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"Call Sean over, I want to talk to him."
"Got it." Bonnie walked away in her high heels, swaying her hips dramatically.
In the layout of the media industry, radio is an easily overlooked but extremely important commercial component.
Even with the strong rise of streaming media and Billboard repeatedly revising ranking weights...
Radio's share is still equivalent to the sum of physical records plus streaming plays.
The current market trend is that as the number of users on streaming platforms like Spotify grows rapidly, investors are constantly entering the game.
In the future, the payment method for streaming music will undergo major changes.
Users can pay a small fee monthly or quarterly to listen to all music in the library without barriers.
This will inevitably lead to a surge in streaming platform users, and physical records will suffer a greater impact.
Obviously, the impact on the radio sector will definitely be smaller than on physical records.
"Boss." Sean entered the office and tiptoed to close the door.
Putting on his signature girly voice.
If this guy didn't actually have some genius ideas, Leon would try to avoid meeting him after meals.
But he did show extremely strong PR capabilities during the "Second East Coast vs. West Coast Gang War."
Traffic is king, by any means necessary...
These are the basic elements of becoming an excellent media person.
"Sit." Leon opened his cigarette case. "Want one?"
"No, it's too harsh for me..." Sean looked shy. "I like slim ones, the rose-flavored kind."
"What a fxxking freak..." Leon spat lightly. "But I understand, genius ideas are always different."
More than a month ago, at the beginning of the Beef war, Leon handed over the radio business to Sean.
Facts proved that he was indeed a genius in media.
Promoting oneself and smearing enemies is a characteristic of American media.
CNN, BBC, FOX—they all do this.
At that time, Leon still had seven radio stations, big and small, and the monthly expenses were still a considerable sum.
Sean proposed that they have an internal struggle, survival of the fittest.
Whichever radio station could garner the most attention and traffic would be kept, thus surviving the brutal competition.
So far, there were only two final winners.
Lion's Den Radio, hosted by DJ Marcus, was undoubtedly one of the winners.
This radio station had been operating continuously for over 20 years. Under the reform advocated by Leon, it launched a weekly podcast program.
Inviting multiple star singers and underground rap musicians for exclusive interviews.
Deeply analyzing the history and future development of hip-hop music, while secretly mocking Apocalypse Music's competitors.
Influential rappers like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole had all appeared on this program.
Currently, it was a TOP 5 existence among pure hip-hop podcast programs, and its momentum was rising rapidly.
The biggest surprise was Chester Bad Boy Radio, hosted by T-ray.
This small community radio station, which initially had an audience of less than a thousand, saw its listener count multiply more than tenfold under Sean's leadership, successfully winning the competition.
Sean didn't give T-ray many instructions, summarizing it in one sentence—
"Act up, act up like crazy."
Mooch off whatever hot topic there is; if there isn't one, force one into existence.
Chester Bad Boy Radio was originally a station relying on trash-talking with fans, not even having a clear broadcast time.
It only went on air when T-ray was drunk or high, randomly picking lucky listeners to greet their family tree.
The listeners were all grassroots Black people, pure trolls looking for fun.
Following Sean's instructions, T-ray instantly found his comfort zone.
Watching the listener numbers grow geometrically, he had already put down the grudge of being backstabbed by Leon.
After all, he had received a considerable "breakup fee" before, and now he was continuing to make a fortune relying on the traffic of Street Jesus.
The theme of everything in this circle revolved only around money.
There was no longer any conflict between the two.
Since the release of Billy, he had gone full firepower, blasting various big shots on the East Coast.
As the producer of "God's Son" NAS's debut album, T-ray experienced the most chaotic and glorious 90s of gangsta rap firsthand.
He knew many scandalous secrets about big shots in the rap circle.
Sometimes he just relied on improvised nonsense.
Bursting out boastful little stories that exploded ratings, like having slept with Jennifer Lopez;
Or having orgies with Diddy's mom, etc.
Now, he was the undisputed big celebrity of Brownsville.
"What do you think about the prospects of the radio business?" Leon knocked on the table. "I mean, we've achieved good results, how do we go further?"
"Throw money at it." Sean's answer was concise and straightforward.
"Besides throwing money?"
"There is no other way besides throwing money." Sean spread his hands. "The radio business has developed for hundreds of years. Even a radio giant like iHeart has to rely on throwing money to expand."
