Forming a Band

Liang Yin was excited too. "We've got a guitarist and a lead singer. I know a little bit of drums. Once we hire a keyboardist, we can make our debut!"

"Exactly!" Wang Zhi said. The thought of getting to be Da Fei's guitarist made his blood race. After more than a decade of hard practice, his talent would finally have a chance to shine!

"Da Fei, what do you say?"

Lin Chudong sat down on the sofa and spoke.

"Don't get so excited. I'm here to apply for the guitar teacher position. There's no rush to form a band."

Liang Yin sat right beside him, as if two towering mountains were bearing down on him. Lin Chudong could barely breathe.

"How can we not be in a rush? You're at your most desperate right now. As your fans, of course we have to do everything we can to help!"

"Do everything you can to help? Really?" Lin Chudong asked.

"Really!"

"Fine. Then let me explain the plan."

Lin Chudong crossed one leg over the other, his expression turning serious.

"First, we need to register a company. That won't cost much."

"The main expense of forming a band will definitely be the instruments. We'll need at least three performance-grade electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, an electric piano, a drum kit, a bass, effects pedals, and so on."

"You already have most of that stuff in your shop. That'll save us a lot, but it's still a cost to you. A rough estimate for the bare essentials is around three hundred thousand. Opening a piano shop would cost you at least two hundred and fifty thousand. That's the bare minimum."

"The second expense is musicians' salaries. I'm the lead singer, and I can forgo a base salary. I'll just take fifteen percent of the performance fees, which saves us some money."

"But a guitarist good enough to perform onstage will need to be paid at least ten to twenty thousand. Of course, a musician's skill level affects their salary. You get what you pay for."

"Let's start by looking for people willing to work for a little over ten thousand. We'll need a drummer, a lead guitarist, a rhythm guitarist, a bassist, and a keyboardist at the very least. We'll also need other musicians, like a trumpet player, a violinist, and a harmonica player. We'd be paying out at least a hundred thousand or so every month in salaries."

"An initial investment of two hundred and fifty thousand, monthly expenses of a hundred thousand, and even if we get gigs, a new band would be lucky to get two thousand per performance. We'd have to cover our own travel and lodging, too..."

Liang Yin's lofty ambitions shrank little by little as she listened to Lin Chudong.

"With your fame, how could your performance fee be only two thousand?"

"I signed a contract. I'm not allowed to use the name Da Fei in promotions, so even with me in the band, the performance fee won't be very high."

"Then can't we say the band has Da Fei's former lead singer?"

"We could, but the company doesn't have much clout. The organizers would still push your fee down. We don't have any performances lined up at the moment, so forget two thousand. Even if they offer you a thousand, you'll have no choice but to take it."

Liang Yin's enthusiasm was immediately doused. She had some savings, but spending a hundred thousand a month would probably drain them in just a few months.

Could they turn things around in a few months?

Relying on Lin Chudong alone didn't seem very likely!

Seeing that the two of them had calmed down, Lin Chudong smiled.

"That's why there's no rush. I'll teach lessons for now and earn some money to live on."

Wang Zhi wasn't convinced. "Brother Fei, you've seen how good I am. I really can't be a guitarist?"

Lin Chudong shook his head. "If you want to join the band, you can switch to bass."

Wang Zhi stared at him. "I don't want to. Guitarists look so cool. Bass is no fun!"

Lin Chudong patted him on the shoulder earnestly.

"If you keep studying guitar, all this world gets is one more guitarist."

"But if you switch to bass, the world gets one more band. Think about it."

After Lin Chudong finished speaking, Wang Zhi fell silent for a long while. Then he quietly went to the corner and picked up a bass.

He had some experience with bass and had even taught it before, though he was still a little short of professional level.

Lin Chudong quickly put together a lesson plan and had Liang Yin post it by the entrance.

