, it's time-consuming, laborious, and lacks a long-term sustainable mechanism.

To accomplish great things, you must teach people how to fish, not just give them fish.

If Tangren Records wants to dominate the music scene, it needs to establish an effective mechanism that simultaneously satisfies the "interests" and "ideals" of its artists, rather than relying on Zhou Haoran's foresight to continuously "create" a large number of chart-topping songs.

One person's strength is limited; a well-functioning system is the fundamental solution to problems.

The worse the system, the more heroism is needed.

Wang Changlian finally understood what the master meant: "The piracy you're talking about isn't the kind of pirated CDs on the market, but... it's the misappropriation and abuse of the copyright of European and American songs."

"What Roman Tam said was excellent. The record industry is currently facing three major problems: piracy, artists leaving the industry, and creative difficulties. Tangren Records must take control of all three problems. If we can't curb piracy, then we'll make use of it."

Zhou Haoran's thinking is typical of the internet, and it is not fundamentally different from the underlying logic of Youku, Tudou, and iQiyi later on.

If the environment condones piracy, then we'll take advantage of it.

If the overall environment is cracking down on piracy, then we should restrict piracy.

Cutting one's feet to fit the shoes is the way to survive.

Wang Changlian exclaimed with amazement, "The partnership system is used to prevent artists from leaving and to attract more singers to join; it also involves the theft of copyrights from well-known foreign songs that have gained market recognition, in order to mass-produce new songs!"

Zhou Haoran nodded and said, "It's very difficult to legally determine plagiarism in songwriting. As long as it's not a verbatim copy, you can go ahead and do it. Just stitch together three or four classic foreign melodies, and you can turn it into an original hit song for Tangren Records!"

"No wonder you wanted to find a group of newcomers and marginalized people to participate in songwriting."

Wang Changlian then fully understood what he meant.

That's absolutely amazing!

Top creators all have their own pursuits and philosophies, and they probably wouldn't do such a despicable thing. Instead, they target newcomers to the industry, and marginalized creators with meager incomes... they have no money and are struggling to make ends meet.

When people can't even survive, who cares about morality?

Just like before, Zhou Haoran had never looked down on Gu Huizhen, the pimp, and even kindly suggested that she go north to develop her career, saying that he could help her if the opportunity arose.

Because it is very simple.

We're all doing the same business; we're all exploiting human nature and exchanging favors.

There is no inherent hierarchy or social status.

……

Hong Kong stocks have recovered.

Recently, the Hang Seng Index has exceeded 9500 points.

The five entertainment stocks that Zhou Haoran invested in for the delegation saw an average increase of 200%.

Total investment: HK$4 million.

The current unrealized profit is HK$7.8 million!
Zhou Haoran contacted several partner securities firms and issued formal notices.

Once the Hang Seng Index exceeds 1 points, you can cash out.

They say they're here to save the market, but actually they're here to make money.

Once they've made money, they'll buy houses, cars, and companies in the Hong Kong government, and especially promote Tangren Media's strong penetration into the Hong Kong entertainment industry!
This time, Zhou Haoran personally stepped forward.

On behalf of Tangren Media, a meeting was held with Mr. Shaw Yifu to discuss the revenue-sharing terms for the import of Hong Kong dramas, as well as various matters related to subsequent co-productions between the mainland and the Hong Kong government.

Some people are very dissatisfied with this.

For example, executives from several other provincial satellite TV channels also came to the Hong Kong government, hoping to purchase the copyright of "The Deer and the Cauldron" from TVB.

Seeing Zhou Haoran's excessively young face, they were all a little confused.

Who is this person?

He was actually discussing numerous collaborations with Shaw Brothers regarding co-productions between the two regions…

Who are you?

Can you represent the entire continent?

(End of this chapter)