Chapter 370: Nini, do you want to join us?
The 1980s was the dawn of the booming neon music era, and city pop music was just emerging at that time.
The songs are mostly about the busyness, alienation and extravagance of big cities, especially Tokyo.
As a typical representative of one country and one city, Tokyo has attracted countless young people to come here.
In the past two years, with the rapid development of Japan's economy, people's wallets have gradually become fatter.
Artistic creation originates from life, so this theme song expressing hedonism in big cities has gradually become popular among people.
The representatives of urban music are mainly young idol singers.
The 80 group's members such as Matsuda Seiko, Iwasaki Hiromi, and Kashiwahara Yoshie, and the 82 group's members such as Nakamori Akina and Koizumi Kyoko are all idol singers shining in the trend of the times.
As one of the entertainment industries that entertain the public, the field of music deserves Shirakawa Feng's special attention just for its huge social influence, regardless of the profits.
When a company develops to a certain level, if profit is the first factor to consider, then influence factors will definitely rank second.
Even when certain businesses do not make money, the huge social impact is still worth the company's continued investment.
Now that Shirakawa Electric has been listed and its subsequent development will be on the right track, Shirakawa Holdings has begun to seek breakthroughs in social influence.
There is no doubt that the entertainment industry is a shortcut, and considering the ability to link with one's own products, the record company is a very suitable choice.
After all, it is not uncommon in Japan for audio-visual equipment manufacturers to get involved in the record industry.
For example, Sony, Yamaha, JVC, Pioneer, etc., they all have their own record companies.
This type of company that enters the record industry as a manufacturing company is called .
Although Shirakawa Holdings is now involved in the record industry, due to its special relationship with Shirakawa Electric, this record company still belongs to the motor manufacturing department.
However, if he wants to set up a record company, Shirakawa Feng will not start from scratch and build up his own team bit by bit.
His method is very simple and crude, which is to make full use of the power of money.
Shirakawa Holdings directly acquired several small record companies with no presence, including Art Union, Denon, East Wind, etc.
At the same time, the Daiei Records department was integrated, and a new record company, SAOND, was established based on the team of these agencies.
SAOND, the beginning is taken from the first and last two letters of the Romanization of "白川", and it is also homophonic with Sound, which gave it this simple and catchy name.
Daiei itself also had its own record label, but it gradually ceased operations due to poor management.
But the department's team is still there, and they are all practitioners with rich experience in the record industry.
Based on this, and combined with the complete acquisition of several small record companies, the main framework of SAOND was established.
However, if you want to make progress in the record industry, you can't rely on just this amount of manpower.
"Shengzi, who is your current producer?" In the office, Shirakawa Kaede and Matsuda Seiko were lying together, studying the development plan of SAOND.
"Eh," Matsuda Seiko was stunned, then answered casually, "It was Wakamatsu Muneo-san. Shirakawa-kun has also met him. Oh, no, it was Wakamatsu-san who met Shirakawa-kun."
"Huh?" Baichuan Feng looked puzzled, wondering why he had no impression of it.
“When I first came to Tokyo, I had dinner at an izakaya with Aizawa-san and Wakamatsu-san.
Shirakawa-kun was there at the time, and I remember you sang a song called "Dragonfly."
That was the first time Matsuda Seiko and Shirakawa Kaede met. Although they never said a word to each other, she remembered him.
What she never expected was that the girl who sat at the same table with Shirakawa-kun that day would become her competitor in the future.
Damn, it’s just a little bit late.
Baichuan Feng didn't know what Matsuda Seiko was imagining, but when she reminded him of this, a hint of realization flashed in his eyes.
That day, it seemed that Aizawa-san wanted to invite me to debut as an artist.
After he refused, he turned around and glanced inadvertently, and indeed saw a girl and a middle-aged man standing at the intersection.
The girl is Seiko Matsuda, and the middle-aged man must be Sou Wakamatsu-san.
"Which office is Mr. Wakamatsu working for now?" Shirakawa Feng's eyes began to flicker.
"At CBS/SONY Music, I'm in charge of planning and producing six units." Little Tiger Teeth also followed suit with shining eyes.
"They're all at Sony. That's perfect. We can talk about it then."
As for Matsuda Seiko, Shirakawa Kaede has already discussed with Ohga Norio, and the other party will release the person after March.
Ohga Norio naturally knew what was going on with the relationship between the two of them.
There is no need for Sony to offend Shirakawa Kaede for the sake of an artist.
Of course, Baichuan Feng is not getting it for free, there is also some exchange of interests involved.
For example, the cooperative promotion of chewing gum batteries. For Sony, their Walkman also has the problem of battery life.
Now Shirakawa Electric has found a solution. Nini, do you want to work on it together?
Faced with the glittering gum battery in Shirakawa Electric's hand, Sony wiped the corners of his mouth fiercely, and then decisively chose to let him go.
