Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 255 If You Don't Want It, I Will Take It

Everyone looked at Liu Shiyu with a mixture of anticipation and nervousness, wondering how much the anonymous composer would ask for the piece.

Following Chen Cheng's instructions, Liu Shiyu said, "The authorization fee is five million."

"How much? Five million? Ten thousand?!"

All around were gasps of surprise.

A female colleague was the first to snap out of her daze and asked, "Hey Shiyu, your friend must have charged according to the American market rate, right? This price might be reasonable in the US, but in China, it's probably ridiculously high..."

Everyone else nodded.

In this day and age, in Hollywood, it's perfectly reasonable for top composers and soundtrack masters to earn hundreds of thousands or even more dollars for a single piece of music.

However, the situation in China is quite different. Domestic commercial films are not mature enough, the market is not large enough, and film investment is naturally less. As a result, the value of composers and the budget allocated to composing music for a film are relatively smaller.

When Liu Shiyu uttered the number five million, it naturally startled everyone.

However, the troupe leader then thought of another aspect and said, "Shiyu, your friend's copyright price is so high, yet he's willing to give you this piece for free, and even authorize our troupe to perform it exclusively. This must be a favor worth millions!"

Liu Shiyu nodded slightly. She knew that Chen Cheng had indeed given her a lot of face.

The orchestra leader then said, "Shiyu, why don't you contact your friend and see if you can lower the price? I'm afraid if we give this price to Director Zhang, he'll just give up. If we can lower it and make it cheaper, it will be a great help to our orchestra. What do you think?"

Liu Shiyu was too embarrassed to ask Chen Cheng for help again, so she said firmly, "Team leader, my friend said before that if someone wanted to buy the film and television soundtrack rights to this song, it would cost five million, no bargaining. He already gave me a heads-up, so it would really be inappropriate for me to haggle with him again."

The group leader pondered for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "What you said makes sense. Let's do this: first tell Director Zhang the price and see what he thinks."

Soon, Zhang Yimou received a call back from the regimental commander.

He was somewhat taken aback when he heard the other party ask for 500 million over the phone.

"five million?"

Zhang Yimou blurted out, "This price is indeed a bit outrageously high, and we've almost spent all our budget on filming and promotion. If you really asked us to come up with this much budget, we wouldn't be able to do it in a short time. Could you perhaps negotiate the price and give us a discount?"

The group leader said helplessly, "Director Zhang, I can't say for sure about this. The original author has already clearly stated the price. And their attitude is very firm: no bargaining. This isn't because you want it and they've raised the price; they've already made that clear beforehand."

"And Director Zhang, I have to tell you about the background of this piece. We recently hired a cellist who graduated from Berklee College of Music in the United States. We've been wanting to create our own opening piece for the orchestra for a while now, and her friend, after learning about it, granted us the rights to use this piece for free. I suspect that the original composer might be a well-known musician in the United States, but he's a low-key person and doesn't want to reveal his identity. If he priced it according to the American market rate, then there's really nothing we can do about it."

Zhang Yimou paused for a moment and said, "How about this, you go to the trouble of talking to the director of the live recording at CCTV and see if you can edit a version of the audio and send it to me first. I'll send it to the US side to listen to. If the US side is interested in the film, we can join forces with them to buy the copyright of this song."

The group leader readily agreed, saying, "No problem, I'll talk to them right away and quickly cut out the audio and send it to you."

Zhang Yimou said earnestly, "Thank you so much! I'll send you my email address in a bit."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yimou couldn't help but sigh. Tan Dun, who was next to him, asked, "Does the other party really want five million?"

"Yes."

Zhang Yimou shook his head: "This price is really outrageously high. However, I heard that the other party may be a professional musician from the United States. A movie there often costs tens of millions of US dollars to produce. If they put one percent of that into music, that would be hundreds of thousands of US dollars. The prices there are definitely not on the same level as in China. I'll let the people in the United States listen to it. If they are interested, they can either pay for it themselves or we can pay for it together with them."

After listening to Zhang Yimou's words, Chen Cheng thought to himself, if the 500 million was really paid by the American publishing company, how should he collect the money?
If all else fails, just have Liu Shiyu collect the money for you. She studied in the United States for many years and must have a US dollar account.

Chen Cheng was 100% confident that the American distributor would agree to buy the piece. The piece itself was a globally popular film score, and the more professional the filmmaker, the clearer they would see its value. Five million RMB, or about six hundred thousand US dollars, should not be much to the American distributor.

