Chapter 137: A Last-Minute Change of Song

"Ding!"

As soon as Su Tong opened his author dashboard, two notifications popped up in his inbox.

He took a look. One was an automated message congratulating him on reaching fifty thousand words: "Your work, 'Shrouding the Heavens,' has reached 50,000 words. You have taken another step forward on your creative journey. We will continue to follow your work, so please keep up the effort and strive to win the recognition of more readers..."

The other message read: "Hello, your work has been submitted for signing by June, the editor-in-chief of the Seventh Group of the main site. Please add the contract editor, Persimmon, as a friend on QQ to discuss the contract details. Please include your book title when adding."

Su Tong was dumbfounded that it took fifty thousand words to get a contract. It seemed that the opening of a "Great God's" book wasn't very popular. He estimated that over at DianDian, "Shrouding the Heavens" might not even have received a site message after a hundred thousand words.

QiChuang wasn't the industry leader, so their requirements were a bit lower.

Without a contract and a change in status, uploaded chapters could only be published immediately; there was no scheduled publishing feature. Su Tong was a busy man now and didn't have that much time. For the past few days, every time he logged into the dashboard, he had to upload five chapters at once. Once signed, he would finally be able to relax, as he could schedule them and not have to worry about it again.

Su Tong went to check on "Coiling Dragon" over at DianDian. It was already far ahead of the Shenlong's "Great God" on the monthly ticket rankings. Such a significant advantage was related to the conflict between the two platforms a few days ago. At that time, Nian Nujiao had stood up for web novel authors and fought for the industry, gaining the support of countless authors and readers, causing his monthly tickets to soar.

Even the members of the Dragon Alliance were silent this time, no longer mentioning the competition for monthly tickets. This time, the entire site was genuinely supporting Nian Nujiao, rather than just trying to stir up trouble and annoy the Dragon Alliance members like the previous month.

The next day, Su Tong added the contract editor and the commissioning editor, finalized the contract, and had Lin Yin take him to mail it out. QiChuang's headquarters was in the Magic City, but unfortunately, they didn't allow direct delivery; it had to be mailed.

After mailing the contract, Su Tong, Lin Yin, and their agent headed to the recording site of "The Voice." Each coach on "The Voice of Great Qin" could select twelve contestants, and the blind auditions would take three days to record. Both Su Tong and Lin Yin were scheduled for the first day.

Recording was actually quite boring. If something went wrong, they had to cut and start over. What viewers saw on television was edited and produced, making it look harmonious and smooth.

For the contestants participating in the blind auditions these past few days, there were people specifically listening during rehearsals and writing evaluations, essentially creating a script. In his previous life, Su Tong had thought the coaches on "The Voice" were very literate and talented, able to provide brilliant, articulate, and insightful critiques. He realized now that it was almost all scripted; it was impossible for coaches to improvise such powerful, nuanced, and comprehensive commentary on the spot.

As Su Tong and Lin Yin were waiting for their turn in a corner of the backstage hall, someone from the production team approached them.

"Student Su, hello. I am Li Guowei, the director of 'The Voice.' Could we have a word?" The director found Su Tong during a break in the recording.

Su Tong was curious—why was the director looking for him?

"Hello, Director." Su Tong reached out to shake his hand.

"I'll step aside," Lin Yin said, starting to get up.

"No, no need," the director waved his hand, acting very approachable and without any airs. Su Tong wasn't sure if Li Guowei was just being friendly to him and Lin Yin, or if he was naturally easy to get along with.

"So, Director, tell me, is there something I can help you with?" Su Tong asked.

Li Guowei was a middle-aged man with a prominent forehead and sharp, spirited eyes. He spoke in a consultative tone: "Student Su, I've listened to the two samples you gave the production team, and the songs you provided for the band were those two as well. I'd like to ask why you chose 'I Believe' instead of the other one?"

Su Tong had indeed recorded two samples for Yang Feifei to pass to the production team. At the same time, he had also re-arranged two of his own songs for her to give to the team.

"Did Director Li want me to choose the other one?" Su Tong quickly guessed Li Guowei's intention.

Li Guowei nodded. "I think the other one is more stunning, and it's your own song, so there are no copyright issues. I still haven't found it in the Great Qin music library; I've only seen that short video on some websites."

In reality, even if there were copyright issues, with the resources of "The Voice" production team, buying it would be a matter of minutes. Buying the cover rights for a song didn't cost much; some unknown singers even hoped for big stars to cover their songs for free. It was equivalent to helping them with promotion and increasing their popularity—they would be eager for it.

Li Guowei then added, "Student Su, there's actually another matter. A contestant wants to sing 'I Believe.' Regarding the copyright..."

Oh, so someone wanted to sing his song. Su Tong felt a bit proud, but then thought, it seemed he had to change songs after all; the production team couldn't let two contestants sing the same song.

"Then let's switch. How is the band's preparation?" Su Tong agreed to change the song.

Li Guowei grinned. "The band is fine; at worst, we'll just record it a few more times." He then returned to the question Su Tong hadn't answered yet: "Student Su, about that contestant singing 'I Believe,' what about the copyright?"

Su Tong was generous. The production team had taken such good care of him—although it was because of the Yang family, he was the one directly benefiting from the show. "No problem, let him sing it. I won't pursue it."

The issue resolved, Director Li didn't leave and continued to chat with Su Tong. Su Tong was puzzled but kept him company. During the conversation, he learned that Hangzhou Star TV also knew he hadn't signed with the three major entertainment giants and wanted to feel him out, with intentions of recruiting him.

Several commercial television stations had risen in Great Qin recently and were gaining momentum. The traditional three major entertainment giants were no longer calm and wanted to control these stations. Naturally, these commercial stations were unwilling to wait for their demise and were maneuvering to strengthen their own power.

The ratings of a program depended mainly on the popularity of the artists participating. Although the content of "The Voice" was a novel, creative shortcut, without the presence of the four major coaches, the ratings would plummet. Several commercial stations had been operating to develop their own famous artists so that in the future, they wouldn't have to bow to the three entertainment giants—it wouldn't be "I'm begging you to appear on our show," but rather "you're begging to appear on our show."

This was the current state of the entertainment industry: entertainment companies controlled the artists, and if they had a conflict with a station, they wouldn't let their artists appear on that station's programs. And since station ratings were linked to these artists, a station without big-name stars would naturally be at a disadvantage. If a station wanted to gain the upper hand, it had to have its own artists, or have ratings so sky-high that even the three major entertainment giants would have to kneel and beg to send their artists to gain exposure.

"That's all for now. I'll go check the set and notify the band that you're changing songs." Li Guowei was just probing, and having finished, he left.

Su Tong saw him off. After the director left, Su Tong turned around, intending to go back to Lin Yin, but he hadn't taken more than a few steps when a contestant, for some unknown reason, suddenly started dancing and almost knocked Su Tong over as he passed by.