King of the Wilderness

Chapter 439: Chapter 244: The Terrifying Ripple Effect of a Superstar

December 28th, 09:22 AM, Eastern Standard Time

United States, New York, Midtown Manhattan, Universal Music Group (UMG) Headquarters

The first working day after the holiday, yet the UMG headquarters building hadn’t returned to its usual bustle.

Only a few employees from core departments were on shift to handle any possible emergency situations.

Alison Ford was one of them, she hated Christmas, especially despised the first working day after the holiday.

She’d rather enjoy the warmth and peace in the office than deal with relatives questioning her about artists’ gossip.

She carried a cup of steaming black coffee, quickly stepped into her office, ready to tackle three days’ worth of piled-up emails and reports.

However, just as she sat down, before she could open her inbox, her work phone’s emergency communications suddenly started buzzing non-stop!

Thinking it was yet another artist who’d been caught by the media, she clicked to see an intern in charge of social media monitoring frantically @-ing her.

"Alison! Look at the backend! The mention count for ’Bieber’ and ’Recovery’ in the past 72 hours has turned vertical!"

"We thought it was holiday data delay, but it appears to be an ongoing internet tsunami! The source is all from the same YouTube video!"

Alison’s heart sank rapidly; this kind of sudden situation was what she feared most after the holidays.

She swiftly accessed the backend data monitoring wall, the curve representing "@justinbieber" mentions was no longer merely rising.

It was like a rocket launch, piercing straight through the peak of the data chart.

Through the internal communication system, she dialed a voice call to inquire, "What’s happening? Quickly give me the background!"

"It’s a... log cabin construction video," the intern responded, voice shaking.

"Posted three days ago, the blogger used Recovery as BGM and looped it for over two hours. Alison... this video... it may have already... blown up."

"Recovery?" Alison quickly searched her mind for the term. A song from over a decade ago, hardly even considered popular. freewёbnoνel.com

A cold smile curled at her lips, yet another independent creator thinking they can sneak under the radar using an obscure song.

"I know how to handle it. Send me the video link." She replied succinctly.

She clicked the link she received, as the familiar melody played, her professional instincts were fully activated. But first catching her eye were the video’s astonishing stats.

Three days since upload, YouTube views: Twelve million.

Likes: One million five hundred thousand.

Comments: One hundred thousand.

Alison’s pupils slightly constricted; for an individual creator’s super long video, these figures were already terrifying!

It meant, without any major resources pushing it, relying solely on user-driven viral spread and YouTube’s algorithm recommendations, the video had reached the top tier viral threshold.

An explosive growth video using their artist’s song without reporting it.

This, in her world, equated to an elephant smashing its way through a china shop, and her job was to tear off the largest piece of meat from the elephant!

She didn’t even bother to finish watching the video content, her mind already calculating the follow-up process.

Automatically flagging infringement, legal department issuing stern warning letters, negotiating revenue sharing with either the associated MCN or the creator personally...

For this level of hype, Universal Music Group could easily secure over 50% of the ad revenue share, turning into an unexpected windfall worth hundreds of thousands in US Dollars.

She expertly navigated to UMG’s global copyright monitoring system. A cold, complex backend full of data and legal jargon.

Entering the video ID, ready for the familiar, eye-catching red warning indicating infringement, then she could hand off the case to the legal department, starting off the work week.

Yet, the data status popping up on the screen halted her hand, holding the coffee cup, mid-air.

[Video ID: YT7-gXpL3qR]

[Video Title: "Complete Log Cabin Construction Chronicles in Alaska!" - by Lin Yu’an in the Wilderness]

[Matched Content: Recovery - Justin Bieber (Soundtrack - UMG_JB_JOURNALS_07)]

[Current Status: [Green Tag] Not Activated - Covered by ’Creator Music’ Authorization]

[Authorization Type: Standard Authorization - Single Video Use, Global, Permanent]

[Revenue Distribution: 100% Belongs to Creator]

Alison’s eyes widened slightly; she’d been in this business for ten years and seen countless times the glaring red warnings of infringement light up.

Those meant legal department involvement and endless entanglement. But such clearly marked "authorized coverage" tranquil green tags were scarcely remembered by her. freёwebnovel.com

Her gaze rapidly scanned through each line of information, her brain functioning like a high-speed processor, instantly interpreting the complete business logic hidden behind these few lines of code.

[Creator Music Authorization] This meant the creator didn’t acquire authorization via complex offline negotiations but utilized YouTube’s new "Creator Music" platform.

[Standard Authorization—Single Video Use, Global, Permanent] He obtained the highest authority of personal use licensing.

One-time payment, allowing him to legally and permanently use this song in the video globally, retaining all the video’s revenue.

Alison’s fingers tapped a few times on the keyboard, pulling up the backend data for this authorization order.