I didn't expect that a guy like you, Shirakawa Electric, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, would quietly come up with this kind of black technology.
Sony has more electronic products and the application range of chewing gum batteries is also wider.
As for the application of chewing gum batteries, if the two companies work together to promote it, its acceptance will definitely be greatly accelerated.
Of course, business is business, and Shirakawa Electric collected every penny of the patent fee.
However, for Sony, Shirakawa Electric's ability to take out the chewing gum battery is a great bargain.
This will save them a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to solve the battery life problem of their products, and of course the same goes for time costs.
In the early 1980s, Sony had no experience in the battery field and had just decided to enter this industry.
Not to mention the battery factory, even the department has not been set up yet.
Therefore, it is highly likely that Sony’s own chewing gum batteries will appear on the market a year or so after Shirakawa Electric starts selling them.
So before Sony's battery factory went into production, whose gum batteries did it use?
Shirakawa Kaede curled the corners of his mouth and wrote Wakamatsu Muneo's name on a piece of white paper with a pen. In this way, the president of SAOND was in place.
Of course, it is not enough to just bring Seiko Matsuda over. To support a record company, a mature production team is also needed.
Since Muneo Wakamatsu can serve as the head of the production department at Sony Music, he must be very capable.
At the same time, because he is an insider and discovered the popular idol singer Seiko Matsuda, his connections and vision are unique.
Ability, connections , vision, all the qualities a record company manager should possess are present.
"By the way, who wrote the lyrics and music for the Son of God?"
"Matsumoto Takashi-san, Omura Masaro-san, Saitsu Kazuo-san, Hosono Haruomi-san, Tsutsumi Kyohei-san..."
Matsuda Seiko, who already knew what Shirakawa Kaede was planning, called out a series of names without hesitation.
"Wait, wait~" Baichuan Feng raised his hand to stop her from signing up for the game, "There are so many?"
“Uh,” Little Tiger Teeth stuck out his tongue, “These are the lyricists and composers that we are currently collaborating with, or those that are interested in collaborating with.”
In fact, only the first two are the real cooperators, and the rest are all famous people that Seiko Matsuda wants to cooperate with.
She knew that Baichuan Feng was going to use his money power, so of course she would take this opportunity to catch all those famous people in one fell swoop.
"Forget it." Baichuan Feng shook his head. He knew what Matsuda Seiko was planning.
"I will try to invite you in the name of SAOND, but I am not sure whether it will work or not."
He didn't know much about the music industry, but he knew that many songwriters and composers didn't have fixed agencies.
Most of the record companies will cooperate with each other occasionally, so SAOND is not without opportunities.
But in addition to them, Shirakawa Kaede also wrote down the name Oda Tetsuro on the paper.
This was the only Neon composer he had heard of and remembered in his previous life.
Especially in the 1990s, I believe many people have heard the theme song of "Guan Nan Master".
Although he was most likely still working as a singer under a certain person named Nagato at this time, Baichuan Feng had plenty of ways to poach people.
Even Sony Music hasn't grown up these days, let alone a small record company.
"Hey, who is this?" Seiko Matsuda, who was lying on his shoulder, looked curiously at the last name written on the paper.
"A newcomer with potential." Baichuan Feng put down his pen and began to look for her weaknesses.
"Hey, this is the office." Seiko Matsuda's voice sounded a little nervous, and also a little... excited?
"Well, no one will come here."
Baichuan Feng carried her directly to the rest room next door.
Well, Shirakawa Kaede’s office in the Shirakawa Building is very large, and of course the facilities are also very complete.
…
Establishing a record company is only a small part of Shirakawa Holdings' actions this year.
He also met several well-known music industry figures in person, such as Hosono Haruomi-san and Tsutsumi Kyohei.
When they reach their position in the industry, the temptation of money has been greatly reduced, and reputation is much more useful than money.
The personal invitation from the top executive of a large listed company must be enough reason for them to be excited.
Baichuan Feng is a pragmatist. As long as it can bring benefits to himself, it doesn't matter if he makes a trip in person.
The same goes for Muneo Wakamatsu. We still need to have a face-to-face meeting with him about SAOND's future business direction.
Moreover, the sudden transfer from Sony to SAOND and the presence of Shirakawa Kaede, the mastermind behind the scenes, to appease him would also help him calm down faster.
But before that, he needed to meet someone else.
Shirakawa Electric's home game console is set to be released in the first half of the year, and it's time to meet the several game makers mentioned by Satoru Iwata at the year-end meeting.
In fact, these game developers have already produced several games for Shirakawa Electric's home game consoles.
Now they just have to wait for Shirakawa Electric to make the final decision, so they can immediately prepare for the subsequent sale.
When Satoru Iwata developed the prototype, he summoned several of these companies to do the relevant adaptation and development work.
Now is the time to test their results.
