Mysterious Guest

"She's dancing, she's dancing

Next thing you'll see

The hot girl's going lower, lower, lower, lower, lower..."

With the mystery guest's entrance, the anniversary celebration hit its peak, countless glittering paper streamers falling through the air.

Standing among several strikingly beautiful backup dancers was a burly Black man in a tight black tank top, buzz cut, with oversized diamond earrings, necklace, and rings sparkling under the lights.

No one expected the mystery guest to be the red-hot Flo Rida.

His collaboration single "Low" with T-Pain topped the Billboard Hot 100 on December 30, 2007, held the number one spot for ten consecutive weeks, and still sat within the top ten. In its first week, it sold over 400,000 digital copies online—the song that marked pop music's growing reliance on digital sales.

The latest Hot 100 had Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" at number one, British super newcomer Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" at number two, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland's collaboration "4 Minutes" at number three, with Lil Wayne and Usher at four and five.

The new generation was also emerging: Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music" and Miley Cyrus's "See You Again" sat at eleven and twelve.

As for Taylor, her previous chart-topper was only on the country music subchart. Her highest Hot 100 ranking was "Teardrops on My Guitar" at number sixteen, lasting just one week. Currently, her two singles sat at twenty-six and twenty-eight, with "Teardrops on My Guitar" spending over forty weeks on the chart, indirectly proving her songs' wide reach.

Ryan, standing in the back, listened to Joel run down the current chart situation. It seemed to benefit from the dividends of online distribution—though the recording industry was slowly shrinking in terms of revenue, internally it presented a scene of "vigorous vitality and all things competing to flourish."

"Ryan, when are you gonna be number one on the Billboard charts?" Joel couldn't help but ask the soul-searching question.

That question had no answer for Ryan right now. No record label meant no radio promotion resources, no radio promotion meant never charting on the Billboard charts, never charting meant never getting hot, and never getting hot meant even fewer radio resources—a vicious cycle.

Before Ryan could respond, Joel's phone rang, and he walked off to a quiet spot to answer.

That's when Ryan noticed Marvin talking with a woman, both of them glancing over at him from time to time.

Then Marvin waved for Ryan to come over.

"Let me introduce you—this is a representative from Atlantic Records' A&R department," Marvin said.

Ryan knew Atlantic Records—a flagship label under the Warner Music Group.

"Creator of 'Harlem Shake' and 'Tremor'—nice to meet you." She extended her hand to shake Ryan's.

"Atlantic has been laying groundwork in electronic music for years. You've met David Guetta, right? He's performed at Ultra Music too. The only electronic track to ever chart on the Billboard charts is David Guetta's single 'Love Is Gone' from last year—and of course, that wouldn't have happened without Atlantic's behind-the-scenes promotion. Kid, if you want to develop your DJ career in the States, Atlantic is your best choice, bar none." Marvin said with absolute certainty, hinting at some kind of backroom deal with Atlantic.

The female A&R rep smoothly added that they could offer Ryan the same contract terms as David Guetta—clearly seeing his potential from the rapid spread of his two songs.

But when Ryan brought up key conditions like contract length, she just gave a faint smile and said that was non-negotiable.

In a way, Ryan was facing a situation similar to the Winter Music Festival.

The difference was that, after this period of fermentation, the label coming to negotiate with him was already a top-tier industry player.

Still, she wasn't entirely inflexible, mentioning that details like MV revenue splits could still be discussed.

Ryan noted down her contact info, planning to discuss it with Trey back home, then parted ways with the two.

Less than a minute later, a club server came up to Ryan, saying someone was inviting him to a private booth for a chat. Ryan wasn't about to step into a booth like that, but after pressing for details, he learned the invitation came from DJ Khaled.

Ryan immediately thought of the man named Scooter he'd met yesterday. Just then, Joel came back from his call.

"Ryan, everything okay?" Joel asked with an awkward grin, clearly under orders from someone to cozy up to him.

"Not okay—you're going in my place." Ryan had a sudden idea.

He had Joel go to the meeting in his stead. As his partner, Joel could fully represent him. And when Joel heard it was an invitation from a Def Jam big shot, he eagerly agreed and happily followed the server off.

Ryan wasn't worried about Joel getting into trouble. Those guys were always surrounded by women; they'd never set their sights on a short, pudgy, ugly-faced guy like him.

·

Late that night, Joel burst back into the room, excited.

"Ryan, Khaled said he wants you to join Def Jam South! He even spilled details—he's taking over as president of Def Jam South next year and plans to get into electronic music. You're about to blow up!" Joel grabbed Ryan's shoulders.

"Blow up? Like my ass catching fire?" Ryan laughed.

"What do you mean? Def Jam is the industry leader—Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Ludacris, Fall Out Boy, Bon Jovi—all platinum-level artists!" Joel looked confused, probably fully convinced in that booth.

Ryan walked straight to the computer. He'd come back early earlier and looked up a lot of info online.

"A few years ago, Universal merged Island and Def Jam into a new group. Know who the chairman is? L.A. Reid—the guy Marvin mentioned yesterday, one of this club's shareholders, Puff Daddy's mentor."

"JAY-Z runs Def Jam's operations. He built Rihanna. Earlier this year, JAY-Z officially left Def Jam to start his own entertainment company, Roc Nation, with Live Nation. Rihanna's obviously leaving with him."

"L.A. Reid?" Joel froze, then slowly sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Then forget it—you're too smooth-skinned. You'd get screwed before you got famous." Joel shook his head repeatedly.

"But I've got another option... You could join Big Machine!" Joel suddenly brought up.

"Is that your idea or Taylor's?" Ryan smiled, seeing right through Joel's little scheme.

Joel gave an embarrassed grin: "She called me just now, said she could introduce a new recording studio. I was just..."

Bought off, basically—and he'd probably spilled everything about Ryan's situation to her.

"Let's not talk about her. Marvin introduced me to an A&R rep from Atlantic Records earlier," Ryan mentioned.

Joel looked puzzled. The club's shareholder was L.A. Reid, and the artists showing up were all from his camp—why would Atlantic Records be there?

"Because of Flo Rida. He's signed to an Atlantic subsidiary, and Khaled mentored him—Khaled gave him his first performance opportunity," Ryan explained. He'd looked it up online; it was all public info.

Collaborations between artists in the US music scene were very common—joint singles, for example. In principle, as long as there wasn't a serious conflict of interest, artists from different label groups could collaborate. Of course, only if the artists themselves were willing.

"So, right now you only have one goal, and that's Atlantic Records?" Joel ventured.

"Not necessarily." Ryan thought of Tiesto, who had put his music on the Club Life show.

At the same time, a nonstop flight from Amsterdam to Nashville had just landed. In the airport, a man carrying only simple luggage pulled out his phone and reported to his family and colleagues in Dutch...

If nothing unexpected happens tomorrow, there should be three chapters. Please keep reading!