Chapter 371 Little Bear Record Bookstore

Zhang Youan was naturally not in a hurry, "Then write slowly, anyway there is still a long time."

Zhang Youan knew Zhou Yan's creative speed better than anyone else, and he was not worried that Zhou Yan would not be able to complete it within the agreed time.

Besides, "Shutter Island" did not come out of thin air. The script has been perfected. Now we just need to turn the script into a novel, which will reduce the difficulty of the work a lot.

"Apart from "Shutter Island", are there other things?"

"It's not a big deal. "Someone Like You" is already preparing to shoot an MV, and it is estimated that a single will be released in the fall. Apart from that, a lot of companies come to you to shoot movies and write songs, and I have rejected them all."

"Well, how can I have time to shoot movies for others now?"

"What about the music work? Should I take it appropriately?" Zhang Youan asked.

He also knew that Zhou Yan's favorite work was still the music work, and he was willing to let Zhou Yan take more music work.

Music work is different from filming movies. It is not very time-consuming. If Zhou Yan works at full capacity and only takes music work, it is no problem to match more than a dozen movies a year with guaranteed quality and quantity.

Moreover, Zhou Yan now has a studio, and the music engineering department is also strong, which can share a lot of work with Zhou Yan.

In addition, there is another point that Zhang Youan values, that is, Zhou Yan can derive a lot of things after composing music for movies, such as his music for "Sense and Sensibility", many of the songs in which are very popular, and he also released the two songs "Young and Beautiful" and "Someone Like You".

The market performance of "Someone Like You" has yet to be verified, but "Young and Beautiful" is really popular all over the world, and even now, it can often be on the charts.

It is precisely because of this song that so many record companies have extended olive branches to Zhou Yan.

"If you have music composers, please try to show them to me. If I find a suitable one, I will take it. Or, you can give it to Li Tao and others."

"Indeed, Minister Li and others do need to explore the European and American markets, otherwise these resources will be wasted, which is a pity. In the future, if I encounter music composers, I will try my best to negotiate and give it to the studio."

This matter must be negotiated. After all, they came for Zhou Yan. If they want to transfer it to the studio, they may not be happy, unless Zhou Yan is willing to take it in his name and then give it to the studio.

But if it is not necessary, Zhou Yan does not want to do this. He still hopes to give the signature to the real creative staff, and at most he will put his name behind it.

After finishing the business, Zhang Youan started gossiping again, "Did Maria contact you when you came to New York this time?"

"No." Zhou Yan shook his head, "Is she in New York recently?"

"Yes, she is usually in New York most of the time, and she may have to go to the concert hall tonight. I guess she didn't contact you because she wanted to avoid suspicion. After all, you had a scandal with her last time you went to Los Angeles."

"You also know what the scandal is about."

"I know, but other people don't know. The key is that Mariah Carey is determined to divorce Tommy Mottola now, and the two are in a lawsuit. If you two are photographed now, the scandal will definitely be hyped again."

Zhou Yan doesn't care much about these things. Anyway, they are all fake. There is no unclear relationship between him and Mariah Carey.

And Mariah Carey is going to the concert tonight, so she probably doesn't care about these things.

Sometimes, Zhou Yan even thought it was good to have these unreliable rumors, which could attract the attention of the outside world, but no one really paid attention to his private life.

…

In the afternoon, when Zhou Yan and his friends went to the concert hall, they did not enter from the main entrance, but when they passed by the main entrance, they saw that some people had gathered at the door.

Of course, the scale of today's concert is completely different from the scale of their previous concerts.

It's not that Zhou Yan's popularity in New York is not good, but the situation at Radio City Music Hall is different from the concert halls they have experienced before.

Radio City Music Hall is on Sixth Avenue, and the surrounding area is very prosperous. There are buildings everywhere, and there is no spare space at all. The building is next to the intersection, and the main road is outside.

Even if there are audiences who want to join in the fun, they can only stand on the narrow sidewalk. Even if the audience is willing, the local police will definitely not want to.

The intersection is crowded with people, and a little more people will cause congestion, which will especially affect traffic.

In this case, the outdoor extra show, which has almost become a routine, is impossible in New York.

So holding a concert in Radio City Music Hall has both advantages and disadvantages. Although a lot of tickets were sold, the impact would certainly be much less without an outdoor performance.

There are certainly many places for outdoor performances in New York, but Zhou Yan and his team could not have specially found such a place and performed for free.

