Chapter 154 - Abducting Little Jia

On the first night of his meeting with Justin Bieber, Lin Ming Yang was sitting cross-legged on his bed with his laptop on his knees as he was browsing through several of Justin Bieber's videos under his YouTube account. Ja had participated in many singing competitions, all of which had earned top spots. Bieber's mother had put clips of the competitions on the video site YouTube, initially so that relatives living elsewhere could see Bieber's performances, and these videos became the basis for Lin Ming Yang's reference to Justin Bieber's stage performance talent.

During the video playback, an idea popped into Lin Ming Yang's head, he picked up his cell phone and dialed his manager, Eckles.

Ecks on the other end of the phone omitted all the pleasantries and courtesies and went straight to the point as soon as he came up, "Say, what's up?"

Lin Ming Yang held the phone helplessly, "No need to be so direct, right?"

"Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't call me at this time." Ecks grunted unkindly on the phone.

"Then what should I be doing at this time?" Lin Mingyang asked curiously.

"Outside fooling around with some woman, I haven't seen any of your flamboyant news in the newspaper lately, it's all a bit uncomfortable!" Ecks tsked his mouth and joked in passing.

"Is my image in your mind that bad?" Lin Ming Yang rubbed his nose, there was no need for him to hide it in front of Ecks.

"At least you don't proclaim your 'great achievements' in public, this is something you're better at than Hugh Heineff!" Ecks had no problem comparing Lin Ming Yang to the founder of Playboy.

The more Ecks talked, the more outrageous he got, Lin Ming Yang didn't have the time to keep on bullshitting with him, "Let me tell you something serious, I found a boy, only 12 years old this year, he's very talented in singing, and he's a good performer, I'm going to let him be the male lead in my new movie, if you search for 'Justin Bieber on YouTube ' and you can find videos of him participating in singing competitions, I think he's a very promising newcomer."

"So you want me to sign him up?" Having worked with Lin Ming Yang for such a long time, this tacit understanding Ecks still had.

Lin Ming Yang hemmed and hawed and laughed, "How could I forget you if there are benefits?"

Ecks considered for a while on the other end of the phone, he also wanted to expand his agency towards the music field, so he gladly accepted Lin Ming Yang's invitation and agreed to come along to interview Justin Bieber.

----

Despite the fact that the only person attending the audition was Justin Bieber, Lionsgate had arranged a small theater as the site for the audition, and the only judges on stage were Lin Ming Yang and Eckles, who had come over from Arkansas early in the morning.

Eckles had watched Justin Bieber's singing videos last night, although those videos only had a few hundred views each on YouTube. But when Eckels heard Bieber's crisp vocals, it struck him as a rare talent. His sharp professional instincts told Eckles that Bieber had huge potential and was malleable.

As Eckles envisioned it, a boy under the age of 12, without the backing of the Disney Channel and never having been on television, would be a nobody to the masses. Even if his songs were catchy, they wouldn't be enough for a record company to take a chance. After all, it takes a tremendous amount of gumption to release a record for an untested teenager.

If he was able to successfully sign with Justin Bieber today, Ecks' first step was to recommend the boy to the Disney Channel's writers and directors, because having worked at the Disney Company, Ecks had quite a few acquaintances over there. And Lin Mingyang's relationship with Disney is still in the honeymoon period, as his agent, Eckles' status is naturally rising, Disney even has some to please Eckles at this time.

Listening to his plan, Lin Ming Yang, however, could not stop shaking his head, he did not recognize this route of Ecks to routinely package child stars.

"Although this child lacks a TV platform, the way of launching artists through talent shows like American Idol and Song and Dance is already too outdated. While I know the kids who have been on the Disney Channel are talented, the public generally accepts them because of their status as 'child stars' or 'TV stars' and secondarily as singers. The Disney Channel is a shortcut to success, but it can also be a bottleneck for growth later in life."

Lin Mingyang's analysis was not unreasonable, and Ecks nodded, "Then what do you have to offer?"

"I cast him as the male lead in my new movie to draw attention to him, and you should turn your eyes to new media. You can post his new songs on YouTube for fans to subscribe to, or you can create real and genuine connections with fans directly from YouTube and Facebook in a more liberal way, build up popularity now on the internet, and when the time is right you can release a record."

"Is it really feasible to rely on the internet?" Ecks was still a little hesitant.