"Crash Course in Guitar: Learn to Sing and Play in Three Thousand Yuan—One-Month Intensive"

Wang Zhi was speechless at the lesson plan. He was strongly against crash courses, but the other man was Da Fei, so he didn't dare say anything.

Liang Yin took the idea of forming a band to heart. Even though Lin Chudong had poured cold water on her, she still felt there was a chance.

That night, she watched a highlights compilation of Da Fei Band, along with Da Fei's guitar solos, drum solos, piano playing, harmonica playing, morin khuur playing...

Da Fei seemed to be able to play everything. Any instrument in his hands could produce a beautiful melody.

With a lead singer like that, she refused to believe that forming a band could lose money!

Lin Chudong lay in the dormitory, quietly waiting for the Treasure Chest to open.

The dorm was fairly decent, clean and tidy, but that was about it. It didn't even have a small window, which made it feel stifling.

Luckily, Lin Chudong wasn't picky. He'd lived in far worse places. This was nothing.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Lin Chudong opened it and saw a woman who could eat a biscuit without dropping a single crumb onto her feet.

Her loose pajamas hid some of her figure. Otherwise, this late at night, she could easily have inspired a few improper dreams.

"Boss, what's up?"

"Da Fei, I've made up my mind. I'm going to support you in forming a band! I can put up one million in startup funds, and I also have an apartment I can use as collateral. Along with all the instruments in my shop, will that be enough?"

Lin Chudong froze. The boss lady was loaded.

How many people running a brick-and-mortar shop could produce a million in cash these days?

People talked about families having all kinds of money, but most of it was tied up in property. Not many had even a few hundred thousand sitting in the bank.

"That should be enough."

Liang Yin was overjoyed when Lin Chudong agreed.

"So where do we start?"

"Come in and sit down first."

The two sat on the bed. As soon as Liang Yin sat down, her loose pajamas conformed to her figure, and the curves were impossible to look away from.

Lin Chudong raised his head and tried his best not to stare.

"Tomorrow, go register the company. Then we'll prepare to release a song first—the one I sang today, 'Chengdu.'"

They only needed to register the company, so it didn't matter who the legal representative was. He needed this startup money anyway.

Once the company had more money, they could draw up a copyright agreement.

Lin Chudong only had a little over a hundred thousand. Liang Yin was investing a million plus an apartment. With that kind of ratio, he couldn't very well ask for a controlling stake.

But he couldn't let her make all the decisions for the company, either. He wasn't going to repeat the mistakes of the past. For now, he'd make some money before signing an equity agreement.

As for the copyright to the songs he released later, they could discuss that when the time came. In any case, Lin Chudong wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

He had to keep a firm grip on both the equity and the copyright.

Lin Chudong still remembered how, after gaining the system three years ago, he'd kept signing in until the final day of the third year, when it gave him an Alternate Universe Gift Pack.

It had rewritten eighty percent of this world's entertainment landscape.

In other words, most of the famous songs Lin Chudong knew didn't exist in this world. Any song he brought out could make a sensation in the Music Scene.

Of course, to make a sensation in the Music Scene, he needed a platform.

If he sang on the street, the only people he'd attract would be the city inspectors.

Liang Yin didn't know much about that. "How much does it cost to release a song?"

"For a normal release, you need lyrics and music, professional arrangement, instrumentalists, backing vocals, a recording studio, music licensing, and all that. It'd cost at least several hundred thousand."

"But I can handle all of that myself. All you need to do is arrange the recording studio and take care of the promotion once the song's finished."

"About seventy or eighty thousand."

Only then did Liang Yin relax. "That's not bad. I can cover that. Your song 'Chengdu' is great. It's definitely going to be a hit!"

Lin Chudong smiled faintly. Before the world's entertainment landscape was rewritten, "Chengdu" had been a must-learn classic for every guitar enthusiast.

Plenty of piano shops had attracted countless students with promises that they could learn "Chengdu" in thirty days.

The song might not be enough to make their band famous, but it could definitely save piano shops across the country.