Chapter 3323 Taking the first step

Hearing Ye Chen's words, Tawana exclaimed subconsciously: "Ah? You...you mean to let me go to Huaxia to hold a concert?"

"Yes." Ye Chen said calmly, "You probably haven't held a concert in China yet, right? This is a good opportunity to give Chinese fans a little surprise. This is also good for your career. What I can promise you is that when you arrive in China, there will be absolutely no security problems. It depends on whether you are willing or not."

Tawana said without hesitation: "I...I do..."

Under normal circumstances, Tawana might have other considerations, but now, deep down in her heart, she had no thought of refusing. It seemed that there were multiple voices deep in her heart, urging her to agree quickly.

Seeing her nod, Ye Chen said, "In that case, I will talk to you about the specific cooperation. It happens that Mr. Mitsui is here, and he is a shareholder of Universal. Let's settle this matter. All performance fees for Tawana's performance in China will be in accordance with your normal business cooperation model. Whether it is a buyout or a box office share, I have no problem. My requirements are as follows:"

"First, the total number of Huaxia concerts must not be less than eight;"

"Secondly, the right to host no less than eight concerts must be given to me;"

"Third, I will designate the company as the exclusive agent for ticketing."

Tawanna said again without hesitation: "I have no problem with that."

Mitsui Yoshitaka knew very well that a world-class singer like Tawana would bring huge economic boost to the local area no matter where she held a concert.

A concert can sell tens of thousands of tickets for tens of millions of dollars, bring in hundreds of millions or even more in tourism revenue to the local area, and even keep the city in the headlines of world news for several days. The commercial value behind this is astonishingly huge.

Therefore, performance companies in many countries who want to invite Tawana to perform in their local areas usually have to offer huge concessions, and even the local government has to provide certain subsidies.

And Tawana’s team and agency have strong control over the performances and a high degree of autonomy.

The ticketing business alone generates huge amounts of hidden income.

If the concert is held in a popular country or city and the stadium can accommodate 50,000 people, the total box office of the concert tickets will be around 10 million US dollars. However, considering Tawanna's great fame and the extremely high premium of the performance tickets, there are countless ways to secretly increase the ticket price.

The most commonly used methods are vote control and vote speculation.

Of the 50,000 tickets, only 5,000 are actually sold to ordinary audiences. It all depends on who has good luck, who has a fast internet connection, or who can poke the fastest with their fingers to get a ticket.

If there are technical scalpers who rely on developing software to snatch these 5,000 tickets from ordinary audiences, then that is a matter between the scalpers and the audience. The organizers basically do not care about it because they care about the real big winners.

The real big money comes from the 45,000 tickets that are not sold publicly.

Since he is the top-selling singer, it is almost impossible for the tickets to be unsold, so the organizer can directly sell these 45,000 tickets in a package to a general contractor at double the premium.

At some concerts, the ticket prices for core seats can be ten or even dozens of times higher than the face value.

Not to mention a world-class top artist like Tawana, even if it is just a top singer in the Chinese music scene, the face value of the ticket for the first row of the backstage is at most 2,000 RMB. However, the actual transaction price at the terminal is often 20 to 30 times more expensive than the face value.

If you spend 50,000 yuan to buy a ticket for a pop star's concert in a first-tier city, you probably won't even be able to get a middle seat in the first row, let alone a world-class star like Tawanna.

Tickets for Tawana's concerts in North America, especially Canada, start at 7,000 to 8,000 Canadian dollars for the best areas inside the venue. The most central seats are priced at US$50,000, and even US$100,000 per ticket is something that only wealthy people can afford.

And what the organizer has in hand are not just the prime front row seats in the inner field, but perhaps 45,000 tickets for various seats. Not only is it common for the prime seats to be sold at dozens of times the price, but even the worst seats at the top of the mountain can be sold at two or three times the price.

