It has become an industry consensus that the dominance of the streaming music era is imminent.
In this context, the value of master recording rights will be multiplied several times.
To upload music to any streaming service, or use it as an insert song for any TV show or movie, one needs the consent of the person who owns the master rights.
Whether it's downloading, purchasing, or streaming online, the person who owns the master rights makes money.
Since her debut, Taylor has contributed 80% of Big Machine Records' revenue.
The valuation of the masters of Taylor's first three albums averages around $30 million, totaling at most $100 million.
"I don't think Scott ever intended to let you buy back the master rights of these albums." Leon sneered twice.
"I just hope he doesn't sell those albums to Braun; I really hate that guy!" Taylor said.
"Actually, the possibility of this happening is very high." Leon lit a cigarette. "I mean, if you don't take action in advance, you will never be able to take the initiative."
There are only two ways to fight against the master rights hegemony of record companies:
Either spend money to buy back the masters;
Or spend money to re-record the masters.
No matter which way is chosen, the cost is not a small sum.
Judging from Scott's current asking price, choosing to re-record the masters is undoubtedly a better result.
But if she really makes up her mind to do so, it is equivalent to directly tearing up her face with Big Machine Records.
Her situation is different from Leon's; the latter has completely torn up his face with Roc Nation, while she and Big Machine Records are far from reaching that level.
"I have to ask my dad about this. I don't think Scott would be shameless to this extent..." Taylor muttered to herself.
"You think?"
Leon held back from laughing out loud.
In the entertainment industry, as long as one can gain fame and money, no one cares about the moral bottom line.
The bottom line exists to be constantly broken.
"You are already 22 years old, are you still the good baby acting coquettishly in daddy's arms? A blonde Barbie doll at the mercy of others?"
"You..."
Hearing this mockery, Taylor was about to retort immediately, but swallowed the words back.
She was indeed unprepared for the possible situation.
"Enough." Leon waved his hand and said, "Remember to tell me whatever happens; I will support you... Remember I said whatever happens."
---
A week later, inside the recording site of The Rap of America in the Bronx.
"Look at Kanye, his expression has turned green..." Beside the main stage, director Sean excitedly nudged Leon twice with his arm.
Performing on stage was Ray J, the rapper who gained global attention in the celebrity sex tape incident.
Due to his special identity, many staff members specially designed a script for him.
Hoping his actions on stage could be more topical, mainly targeting the scale of words and deeds towards the host Kardashian.
However, Ray J rejected the script prepared by the program team before going on stage, indicating that he knew what to do.
Smack— As soon as he jumped onto the stage, he slapped Kardashian hard on her fat butt.
Unprepared for this, Kardashian turned red with fright, ashamed and shocked.
Immediately afterwards, he picked up the microphone, raised his right hand high, and shouted: "Ray J is back, representing the West Coast~ Any btches miss my dck, the dck that can make people billionaires!"
50 Cent and Cardi clutched their stomachs laughing back and forth, only Kanye's face was livid, gritting his teeth to suppress the urge to spray people.
Ray J brought an unreleased original work Pure Btch, firing on all cylinders:
"Listen baby, your plastic reality show is like a Bible study in a brothel, you wear a V-neck shroud in front of the slot machines in Las Vegas~"
"Independent woman? When you say this word, I hear the splashing sound of producers pissing on the contract!"
"Pure? Fxxk!! There are twenty paparazzi night vision lenses hidden under your lace dress, the arc of your smile can make a compass commit suicide!"
"I know why even your toilet is 24K gold, because even sht has to be plated with the gold powder of inspirational stories!"
While rapping, Ray J ran to Kardashian from time to time to slap her butt as a metronome.
This almost made Kardashian retreat under the stage, looking at Leon with helpless eyes.
"Cut..." Sean felt that such attack power was a bit too ruthless. Just as he wanted to call a stop, he was stopped by Leon.
"I like this!" Leon's eyes lit up. "Don't cut a single frame of this kid's footage; the audience will love to watch this!"
Ray J's bitterness has been suppressed for too long. He actually filmed 3 large-scale videos back then.
One of them was exposed in 2007. Kardashian was the biggest beneficiary, gaining crazy traffic and public sympathy.
She has always played the victim in front of the camera, expressing her fear and trepidation that Ray J would expose the remaining two again.
Ray J has always been portrayed by the Kardashian family as a scumbag who would sell women's privacy for money, making women in society very disgusted with being photographed intimately by their boyfriends for a time.
Especially after the reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians started broadcasting, every promotional period, Kardashian had to rely on the tape exposure incident, playing the victim, suffering from deep mental trauma, to wash the black traffic white.
