Perfect Superstar

PS Chapter 79 – Expensive Packages

On June 10, Lu Chen returned to the capital. Waving away the melancholy of graduation and parting, he cheered up his spirits and got back on his way.

From now on, his identity is no longer a college student in the ivory tower, but a genuine fresh social person.

The road ahead is long and has no ending; yet high and low I will search with my will unbending.

At this moment, Lu Chen didn’t know what was waiting for him in the future. He didn’t know whether he was about to embark on a bright road covered with flowers or a dangerous road full of thorns.

But he was fearless and full of expectation!

.......

June 11, Thursday, Cloudy.

Lu Chen arrived at the Delong Building in Beijing’s Fourth Ring Road.

Delong Building is a 58-story office building, located in the most prosperous financial and commercial district in the Fourth Ring Road. Lu Chen have already visited this place twice some time ago and participated in the production of the two singles of Wandering Band in Tianzhai Music Workshop at the 35th floor.

Tianzhai Music Workshop is very famous in Beijing pop music industry. It was established ten years ago. It is mainly engaged in music production and promotion. It has complete and advanced equipment and a group of excellent professionals.

Many tycoons in the industry have produced their own works through the Tianzhai Music Workshop. Light Rain Media has put its first album in the Tianzhai Music Workshop in order to launch their first shot into pop music.

Quality first!

Although Lu Chen’s involvement is not deep, he has a deep understanding of the strength of Tianzhai Music Workshop.

Therefore, he wanted to hand over his album to Tianzhai for completion.

The idea of making a solo album began when Lu Chen signed up for [Whale TV]. It was not until after the PK theme show that the editor of Yunjing Music Network talked with him before he really made up his mind.

Lu Chen wanted to use this album as a stepping stone to enter the pan-entertainment circle!

Therefore, he attached great importance to it as his first major event after returning to Beijing.

In the customer reception room of Tianzhai Music Workshop, Lu Chen first met the business representative of the other party.

The business representative, surnamed Ni, who is in her 30s, is a typical white-collared worker with exquisite makeup and decent dress. Although the smile on her face is slightly professional, it does not make people feel neglected.

Miss Ni also spoke in a gentle voice: “Mr. Lu Chen, this is our company’s price list for foreign music production, which includes five, ABCDE, packages. Of course, if you have special demands, our company can also customize it for you. ”

Lu Chen nodded and took the other party’s price list and looked at it carefully.

The first two times he came to Tianzhai Music Workshop was to help, and he had not asked about the price, but now this has opened his eyes.

This price list was specifically designed for album production, including all the cost of compilation, recording and post-production, the lowest of the five, the E package, was priced at 100,000, and the highest, A package, was priced at 1 million. The gap was 10 times!

Before coming to Tianzhai Music Workshop, Lu Chen had some knowledge about singles and album production.

Beijing is the center of the national cultural industry. Entertainment and media companies are numerous. There are millions of people in the entertainment-related industries. Music studios, recording studios and professional production companies are everywhere.

If it is purely for fun and the quality doesn’t matter, one can directly order and commission the production of personal albums on the Internet.

And if one wanted to experience the feeling of recording in a shed, spending one or two thousand yuan can also meet the demand.

Of course, these are for pure amateurs. If one really wanted to produce high-quality singles or albums, the cost will be very high. One or two thousand per songs are just the basic, and hundreds of thousands should not be too expensive.

So, despite the number of singers in Beijing, many people have never produced a real album in their lives. In addition to the song itself, the cost of production is the key, followed by publicity and distribution. If they can’t sell, they will lose money!

As for songs made from just thousands of dollars, there is no way to find a channel for it, and it is too shabby to give them away to people for nothing.

As a veteran company in the industry, Tianzhai Music Workshop is very professional. The price list contains a detailed list of the costs of the five packages, so that people can understand it clearly.

After Lu Chen saw it, he was most satisfied with the C package, which included well-known compilers, producers and band accompaniment, high-quality recording and post-production. The price offered was 500,000 yuan, equivalent to 50,000 yuan for a song.

