[Chapter 47: My Heart Will Go On]
"Just changing the interior design, without touching the structure, and they still need a whole month to approve this? Damn it!"
Three days later.
June 10th, 1990.
Orlando was venting to Evan, New York's star real estate agent.
Evan smiled wryly, "Mr. Keller, this is already the fastest they could do."
Shaking his head, Orlando looked helplessly at his future penthouse in New York.
Evan had already negotiated the price with the developer.
The original price of $8.5 million had been cut down to $8 million. Orlando thought this was reasonable and decided to buy it on the spot.
A top-floor apartment with a garden and a pool was definitely a rare find.
He used the expected personal income from his yet-to-be-released mini-album It's Orlando as collateral to secure a $5 million loan from a New York bank.
If his album released smoothly, he could get about 70% of the net profit.
Half of that 70% belonged to the production company, Orlando Records.
The remaining half was his personal royalties, producer fees, and singer income -- the part he put up as collateral only included his personal income portion.
The bank was very optimistic about this just-warming-up EP.
Not just $5 million -- they would have gladly lent him $10 million.
This was the rule in the entertainment industry--
When you're on the rise, your fame and career soaring, everyone around you is a friend.
Even the bankers, who usually act like vampires.
Many people get addicted to this feeling, thinking it's the way things should be.
They believe they are the center of the world.
But once things go south or you hit a decline, those "friends" turn against you, and your mindset collapses.
Orlando was currently in that phase where everyone around him was a friend.
Even the bankers during the loan looked kind and smiling, bringing small gifts, practically serving him like a five-star hotel lobby manager.
But he knew that by next year's tax season in April, he probably wouldn't need that much interest deduction.
After all, his record sales income had been shifted overseas to low-tax or tax-free zones by Kurt, so only a small part was taxable.
The property was bought, but the renovations couldn't start yet.
They still had to get approval from the New York Housing and Construction Association.
Once approval was granted, actual work could start, realistically no sooner than next month.
Before that, although the renovation style was a bit shabby, it was still livable.
Having stayed in hotels with Jennifer Lopez for half a month already, Orlando moved in that very night.
---
♫ Every night in my dreamsI see you, I feel youThat is how I know you go on ♫
In the twenty-three-foot-high living room, Orlando frowned as he watched Jennifer, who was getting flushed and out of breath from singing.
His "half-inspired" song, My Heart Will Go On.
The Latin woman had sung it many times, but still hadn't met his standards.
The reason he called it "half-imprinted" was because unlike songs like Counting Stars that were deeply imprinted in the soul and body as genuine inspiration, this song was imprinted through the movie Titanic when Orlando met James Cameron recently at the Neverland Ranch.
Simply put, Orlando copied it out from the film.
Although at the time he thought the Titanic inspiration wouldn't be very useful, he still took the time to get the soundtrack from the movie, taking what he could.
Except for the main theme My Heart Will Go On, he didn't dare claim originality for the rest.
What if some of the music in the score was old music borrowed from elsewhere?
Better safe than sorry -- he had to check first.
So far, apart from the main song, the core instrumental tracks that ran through the movie -- Rose, which set the film's tone; Hymn To The Sea, expressing the grandeur of the ocean and the tragedy of sinking; and A Promise Kept, highlighting the emotional bonds of the characters -- all appeared to be original work.
He had already extracted those and made demos, registering them to stake his claim.
But while the instrumental scores worked for the film, turning them into singles to sell was a different story.
Orlando set his sights on My Heart Will Go On.
He basically copied it out.
But without full instinct imprinted for the song, it was impossible for him to sing it well.
Plus, he had the original version by Celine Dion in his head.
Naturally, he thought a female voice could better convey the song's sense of fate and helplessness.
But Celine Dion had debuted ten years ago and just a few months ago released her first English album, Unison, which was selling well.
She was also signed to Sony Columbia Records.
From every angle, it wasn't appropriate to give My Heart Will Go On to her.
Thinking Jennifer was a trained opera singer -- also a singer in a parallel world -- he had her give it a shot.
Turns out it still didn't work.
Jennifer was very frustrated.
She had enough musical knowledge to recognize the song's high quality.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have snagged a spot in the Broadway musical chorus.
The problem was, she just couldn't sing it, and her voice texture wasn't quite right for the song.
Orlando had to comfort her while telling Seymour to keep an eye out for some high-quality, yet-to-be-discovered female singers.
After all, the song was written and sitting in the catalog. Letting it sit unused would be a waste of good material.
Orlando couldn't stand that.
He even decided that if he didn't find a suitable new female artist, he'd consider giving it to singers from Warner Records or other labels.
On one condition: the contract must at least match Madonna's licensing agreement.
Maybe even more stringent, given Madonna's star power.
---
After handling all this, Orlando got some good news from his tax lawyer, Kurt--
His total three months' worth of record royalties, after some smart tax avoidance maneuvers, had been safely brought back to the U.S. in the form of loans, with very low risk.
In other words, he was truly rich now and didn't need to take out more bank loans.
This didn't include income from endorsements or concerts, which were harder to avoid taxes on.
Just from the royalties alone, he had made $28.89 million.
Add in concert and endorsement fees, and in just over three months since debut, his income was nearly $40 million.
Some media outlets even valued his record company at $50 million.
Rounded up, Orlando felt pretty good -- he was nearly one of the U.S.'s multi-millionaires now!
Of course, he knew the books didn't exactly work that way.
At least the record company valuation wasn't really cash in hand yet.
Aside from the shares and dividends given to Seymour and the portion he promised to Daisy that he kept despite her refusals, he hadn't considered selling any other shares.
So whether the valuation was $50 million or $100 million, it was just numbers on paper.
*****
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