This made Ray J furious. He publicly shouted many times: It's all a scam! It was Kardashian's best friend Paris Hilton who tasted the traffic dividend of the video being exposed and suggested Kardashian do one too.
The intimate video he shot was a marketing event planned by Kardashian's mother Kris.
For this, he also posted hard evidence—a $400,000 agreement signed with Kardashian.
The two sold the copyright of the tape and profited $400,000, all planned by Kardashian's mother Kris.
However, even in the face of such ironclad evidence, the public still chose to side with Kardashian.
At this time, the other party was already a reality show big shot worth tens of millions, while Ray J was a bottom-level rapper so down and out that he couldn't even get club gigs.
Kanye lit up the red light without hesitation in the first second the accompaniment sounded.
While 50 Cent and Cardi were completely conquered by the attack power of this song, quarreling over grabbing Ray J to join their team.
"You know who is best at Diss songs; do I need to say more about the achievement of Billy?" 50 Cent said.
"Listen, I have a plan to release a new album; you can get a chance to Feat with me in this album!" Cardi stood up, persuading while making hand gestures.
"She is drawing a big cake for you..."
"I am not drawing a big cake! We can even collaborate on a new tape; I like shooting such tapes!"
Saying that, Cardi twerked at Ray J.
50 Cent spread his hands helplessly: "Okay, you win. After all, I can't shoot any damn tape with this ngga..."
Unable to resist such a big move, Ray J chose to join Cardi's team.
At this time, the recording was interrupted because of Kardashian's emotional breakdown.
She walked off the stage, sobbing constantly under the comfort of the assistant.
"Why? Why let this bastard insult me publicly!" She yelled at Sean: "Why didn't you call a stop? This part must be cut out completely, otherwise, I will definitely make you look good!"
"Kim, calm down." Leon leaned over and patted her shoulder. "The effect of this part is simply awesome..."
In front of Leon, Kardashian's emotions eased a little. "Oh my God, you should control Ray J. That bastard is crazy for fame; I absolutely cannot let him consume me again!"
Saying that, she fell into Leon's arms, rubbing her perky headlights hard against Leon's chest, choking up several times.
But Leon ignored this set at all, and the two were deadlocked on this issue.
"This is all just show effect; don't you understand this after being a reality show actor for so long?" Leon raised his volume by three degrees. "Give the audience what they love to watch!"
"But..."
"No buts! What happened today is much more effective than frying those old melons in Keeping Up with the Kardashians; you can't miss this opportunity!"
"Oh my God, I still can't accept it..."
Kardashian had an emotional breakdown and even once had the idea of quitting the program team.
"This woman..." Leon didn't expect Kardashian to break down because of being smeared; it seemed that the last trace of moral bottom line still remained.
Helplessly, he could only use the ultimate weapon, taking out his mobile phone to call Kris Jenner.
The other party showed an attitude completely different from her daughter. After learning what happened in the program team, she laughed non-stop on the other end of the phone.
She demanded that not a single frame of these scenes be cut, and she would handle Kardashian's matter herself.
As Leon thought before, Kris is not an ordinary "momager."
She is the most successful behind-the-scenes manipulator in the TV entertainment industry, a "financial crocodile" who treats family gossip as stock trading.
She is an evil alchemist who treats scandals and controversies as renewable energy.
Her sense of smell is more accurate than Wall Street fund managers, able to squeeze gold out of any melodramatic farce.
In her worldview, there is no moral dilemma, only market share and ratings.
Love?
That is a form of commercial contract.
Family privacy?
Non-existent; that's called "upcoming plot."
Behind every scandal, every breakup, every "leaked" video of her daughters, there is the shadow of her calm calculation.
"Remember! You must execute every sentence of Mr. Leon as the emperor's order!"
"But Mom..."
"You have no option to refuse; adjust your emotions for me immediately!" Kris roared on the phone, "Fxxk, have you forgotten all the teachings I gave you since childhood? You are a woman of the Kardashian family!"
Beep beep beep—
Kardashian wanted to say something more, but Kris had already hung up the phone.
She sat on the floor in the corner of the waiting area, hugging her legs and burying her head.
Sold like a commodity by her biological mother, squeezed like a slave...
Seeing this scene, the staff couldn't help but feel distressed and gathered around to comfort her.
"Bro, I think this is too much," Kanye said.
"Our viewership rate will go straight to the moon like Saturn V!" Leon said, "After the program airs, Miss Kardashian will thank me!"
Playback data is not important to Kanye at all. He doesn't lack money and doesn't need to make money by hyping topics.