It’s not that the A or B package is not as good as the C package, but that the price of the A or B package is not what Lu Chen can afford at all.

Even for the C package, he couldn’t afford it now.

As for the 250,000 D package and the 100,000 package, compared with the C package, it seemed that they didn’t put much sincerity on it.

It should also be known that daily necessities are expensive!

Lu Chen secretly sighed. Holding the price list, he probingly asked, “Miss Ni, how much discount can you give me if I choose the C package?”

He had heard from Qin Hanyang last time that he could bargain with the production company.

Miss Ni said sincerely, “Mr. Lu, with my authority, I can give you a discount of up to 5%. If you can ask our manager or director to sign, the minimum discount is 10%.”

Lu Chen gave up as soon as he heard it, not to mention that he didn’t know the manager or the director of Tianzhai Music Workshop at all, and even if he could get the other party’s signature, he would still have to pay 450,000 yuan.

Lu Chen knew that if it wasn’t him who came forward personally, but by a well-known company such as Light Rain Media, it was estimated that the price will be even lower. But who let him do it alone?

This was the so-called “Being under a tree is good and cool”. Although signing under an entertainment media companies will make one lose a lot of freedom and rights, there are also a lot of conveniences, such as one does not need to worry about production and distribution. They will also spend efforts on publicity.

But Lu Chen didn’t regret his choice!

He thought about it and said, “Let me think about it, Miss Ni. Can I take this price list with me?”

Miss Ni smiled: “Absolutely. If you have any questions, you can ask me directly.”

She had already given her business card to Lu Chen when they first met.

“Thank you!”

Lu Chen left Tianzhai Music Workshop with the price list.

In fact, for Lu Chen now, 450,000 is really not a large number. He can already earn this much after a short period of time, or by selling two of his songs.

However, this involves another question, that is, if the investment is so large, does it earn back the cost?

Lu Chen had no idea.

He had a small success in live broadcasting, with a large number of fans, but if he was put in the entertainment industry, he can’t even be called a newcomer and still have a long way to go. And right now, he was still an outsider and has no influence at all.

And the issue of piracy is also involved in the production of online albums. The price of online albums is very low, but not many people are willing to pay, because free piracy resources can be found soon after the release of the album.

The same applies to [Whale TV]. Despite his hundreds of thousands of supporters, just like rewards, only a small number of people who are really willing to pay.

Releasing an album is a must, but Lu Chen does not want to lose money, and also refused to compromise in quality. It’s really problematic – The idea is very good but the reality is too cruel!

With an entangled mind, he took the elevator down to the ground floor of the Delong Building.

Just as he took a few steps out of the elevator, a middle-aged man suddenly strode over and stop Lu Chen, “Excuse me, sir, are you going to make songs in the Tianzhai Music Workshop?”

The middle-aged man, who was about 50 years old, was thin and dressed in a suit that didn’t fit very well, so he looked baggy.

He looked a little nervous as he spoke, and his eyes were more focused on the security guard in the hall not far away.

“Uh.”

Lu Chen was stunned and asked curiously, “What can I do for you?”

The middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately took a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Lu Chen with both hands.

“I am Wang Changsheng, manager of Nirvana Music Production Studio. Can we talk for a bit?”

He spoke fairly fast, with a trace of unease and expectation.

Nirvana Music Production Studio?

Lu Chen thought about it. He didn’t have the slightest impression about it. He hesitated for a moment and said: “All right.”

It was mostly out of curiosity.

There was a teahouse on the first floor of the Delong Building. The two men took a seat and ordered a pot of tea.

After sitting down, Lu Chen’s first question was, “Manager Wang, how did you know I was going to make songs at Tianzhai Music Workshop?”

The studio manager, Wang Changsheng, pointed to the price list that Lu Chen had put on the table and said with embarrassment, “I saw you holding this in your hand, so I came to try my luck.”

Lu Chen couldn’t help but laugh.

_______

TN: Tianzhai or Tianlai is also translated as “sounds of nature”.