Chapter 401: Hong Kong businessmen join forces to compete in the music industry

Chapter 401: Hong Kong businessmen join forces to compete in the music industry

Chapter 401: Hong Kong businessmen join forces to compete in the music industry
Star House is the name of a commercial building in Tsim Sha Tsui, standing at 3 Salisbury Road. It is known as the Hong Kong Music Factory and is home to dozens of music companies including PolyGram, EMI, China Star, Fengxing, and Wing Hang.

There is the most famous Avon Recording Studio and the most authoritative copyright law company.

Sam Hui, Adam Cheng, Liza Wang, Roman Tam, Teresa Teng, these are all shining names, chasing their dreams under the stars and creating a glorious chapter for Hong Kong music.

In PolyGram Records, which rents an entire floor of office, General Manager Zheng Donghan and the three "Teddy Robin" brothers are sitting around a long table, each holding a Chunghwa Walkman, turning on and off the products and playing with them.

The four formed a band called "Teddy Robin and the Playboys" in the 1960s. They debuted as amateurs and became very popular.

It was one of the earliest "English pop bands" in Hong Kong Island. They later joined Diamond Records and obtained shares in the record company based on the success of several albums.

After PolyGram acquired Diamond Records, the quartet reaped great rewards and continued to work for PolyGram.

In 71, at the age of , Cheng Donghan became the general manager of PolyGram Hong Kong Island. He discovered a group of singers including Sam Hui, Hui Guanying, Alan Tam, and created the concept of "Cantonese pop music".

For the next twenty years, Zheng Donghan was the one in charge of PolyGram, and the three "Teddy Robin" brothers took turns serving as president and manager to assist Zheng Donghan in management.

The four of them were able to share the good fortune and prosper together, and they turned the Philips-affiliated music company into a one-man show.

Obviously, she started out as an English singer, but she forced English singers to move to Canada. She went to the media to complain, saying that the company only valued Cantonese songs!
This shows Zheng Donghan's arrogance and talent. He relied on his dominant business capabilities to shut up the parent company.

Teddy Robin is not a foreigner, but the stage name of the singer "Guan Weipeng". He and his brothers Guan Weilin and Guan Wei are deeply involved in the entertainment industry, and are also known as the Three Heroes of the Guan Family.

Guan Weipeng has shares in Cinema City Film Company. The first film he produced, "Pointing at the Soldiers", was a great success both in terms of reputation and box office.

Kwan Wai-lin is the father of artist Kwan Chor-yiu, and he also has a nickname "Prince Kei". Because he was not a good singer, he was forced to inherit his father Cheng Tung-hon's music company.

But now the four brothers have different opinions and are arguing endlessly about the cooperation agreement that Zhonghe Electronics has brought to them.

The cooperation agreement was really too advanced, and neither the three Guan brothers nor Zheng Donghan were sure about it.

"Take 20 seconds of the new song that the company released that year and burn it into a tape. Put it in the box of a Walkman as a gift. Will sales increase or decrease?"

The traditional way of promoting Hong Kong music is mainly through music radio stations and TV programs, and audio stores are also considered as promotion channels.

Once a song becomes popular, we can sell records, tapes, and KTV copyrights.

It is an unprecedented attempt to promote songs by giving away cassettes with a player product.

Guan Weilin said: "There is absolutely no problem in recording a collection of auditions and sending them out with the product, but Chung Ho Electronics will charge an advertising fee of HK$10 for each tape."

"This means we are giving him free gifts, paying for the cost of the tapes, and helping him sell the products, right?"

Guan Wei smoked a cigarette and said, "I think we should share the cost of the tape with Zhong Heping, at most half for each of us, and forget about the advertising fee."

Zheng Donghan had just felt something was wrong, but suddenly an idea struck him. He rejected all objections and said, "This cooperation is worth signing!"

"Are you crazy, Brother Han? Are you paying people to sell goods?" Guan Weilin was deeply surprised and looked amazed.