It's just that everything that happened just now gave him an illusion of being NTRed (cuckolded) by Ray J face to face. He didn't want such a scene to be broadcast on TV.
Leon saw through the other party's thoughts at a glance, curved the corners of his mouth, and whispered: "I know what you are thinking, buddy. Now is your best chance to make a move."
"Chance?" Kanye's black face was written with confusion.
"Of course! Now is the time when this woman is most vulnerable." Leon glanced at Kardashian in the corner. "Seize this opportunity. A woman like her may not have many vulnerable moments like today in her whole life."
"I seem to understand a little, Bro..." Kanye pondered this sentence repeatedly, and soon his eyes lit up.
Leon patted his shoulder: "I don't think I need to teach you what to do. Listen, I can't even demonstrate how to go to bed for you..."
Only about ten minutes later, Kardashian's emotions returned to normal, and she was touching up her makeup backstage.
When she appeared on stage again, there was no trace of crying on her face.
Her eyebrows were raised, and her eyes were sharper and more confident than before.
After the recording, Leon led the creative team to hold a brief meeting backstage.
The recording of the main competition unit is drawing to a close, and currently, a total of 35 contestants have advanced.
Tomorrow, about five more contestants will be decided, totaling forty people to participate in the final "City Knockout."
Each contestant represents their home city, forming a confrontation situation among camps such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, etc.
"The knockout match adopts a mutual DISS confrontation mode." Sean introduced holding the script: "We not only allow mutual DISS but also provide a stage for contestants to release harsh words on social media before the official competition."
"I have some more interesting ideas. The judges can vote, but if the contestant is dissatisfied, they can issue a DISS battle to the judge on the spot. If they win the scolding, the judge's vote can be invalid..."
Leon listened while staring at the phone screen. "Your ideas are as excellent as ever..."
After tomorrow's recording ends, the sample film of the main competition stage will enter the editing and post-production adjustment stage.
If everything goes smoothly, this show will be officially broadcast on the Netflix platform on the 15th.
The topic of The Rap of America on social media remains high. Some program crew members leaked the news that Kardashian broke down emotionally due to Ray J's humiliation at the program recording site today.
This topic fermented rapidly on the internet, attracting countless netizens to watch the drama, currently ranking first in the hot search.
"Tonight I want to revisit that exquisite video; it is still stored in my D drive..."
"Here? Bro send a seed (torrent), good people live a safe life..."
The so-called "inadvertent leak" was not true but news intentionally disseminated under Leon's arrangement.
The news ranking second in the hot search is equally eye-catching. JAY-Z released the new album Watch the Throne as planned at 3 pm today.
The title song Niggas In Paris performed by him and Kanye in the album immediately became a hit, and the download data on the Spotify platform soared sharply.
Seeing this, Leon suddenly thought of something and asked Sean: "How did those two kids from the Roc label perform? Did they advance?"
Sean nodded. "To be honest, they didn't show the level that signed singers should have, but I still asked Cardi to give them a chance to advance~ The other two kids in the New York camp are your fans. I think putting them together should be very show-effective."
"Very good." Leon said, "This plot is indeed very hype-worthy. If necessary, you can bring out the names of me and JAY-Z."
In less than five days, his contract with Roc Nation will officially expire.
At that time, the news of Street Jesus betraying Roc Nation and joining Columbia Records will definitely occupy the headlines of the entertainment section.
The complex grievances between the two will also be written about by the media. This is an excellent opportunity to hype the popularity of the program.
"It's all over..." Just as Leon was smugly planning the future, two crisp abnormal sounds came to his ears.
Bang bang—
"What sound?" Sean asked suspiciously, and the staff in the conference room stood up one after another.
"Sht... go out and check quickly." Growing up in Brownsville, Leon was all too familiar with this sound.
This is the gunshot of a Glock.
Soon after, two more gunshots came.
"It's from the contestant lounge!" Leon led the staff hurriedly towards the direction of the gunshots.
Dozens of contestants were in chaos, cursing and discussing interwoven together.
Trash talk was overwhelming.
"Shut the fxxk up!" Roared by Leon, the noise stopped immediately.
The crowd moved to both sides, making a way for him.
In the center of the crowd, King Von was sitting on the ground, blood constantly emerging from the bloody hole in his thigh.
"Tell me what happened..."
"Fxxk! Some bastard shot me without warning!" King Von clutched the wound and screamed: "Save me quickly, Boss, I feel the blood is running dry..."
"Which bastard?"
"That bastard from the New York camp! I don't know him at all!" King Von looked ferocious. "From the beginning, he looked at me with bad intentions. I asked him if he wanted to eat bullets, and that coward suddenly pulled out a gun!"