This time, A+ wasn't blinded by Daniel's praise. He calmly considered Daniel's bottom line and ultimately decided to get on Daniel's boat again.
The entertainment industry of this era still retains many old-fashioned practices. Just as singers have agents, record companies also have a mechanism for connecting with signed artists. The executive a singer is signed to receives a portion of the revenue from the records released by that artist. Of course, different companies have slightly different practices, but the general principle is the same. Daniel made his bottom line very clear: Mila's mother must transfer Mila to his label. As a partner of SBK, while Old Joe Music and his team weren't bound by these rules, since Daniel had facilitated this collaboration, they should tacitly support him.
Old Joe is easy to handle, and with Tony acting as a go-between for Lowry and Pablo, there shouldn't be much of a problem. When there's no conflict of interest, talking about 'family' and 'brotherhood' among black people is still very effective.
All that's left is to win over Mila's mother. If they can't get her to switch sides, the song "FXXXYOU" will remain unavailable to Mila...
After all, the most important red line hanging over A+ head is the timeframe given by Michelle, and getting the single released as soon as possible is the top priority.
He and Hayden stayed in New York to settle the copyright issue first (the copyright details will not be repeated later). Utilizing the limited legal and accounting assistance provided by BMI to its members, they signed a single production contract with SBK. He officially became the producer of the single "FXXXYOU" as a non-SBK employee, and was entitled to approximately 3% of the revenue, plus 6% each for the lyrics and music, for a total of 15%.
After spending about a week getting everything done, A+ changed into a new outfit and officially started work.
Hayden was already waiting in SBK's recording studio. Upon meeting him, he immediately showered him with flattery, "You look great today. Have you finally said goodbye to secondhand clothes?"
"Really? Thank you. This is New York, and I don't want to be laughed at."
A+ touched his tan denim jacket, which had flashy tassels on the chest, elbows, and cuffs. Underneath, he wore a black T-shirt with the Japanese kanji character '勇気' on the chest. He paired it with ordinary blue jeans and classic Converse sneakers. The whole outfit cost just over a hundred dollars. He'd borrowed this look from the original music video in the secondhand store in his mind. Since Apocalypse came from the future, and the future was definitely fashionable, this outfit was sure to be a good choice.
Hayden led him into the recording studio, which wasn't much bigger than the one at Old Joe Music, and had the exact same layout, but the equipment was much more advanced, more than enough to handle the auditions for the current main singers.
"Come on, let me introduce you. This is Lisa."
A young white woman stood in the control room. She was of above-average appearance and dressed in a standard white-collar suit. She was holding a thick stack of documents and could only nod and smile. "Hi, APLUS, I'm Lisa. I will be in charge of all the paperwork and coordination during the single's production."
"This is Isco..."
A young, white man with a rock-and-roll vibe sat in front of the mixing console. He tossed his long hair, looked back at, A+ then used his feet to push off the ground, letting his wheeled office chair slide a short distance until he was in front of A+, extending his hand with an expressionless face.
"Hello." A+ smiled and shook hands with him.
Isco slides back to the front of the music stage.
"That guy inside is keyboardist Dile..."
In the recording studio, a white man wearing headphones and playing the accompaniment of FXXXYOU smiled kindly at A+.
A+ waved to Lisa and asked, "So what's the work schedule for today?"
"Today is the first round of auditions. Here is the list." Lisa took a document from her pocket and handed it to A+
"So many people?" The list was extremely long, filling three pages.
A+ took the list and counted them; there were over seventy names, and he couldn't find Milla Jovovich among them...
"What's going on?" Whether they wanted to win Mila's heart or entice Mila's mother to turn against them, they needed to put pressure on her first. Putting Mila in the first round of the fiercely competitive audition was exactly the plan that A+ and Hayden had agreed on.
Hayden tilted his head, gesturing for them to go outside to talk. A+ followed him to a secluded spot. "Mira's mother pulled some strings and moved her to the second round," Hayden said, giving a name that was none other than the executive competing with Daniel for the general manager position.
"Daniel is just the vice president. The internal relationships at SBK are more complicated than we imagined. By the time the list reached me, it had already changed a lot, not just Mira…" Hayden went back to Lisa and asked for another document. "Look at this second round audition list."
In addition to the female singer Daniel was interested in and the three already decided runners-up, five handwritten names with different handwritings were added below, with Milla Jovovich being one of them.
