184 184 - Just Accept It

    "Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously as I watched Dark Pistol continue the show on the screen as if nothing had gone wrong.

    Looking at the audience camera, I noticed that there were people who were so confused, maybe because they already knew my song and knew that it was supposed to be mine, but the vast majority of the audience didn''t know that this was my song because they didn''t know me and I wasn''t singing this song at the show today.

    But when Dark Pistol started to act like this was something normal and nothing was wrong, even the people who thought there was something wrong shook their heads, ignored what had happened and continued to enjoy the show.

    Looking at Selena again, I asked just to be sure. "Selena, did they discuss anything with you about copyright? Royalties or anything like that?"

    As a singer who grew up singing covers of other artists'' songs at gigs, I wasn''t particularly upset that they sang my song at her show, since I did the same thing at my gigs.

    I also wouldn''t be upset if we discussed them recording a cover of my song and releasing it as a cover, since I even found it interesting and could get residual publicity from the popularity of my song skyrocketing by a bigger artist singing it.

    The problem is her and her team''s apparent lack of communication with me and my team.

    "No... they haven''t discussed it at all..." Selena huffed angrily as she breathed heavily.

    "Bro, they''ve already released the song and are selling it on their website!" Mark said in shock as he stared at the screen of his phone.

    Hearing this, we were surprised and quickly moved closer to Mark to see his phone screen.

    "There''s a song preview..." He clicked play and we began to hear the song In The End playing, but with the voice of the lead singer of their band and the instruments re-recorded by the other members.

    "This is a studio version of the song..." Selena quickly realized and became even angrier.

    "If they recorded a studio version, it was planned a long time ago..." Frank commented in shock.

    Knock knock A knock came from the dressing room door.

    "Why are you doing this?" I asked, truly confused.

    Dark Pistol was a Peak C Rank band, almost reaching B Rank, a level where they received millions of dollars a month, they could easily buy the rights to many good songs.

    Looking at me, the man answered honestly. "Dark Pistol has been stuck at Peak C Rank for over a year, we''ve tried everything to get the band up to C Rank, but nothing has worked. When we heard their song, we realized it really had the potential to go viral and make the difference the band needed. So we recorded it and prepared the marketing strategy, and now it''s all up and running.

    Hearing this, we were even more surprised because he sounded very confident.

    "But why are you telling them about this now that you''ve done all this?" Mark asked, still confused.

    "Because if you knew before and sang the song on stage in front of the band because you refused the offer, we would have to record a music video somewhere else, we wouldn''t be able to start the marketing strategy today, everything would be delayed, a lot more money would be spent, it wasn''t worth the risk". The man replied. "Then come on, just take the $150,000 and get it over with."

    Thinking about his points, taking the $150,000 deal probably was the best option for me if I thought about it rationally and didn''t consider any of the emotions.

    But as I looked around the room, I noticed something that could change that completely in my favor.

    Dark Pistol was doing all this just to get more popularity out of my music, and didn''t care that they would lose some money from me because they would get it back in the future after they climbed to the B rank.

    So why didn''t I just help them get the popularity they wanted?

    As far as I could remember, their MeTube channel had 1 million subscribers, but the amount of views they got from non-music videos was extremely low.

    Something I shouldn''t have worried about.

    So if they wanted so much popularity, I wouldn''t mind giving them the popularity they wanted so much.

    And seeing the little smile on Jason''s face as we exchanged glances was all the confidence I needed.