"You'll know if you try it!" There was no explanation as to why, but Lin Ming Yang's tone carried a very strong sense of confidence. Because Lin Ming Yang knew that Justin Bieber's future path to fame was forged through the internet, and his freshly released music was the first to be on the internet for his fans to enjoy. The company's data showed that he had made nearly hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for the company in just a few months, a scary figure but an indisputable fact.

Ecks was still considering, but Lin Ming Yang saw Justin Bieber standing in the doorway and his mother, now Xiao Jia is not the future of the windy little king of the singing world, he is very youthful pulling his mother's hand, seeing Lin Ming Yang's gaze towards this side, he even moved his body towards the back of his mother.

"You are Mr. Felix Lin, right!" Justin Bieber's mother pulled her son and walked quickly to Lin Ming Yang, "Thank you so much for everything you've done for us, this is my son Bieber!"

She pulled out the boy who was hiding behind himself and pushed him in front of Lin Ming Yang. "Bieber, say hello to Mr. Felix!"

"Justin Bieber, nice to meet you!" Lin Ming Yang shortened his body and extended his hand towards Jia in a friendly manner, "Can we shake hands?"

"You recognize me?" The boy asked timidly.

"I've seen your singing videos on the internet!" Lin Mingyang nodded with a smile on his face.

"Hello!" Only then did Justin Bieber shake Lin Ming Yang's hand, his eyes flashing with excitement, "Can I ask you for your autograph?"

"Bieber!" The boy's mother rubbed his head before smiling slightly apologetically towards Lin Ming Yang and Ecks, "This boy is usually very introverted, but he's very loose when performing on stage."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lin Ming Yang pointed to the stage in front of him, "Hey Boy, why don't you sing us a song first?"

"Didn't you guys get me here to act in a movie?" Justin Bieber had a puzzled look on his face, and it was obvious that he was a very opinionated thinking kid.

Smiling bitterly, Lin Ming Yang had to explain, "This is a part of the audition, we want to see how talented you are!"

Without going around backstage, the boy climbed up directly from the front of the stage and stood in the center of the stage, his face looked a little hesitant, as if he had encountered something difficult.

Lin Ming Yang thought he was waiting for the soundtrack or wanted a microphone, and had to explain once again, "You can just clear your vocals for this part!"

Justin Bieber stifled his red face and said halfway through the song, "I...I actually wanted to sing one of your songs, it's just..."

"It's 'Baby' right?" Lin Ming Yang had a look of realization on his face, "OK, you can start now!"

At first Justin Bieber was still a bit nervous, but he soon got into the singing mood, and he had to admit that the song 'baby' did have a different flavor when sung in his tender childish voice. After the end of the performance, the first one to stand up and applaud was Eckles, Lin Ming Yang did not begrudge his applause, but Justin Bieber on the stage was obviously a little confused, he still did not know who this uncle beside Lin Ming Yang was.

"Mr. Ecks is my manager, he watched the video of Bieber singing on the internet, so he wanted to come over to see the live version." Lin Ming Yang introduced Justin Bieber and his mother.

Ecks handed his business card to Bieber's mother, "Ma'am, I think your child is very musically talented, but needs to receive more professional training."

The boy's mother nodded her head with a very helpless expression on her face, "My ability is limited, I can't send him to a professional music school to further his education."

"I'm very optimistic about his potential, and if it's possible, I'd like to sign Bieber under my agency's name. I can invite music masters with their different expertise and experience to work together to customize Bieber's music for him from multiple angles such as market positioning, song selection, professional vocal training, dancing, etc., and I can also book top-notch pop producers for Bieber to advise him on his music."

Managers are best at "painting the big picture," and before signing an artist to a contract, they paint a rosy picture of the future for the artist. Echolls has a gift for that, and he's so good at it that Justin Bieber and his mother are actually mesmerized by what he's saying.

On the side of Lin Ming Yang really couldn't listen anymore, he coughed twice, only then did Ecks stop his bragging with intent, and then looked at Justin Bieber with a smirk, "If you're willing to do so, you can immediately become an artist signed under our banner just like Felix, but if you don't do well enough, we'll terminate the contract at any time oh! "

In the end, Ecks didn't forget to play a handful of lustful tricks, but Justin Bieber's mother was still very cautious, she didn't agree to Ecks right away. But just now that singing has let Justin Bieber interview through, the next period of time, he has to stay in Los Angeles this side of the filming, Eckles is not in a hurry. In the next week, after several rounds of negotiations, Eckles finally signed Justin Bieber, who was only 12 years old at the time, to be his manager.