Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 105

31. Coachella.

Coachella.

It is a large-scale music festival held in Coachella Valley, which is located in the Colorado Desert of California, USA. Its full name is the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Because the full name is quite long, it’s often called ‘Coachella Festival’ or ‘Coachellafest’ locally. In Korea, however, it’s usually just referred to as Coachella, after the place name.

It’s the biggest music festival in North America and typically features the most popular musicians across various genres, making it a standard for music festivals in the United States.

Being invited to Coachella is a sign that an artist’s status is on the rise.

So, in 2014, it was no surprise that Black Tiger, who had been dominating the Billboard charts, was invited as a headliner.

And Black Tiger wasn’t the only one getting an invite.

The entire YC Entertainment family was going to be there.

This included the G1 band, which had reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart with incredible speed earlier that year, as well as Blue Rose, Lee Na-eun, and New Daze.

All of them were scheduled to perform on the main stage, the Coachella Stage. While Blue Rose’s inclusion was understandable, it was a bit surprising for Lee Na-eun and New Daze, who weren’t well-known in the United States, to even be considered for the second-largest stage, the Outdoor Theatre.

Nevertheless, the fact that they were all performing on the Coachella Stage demonstrated YC’s significant reputation in the United States.

-Black Tiger Invited as Coachella Headliner!-

-All Artists from YC Entertainment to Appear!-

-New Daze! Selected as the Hottest Group in Japan with Coachella Stage Invitation!-

-Black Tiger’s Acceptance of Coachella Invitation Leads to a Flood of Invitations from Rock Festivals Around the World!-

Black Tiger’s invitation to Coachella became a great opportunity to boost YC Entertainment’s reputation.

It was a notable achievement, as no one had ever invited a K-pop group that hadn’t even debuted to the Coachella Sahara Tent, not even the “Big 3” agencies [the three largest entertainment companies in South Korea].

Putting a girl group that hasn’t even debuted on such a stage meant that their global influence had already surpassed the Korean level.

In fact, New Daze became a major point of interest simply by performing on the Coachella Stage, eliminating the need for separate promotions.

This was a huge advantage for YC Entertainment, which had been putting a lot of effort into promoting New Daze (NEW DAZE) for nearly half a year.

However, Lee Ji-woo, the head of Planning Team 2, who was currently in charge of New Daze, was looking at this opportunity from an even broader perspective.

“If we do well, we might be able to launch activities in the United States, capitalizing on Daisy’s performance on the Coachella Stage.”

At his words, Team Leader Go Woo-ri questioned whether that was even possible.

“So, you’re saying that after starting activities in Japan and finishing activities in Korea, we’ll immediately move on to activities in the United States?”

“Yes.”

Go Woo-ri shook her head emphatically at her superior’s confident answer.

“No, we don’t even know if we’ll succeed in Japan and Korea yet. Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?”

From a practical standpoint, she had a point, but Director Lee Ji-woo didn’t seem particularly impressed with Go Woo-ri’s reasonable objection.

He smiled and continued, “What do you think? Do you think New Daze will fail?”

“Uh…….”

Go Woo-ri hesitated. It wasn’t just because she had grown fond of the members while managing them.

It was also because of the undeniable potential she saw, no matter how objectively she tried to assess the situation.

As if sensing her thoughts, Director Lee Ji-woo continued the conversation.

“Yes, at least in Japan, New Daze will not fail. In fact, they can’t fail. I think even if we put an elementary school student in charge, we would still succeed.”

“……That’s true.”

Considering the buzz that New Daze was already generating in Japan, they couldn’t fail, no matter how incompetent their management was.

They wouldn’t have failed even if they hadn’t become a hot topic.

Even before their debut, they had more fans than most established idols, and, more importantly, the songs that YC had given to New Daze were all masterpieces, almost too good to be B-sides.

And that’s not all.

Considering that they were a K-pop idol group with five Japanese members, that alone was a major selling point in Japan.

It’s being kept under wraps, but Blue Rose’s rise to the top 10 on the Billboard charts had sparked a sense of inferiority within Japan.

So, it was clear that New Daze would subtly emphasize its identity as a Japanese group, given that it was formed with Japanese members selected through the New Daze Contest.

The situation in Korea was more uncertain, but even there, they had already built a fandom comparable to a decent second-tier idol group, even if it wasn’t as large as in Japan.

This was because the New Daze members were actively engaging with fans through SNS live broadcasts even before their debut.

Above all, the high-quality performances of the Korean members in the second part of the final episode of the New Daze Contest were sure to impress even local fans who had high expectations for glamorous K-pop idols.

Just like the military strategy of winning before you fight, Director Lee Ji-woo’s confidence was based on a solid foundation.

What was there to worry about when they were debuting after already achieving success?

“Above all, the CEO has decided to appear in the New Daze music video.”

“Huh? Didn’t we already film the New Daze music video?”

“We’ve decided to do additional filming. Director Hong Eui-chan seems to be very happy about it.”

“……The CEO is having a hard time too.”

Team Leader Go Woo-ri, who was both a staff member and a dedicated fan of the CEO, could imagine how much Director Hong Eui-chan had been pushing him this time.

In any case, this additional music video was scheduled to be released before their Coachella debut.