Zheng Donghan said: "Huaxing and EMI are competing with us for the market. Helping us distribute Walkman products is to expand the music market."

"The more people who had Walkmans, the more tapes sold."

In the era of cassette records, the prerequisite for buying records was to own a projector. Equipment that cost five or six hundred dollars made the music market narrow and limited. The price of Sony Walkman at $200 had already created a market, and the price of Zhonghe at $40 had a far-reaching impact.

The development of the electronics industry has ushered in the golden age of music. From being ignored to being a hotly contested market, in just a few years, more and more capital has participated in the battle in the music field.

Zheng Donghan grabbed the Walkman and said to the three Guan brothers in a firm tone: "If we don't seize this weapon, our enemies will."

"As the largest music company in Hong Kong Island, our most important thing is to maintain our market share."

In fact, music production, the film industry and the development of the technology industry are closely related. The progress of the times will continue to empower traditional cultural industries.
Without technological development, even the most talented artists cannot showcase their talents.

But when Zheng Donghan submitted the cooperation agreement to the chairman of the board of directors "Fred", Fred, as the president of PolyGram, refused the cooperation.

Zheng Donghan has absolute power in the business lines of music distribution and production, but brand cooperation requires Fred's approval.

Because, PolyGram Hong Kong is just a company under Philips, but Fred is the president of the Asia region and is also responsible for managing music companies in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Through mergers and acquisitions, Philips has become one of the world's three largest music companies, with numerous businesses in various regions. As an independent company at the regional level, it can only make decisions on music business. All matters involving brand cooperation must be reported to the President of the Asia region, who will coordinate them uniformly.

Avoid allowing political relations and geopolitical conflicts to affect the company's business.

After investigating Philips' equity, it was found that the controlling shareholder behind the scenes was American Jewish capital.

Seeing that the boss Zheng was unhappy and upset, Guan Weilin comforted him, "Forget it, the company has a strong backing. It's just a small cooperation, no big deal."

Zheng Donghan slammed his fist on the table: "These foreigners are too contemptuous and hold us back. Sooner or later, they will suffer!"

Guan Weilin flicked the ash off his cigarette and asked, "What do you think, foreigner?"

Zheng Donghan leaned back in the leather chair, his hands resting on his neck, his eyes drifting towards the ceiling. "Fred said that the parent company has developed new recording technology and is negotiating with Sony for a unified standard. CDs will soon replace tapes, so there's no need to waste energy on a pirated electronics company."

As a technology giant, Philips' contempt for Chinese-owned electronics companies is deep-rooted and ingrained in its soul. It even deliberately guards against "yellow-skinned" technology thieves, and it is expected that it will refuse to cooperate with Zhonghe Electronics.

But there is another record company in Hong Kong Island that is eager to expand its market share, and that is TVB's wholly-owned subsidiary, China Star Records.

The company is led by Chen Liuquan, a TVB veteran and a capable assistant to Shaw Yifu. When Huaxing was first established, Chen Liuquan formulated a business model of "combining film, television and music" based on the TVB platform.

Through talent shows, TV series, packaging stars, and promoting songs.

This model forces TVB artists to be good at singing, dancing, acting and acting. For example, the theme song of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" released this year, "Iron Blood and Red Heart", became a huge hit. The theme song of the 80 version of "The Bund", "Waves Running, Waves Flowing", is a world classic and is sung endlessly.

However, although Huaxing has TVB as a publicity and promotion platform, it lacks the backing of the upper-class electronics industry.

After receiving Yin Zhaotang's olive branch to Huaxing, Chen Liuquan immediately realized that Zhonghe and Huaxing were natural partners, and that it was exactly the "Hong Kong people joining forces for win-win cooperation."

At noon that day, Chen Liuquan called Yin Zhaotang to arrange a meeting at Wah Sing Building, 1 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay. Considering his identity as a triad boss, he also specially invited TVB boss Run Run Shaw to attend.

The boss of a record company can't control Shenxiantang's situation!

(End of this chapter)