Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 36



Only Krnovel

36. Let’s try something

He didn’t specifically write that he was D.Voice on his application for ‘Who’s the King’.

But how on earth did you get number 15?

‘Because your voice resembles YouTube? Or in some other way?’

Number 15, who introduced himself as ‘Mark’ to the curious Cha Seong-jun, revealed the answer.

Although it wasn’t a perfect English listening skill, this was the whole story that Cha Seong-jun, a graduate of a prestigious university, understood to some extent.

“I came to the studio last Saturday. I saw you there.”

A total of six foreigners (two of whom were eliminated) participated in the global audition program ‘Who’s the King’.

And they are provided with accommodations and studios around the Ilsan Studio to ensure smooth participation in the program.

Mark 15 finished recording on Friday.

I visited Itaewon on Saturday morning and returned to my studio in the afternoon.

Meanwhile,

“Oh, the other contestants were recording today.”

On a whim, I stopped by the studio to watch the competitors’ performances, and was given permission by the production team to watch from outside the set.

Then, by chance, I heard an additional song that Cha Seong-jun sang on the spot.

“Is this… D.Voice’s SNRD (Saturday Night – Rain Drop)?”

In fact, he himself is a SoundSky user (he also emphasized that it is quite famous), and he was surprised to see a song he had heard over and over again on ‘SAS’.

“I recognized it right away because it was a song that any heavy user of SATS could not possibly not know. But I never imagined that it would be someone so young. Haha.”

After hearing Mark’s explanation, it finally made sense.

So, I found out about D.Voice from SoundSky, not D.Voice from YouTube.

‘That’s amazing.’

Up until now, I’ve only been interested in YouTube Devoice (hereafter referred to as ‘Nerdy’).

I never thought someone would recognize SoundSky Device (hereafter referred to as ‘Sadi’).

But what, Youngboy?

“Thank you for listening. But there’s one thing you’re mistaken about. I’m not Youngboy. I’m twenty-nine.”

“What? You and I are the same age? I thought you were a teenager! HOLY, is this the mystery of Oriental longevity?”

Mark continued speaking, showing an excitable reaction like a Westerner.

“Anyway, there are a lot of people who are curious about you besides me, bro. After all, George King mentioned you on the radio.”

“Who is George King? And what about radio?”

“Oh man, don’t you know George King? He’s one of the top five producers in America. And he’s also known as the King of Sound Sky. He must have commented on your songs too. The first one.”

It only occurred to me later when I heard the words “first comment”.

A user who left a concise comment saying, ‘I LIKE IT’.

Could it be that he was George King?

“I guess you didn’t know. Anyway, when he was asked on his radio show who the most promising ‘SAS’ singer was, he chose ‘DV’, you. Do you think that was all? Your cover song was even on the radio. On the most influential radio station in all of America! I can’t even count how many times I heard your song that night.”

It was such an incredible story that I couldn’t even ask what was going on.

If we compare it to martial arts, it means that the absolute master of martial arts mentioned his name at a place where the later index was determined.

And what? You played a YouTube cover song on American radio?

So that’s why there were a lot of users from the Americas among the new subscribers.

“Anyway, that’s why I wanted to meet you even more. I know it’s pretentious, but I thought George would call my name that night.”

Mark said, shrugging his shoulders.

“That’s why I won’t lose in this competition. Let’s have a friendly competition, bro.”

I reflexively met Mark’s outstretched fist with my own.

Meanwhile, the noise on stage had died down after a long chatter atop the pyramid set.

Because the eliminated contestants returned to the waiting room.

As the survivors, having shared their farewells, sat back down in their positions, the next mission was announced.

“The next round mission is the ‘1:1 Battle’ mission.”

“ah······.”

At Park Hye-shin’s words, sighs flowed from all over the set.

Those cruel guys.

I finally finished the 2:2 battle mission, and now they’re asking me to do a one-on-one duel.

Regardless, 15 words appeared on the giant LED screen on the wall.

“This mission is probably the one the candidates have been waiting for. That’s right. Finally, it’s a composition mission. You have to choose one of the 15 keywords and create a song that matches it. However, keywords that someone has chosen cannot be used repeatedly.”

In other words, the important thing in this mission was who the opponent was.

And how do you decide on that opponent?

Like last time, will the matching be based on the judges’ judgment?

Or is there another ingenious way?

Contrary to popular belief, the method was simpler than expected.