It is very easy for the organizers to make this money. If they want to take it all in one go, they can just become scalpers and transfer the money from one hand to the other. If they don't want to go through all the trouble, they can find a powerful ticket distributor in the local area and ask him to buy all 45,000 tickets at three times the price, and they can directly earn three times the box office revenue.

Don't think this is a fantasy. In fact, many large ticket distributors can afford this money. When faced with such a big performance that is sure to make a profit, they are definitely willing to pay this money. Even if they cannot afford it, they will join forces with many investors to pay for this batch of tickets, and then divide the money after redistributing it at a higher price.

After the ticket distributors buy these 45,000 tickets, they can add a portion of the profit and then distribute them to the next-level distributors throughout the entire network, and finally to the scalpers, who then sell these tickets to the audience at more than five times the price. In this way, the entire industry chain has gained huge benefits, and they are supported by those fans who are willing to buy concert tickets at several times the price.

Tawana has been popular all over the world for several years, but she has never been to China for a concert so far. Ye Chen can infer that once she goes to China to perform, if the tickets are not controlled, the tickets will definitely be sold out of the skyline.

For those truly wealthy people, spending hundreds of thousands of RMB to watch Tawanna's concert in the front row is worth the money just for showing off on their Moments, not to mention those big internet celebrities who can earn hundreds of millions just for promoting a product. Money has completely lost its normal measure for them. They only need to touch their upper lips to their lower lips and shout "brothers", "family", "beauties", and they may earn more than Tawanna in a year. For them, spending hundreds of thousands to see Tawanna is worth it because they can show off and get some traffic and popularity.

Moreover, Ye Chen asked for the general agency for all tickets for eight concerts. The profit margin behind this could even reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

Although Mitsui Yoshitaka is already very rich, his business thinking as a businessman will not become slack just because he is rich. On the contrary, the more successful a businessman is, the less likely he is to let others take advantage of him financially.

So, at this moment he almost blurted out that he wanted to reject Ye Chen, or politely refuse Ye Chen, and then have a good talk with him about the details of the ticket agency. His idea was very simple. You can earn this huge invisible income, but you can't earn it all by yourself. You have to return a part of it to us, and at least 50%.

Seeing his hesitation, Ye Chen knew what he was thinking, so he immediately said: "Mr. Sanjing, I want to emphasize one thing to you first. The reason why I invited Miss Sweet to perform in China is not because I admire her or want to take the opportunity to make money, but I simply think that she is such a big star, facing such a large market and so many fans in China, it is a bit unreasonable for her not to hold a concert for so many years, so I take this opportunity to help Miss Sweet take the first step, which can also be regarded as seeking some benefits for Chinese fans;"

Ye Chen then added: "As for the tickets for these eight concerts, I will sell them at the original price in accordance with the principle of fairness and justice, and will make adequate preparations to resist any resale. If I add even a penny to any ticket for these eight concerts, I will give you all the box office revenue and compensate you with 1 billion US dollars."

Mitsui Yoshitaka was shocked. One billion US dollars in compensation? Could Ye Chen afford one billion US dollars?

Seeing his surprise, Fei Kexin said unhappily, "Mr. Sanjing, don't doubt Mr. Ye's promise. If the situation Mr. Ye described really happens, I will compensate you for the 1 billion."

Seeing Fei Kexin's strong support for Ye Chen, Sanjing Ryotaka did not dare to question it anymore. He nodded and said, "It seems that Mr. Ye really wants to seek benefits for Chinese fans. But I would like to remind you that ticket scalping is difficult to control. Miss Sweet's concert is already very popular. If it is held in China for the first time, it will have a much greater commemorative significance for fans. For such a concert, the tickets in the core area can easily increase by dozens of times. Many people will take risks for this price difference."

Then, Mitsui Yoshitaka added: "Even if Mr. Ye implements the real-name system for ticket purchases, it will be difficult for ordinary people to beat professional scalpers. They have technical means and human wave tactics, and they can always get a higher chance than ordinary people."

"It doesn't matter." Ye Chen said lightly: "I have my own way."