"Shxt..." Leon shook his head helplessly, falling into deep thought.
The strategy given by Sean was simple and crude. To become a top-tier hip-hop radio station in the East Coast region in the short term, there was no other way but to throw money.
Just like acquiring a dozen radio stations back then, repeating the gameplay of big fish eating small fish.
The cost of such expansion would be very high.
"Is it worth doing this?" Leon asked. "I mean, we have to consider the return on investment."
"Traffic is money." Sean said seriously. "This is the only thing the media industry has taught me in ten years."
This idea coincided with Leon's.
As long as the traffic was continuous, money would also pour in continuously.
Those brainwashed listeners would always willingly open their wallets with the tide of traffic.
"Chester Bad Boy's data is so good, give T-ray a sum of money to let him do a podcast program too," Leon said.
"No problem, I think he will be very happy." Sean said. "That guy already treats the radio business as his main business; his Black Panther Records is no different from dead."
T-ray was the first person Leon knew when he stepped into the music industry.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a guide.
Leon realized very early on that this guy's talent might not be in making music.
Otherwise, having experienced the 90s where even a dog doing rap could become a millionaire, he wouldn't still be running a small workshop.
T-ray's real talent lay in talking trash.
Give him a microphone, a chair.
He could stick out his big belly, smoke a cigar...
Embrace two beauties and answer everything in the world.
The kind that goes on 24 hours non-stop.
After a few questions, Sean answered everything fluently, and many ideas coincided with Leon's.
"I really struck gold..." Leon was even more convinced that handing Lion's Den Media to the other party would be a correct choice.
A female accountant with a gang background;
A little assistant selling second-hand underwear;
A planning and marketing guy resembling the Texas Chainsaw Massacre maniac...
The company wasn't big, but every employee had a unique skill.
"Do you have any ideas about operating Vibe magazine?" Leon asked.
Currently, the acquisition work had officially started.
Bonnie had contacted Ernst & Young to conduct the final audit of Vibe's assets before the acquisition.
Since it had been suspended for a year, this magazine had undergone several large-scale layoffs.
The proportion of each layoff was over 30%.
Currently, only less than 20 employees and one office location were retained. During the suspension period, they worked for other companies under Old Jones.
Occasionally, they had to write for other media to feed themselves.
Leon felt that the number of 20 employees was still too many. With online magazines as the main body in the future, so many employees were not needed at all.
"Continue layoffs." Sean's response was always simple and crude.
"Is this going too far?" Leon looked puzzled. "We always have to keep some reporter positions, and column editors... someone needs to do the layout and text editing work."
"Don't need that many people." Sean waved his hand. "I mean, how many media outlets still keep the stupid position of reporter now?"
"Elaborate..." Leon leaned forward a few degrees, very interested in this statement.
Sean cleared his throat and answered, "The existence of reporters is to ensure the timeliness and credibility of news... but in this era, it's not that important anymore."
"Even news giants like CNN and BBC, who keep a large number of reporters, often report Fake News."
"Fxxk! You kid always surprise me." Leon knocked on the table, laser beams shooting from his eyes.
In the era of rapid development of social media, everyone's social platform is a news window.
These platforms don't need to guarantee timeliness and credibility at all, and of course, it's impossible to have their own reporters.
Whatever news the readers want to see, just move whatever news to them!
After a round of processing and magic modification, the public opinion triggered is even higher than the platform that reported the event firsthand.
Sean's plan was to separate Vibe from the label of seriously discussing rap music in the 90s.
In the future, it should be like XXL, mainly reporting on the peach-colored disputes (scandals) and gang conflicts in the entertainment industry.
The publication focus cannot be limited to the glamorous big stage of the entertainment industry; occasionally, the lens must also be aimed at the dirty and chaotic underground rap circle.
The events erupting there are always more dramatic and eye-catching.
In the future, Vibe had better be issued at a high frequency of semi-monthly, focusing on quantity and fullness.
Let its official self-media channel gradually become a channel focused on hip-hop music exposures.
As long as there is traffic, the ad revenue alone in the future will be enough to feed the entire company.
After everything was explained, Leon let Sean choose a suitable office location in Brooklyn by himself.
And start the employee interviews for Lion's Den Media.
This money would be paid by Leon personally, provided it didn't exceed the budget.