"F*** you!" A+ good mood was completely ruined. "Damn office politics."
"There's no way around it, office politics are inevitable in big companies like this," Hayden said. "Fortunately, it doesn't affect the overall situation."
"I hate getting caught up in the boring vortex of office politics again," A+ said, rubbing his temples in frustration.
"Again?" Hayden sensed something was off about that statement.
Huh? Why did I say "again"? A+ shook his head. "It was just a slip of the tongue. There are just too many people on the first round list. Is SBK's influence that strong?"
"This is New York. Ever since Madonna made a fortune for Warner, countless record companies have wanted their own trendsetting diva. SBK probably had a similar idea when they signed Milla Jovovich two years ago. Milla is beautiful, a former child star, has a certain status in the fashion world, and can sing. If it weren't for her bad temper and greedy parents, she would definitely be a promising talent. There is a serious oversupply of white girls on the market right now, and any song suitable for them to sing would be snapped up."
Hayden pointed to a few names added to the second round of auditions, "Your song isn't hard to sing and it's related to equality, plus songs with women's profanity are bound to generate good buzz... But like I said, this is New York, and once the news gets out, some people with connections will see the opportunity first."
"Oversupply…" A+ shook his head and chuckled, "You're making this sound like human trafficking."
"You wouldn't believe it, when an agent has a bunch of nobodys under his wing, it really feels like human trafficking, but the kind that can't be sold off," Hayden said with a wry smile, as he was quite qualified to speak on the subject.
Unable to come up with a good solution, the two had no choice but to return to the control room.
"Could you handle the fourth section a little more decisively?" Isco suggested into the microphone.
"OK, I'll try again." Dilraba started playing again in the recording studio.
A+ face darkened. It was bad enough that Isco ignored him, but he even dared to point fingers at his song in front of him.
He went out again and strolled slowly inside SBK, trying to calm himself down.
"Give up, your girl is Black, she won't make it past the first round." As he walked to a secluded spot, a man's words caught his attention.
"You idiot, don't you know? The songwriter and producer of this song is APLUS from Chicago, and he's Black! According to the one-drop rule," another woman retorted. "Your girl has no chance; so many white girls came today."
"What! APLUS is a Black man!?" The man's tone was clearly flustered.
"You should update your sources," the woman said smugly. "Black people will definitely side with their own people."
Taking advantage of the fact that the two agents were not paying attention to him, A+ turned and left.
"Enough! I hate this feeling of not being able to control anything!" He rushed into the recording studio, pulled Hayden out, and said in a deep voice, "Get me another appointment with Daniel."
"Hehe... You're still young. You'll get used to the complexities of society after experiencing them a few more times. It's all about compromise." Hayden laughed instead. He had misunderstood A+ meaning. He flicked the first round of names in his hand. "For the seventy-odd girls on this list, you're already a big shot. If you take a fancy to someone, just one word from you—no, one hint—and most of them will strip naked and climb into your bed. I went to the waiting room, and among those who came this morning, there were some who were just as good-looking and had figures as stunning as Mira. Why be so inflexible?"
"BULLSHXT!"
A+ cursed, "A real big shot can have sex with whomever they want. If they can't have sex with someone else, they can only find another target. Are they a big shot? Call me now!"
He sent Hayden to make a call, and then dialed Old Joe's number himself. "Boss, are you already doing the publicity? Um... is Eric available? I'd like to borrow him for a while... Okay, thank you, boss."
The next day, standing at the door watching Isco's retreating figure carrying a cardboard box, A+ said to Eric beside him, "I'm leaving this place to you, Eric."
"Thank you, APLUS, thank you for giving me this opportunity." Eric was very excited and went into the control room to start playing with the mixing console.
"The equipment here is very new, you know how to use it, right?"
"No problem, it's just a few new features, I'll get used to them quickly."
"By the way, don't touch any of the girls here without my permission. This is New York, not the South Side of Chicago."
"I see."
"very good."
After ending the conversation, A+ looked at the list in his hand with satisfaction. Mira's name reappeared in the first round of auditions. He curled up the corners of his mouth and gave a slight, cold smile.
"Oh, by the way, watch MTV later," Eric reminded him.
There was a small TV in the control room. A+ turned it on right on time, turned it to the MTV channel, and the familiar music started playing. It was his own song, "Secondhand Shop"