An hour later, I looked through all the candidates and eventually made my choice.
"Twenty-one people?" Vivian threw me a questioning look. "We originally planned to hire only twenty."
"True, but this twenty-first one is a very interesting specimen. I'm almost certain that he is a spy for Norwood."
"A spy? Then why would you hire this rat?"
"You see, a spy is only useful when no one knows about him. But if the enemy has already discovered the spy, this can become a trump card. Thanks to this, we can supply our enemy with misinformation, as well as learn about their plans much earlier.
Therefore, you and Alison will have to watch him with both eyes. Find out why he is here, what he wants, how he behaves, in general, all the ins and outs. You can ask Barbara for help, she is an expert in this.
"O-okay ... But still, this is not quite our department, Mr. Reath," Vivian complained.
"Agreed. Don't worry, in the future I will hire the right people and organize a team that will be responsible for departmental security and internal investigation. It's just that right now we are still a fairly small company, and we will have to handle these responsibilities ourselves."
Now we have musicians and our studio can rightfully be considered highly professional. All that remains is to release a couple of albums that will become hits and we'll be in chocolate. Having left my office, I went down to the recording studio.
The deputy director told me that Dazzler had not left this room since early morning and was composing music. It was not difficult for me to find Alison, who at that time was arguing with other employees, as I understood from their words, about the necessary arrangement.
My appearance ended their long argument, and everyone rushed to greet me. Alison Blair was no exception, but if I compare her with the others, I could safely say that she was clearly unhappy with something.
"Alison, are you okay?" I asked cautiously.
"No! I am clearly not okay! Alex, how could you? I had just released a mega-hit, and was already thinking about how I would hold the lead on the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks, and what happened in the end? One week! I was at the top for only one week. My hit "Firework" lost to your "Human", and fell to the second line." the irritated singer said through clenched teeth.
Looking at her swollen face, I couldn't help but smile happily. To be honest, I wasn't paying attention to the song at all. I can't say that I didn't expect the first line. Quite the opposite, it was a natural development.
Yes, someone might say that I'm too self-confident, but this is a world with a backward entertainment industry, while I released a real masterpiece even by the standards of my past world. However, Billboard Hot 100... I read about this rating of the hit parade of the hundred most popular songs. It is similar to the chart that I knew from the previous Earth, though with a few differences. We can say that in this world, it has much more authority, more flexible functionality and a wide scope. In fact, it is the official hit parade not only of the USA, but of the whole world.
This rating is influenced by many things... First of all, these are sales and listening to the song on the largest music site - Saxophone Music. Next, the song's popularity on YouTube is taken into account, as well as on the indispensable site of all stars - In-Twitter. I decided to look at the state of the video for "Human", and to my surprise, in five days it managed to collect over 183 million views.
My popularity is growing, and this cannot help but inspire me. My subscribers on YouTube have exceeded the 3 million mark, and on In-Twitter - 5. This is much faster than I expected…..Heh, but that's good.
So, my song topped the hit parade. I wonder how long I can hold the lead. But if you look at the first three places in the chart, all the songs belong to me.
[Billboard Hot 100:
1. Alex Reath - "Human" (peak #1; 1 week)
2. Dazzler - "Firework" (peak #1; 1 week)
3. Alex Reath - "Something Just Like This" (peak #1; 3 weeks)]
My very first song, which I sang to Barbara and released a month ago - "Something Just Like This" held the lead in the chart for 3 weeks in a row, until it was pushed aside by Alison's song. But it couldn't hold the lead for long either…
"Sorry Alison, I was forced to release the song to deal with the haters. Don't be angry, tell me how you're doing."
"Hmm, everything's great. Oh yeah, didn't Vivian tell you? We were able to come to an agreement with two artists from Norwood's label that we had chosen. They agreed to sign a contract with our studio. However, the amount of compensation that they will have to pay for breaking the contract with "Metropolis Music Group" exceeded our wildest expectations... $ 10 million, $ 5 million for each. This Norwood is a really cruel person, he made them sign such ridiculous terms."
"No big deal, we can afford that amount. And I'm more than sure that they will be able to return all the money invested in them in the shortest possible time. I really want to see the face of that arrogant jerk when he witnesses their triumph."
"I wish I had your confidence," sighed Blair, remembering what huge sums of money just went down the drain. I can't say anything, even I'm a little shocked by what high compensation performers have to pay for contract termination.
For A-list stars, the sum of 5 million may not seem that big, but for third-tier singers it's simply an unaffordable sum. However, I understand why the compensation is so big.
A lot of money is invested in the performer, and the sponsor wants this money to be returned. Standard practice... Only, I don't think they allocated a sum of ten million for these two unknown individuals. Now that's a little annoying…
"Alex," Dazzler called me. "What are you thinking about? Stop daydreaming, better listen to my new song, I wrote it the other day. I'm thinking of including it in my new album."
She walked up to the keys and turned on the finished track. The musical intro started playing… "Sea and Shore." That's what she called this creation. Alison's voice came from the speakers, she sang rather carefree, easily, but even so, it was impossible to find fault with her vocal skills. Her voice was calm and unpretentious.
The lyrical words of the song flew freely from Blair's lips, like the sounds of nature. Simple accompaniment and simple singing… But still, this song was somehow catchy. It was touching, and at the same time cheerful.
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