It would be difficult to reach Blue Rose’s level of success, but if they could generate enough buzz, they might be able to break into the Billboard Hot 100.

“By the way, I heard that you’re recruiting male idol trainees. Is that true?”

“How did you know that?”

“Hahaha. I guess it’s true.”

As the company grew, rumors were circulating about YC Entertainment recruiting trainees.

Since they had already recruited trainees who had been eliminated from the New Daze Contest at the Japanese branch, trainee recruitment wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Because of this, other entertainment companies were on high alert.

They were worried about losing talent.

Although trainees were bound by contracts, small and medium-sized entertainment companies often couldn’t provide much support, making it possible for trainees to terminate their contracts by returning the financial assistance they had received.

More importantly, it was difficult to debut a group without securing significant investment, so they couldn’t actively prevent these aspiring trainees from terminating their contracts.

This was especially true for trainees whose contract periods were nearing their end.

They could end up investing time and effort only to benefit others.

This phenomenon, which often occurred when large entertainment companies recruited a large number of idol trainees, was particularly severe in small and medium-sized entertainment companies, but this time it was different.

Not only medium-sized entertainment companies but also trainees from the “Big 3” entertainment companies, who were almost guaranteed success upon debut, were considering switching.

That’s because the standard of success at YC Entertainment was on a completely different level compared to any of the “Big 3” entertainment companies.

That became an undeniable truth when the G1 band, which had been relatively less successful at YC Entertainment, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Above all, the fact that Blue Rose and the Korean members of New Daze had come from relatively unknown girl groups greatly influenced the trainees’ decisions.

Turning a struggling idol into a global star was nothing short of a miracle.

-If you go to YC Entertainment, you can receive production from YC [Young-chan, the CEO].-

And with just this one fact that created the miracle, there was more than enough reason for trainees to knock on the doors of YC Entertainment.

Currently, Young-chan, after receiving a direct report from the head of the headquarters about the atmosphere among these idol trainees, scratched his chin.

“Hmm. I was originally planning to do it after the building expansion was completed…….”

“Isn’t it possible to just lease nearby buildings? If we move quickly, remodeling can be done in a month.”

“It’s also a lot of work to hire staff.”

“We can just acquire decent entertainment companies. I heard that Alex Entertainment is hinting that they want to hand over their shares to us.”

“Lala Land is doing well, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but it will be difficult for the company to make a lot of profit. Lala Land is in its fifth year this year.”

“Ah! I see what you mean.”

Idols usually sign contracts for 7 years. After that, they either renew their contracts or move to another entertainment company. The problem was that Lala Land had become popular relatively late in their career.

They were already in their fifth year, which meant that even if they pushed as hard as possible for the next two years, they would barely be able to recoup their losses and start making a profit.

Renewing the contract would also be a burden.

Red Pink’s contract was already favorable to the singer, so even if they were successful, Alex Entertainment wouldn’t make much profit.

In that situation, it would be more profitable for Alex Entertainment to give up more shares and become a branch of YC Entertainment.

The company’s shares would decrease, but the value of the shares they held would increase at least fivefold simply by becoming a branch of YC Entertainment.

“Hmm hmm.”

Young-chan smiled pleasantly.

In any case, the fact that he could bring in Lala Land, whom he had wanted to recruit for a while, was satisfying.

‘I’d like to bring them to the headquarters right away if I could…….’

However, Young-chan shook his head because the headquarters wasn’t yet ready to accommodate them.

It would be better to have them operate as a branch and then bring them to the headquarters when their contracts were up for renewal.

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, Young-chan nodded and spoke.

“Okay. Then let’s find two other decent entertainment companies besides Alex Entertainment and acquire them. If they’re decent, even a medium-sized entertainment company is fine.”

“Hahaha. Okay. By the way, the members seem to be in a very good mood these days.”

Young-chan smiled involuntarily and nodded, referring to the uncles [the other members of YC Entertainment’s management team].

“They’re acting excited like teenagers these days. What’s so great about Coachella?”

“Hahaha! You’re the only one who can say that, CEO.”

The head of the headquarters just looked at the CEO, who was questioning the appeal of Coachella, with a curious expression.

However, Young-chan genuinely felt that way.

Was it because it was located in a vast desert space?

Because of the very liberal atmosphere, Coachella audiences often didn’t respond enthusiastically or seem to have much fun.

In fact, the other Young-chan in Young-chan’s memory had also had to perform in a state of depression throughout the performance because the audience’s reaction was lackluster.

This wasn’t just his personal experience.

Many stars had expressed their dissatisfaction with the audience’s behavior on SNS and other platforms.

This wasn’t just a problem with the audience. There were also several issues on the operational side, likely due to the enormous cost of managing such a large space.

Even considering all that, it was clear that there were many shortcomings.

Young-chan believed that Coachella was unnecessarily famous and that the actual experience was underwhelming, so it was no wonder he reacted that way.

“Well, this time it will be different.”

It wasn’t for nothing that Young-chan was bringing the entire YC Entertainment family to Coachella.

Overseas K-pop fans have a higher level of loyalty than expected, so he was planning to bring as many of them to Coachella as possible and ensure they enjoyed a proper performance.