Even if they really did perform outdoors, they would have to charge for it.

…

The concert that night was naturally very successful. Because there was no outdoor performance, Zhou Yan spent more time in the hall.

The concert, which was only two hours in normal time, ended up being nearly three and a half hours.

Although Zhou Yan only encores seven times, he never returned empty-handed. He played a song every time he returned, which also made the fans at the scene very excited.

The concert tickets were not cheap, with an average price of $126, which was much more expensive than the usual concert tickets.

But even so, the organizers still felt that the ticket prices were set too low, because the tickets were sold out several days in advance, and this was when the tickets were sold out very late.

The organizers believed that if the ticket prices were increased by 20 to 30 percent, they would still be able to sell out on the day of the concert.

Even if they were not sold out, it didn't matter. If the ticket prices were increased by 30 percent, as long as the attendance rate was higher than 76.92 percent, the total box office would be higher than before.

However, Zhou Yan would definitely not do this. He didn't hold concerts just to make money, but also wanted to get more publicity in the United States. If the ticket prices were too high, it would be easy to be criticized, and many people couldn't afford it.

In addition, the high prices in New York were not conducive to pricing in other cities. After all, not every city has the same economic level as New York. There are still many rich people here, otherwise the tickets with an average price of $126 would not be so easy to sell.

That night, Zhou Yan and his team got off work early, and when they returned to the hotel, it was not even eleven o'clock.

Zhou Yan had just returned to his room and was about to take a shower when Zhang Youan knocked on his door.

Zhou Yan opened the door for Zhang Youan and asked in confusion, "Why are you here now?"

"I have something to tell you."

"What is it?"

"There is a bookstore in New York that wants to invite you to hold a book signing event."

Hearing that it was a book signing event, Zhou Yan waved his hand and said, "I don't have time now, and if I hold a book signing event temporarily, can the venue be set up?"

Book signing events also need to be preheated, so there is no such thing as a spur-of-the-moment event.

Zhang Youan smiled and said, "I know it's a bit rushed to hold a book signing event suddenly, but this bookstore is a bit special, and the owner is very sincere. What I mean is that even if there is no book signing event, you can still go there to have a look."

"Bookstore?"

"Yes, it's a record bookstore. Its full name is Little Bear Record Bookstore. There are two stores in New York, and they are both large in scale. The owner used to come from Random House and has some connections in the book publishing industry. He likes your music and came to the scene today, just in the first row."

There are so many people in the first row, so Zhou Yan naturally couldn't have any impression of the owner.

After a while of hesitation, Zhou Yan said, "A proper book signing event is definitely not possible, but you can take some time to go and have a look."

Zhang Youan naturally didn't expect Zhou Yan to agree to hold a book signing event temporarily. Seeing that Zhou Yan was willing to go and have a look, his goal had been achieved.

The reason why he wanted Zhou Yan to show up was naturally because he hoped to have a good relationship with Harry, the owner of Little Bear Record Bookstore. Harry had worked at Random House for many years before, and his position was not low.

Harry's success in running a bookstore must be related to his previous work experience.

Zhou Yan's novel "Shutter Island" will be published later, and he can use Harry to get in touch with the Bantam Group under Langdon. With the help of such a large group, the sales of the novel will definitely be better.

As for why Zhou Yan agreed, it was not only because he was about to publish "Shutter Island", but also because he thought of Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng. If possible, Zhou Yan still hopes to push Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng to the United States.

He is not sure whether he can push them, but he has to give it a try.

"Well, do you think we should go there tomorrow morning or the day after tomorrow morning?"

They will finish their second concert in New York tomorrow night, and will leave New York the day after tomorrow afternoon to go to their next destination, so Zhou Yan will only have time tomorrow morning and the day after tomorrow morning.

"Tomorrow morning."

Anyway, there is no time tomorrow morning, so he will take the time to go there. Zhou Yan still hopes to push things forward. No one knows if he has other things to do the day after tomorrow morning.

"Okay, I'll go talk to Harry now."

"You go ahead, I'm going to take a shower."

...

Just as Zhou Yan came out of the shower, the phone in the room rang.

After answering the phone, it took a long time before Kudo Shizuka's voice came from the other side.

"Can you hear it?"

After all, it was an overseas call, the speed was very slow, and the signal was not stable.

"I can hear it." Zhou Yan answered while wiping his wet hair.