While providing him with the position of CEO of Lion's Den Media, the position of Marketing Planning Supervisor of Apocalypse Music was retained.
---
A day later, Bonnie received an email reply from David Fincher's studio.
To present a top-level MV effect, Leon had Bonnie send an email with a try-it-and-see attitude yesterday.
David was eccentric and reticent.
Leon didn't expect to receive a reply within a day.
The content of the email wasn't long, with only a few sentences of polite trash talk.
David's implication was that he hadn't participated in MV shooting for at least six years.
The last time he participated was in 2005, for a work by the famous industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.
The reason was that he himself was a fan of this band.
Because the drama film The Social Network, which David directed previously, telling the story of Zuckerberg's entrepreneurship, friendship, and betrayal, was a huge success at the box office...
He currently had a constant stream of movie offers.
Sweeping away the haze of his previous movies flopping one after another.
In the past, the film industry's evaluation of David Fincher was a genius, paranoid, top-level director with extremely personal style.
Critical acclaim but poor box office was his characteristic.
Film companies always had a love-hate relationship with him.
David expressed strong interest in this MV collaboration, mainly because of the historic collaboration between Taylor and Beyoncé.
But when seeing the last sentence of the email, the smile on Leon's face gradually solidified.
Until he couldn't smile at all.
$1.5 million was the fee David asked for himself.
This did not include the photography team, actors, background, props, and other expenses.
This was just the remuneration for shooting a three-minute-plus MV.
And James Wan's fee for filming a movie like Straight Outta Compton for Leon was only $1 million, plus an additional 5% of the box office share.
While looking at the email, he played with the Knicks championship ring on his hand, looking up and glancing at Phil:
"Do people get greedier as they get older?"
"Fxxk! Don't count me in." Phil laughed. "I've never gotten so much money from you bastard at one time."
"How should I reply to Mr. David's email?" Bonnie asked. "Accept his quote? Or reject it?"
Phil clutched his stomach and laughed. "What did I say before? Your head is as plump as your butt?"
"That's really a mistake..."
"Use your butt to think about it carefully. Is this the first day you've known your boss? How could this greedy guy agree to this quote?"
Leon played with his fountain pen, standing up to look out the window.
To be fair, David Fincher was indeed worth the money.
On one hand, he was a widely acclaimed film master. Even if the box office wasn't top-notch, his artistic achievements were widely recognized.
And he hadn't participated in MV shooting for a long time.
He had collaborated with multiple historical superstars.
The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson...
He entered Industrial Light & Magic in 1980, participating in the production of the action sci-fi film Star Wars series.
And was fully responsible for visual effects work in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
In 1992, his first personally directed film was the third work of the famous Alien series.
It was also widely considered the darkest and most religious themed one in the entire series.
"I think Old Mike is perfectly capable of this job." Phil suggested, "I hate fools like David who pretend to be deep. Maybe behind the scenes, he's even more obscene and shameless than Old Mike..."
"Mike?" Leon pondered carefully.
Although Mike had excellent ability and also had experience working at Industrial Light & Magic...
But to helm such a heavyweight MV, his weight was seriously insufficient.
But these words did wake Leon up. "Mike worked at George Lucas's company in the 80s; maybe he knows David Fincher."
Phil overheard and shook his head repeatedly. "I don't think that eccentric bastard would lower the price for so-called friendship. You better not think about that."
"Let's try. Saving a few thousand bucks is good news." Leon said.
"Fxxk, why are you stingy to this extent?" Phil sighed. "I'm starting to understand why those books published in Germany in the 19th century described capital as so evil..."
"Capital comes into the world dripping with blood from every pore, and you guy sealed all the pores."
Leon raised the corners of his mouth, remaining silent.
To buy a house sooner, he had to think of every way to save where he could.
After seeing Beyoncé's mansion, he desperately wanted to own a property of his own.
The living environment is an important way for American high society to divide classes. You can judge a person's class 100% by the community they live in.
Currently, he had seen houses in multiple luxury residential areas in New York.
They each had their own advantages;
The Upper East Side needed no elaboration, the money dreamland, the first choice for old money;
Battery Park City located along the Hudson River, had the best views in all of New York;
Tribeca allowed for a thrilling Western cowboy showdown with Beyoncé anytime under the cover of night.
The only downside was, maybe one day he would really catch a bullet.