A few years ago, Gold Typhoon was being touted as “the largest independent music company in Greater China.”
Run and owned by Norman Cheng following his departure as Chairman of EMI Music Asia, everything was living up to the hype.
Cheng orchestrated the licensing of EMI Music product for China and Taiwan always good for perception and a number of A List Chinese artists were signed up.
A concert division was set up.
Those dreaded “360 Degree Deals” were signed, sealed and delivered.
Then came the partnership with Italian billionaire Sylvio Scaglia and his private equity company Pacific Capital.
Things started to unravel when, only two months later, Scaglia was arrested for money laundering and has been under house arrest for the last few years.
There was a sudden power-shift and the running of Pacific Capital went to Louis Pong in Hong Kong.
From what we hear, the mixture of “Normski” and “The Pongster” was like ice and water- two men with very different styles.
One was quiet and lo profile and the other was brash and LOUD.
And so it came to pass that last year, Cheng shook hands with Pong and left him with the company he had started.
He was going to “retire”. For the third time..
Pong brought in some lady named Nancy Hsu from struggling Hong Kong terrestrial station ATV and an old-time ad guy in Royce Yuen.
They were going to create some giddy new business model and an exciting new entertainment empire.
It was all looking good until, one supposes, reality slapped them in the face.
The “music market” in China is barely existent.
Plus the Gold Typhoon team over there was hardly the most efficient.
For many artists, it was handing over product- CDs, EPKs, videos- and which Gold Typhoon gladly took for nothing.and did bugger all with any of it.
We won’t even get into the sad tale of the UK’s Stewart Mac having over “40 million streams” for a track and video he and his management paid for plus paying HK $17,500 for the clearance of the track and receiving a measly check for, we hear, around HK $30,000.
The Fat Lady has yet to sing with this saga and it could turn ugly.
Today, Gold Typhoon is more like The Titanic and hitting iceberg after iceberg.
Hong Kong singer Stephy has upped and left- and which is no great loss.
She’s still looking for a new home as there are no takers.
“Under negotiation” are contracts with Alex Fong and Rubberband from Hong Kong, and Gold Typhoon’s major artist in Taiwan’s Show Lo.
But with no say in the latter’s management, what does this mean when it comes to revenue?
Bugger all.
In Hong Kong, a licensing deal with some artist named Terry Wu has “yielded” sales of less than 500 copies.
Terry Whoooooooo???????
We hear the new people brought into the Hong Kong office are FREAKING OUT at these “numbers” and are desperately trying to pump them up!
To find “new talent”, Pacific Capital has invested in the Elite Models Agency in China an agency that has been up for sale for almost two decades.
Someone finally bought the thing.
What’s next?
Women and children first and bring out the lifeboats!
We see another iceberg approaching.
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