Chapter 108 108. I'll take care of him

On the surface, the song "Rolling in the Deep" is about the love between a man and a woman, but that's because the singer is Adele, so everyone automatically brings up this emotion.

If the singer is replaced by MJ, combined with his current situation, the meaning of the song becomes struggling to move forward from the abyss, which has a more inspirational flavor.

That's why Eric chose this song specifically for Michael.

This situation is similar to Tengger's "Heaven". Many people say it is a song about his dead daughter, while others say it is about his hometown.

Although Eric can't sing many English songs, he can still sing globally popular songs such as "Let it Go", "See You Again" and "Despacito". However, these are obviously not suitable for the current MJ.

You can't let Michael release a pornographic song all of a sudden, are you crazy? That would be equivalent to confirming the rumors of pedophilia.

After accepting the gift, Michael couldn't sleep. The tiredness from a whole day of playing disappeared, and he directly pulled Eric into the workshop.

Eric hummed it over and over again, and Michael worked backwards from the melody he sang.

In fact, this process is not long. With Maikou's ability, it can be completed in more than an hour. What remains is just to consider the tone of the details.

The real difficulty lies in the arrangement. If a song wants to really take shape, it mainly consists of three parts: lyrics, composition and arrangement.

Lyric writing is about writing lyrics, composing music is simply about writing out the five-line score in the music textbook, and arranging music is about adding accompaniment to the song, including the coordination of various musical instruments and human harmony that the audience hears.

All three are indispensable, and the song will be incomplete without any one of them.

So every time Eric sang a line, Michael would keep trying on the piano, guitar, drums, bass and other instruments until he found the most suitable arrangement and combination.

Gadot and Elizabeth watched the two people's attempts with great interest, but the process was very boring for outsiders, and they left after watching for a while because they felt bored.

It seemed as if he deliberately didn't want time to disturb him, so there was not a single clock here.

The lights in the workshop stayed on, and I didn't know how long it had been.

"ah"

As MJ finished the last part, the two of them collapsed to the ground screaming, as if they had completed a difficult but fulfilling task.

Through the gaps in the curtains, I seemed to be able to see the sunlight.

Michael narrowed his eyes. "Is it daybreak? I haven't been so excited to work for a long time. I finished a song in one night."

"Eric, if I tell this to others, my friends won't believe it. They know I'm a very slow person."

"So, is that it?" Eric asked.

"Most of it. I need to continue to improve the rest with my team, but it won't take long. I am still surprised that you hummed it. It is already very complete. It is incredible. It is incredible."

Eric was too embarrassed to brag too shamelessly, so he said, "That's great, send this song out, I can't wait to hear it."

Michael smiled with some satisfaction and said, "Yes, and I will put your name in the lyrics, composition and arrangement. This is all thanks to you."

“Once this song is completely perfected and the MV is finished, we can release it as a single.”

It is not yet the era of streaming media, and songs cannot be uploaded to the Internet for people to download. CDs are still the main carrier.

Releasing a single is different from releasing an album. An album usually contains at least ten songs, but only the title song may be accompanied by a MV.

Therefore, releasing a single can be understood as releasing a title song, and a good MV must be shot.

Otherwise, if your CD only has one song, no matter how dumb the audience is, few of them will buy it.

Eric said, "It's not difficult to shoot a music video. You can just use your current situation as the background. If you need it, MGM can find a lot of directors and screenwriters."

"Besides, I am a quick shooter. I completed a big project like Transformers in two months, which broke the industry record."

MJ grinned and said, "Thank you, this is good news for me, but I just realized that there is still a key problem. With this problem, I am afraid that this song will not be released soon."

"What's the problem?"

"Eric, do you know which company is distributing my songs?"

"I think it's Sony. I don't know much about the music market."

"Yes, it is Sony Music, but my relationship with Sony is very bad at the moment. To be more precise, it has been bad for several years."

Eric said nothing, just listened quietly.

"It's a long story. It probably started in 1986, when I spent a lot of money to buy ATV, a music company that owned the copyrights of songs by many singers, including the Beatles and Elvis."

"Then in 1991, Sony Music found me and wanted me to join Sony Music with these copyrights, and the condition was that I got half of the shares of Sony Music."

"That is to say, from that time on, I not only worked for Sony, but was also the boss of Sony, but I didn't understand it and didn't participate in management."

"Sony Music then grew bigger and bigger, and signed numerous singers, including Madonna, Oasis, Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Norah Jones and many more."

"This means that Sony will give me half of all the money earned by everyone, but the copyright of my own songs does not actually belong to Sony. It only owns the recording copyright, and the copyright is about to expire."

"In the beginning, things were going well for me and Sony Music, but things changed."

"Sony could give me a year's dividend, but couldn't bear to share it with me forever, especially as the company got bigger and made more money."

"I remember that Sony wanted to buy my half of the copyright since 1993, and hoped that I would give them all the copyrights of my songs, but I refused."

"From that point on, my relationship with Sony became less than harmonious."

"You know, my last album was released in 2001. It took five years to make. It could have been made faster, but Sony was unwilling to cooperate during the production process and kept delaying it for various reasons."

"After the album was finally released, Sony spent very little on promotion. Generally speaking, the company would organize various promotional activities for new songs, as well as record music videos, etc. But they treated me very poorly, as if I was just a singer who had just debuted."

"Eric, if you had followed the news last year, you would have known that Sony and I had a public fight over this matter in the newspapers. The album sales of Invincible did not even reach 10 million copies."

"Maybe, but at least on paper it doesn't show that. Since about three years ago, all my album sales have been stagnant."

"I suspected that Sony had frozen it, so I wanted to check the accounts. But although I own half of the company's shares, I don't participate in management. Even though they finally allowed me to send an accountant to investigate, they ultimately found no problems. I think you can understand this."

