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Chapter 14: Iron Dumbbell_1

Holy crap, this young man!

Faced with Lin Yuan's initiative to volunteer, Ol' Zhou's gaze was as bizarre as everyone else's. His mouth slightly agape, he suddenly forgot to respond for a moment. The only thing still instinctively functioning was his brain—

Was he just calculating money?

Was he just planning to give the singer a 0.5 share?

No famous singer would accept this kind of distribution ratio. Twenty percent of 0.5, this is a typical pittance, only small singers or newcomers who just debuted would accept such a low proportion of a song's profit...

No, no, no!

What the fuck is I thinking about?

Ol' Zhou tried hard to control his scattered thoughts and mildly convulsing mouth corner.

He cleared his throat gently, selecting his words: "It's good for a young man to be energetic, but the job we have isn't something an average newbie can handle. Certainly, Lin Yuan, you are not an ordinary newbie, but we still need to pool our ideas. So, within a month, everyone send me a sample, including the others on the tenth floor. Everyone must hand in a sample."

He couldn't dampen Lin Yuan's enthusiasm.

With everyone else groaning in dismay, Lin Yuan stepped up to take on the challenging task of composing, a behavior worthy of encouragement. So there's no way for Ol' Zhou to utter any criticism.

As for the conversation between Lin Yuan and Zheng Jing in the group chat today, Ol' Zhou naturally was aware, but wouldn't blame Lin Yuan for it.

Because Ol' Zhou is well-acquainted with a few of the company's maestros.

All of the maestros have very strange personalities.

Take Zheng Jing for instance, she's a composer on maestro level, but she rarely composes on a day-to-day basis. Instead, she has a fierce passion for painting and has even privately funded her own art exhibition—

As if composing was just a side gig for her.

Although Lin Yuan was not a maestro, judging from the personality he had shown so far, there was not much difference between him and the maestros.

So Ol' Zhou wasn't fazed by it.

However, the reason this unorthodox newbie, whose personality has similarities with many maestros, was so proactive – was that born out of his passion for creation or the allure of the five million?

It seemed questionable no matter how he thought about it.

Well of course, although composing is for art, most people ultimately work for money, which is understandable.

However.

Lin Yuan whipping out a calculator to calculate the share at the meeting was probably a first in the history of Starlight's composition department.

Not just Ol' Zhou.

Everyone in the conference room was full of questions but didn't know where to start.

Especially Wu Yong and Zheng Han, who sat on either of Lin Yuan, they were completely dumbfounded.

Everyone finally came to a conclusion when they thought about the way Lin Yuan talked to Zheng Jing in the group chat today:

A gifted young man, Xian Yu?

No, he's just a simpleton.

With that thought, Lin Yuan suddenly seemed cute?

At the very least, he was genuine.

As everyone came to this realization, the room gradually erupted in laughter. The atmosphere in the meeting room relaxed, and even someone teased Lin Yuan, "Don't forget to treat us all to coffee when you get the bonus!"

"Okay."

Lin Yuan hesitated for quite some time before finally agreeing.

Everyone burst out in more hearty laughter.

There was no mockery, on the contrary, everyone's laughter was filled with a sense of goodwill, especially the female members, their expressions were full of warmth.

Well, Lin Yuan is just a sophomore college kid, isn't he?

And a rather good-looking lad at that.

However, joking aside.

No one seems to believe that Lin Yuan would be able to win the contract.

Can a newbie, who is still learning sophomore basics, accomplish something that not even the ace arrangers of the tenth floor could?

Dream on.

In this conference room, no composer would deny the quality of "Life Like a Summer Flower."

However, among those dozen plus arche composers, each held more than one successful song in their portfolio.

Any of those representative works in their portfolio could easily rival "Life Like a Summer Flower" in terms of success!

If not, how could they be the company's aces?

...

Lin Yuan, of course, didn't know what everyone was thinking. Right now, his mind was filled with the thought of earning five million, even though he could only take fifteen percent of those earnings.