“You can nominate your opponents in order, starting from 1st place.”

‘This is awesome.’

A method that is quite advantageous to the top rankers.

Most likely, they will point out a lower rank than themselves.

That would give you the highest odds of winning.

That’s why some conditions were set to achieve ‘balance’.

The first one is.

“If you win against an opponent with a higher rank than you, you will be given a benefit.”

It’s up to you to choose.

Whether to take a relatively safe victory.

Or will it rise to a higher rank?

Cha Seong-jun’s choice is,

‘Survival is the priority for me.’

While watching the battle, I noticed a few contestants whose composition style overlapped with mine.

If I were to face an opponent with a similar style, I would still be confident that I would have the upper hand in skill.

Plus, since you get a second chance to choose, you can unconditionally match up with the opponent you want.

······was nothing more than a wish.

I’m choosing my opponent with high expectations…

“I’ll choose number 49.”

······huh?

I heard a buzzing noise in my ears.

As I turned my head, wondering if it was a hallucination, Mark smiled faintly.

“The opportunity to compete has come quickly, bro.”

That bastard’s order… he’s not in his right mind.

If you were playing a game, there’s a 200% chance you’d pick something like a Berserker.

Fortunately, there was an advantage for the person being pointed out.

The second balancing condition designed by the production team.

Instead of the opponent being chosen by the person with the highest rank, the keyword selection is given to the person who is being challenged.

So, the keyword selection went back to Cha Seong-jun, who was pointed out by Mark.

“hmm······.”

Cha Seong-jun carefully looks at the 15 keywords on the screen.

[Youth] [Reality] [Dream] [Unrequited Love] [Sea]

[season] [star] [family] [petal] [puppy]

[MBTI] [Breakup] [Chocolate] [Day] [Rainbow]

There seem to be a lot of love-related keywords.

Besides these, these are mostly topics that singer-songwriters deal with.

Puppies may be an exception though.

‘Which keyword among these has the highest chance of success…’

After much thought, I chose one keyword.

[Association] Based on the stats, the guy who comes up with the best idea.

[star]

Yeah, let’s try something, a competition.

*

The long day has come to an end.

Finally, we all gathered together and listened to the closing announcement.

I was going home with my guitar on,

“Excuse me, number 49, just a moment.”

Someone called out to Cha Seong-jun.

He is a man with dark circles behind his glasses.

“Hello, my name is PD Park Yong-oh.”

“Oh, yes.”

A man who introduced himself as PD Park handed me his business card.

Cha Seong-jun just glanced at it with his eyes and then put it straight into his wallet.

It was a scene that would have terrified anyone in the entertainment industry if they had seen it.

Because I know how difficult it is to get a business card from legendary entertainment PD Park Yong-oh.

However, Park Yong-oh did not reveal himself, saying, “I am the main PD of the program you appear in.”

Instead, he asked with an interested look on his face.

“Number 49. Have you ever thought about taking off your glasses? I think you look pretty good.”

Cha Seong-jun hesitates at the strange suggestion of the PD who suddenly called him.

For him, revealing his face means,

It means being prepared to quit your job.

This is because the proposal came at a time when I was deeply troubled.

“······I’ll think about it.”

The answer he finally gave was that he would think about it.

Park Yong-oh, who is somehow fiddling with his glasses and twitching the corners of his mouth.

“Anyway, I hope the program continues to do well like it is now. Oh, and I’m asking this out of concern… Are you sure there’s no drug use or school violence or anything like that? It’s not that I doubt you, number 49, but there have been so many issues lately.”

I really don’t understand PD Park’s intentions in asking such questions.

But one thing is certain –

“I am a good citizen.”

*

The next day, Monday.

A message from Seol Hye-yoon arrived in the morning.

Regarding the YouTube channel management agency we talked about last time, I would like to share some of the contract terms that I found out with MXM Entertainment MCN Division.

– I think there are quite a few cases where we do side jobs together.

After that, I explained the scope of the agency to MXM in detail, and from what I heard, the conditions weren’t too bad.

If the settlement ratio is reasonable, there is no reason not to sign the contract.

In addition, after reconfirming the fact that ‘in the case of personal YouTube, receiving advertisements does not violate the prohibition of side jobs’.

I pretended to go to the bathroom and immediately contacted MXM Entertainment’s Kim Sung-soo.