Eric nodded. "As for accounting, Hollywood has always been the most professional. They can make a loss even with a box office of 1 billion US dollars. This is a necessary skill for every company."

"If you want to find out the problem by your own strength, I can tell you that it is almost impossible, Mike. Not to mention you, even if you call those elites on Wall Street, they won't be able to analyze the problem."

"Unless the tax bureau is called in and spends at least a few years investigating, perhaps the hidden tricks can be discovered."

Michael smiled bitterly: "Yes, so I can't do anything about Sony, and I'm still in debt."

"You refuse to sell the copyright, so Sony intends to bankrupt you financially and force you to sell the copyright to repay the debt, is that right?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what those people think."

Eric sighed. If this was true, then Sony's actions were indeed very despicable.

To put it bluntly, the root cause is still interests. The Sony Music in 1991 and the Sony Music in 2003 are no longer on the same level. The pie has become bigger.

In the past, Sony might have only had to pay Jackson a few million or tens of millions of dollars each year, but now the number is probably over 100 million. Sony will certainly not be reconciled.

Not to mention Sony, anyone in this position would probably be unwilling to do so. The only difference is whether the means are honorable or not.

This is because MJ's status is too high and his influence is too great. Sony is also worried about dealing with him and can only do it secretly.

If it were an ordinary singer, he would have been swallowed up without leaving any bones.

"Michael, what about the case in 1993 and this one?"

Michael nodded: "I suspect it has something to do with Sony. They might be instigating this from behind."

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"Especially in 1993, I had planned to fight the lawsuit to the end. Evan Chandler had no valid evidence at all. As long as I followed the legal process, I would definitely win."

"But at that time I was on the Dangerous World Tour, and Sony kept telling me to focus on my career, and of course many people in my team also told me to do that."

"But after I accepted the out-of-court settlement, the concert still didn't go ahead. It was forced to end after less than three months."

"I don't know whether Sony was involved, but there was definitely a crack in our relationship at that time."

"It's even more so now. Sony will never produce new songs for me again, and I will never ask them to produce songs for me!"

"If Sony isn't possible, what about other record companies? For example, EMI and Universal, can't we cooperate with them?" Eric asked.

Michael sighed, "It's an option. And after the complete fallout with Sony last year, Universal and EMI took the initiative to contact me, hoping that I could cooperate with them with 50% of the copyright. However, the specific contract has not been negotiated yet, and then things broke out again in February this year."

"Public opinion is not friendly to me right now, so the negotiations have come to a halt. I don't think any record company would take the risk of releasing an album for me at this moment."

"Sorry Eric, you might not be able to hear this song for a while."

Looking at the lost MJ, Eric didn't expect that the things behind it were so complicated and involved so many games.

Sony may be the mastermind behind this, or there may be other organizations or individuals involved besides Sony.

After all, MJ is a piece of fat meat that is really valuable, and he is a black man. Even if he has done a lot of good things, some things are original sins from the moment they appear.

Eric tapped his fingers slowly on the floor as he thought about what to do.

MJ is not only his idol and someone he respects, but also an important part of Eric's career plan.

However, talking about business on the first meeting may seem like your motives are not pure, so let's wait for the right time.

In short, no matter from what angle, he doesn't want a superstar to fall into the abyss.

Knock knock knock. At this time, there was a knock on the door, and then Gadot walked in and looked at the two people lying on the ground in surprise.

"OMG! You didn't sleep all night, did you?"

Seeing Eric nod, she suddenly became angry: "This is not the right attitude to have at work. You are heading for sudden death."

"I'm going to get some food. After you finish eating, you should get back to bed and go to sleep."

After saying that, Gadot slammed the door and left.

"Eric, you found a great girlfriend."

Michael said with some envy that his messy marriage with Catwoman was really sad.

"Yes, I think so."

A moment later, Gadot returned with milk and food, and handed the phone to Eric again: "Your number belongs to Spielberg. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't give it to you!"

Eric smiled and kissed Gadot, then answered the phone.

"Okay Steven, I'll call the people down there and ask you to have the people from DreamWorks come directly over on Monday."

"Hahaha, we're partners now, it's nothing."

"If you have time, how about inviting Jeffrey and David, and I'll call my dad to play a game of golf together?"

"Hahahaha. It's settled then. See you then."

After hanging up the phone, Michael asked curiously, "Spielberg? Do you have a cooperative relationship with him?"

Eric nodded: "Yes, MGM and DreamWorks are strategic partners. Steven and I are acquaintances. Are you also a fan of his?"

Michael smiled and said, "I think Steven and I have known each other longer than you have. We were good friends when he was filming Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET the Extraterrestrial."

"Really? Then we can play a game of golf together. Wait, I suddenly remembered that DreamWorks also has a music department. Maybe we can ask David Geffen for help. He is the leader of the American music industry."

"If he helps, releasing an album is not a difficult thing. It may be difficult worldwide, but if it is limited to North America, he can still make the wind and rain."

Unexpectedly, when it comes to David Geffen, Michael quickly waved his hand and said, "No, it's better for David Geffen and I not to meet."

"Why? Do you two have a feud?"

MJ looked embarrassed: "In fact, our relationship was very good. I mean in the early 1990s, Madonna and I went to celebrate his birthday, but then something unpleasant happened between us, and then we became estranged."

"What is it? Is it serious?"

Mike shook his head and kept silent.

"How about this, I can talk to David first. If he's willing to give me face, I'll ask Steven to mediate for you. You don't have to show up yet."

"Never mind, this will be a bit embarrassing."

"Michael, this is how the world works. You need help now, so just leave it to me. It won't go wrong if you give it a try."

(End of this chapter)