At this moment, Jiang Wen suddenly sighed at the dinner table, "To be honest, five million for such an amazing piece of music isn't actually that expensive. Director Zhang, if the American side doesn't agree to buy it either, I'll personally fund the purchase." Zhang Yimou asked, puzzled, "Jiang, you can't direct movies for the next few years, why do you want to buy this piece of music?"

Jiang Wen smiled sheepishly, touched his nose, and said, "You see, although I won't collapse anytime soon, I can prepare in advance. I've been looking for inspiration everywhere lately, reading novels, essays, and short stories every day to see if there are any good story ideas that I can use to make a movie. Five years goes by quickly, and more than a year has already passed. If I can find a suitable story in advance and polish the script, I can start working on it as soon as the time comes."

Zhang Yimou nodded and asked him again, "So you said you wanted to buy this piece of music, you wouldn't be paying for it out of your own pocket, would you?"

Jiang Wen can't film now, and investors can't possibly take out 500 million yuan to let him buy the copyright of a song before the project is even established. So Zhang Yimou feels that if Jiang Wen really wants to buy it, he can only do so by paying for it himself.

Jiang Wen nodded frankly and said, "If I were to buy it, I would definitely buy it myself first and keep it for myself. After the project is launched in the future, I will transfer the license to the new project team. All of this is easy to discuss. It's just that such a good piece of music is really rare. I feel itchy if I don't get it."

Zhang Yimou said awkwardly, "How about this, you wait for me to finalize things first. If things don't work out on my end, you can buy yours and I won't interfere."

"Of course."

Jiang Wen tapped the table and laughed, "Brother, I'm a man of principle. I certainly can't take what others love. I can only say that I'll make my move once you're sure you don't want it anymore."

Zhang Yimou breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Jiang Wen would steal the song from him. Everyone in the industry knew that Jiang Wen always had a keen sense for good things and was very generous with his money. Even if there was no chance to film it in the next few years or even ten years, he would still spend money to buy the copyright. Even he recognized the song so much, so it must have the potential to become a hit. If he didn't get it, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to have a good New Year.
-
After the dinner, Chen Cheng and Zhang Qishuo said goodbye to everyone. Zhang Qishuo then had the driver take Chen Cheng to the hotel first.

Before leaving, Zhang Qishuo reminded Chen Cheng not to forget about the script for the Chinese Rambo. Chen Cheng readily agreed and promised to give him the script in the first half of next year.

Zhang Qishuo then left happily.

Meanwhile, the Philharmonic Orchestra had already exported the audio of tonight's opening piece and sent it to Zhang Yimou.

When Zhang Yimou got home, he immediately put on his headphones and listened to the piece several times. After confirming that he could listen to it endlessly, he sent the piece to the publisher in the United States and had his wife explain the situation to them in English.

Initially, the head of the US publisher was not interested in his proposal.

They spent $20 million to buy all theatrical, DVD, and television distribution rights for the film in the North American market, and did not want Chinese companies to get involved afterward. However, Zhang Yimou kept strongly recommending it and even begged them to listen to the recording of the live performance, so they reluctantly agreed to listen.

So Zhang Yimou quickly sent them the music.

Since it was the weekend, the other party did not intend to deal with the matter, but planned to listen to it again on Monday.

However, Zhang Yimou couldn't wait for more than an hour and made another call to ask the other party how they felt after listening to the story.

The other party could only patiently tell him, "It's Saturday morning now, and I'm about to take my child to the amusement park. I'll listen to the music you sent on Monday and give you feedback then."

After listening to his wife's translation, Zhang Yimou immediately said, "Tell him that it might be too late. It's not just me who wants the copyright to this song; there are others waiting with money in hand. The song isn't long, only about two minutes long. Please ask him to listen to it first. If he doesn't like it, I won't bother him anymore. If he does like it, then we can strike while the iron is hot and discuss how to get the song."

After the wife relayed the situation to the other party, the other party was silent for a moment, then said helplessly, "Okay, I'll listen to it before I leave, and I'll give you feedback as soon as I'm done."

The other party hung up the phone, somewhat annoyed, turned on their computer, downloaded the song from their email to their local computer, and then clicked play.

He thought that if he could just listen to a couple of segments and then refuse directly, it would be acceptable on the surface.

But when the music started, he was instantly captivated. The moment Liu Shiyu played the main melody, he even felt goosebumps all over his arms.

Two minutes later, he picked up the phone and immediately called Zhang Yimou back.

The moment the call connected, he blurted out, "Mr. Zhang, how much is this piece of music?"

(End of this chapter)