Chapter 122 - Musical Economics of Public Performance

June 23, 2012 – Saturday 11 am - Long Island, New York

Tayaw is currently seated in a coffee shop, waiting to meet someone. While waiting, he is busily browsing his phone, like how people are doing in the future with their time. The look of him immersed in his phone however destroyed what would have been a vintage look from his three-piece suit.

"Mr. Yawat?" A caucasian woman who looks to be in her early 30s approached Tayaw, interrupting Tayaw's immersion in his smartphone. 

"Hello. Ms. Martin?" Tayaw asked for confirmation.

"That's me. A pleasure to meet you, THE Isaac Yawat. Please, call me Leslie." Leslie introduced herself.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Leslie. Please just call me Isaac." Tayaw greeted. 

"Thank you. Well. Thank you for responding to our e-mail. We didn't think you would when you didn't get back to us for so long." Leslie said.

"I was just occupied by something else. Thank you for meeting me here in New York. Anyway, I hope this place will do for our talk, I have no 'base' here in America after all." Tayaw said. 

He lied about not having a 'base' in New York. When Tayaw found out that he is going to meet a woman representative, he purposely set up the meet at a place that has many people around and is covered by a CCTV.

In the future, a social movement will bring some of biggest s*exual offenders within the sports and show business industries to the ground. While Tayaw is glad to see those perverts get what they deserve, he was also sad to see some of the innocents who had their reputations smeared from wrongful accusations.

Tayaw, knowing that he now has a recognizable name in the music industry, wanted to avoid getting dragged down by that social movement in the future at all costs. Meeting a lone lady at a safe place is one of Tayaw's approaches in avoiding potential accusations in the future.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm from the New York office of the label. We also know that you're from Teungeb so it's understandable." Leslie replied.

Leslie Martin is one of the executives of Milky Way Records, one of the more recognizable record labels and music agencies in America. Leslie is not the only representative that Tayaw met since he arrived in New York, and she will not be the last one he will meet during his stay.

"Anyway, just like what I said in the e-mail, I will give you the recording licenses of the songs you want, for free." Tayaw finally began their negotiation.

"Yes. It was a confusing thing for us. You want something in exchange though, yes?" Leslie asked.

"Exactly. Well, you see, I just made a film. It won awards internationally so we decided to bring it to America." Tayaw introduced.

"Then, congratulations. I didn't know you were a film maker as well. Ah.. Is the film the 'something' you were occupied with?" Leslie asked which proved that she has been paying attention since they started talking. 

"Precisely. That's where the EXCLUSIVE recording licenses comes in. I'm giving them to you in exchange for your artists or whoever will record the songs, to promote my film." Tayaw revealed his intention. 

"T-this…" Leslie had to gather her thoughts for a moment.

"Just the recording licenses?" Leslie asked to fill the silence she made.

"Yes. Just the recording license. I still want royalties, of course." Tayaw replied calmly, hiding how dumbfounded he was at the question. 

"Oh. Oh. Of course. That's not what I meant. Anyway, promotion huh. When it comes to it, I don't have sole authorization to make that deal." Leslie said.

"I see… It's good that we didn't spend too much time so we can still move this meeting some other time." Tayaw said as he shrugged his shoulders. 

"Wait. Let me make a call." Leslie however, didn't want to leave empty-handed.

"Please. Take your time." Tayaw replied, and Leslie left her seat for privacy.

Seeing Leslie's actions, Tayaw is glad that his tactic worked. While it was not obvious to others, Tayaw intended his comment to make Leslie think that there are also other people intending on buying the songs that Leslie's label want. 

Tayaw is also hiding his surprise at Leslie's behavior. Since he came back to New York, Tayaw already met with other executives and sold recording licenses of 18 of his songs to two record labels in exchange for free promotion. Tayaw noticed from the executives he met that they thought they got a bargain from Tayaw's deal, so Leslie, not jumping at his free recording licenses was a surprise for him. 

A few minutes later, Leslie walked back to Tayaw's table, still on the phone.

"Isaac, can we ask, what type of promotion are you looking for?" Leslie asked as she put her phone that is still on call on the table.

"It's simple really. All you have to do is have your singers post an image of the poster of my movie and a link to its movie trailer in their social media accounts. They just have to post them on July 1st, and on July 14th, the night before the official release in the theaters. If the artist has both Twitter and Instagram accounts, it's best if they promote my film on both those websites." Tayaw explained. 