“Team Leader, I hope you’ve been well. I’m glad that the cover song project ended well thanks to you. Huh? A wrap-up party? Haha, I’m grateful.”

After exchanging brief greetings,

“By the way, the reason I contacted you today is because I want to sign a contract with MXM and YouTube-”

– Your contract?! That means-

I informed Team Leader Kim Seong-su, who was jumping around misunderstanding it as an ‘exclusive’ contract, that it was a ‘provisional’ contract.

– Ah… I see.

A voice that seems a little regretful.

But soon he returns to his original tone and says he will send the relevant contract by email right away.

“Please.”

After finishing the call, I returned to my seat feeling refreshed.

I sat down to check my email,

“Mr. Cha Seong-jun, look at me for a moment.”

Suddenly the team leader called me.

Then he suggested we go for a cigarette.

Cha Sung-jun is a non-smoker.

‘What the heck, are you going to tease me for leaving my seat for a bit in the morning? Or…’

I followed the team leader up to the rooftop, trying hard to figure out the cause.

The wind is getting colder, indicating that winter is coming.

That was when.

“I didn’t call you to say anything else…”

The team leader, who took a drag on his cigarette and scattered it in the air, explained why he casted the ‘Follow Me to the Rooftop’ spell.

“Seongjun, you… son. You’ve worked hard.”

···Huh? Why is it a compliment and not a criticism?

“I know you must have felt wronged about not getting a promotion last time, but you held on well. This time, I will definitely make you a deputy. I have already appealed to the HR department.”

It was unexpected.

It seems like he himself was very concerned.

“So, Inma, cheer up and do better.”

“Uh, oh, yes. Thank you.”

His eyes grew wide and he stammered an answer.

The ending was as usual, but it still felt like I saw a different side.

Thanks to that, the seal on the resignation letter that had been quietly sleeping inside the jacket was not broken.

It’s afternoon.

– I sent you the contract.

An email arrived from Kim Seong-su.

The terms of the agency are detailed, along the same lines as what I heard from Seol Hye-yoon.

‘Let’s see, the settlement ratio is… Huh? It’s 9:1?’

Cha Sung-jun is 9, MXM Enter is 1.

The ratio was beyond expectations.

The industry standard is often 5:5 for exclusive contracts.

When contracting for some agency work, 7:3 is the default.

But 9:1 is groundbreaking.

I found out later that it was because of the DeVoice Premium.

I signed the contract without even looking at it.

And then he said that he would pull out the bull’s horn in one go and asked to check the advertising emails that were currently in the DeVoice channel.

I forwarded all the emails, so please summarize the contents and categorize them by advertisement category.

I asked them to organize it by price range, and this was to weed out the so-called tricky stuff for branding purposes, following Seol Hye-yoon’s advice.

Team Leader Kim Seong-su’s voice turned upside down in surprise.

– Already? This much has come in? I expected it, but it’s still amazing. With this volume… it’ll take two hours, right?

Anyway, I felt like I could live a little better since I left the annoying task to him.

And two hours later, a reply to my request email did indeed arrive.

“Wow, that’s really fast.”

What kind of fast processing is this, worthy of a large corporation!

I was amazed and checked the Excel file attached to the email.

Advertising requests ranging from food to clothing and cover songs are beautifully organized and listed.

First, I looked at food and clothing.

It’s simple, nothing special.

You can just take a picture of the product with the background in mind, and for clothes, you can just wear them.

But for that alone, you get paid a few hundred dollars.

It’s so cool! There’s no reason not to do it!

Of course, to earn that sweet advertising fee, you have to produce content.

That means you have to sing a cover song.

‘I was planning to take a break for a while···.’

I can’t rest like this.

However, from now on, we plan to do it once a week or every other week instead of three times a week.

I’m trying not to push myself too hard and to put it as a lower priority.

So I checked the list of cover songs.

All collaboration proposals to meet and merge were rejected.

Because I have to show my face.

Instead, many requests came in from other agencies to cover new songs by their artists.

It seems like Yuna is trying to benchmark herself since she’s having fun with the cover song challenge.

I scrolled down through the list of singers I had requested and checked them.

10 people. That’s a lot.

There were some names I didn’t know, but there were also quite a few I recognized.

For example, ‘Ye Seon-ha’ here is a member of ‘Pink Rose’, which was formerly called the national girl group.

Once ranked as the number one ideal type for many men –

“······uh?”

Are you really telling me to do that preliminaries?

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