After the meeting ended,

Lin Yuan didn't leave straight away. Instead, he asked Ol' Zhou, who was packing up, "Director, where do I find singers?"

"Singers?"

Ol' Zhou frowned and said, "Aren't you planning to take Qi Continent's task? Your primary task now should be writing the song. If you come up with a good song, then you can look for a singer. If the song you write isn't up to standard, then what's the point of looking for a singer now?"

Ol' Zhou didn't really hold out any hope for Lin Yuan to write a good song.

But he hoped Lin Yuan would grasp the basic order of creating a song.

After all, he had high hopes for Lin Yuan; given that his song, 'Life Like A Summer Flower' showed promising potential, which is why he insisted on requesting Ms. Zhao for Lin Yuan.

"So, how do I find a singer after writing a good song?"

Lin Yuan had no choice but to ask for a fallback plan. He couldn't possibly reveal that he had already written the song, could he?

That would be too suspicious.

After some thought, Ol' Zhou said, "Usually, if you want to find a singer to collaborate with, you'll need to contact the artist department and fill out a form. If you're looking to collaborate with some of the top-tier artistes in the company, you'd definitely need to apply in advance, and then I would personally communicate with them…"

Lin Yuan nodded.

Ol' Zhou seemed to recall something and said, "I almost forgot about your relationship with Ms. Zhao. Even if the contract isn't approved, if you really want to release a song, just look for Ms. Zhao. She's in charge of all the singers in the company, but that's provided your song passes the company's review and is worth releasing!"

"Oh."

Lin Yuan nodded.

After leaving the conference room, he returned to his seat and immediately called Ms. Zhao to enquire about finding a singer.

"Looking for a singer?"

Ms. Zhao laughed, "I didn't expect you to be so prolific— you have new work already? Alright, tell me, what kind of singer are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for..."

Ms. Zhao interrupted Lin Yuan, "Never mind, I'll send some information and audio samples of our newer singers who aren't busy lately to your email. With your understanding of music, you should be able to find the right person. Once you find someone, leave the rest to me. As for top-tier singers…"

"What about top-tier singers?"

"Top-tier singers have high standards for songs."

"How high?"

"Let's put it this way: unless the song you write can match the level of 'Life Like A Summer Flower', they basically wouldn't consider it. Typically, top-tier singers look for the company's top composers for songs. After all, they're top-tier singers, and their income isn't something second-tier singers can compare to."

Lin Yuan was wary, "Income?"

Ms. Zhao laughed, "You don't think all singers only take 0.5% of 20%, right? That's the price for small-time singers. For those highly sought-after singers, their share would be higher, almost splitting evenly with the composer. For the top singers, their share can be 1.5% of 20%, leaving only 0.5% for the composer."

"I need a tool!"

Lin Yuan's train of thought immediately cleared.

Ms. Zhao couldn't help laughing, "You really have been led astray by that group in the composing department. I wonder who was the first to call the singers from our artist department tools. But let me remind you, some songs aren't easily held to by minor singers. In the future, as you grow, you shouldn't refuse to collaborate with big-name singers just over income."

"Alright."

Lin Yuan said, "Thank you, Ms. Zhao."

Ms. Zhao said, "No need to thank, goodbye."

A few minutes later, a large number of audios arrived in Lin Yuan's email. The material and audio of a total of 106 people were included in it.

Let the work begin.

Lin Yuan put on his headphones and started listening to the vocals of these 106 people one by one.

Unlike 'Life Like A Summer Flower'.

The song 'Big Fish' that Lin Yuan wanted to release couldn't just be sung well by any random person.

Well, definitely not Sun Yaohuo.

After all, not everyone is Zhou Shen.

Lin Yuan wasn't confident that he could immediately find such a pleasant voice, so he had to scout for candidates beforehand.

In case he didn't find anyone, he had a fallback plan.

That was to find a female singer whose vocal range was similar to the original singer's, and use some technical means to make up for it—

Get to know the million-dollar sound engineer.