Hearing Zhou Yan's voice, Kudo Shizuka laughed, "Is the concert over... Haha, it must be over, otherwise you wouldn't have received my call. Did the concert go well today?"

"Very well, how about you, are you doing well in Beijing?"

"Of course, I don't have work today, I took Akina out to play."

"She hasn't returned to Neon yet."

Kudo Shizuka tutted, "You're not here again, if Akina goes back to Neon, I'll be so lonely here. Anyway, she doesn't have much work in Neon during this period, so she stayed to accompany me. It's a good opportunity to learn more Chinese. Her Chinese has improved rapidly in the past two days."

Zhou Yan smiled indifferently. He had just left Beijing, how much could Akina Nakamori's Chinese improve.

"When you come back and see her, you will definitely be surprised." Kudo Shizuka said again.

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows and asked, "Does this mean that she will stay in Yanjing until I return?"

"Not in Yanjing, she will follow me when I go somewhere else in a while."

"She's going to release a new song soon, so why doesn't she go back to promote it?"

"It's still early, and her new song also needs to be promoted in China. It's just right, before going back, we can finish the promotion work in China first, so as not to have to run here later."

Zhou Yan nodded, "This is also an idea. Then you two can have fun in China. If you need anything, you can contact Liang Youxing or Xu Junrong, and they will help you."

"Don't worry about this, it will be fine."

Although she said so, Zhou Yan still reminded her again, "Don't wander around at night."

"You are not here, why should we wander around? If we meet hooligans again, we can't deal with them."

"Just know."

The two chatted for a while, and Kudo Shizuka hung up the phone reluctantly. When they were in Yanjing, they spent too little time together. As soon as Zhou Yan left, Kudo Shizuka missed him.

Zhou Yan had just hung up Kudo Shizuka's phone, and the phone rang again.

This time it was Joey Wong.

"Why is the line busy all the time? Is there something wrong with the hotel's phone?"

"Zhang Youan just wanted to talk to me about something." Zhou Yan explained vaguely.

"Oh, I thought so." Then Wang Zuxian laughed again, "Third brother, I want to tell you, Feng Jie called me today and talked to me about "Time Traveler". She also thanked me and said that I was very loyal."

"Haha, tell her that since you are so loyal, I will give you more pay."

"If the pay is too high, she will say that you are abusing your power for personal gain when she knows our relationship."

Zhou Yan smiled and shook his head, "You underestimate Feng Jie. If she knows our relationship, she will definitely want to raise your pay."

"Forget it, even if she gives it to me, I can't take it. Just follow the normal market price."

When Wang Zuxian took on "The Sixth Sense" before, her pay was 1.5 million. This price is considered a friendship price within the normal range. After all, Zheng Yuling asked for 1.6 million at the time, and Wang Zuxian's pay market price was actually a little higher than Zheng Yuling.

If it weren't for Zhou Yan's relationship, it would be normal for Wang Zuxian to ask for 2 million at that time.

After starring in "The Sixth Sense", Wang Zuxian's salary has soared. In addition, the overall salary of actors has been rising in the past two years, so her current market price is about 3 million.

This salary is definitely the first tier for actresses. The only special actresses who can be higher than hers are Michelle Yeoh.

"You are very upright."

"Of course I have to support my boyfriend's filming. Besides, isn't this movie made specifically for me? I will accept it even if you don't pay me."

Zhou Yan laughed, "Xiaoxian, this kind of wasteful behavior is not good."

"I am happy to do it."

"Wait until I finish my work here and go back. It shouldn't be long before you will join the crew."

"Don't worry, Director Zhou, I'm on standby at any time."

...

The next morning, after Zhou Yan had breakfast, he went to the Little Bear Record Bookstore with Zhang Youan.

Harry Kane, the owner of the bookstore, attached great importance to Zhou Yan's visit and personally led the staff to greet him at the door.

Harry Kane is not very old, probably only about 40 years old, in the prime of his life, and he looks energetic and very capable.

This puzzled Zhou Yan. How could Harry Kane quit Random House at such an age? Isn't being an executive at Random House better than opening a bookstore?

Random House is a giant in the industry, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a business empire.

However, when Zhou Yan really entered the bookstore, he understood a little.

This Little Bear Record Bookstore is larger than he imagined. In a place like the city center where every inch of land is valuable, it is not a simple matter to open a five-story bookstore with hundreds of square meters on each floor.

And Harry Kane has six such bookstores.

Two in New York, and the other four in four other cities. (End of this chapter)