This was also the deal that Tayaw proposed with the executives he talked to. At this time, social media marketing is still in its infancy and rarely are celebrities getting paid by promoting products in their social media.

The executives, who were short sighted and did not see the potential of what Tayaw is asking, foolishly jumped on the deal. Had the executives known that in the future, a celebrity will get paid $100,000 for just one post, they would lose their minds.

/We can do that, Mr. Yawat./ Tayaw heard a voice come out from Leslie's phone, and along with the reply, Leslie also nodded in approval.

'Nice~~~~~' Tayaw celebrated in his head.

"Well. It's a deal then. I still hold authorship and royalties." Tayaw said.

/That much is obvious, Mr. Yawat. Pleasure doing business with you. Leslie will handle the rest./ The man in the phone replied and the call was ended.

Tayaw however saw Leslie's face twitch.

"Something wrong, Leslie?" Tayaw could not help but ask.

"No. Are you sure you're really giving us licenses for just that?" Leslie asked. 

"Yes, Leslie. I'm also doing it for rapport. If I have songs to sell in the future, I hope Milky Way Records will buy them. Please tell that to your friends." Tayaw said, feeling smug inside at his lie. 

==================

June 25, 2012 – Monday 11 am – Northwestern University

Northwestern and the other universities throughout Ouigab finished their finals week last Saturday. If it was any other city, the university campuses would have been deserted by now. Ouigab universities however are different this time of the year. 

As a celebration for another school year done, Northwestern is the starting their annual Music and Arts Week today. It is not only Northwestern that has its own Music and Arts week. Ouigab, being a city of music and arts, influenced the universities in it to have a yearly tradition of having their own music festivals. 

"Man, it looks like we're more famous than we thought." Ramil chuckled after taking a peek at the filled seats in the auditorium. This is the largest crowd yet, that they are going to perform for.

"I know. I kinda feel bad for the other bands though. I feel guilty that we're taking up an hour and a half when they only have fifteen minutes each." Jenna said. 

"Hey. Just like Tayaw said, we deserve it. And, we're doing the music department a favor." Hoon said.

The Northwestern's music week is managed by the university's School of Music. Professor Lopas Gitse, the professor who once approached Tayaw in ROH factory, finally got a call back from Tayaw after more than a year. 

Tayaw asked Professor Gitse to feature Percussive Corrections in the festival. With Percussive Correction's fame in the internet, Professor Gitse was glad to indulge Tayaw's request as he also wanted to use the band's fame to attract students to enroll in music courses in the future. 

"It's not like we're performing throughout the week unlike the others. Anyway. Too bad Tayaw isn't with us." Bay-an said.

"True. I hope these folks won't be disappointed when they don't see Tayaw." Inson said. 

The news of Tayaw's fame in Nashville also made it in Ouigab through one of Ophelia's articles, so there has been buzz even before the Music and Arts Week about Tayaw coming to Northwestern University with the Northwestern brew Percussive Corrections. 

"No. That's not what I mean. I mean, Tayaw didn't perform for a large crowd like this before, right?" Bay-an said.

"Have you forgotten about his performance in Kentucky with John's band? I think that crowd is just as big as this." Ramil reminded Bay-an.

"Oh! That's right. Still, it's a shame that he's not with us in our first huge performance." Bay-an said. This made the band feel a little bad for Tayaw. 

"Well, whatever. It's him who did not want to come. The best we can do for Tayaw is to blow the crowd away. Let's make him proud. He's gonna see it because Chala's gonna film us, right?" Jenna said. 

"Yeah. Also, we look awesome. Thank goodness, you told us to wear the baseball clothes that Tayaw gave us. It's like he's also with us." Hoon said to Jenna. 

The band is wearing the St. Louis Cardinals jersey that Tayaw gave them and for those who do not know them, they look like a solid team just by the way they're dressed.

"Hey. Hey. Are we ready?" Ramil said when he saw one of the floor managers signal to him that they're about to take the stage.

"Huddle! Huddle! *HOOO* *HOOO* HOOO* *AARRGHHh!*" Despite the nervousness they felt, they are even more fired up and with imposing huddle chant they just did, they are ready to kill the stage.