Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood
chapter-47

"When you said you would bring me work, I didn't expect this."

Aiden muttered, taking a bite out of a sandwich. In front of him, Wade was also in the middle of eating a parfait. After finishing it, he replied.

"What were you expecting?"

"Something like auditions. Movie or TV series. I thought you were more proficient in that. But we are here, eating food at a wedding."

Aiden made an awkward smile. It's been a week since Wade had become an agent, and after immediately becoming one, he had gotten him a lot of singing gigs, with most of them being in a wedding because of the popularity of 'Hold onto me'.

He was paid very well, so Aiden didn't have a lot of complaints. Wade had made a plan for him in just two days, keeping both singing and acting in mind.

He wanted to capitalise on the current popularity of 'Hold onto me' and accumulate money to invest in future ventures like better music videos, Aiden's styling and clothes, and many more things.

It was hard to maintain an actor's image in this age without money. But it was soon getting pretty monotonous for Aiden.

"I know a bit about the music industry, and people know you more due to music for now. Anyway, I looked out for suitable auditions."

Those words quickly got Aiden's attention, but Wade shook his head.

"Most just want a well-known actor, and in acting, you are an unknown face. There might be more requests for you after [Shadows of War] releases, but that's a waiting game. For now, there's none." He finished another parfait before adding. "Though, I did hear of one project that's casting unknown actors. It's from a well-known studio too."

"Which studio?" Aiden quickly asked.

"Granite Films."

Granite Films was a mid-sized studio that had a long list of good movies that won't be big-budget ones, but they would work well at the box office. Their formula was to make romantic comedies and dramas that don't take a lot of money but have the potential to do great business.

In just a few years, they had become very big.

They were particularly popular with unknown actors because they would actively give chances to new faces.

"What type of a film is it?"

"I don't know. It's in pre-production, but nothing about it is out. My contacts in the actor's guild told me that they will start the casting in about a month and would hold auditions for unknown actors."

"Another month?"

Aiden frowned. That meant that he needed to sing at weddings for another month. It wasn't too bad, but he wanted to do something different.

"We can't do anything," Wade explained, shaking his head. Then, he thought about something and smiled. "Although nothing could be done on the acting front, there's something I got to elevate your indie music career."

"What?"

"We got an offer from Neu entertainment. They want to buy your song 'Lonely'."

***

Singers buying songs from indie artists wasn't something uncommon. Many popular artists had used indie songs and even collaborated with indie artists, so when Aiden heard that Grey was interested in Lonely, he was surprised, but after a while, it settled in.

Grey was an artist who had topped Melody's Top 50 Chart and several other charts a lot of times with his songs, and Aiden had followed him for a long time to know the type of music Grey makes.

He was someone who normally does pop songs with a rap segment in them, making him very popular with teenagers and young adults. Because of this, Aiden was even a bit surprised that he had liked Lonely enough to try to buy it.

Lonely was a pretty different song than what Grey would usually sing, after all.

Normally, record labels just buy out the rights of the songs, but both Aiden and Wade weren't willing to do that.

Even though it was a good way to get a big amount of hard cash at once, it was not a good choice in the long run. It was way better to try to get a collaborative deal to increase Aiden's popularity.

Even though the record label and Grey would take the majority profits, his popularity would increase a lot, and he would own the rights.

Originally, during the negotiations with Neu entertainment, Wade hadn't expected them to agree to the collaborative deal. Even Jason, Grey's agent, was very sceptical at the start, but after over a week of negotiations, the deal was signed.

It seemed like Neu entertainment was fed up with Grey not releasing any music in the last two years and wanted to sign the deal quickly, so Grey doesn't fade away from the public memory.

For this, they were even willing to let Aiden, who was just a viral indie artist, take away the spotlight.

After they signed the deal, Aiden and Wade quickly flew to Los Angeles to meet up with Grey and start the recording for Lonely.

As Grey was going to be the main singer of it, Aiden also needed to change some parts of the song to suit him better. As the song's composer, no one other than him understood it more.

"It's very nice to meet you. I've been listening to your music for a long time."

Aiden said as he shook hands with Grey, who flashed a smile at him. The latter was wearing a simple red shirt and jeans with messy hair.

They were currently in the lounge area of Neu Entertainment, and people were moving here and there.

All in all, it was a pretty busy environment.

"I have wanted to see you ever since I heard Lonely and even your other songs. They are pretty good."

Unlike how he looked, Grey wasn't someone who would waste time talking about random things. As soon as he met Aiden, he started talking about the song.

"Thanks. I just make them in my free time."

"It's not an easy thing to do, especially when you are on your own."

Grey complimented as he and his agent, Jason, started showing around the massive office of Neu entertainment. It was a four-storey building with all the facilities a singer would need.

'Neu entertainment is pretty much rivalling Cyco media in terms of resources.'

Aiden thought as he walked. Both the record labels controlled most of the popular artists in America. Of course, there were those who weren't contacted with these two, but they weren't a lot.

As they were walking, Grey suddenly noticed a sign and smirked.

"Up ahead is the recording room."

"Oh, can I see it?" Aiden asked.

They were going to start the recording tomorrow, but Aiden was still interested in seeing it. It was because he had only been to a professional studio a few times, and those were pretty cheap.

"Sure."

Saying that Grey walked ahead of Aiden and opened up the room to the studio. The studio was filled with all the necessary equipment to record a hit single. There was a recording booth on the other side, and Aiden's eyes shined seeing it.

Glancing towards Aiden, Grey asked, "How about you go sing Lonely in there?"

***

It had been a few months since X-Star started, and although it was not a smooth sailing journey all along, yesterday night, the third season finally came to an end.

The ratings hit the peak during the last episode of the season, especially due to a lot of celebrities who attended the finale, making it a big event. It was also trending number one on Sparrow, with all the fans of each contestant cheering them and voting for them.

As soon as the winner was revealed, the Gossip Tribunal released a long article on it. Many of their daily readers read it quickly, and those who have not gotten the time to see the finale also opened it just to know who the winner was.

[The third season of X-Star finally came to an end with a big finale attended by many famous singers. Some of the former contestants also performed at the finale.

This season has been nothing but a rollercoaster ride with some happy, sad, frustrating, and mind-blowing moments. But out of the four finalists, only one would take home a million dollars and a record label deal.

The finale started with a snippet of all the finalist's journeys till now, and after that, they all performed like they were in their own concerts.

A lot of stuff happened throughout the night, but the main question was still about who will be the show's winner.

As the finale reached its end, the results were out, and the voting had ended.

Everyone already knew that the final result was only going to be between two contestants - Cameron and Rachel. Although both Emily and Lydia were good, they were never able to make huge numbers of fans.

So, it was no surprise when Emily and Lydia were revealed to have come in 4th and 3rd place, respectively, earning 250k dollars each.

When the host Marlo stood up by Cameron and Rachel, the entire auditorium where the finale was held was silent to hear the winner's name.

Both of these were great musicians and have proven their skills in the show, but in the end, Rachel overpowered Cameron by a thousand votes to win the third season of X-Star.

Not only did she receive 1 million dollars and a record label deal, but it's also reported that she would soon be releasing her debut single…]

...

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