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“Isn’t music a wonderful thing? It’s an artform so diverse that’s there’s something for just about everyone. From using our own voice to crafting instruments to create unique sounds, music is one of humanity’s most marvelous forms of creative expression! And… It makes me envy the wealth of music outside of Venal. I be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous even, where I grew up with the occasional album that found it’s way into my colony, a child in the Federarion would have listened to fifty different albums in one week… but I know this can be remedied… There is musical talent in these parts! I just know it, but no infrastructure out here exists to help promote their material and distribute it… Well, whenever I see something I feel is missing in this region, I see an opportunity to do something about it.”
- Suha Raibuya
“Record labels are the biggest thieves in New Eden.”
May 20th YC 123
6NJ8-V IV - The Rabbit’s Warren Fortizar, Meeting Room for Venal Prosperity Network Leadership
“…A record label, Suha?”
“Correct Utatis! What do you think?”
“I mean… It’s your money Ma’am. If this is the kind of investment you want to make…”
“You don’t seem so confident in the idea.”
"Just seems… a little ill fitting is all. Lot of what’s suggested in this room could be consider ill fitting, this idea however?… Only a little. An improvement at least.
“Utatis, do you always have to be a spoil sport in these meetings?”
“Yes Avio, yes I do.”
“Give a rest you two! Listen! This is a marvelous chance to create more opportunities in this region! Music I’d an inescapable artform in all corners of New Eden! Venal is no different! I’m almost certain we have some aspiring musical talents in this region and in the wider ranks of the Gurista even! Musical talent with no way of getting their art out there to more people and creating a living off it! Rock, hip-hop, Metal, Jaxz, EDM! Whatever kind of music someone is willing to make, we could be the ones to help get their music out there! This is the next step in expanding and opening more doors for people! Mumo! What do you think?”
“I… I handle finances and I can say that this would also be a remarkable way of increasing our revenue. There’s gonna be a steep investment cost no matter how big of scale we’re talking about, but eventually we could start turning profit off royalties of any artist we manage to recruit… But we’re banking on any artist existing in the first place that would even want to deal with us.”
“But why wouldn’t they come to us and sign a deal?”
“Record labels are the biggest thieves in New Eden.”
“… Clarify for me Utatis?”
“Record labels are all shady companies ran by corporate jockeys that make their money off desperate starving artists looking to catch a break. They scout out people they know will sell a few singles or albums and are broke and desperate, offer them an ironclad contract that basically signs away majority of the revenue gain for the label when the artists get a small portion. At first they’ll think it’s a dream come true and be grateful for something steady for once, but then the illusion fades and they realize how badly they got ■■■■■■ over and the contract prevents them from escaping. These artists just looking for a hot meal get trapped and are forced to keep producing to squeak out a living off their small cut of the pie and the label that holds their leash has utter control over their career and can either make or break them… You know what? This is actually a good idea, let’s go for it.”
“Utatis!”
“Ma’am I’m now fully won over to the idea. Lets robs this whole god damn region of their creative talent and make even the Rabbit feel inadequate with the scale of a heist we’re taking here.”
“Utatis…”
“Apologies Ma’am, I’m having bit of a giggle… In all seriousness, contracts have no power here. We could easily muscle anyone that’s not in with the Guristas, but for anyone that’s Gurista that signs on with the label? There’s nothing we can do about them if they agree to a contract and decide to throw it away the next second… Hell, if we give them something they find unfavorable in the long run, they could just run up and start shooting up our offices for ■■■■■■■ them out of their money.”
“Well… We could incentivize them to play along.”
“How do we do that?”
"Erm… Guarenteed 75%!
“… Guaranteed what?”
“Royalties Utatis! We will be up front and guarantee them the majority of the revenue and we keep a fair chunk for ourselves!”
“Uhhh, Suha?”
“Yes Mumo?”
“As I mentioned, the startup investment is going to be steep and the regular upkeep costs are going to reflect that. Depending on how successful an artist is, we would most likely be breaking even at just the costs to record and distribute their music if we’re lucky at just 25%. We still have the up hill battle of paying off the startup investment to overcome and I think a broad 75% for all prospects would sooner put us in a deeper hole than get us out of it.”
“Why do you guys always gotta be worrying about making money? I got it… We got plenty of cash to burn though.”
"I-I-I know we do Avio, but we can’t keep propping up these businesses that don’t make their own money. The money you make and provide is only bandaging to cover a wound that is bleeding continuously. For once I’d ask that we establish something that could be self-sufficient financially so it’s not another oozing wound for our funds to bleed out of.
“How about… 60%?”
“I was thinking more 50/50 if we’re to provide a generous deal while also getting a fair slice of the revenue ourselves.”
“50/50 still sounds like it could be mistaken as a raw deal Mumo. If we ensure they own the majority, they will at least feel we’re getting the least of their creative works.”
“50% would only be a guarantee on a first sit down, when we find artists we’d be interested in keeping signed on, we could start giving them even more of the royalty shares to then incentivize them to stay with us.”
“That’s… Sounds fair. Very well! Guarenteed 50% with potential for more lucrative royalty percentages! Good thinking Mumo…”
“I… Thank you for finding merit in my proposal Suha.”
< Utatis clearing his throat >
“There’s still another matter to discuss…”
“And what’s that Utatis?”
“Well… Like Mumo mentions, there is gonna be a big investment cost in starting a record label from scratch. Real estate for offices won’t be an issue, but the amount of equipment we need for recording is gonna be staggering and the supply in Venal is rather non-existent. What does exist are only pieces of a larger puzzle. We’d maybe need to put out ludicrous prices for a wide assortment of recording equipment and hope some pirates start looking at it as some easy money… And in my opinion? We can’t go cheap on this, we need to drop credit on top of the line stuff if we want people to take this label seriously, I’m talking millions of credits work. And I can already tell that some Egonic studio is gonna have a really really bad day one we get a bite on our requests. They’re gonna be the company that has what we want in abundance and they ain’t cheap with their equipment.”
“… What if we staged our own raid on a Ego-”
“Forget about it Suha - Leave it to the professionals to handle.”
“Well we can’t just sit on our thumbs all day and hope some ‘professionals’ decide to knock over a egonicss studio or cargo ship for us Utatis…”
“Sure Avio, but we also don’t need to be humiliating our brand any further trying to pretend to be pirates…”
“I think this is entry level if we’re gonna learn to be proper pirates… I’ll look into it in my own time.”
“You better bring whatever plan you come up with to me before you go through with it Avio…”
“Yeah, Yeah, I won’t step out of line here.”
“If you two are quite done… There’s one final matter. We need an expert to run this label directly… Utatis, you think you can find someone?”
“I doubt we can find anyone who has a history running a record label out here Ma’am… Though if we grab someone with just enough entrepreneurship spirit that should be good enough, right?”
“I’d still want someone that cares enough about human creativity! Not just some cold calculating suit that’s out to make a quick credit!”
“Well Ma’am, I think you’re gonna have to settle on whatever I can find. Beggers can’t be choosers.”
"Feh… Very well then, bring me info on whoever you find suitable for the job Utatis.
“Of course Ma’am.”
"Mumo, look up what kind of equipment we need as well as how much of it to get this idea off the ground and get some numbers on how much it cost us.
“I’m already trying to rough estimations in my head, once I get back to the office I’ll come up with something more concrete Suha.”
“Excellent… And Avio, I take it you would look into seeing how we could source equipment somehow?”
“You know it.”
“Good… then I consider this meeting adjourned.”