Gamer Superstar - Chapter 55

55 – After Show
🎼🎶🎤

I tried so hard and got so far

But in the end it doesn’t even matter

I had to fall to lose it all

But in the end it doesn’t even matter…

🎼🎶🎤

Singing the last line of In The End to the applause of an audience of about 100 to 200 people, I finally finished my first show.

As I bowed to thank the audience, you could see the drops of sweat dripping from me.

It was a 50-minute show with only a few breaks between songs to interact with the audience, but those 50 minutes were more exhausting than my 2-hour workout I do every day.

“Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Moe’s Bar tonight, I hope to see you here again when I come back in the future!” I said excitedly and tiredly, gasping for air with a smile.

The audience whistled and clapped as I picked up my things to leave the stage.

While I was gathering my things, the host of the evening came back on stage to address the audience.

“That was BlackVelvet guys! If you like him, don’t forget to follow him on social media and Spokify, the kid’s got talent!” The host said excitedly. “Now the next artist to take the stage…”

I didn’t hear what he said after that because I had already left the stage to find a place to sit and rest.

Selena was at the side of the stage talking to the cameraman she had hired to film me. When she saw me, she gave me a big smile and pointed to a sofa next to her, which I didn’t think twice about and threw myself on it, exhausted.

After paying the cameraman and receiving the memory card, Selena smiled as she turned to me. “Hey, how was it being the only star on stage?”

“Tiring, about 10 times more tiring than just being the guitarist…” I said, breathing heavily.

“And the fun, was it more fun?” She asked.

“At least 10x more fun too…” I replied with a thmubsup, without raising my head, earning a laugh from her.

After a few minutes my family came to celebrate with me.

“THAT WAS AWESOME, NOAH!” Ethan said excitedly as he ran up to me to take a closer look.

Smiling as I used my sweaty hand to mess up his hair, which took on a look of disgust as he tried to pull away from me, I replied. “I heard you were the only one singing Numb on the first chorus!”

“Really?! Did you hear me?” he asked with bright eyes.

“He kept asking if you were listening.” My father laughed. “That’s why he asked me to put him on my shoulders afterwards, so you could see he enjoyed it.”

“I don’t think anyone enjoyed your show more than he did.” Olivia said with a laugh as she looked at Ethan.

“That’s why he’s my number one fan!” I laughed.

“We already got the ticket and a coupon for internal use, do you want to stay or go?” Selena asked, since it was my first concert and my family was with us, she wanted to let us enjoy this moment.

“I forgot to ask, how much did you pay?” I asked curiously.

“The total fee was $300, with $60 going to AJP, plus a $200 voucher to be used in the establishment as a courtesy for how well you played, with the restriction that it cannot be used for alcoholic beverages.” She explained.

“It’s a good thing nobody’s drinking anything alcoholic tonight, right?” My mother said wryly as she looked at me through Lauren’s chopper eyes.

“Yeah…” I agreed a little frustrated, but I figured I couldn’t drink anyway. Unlike the other gig I’d done, where I was just someone from the audience who got up on stage to sing, this time I was a contracted artist. Not only did they know I was underage when they hired me, but Selena was responsible for that, and she would probably stop me from drinking.

“Then let’s get something to eat, I’m starving.” I said as I stood up, earning a nod from everyone.

When I sat down at the table where my family was, the people around me recognized me and there were even a few people who asked to take a picture with me!

While other people offered me drinks, which made me realize that it wouldn’t be impossible to drink at concerts in the future, as long as I wasn’t the only one asking for it.

Of the 9 photos I took that night, 6 were with girls and only 3 with guys.

I even got some phone numbers from a group of girls, but with the looks I got from the three women at the table, I just smiled while pretending to politely save the numbers.

On the way home, I pulled out my phone to check my social networks.

The difference had been since last week, when I posted The Lazy Song.

|————————

Monetized views: 1,976,936 = $1,680

[Numb – 401,841 views] +146,978 views

[In The End – 417,095 views] +223,097 views

[The Lazy Song – 1,173,348 views] +1,033,725 views

[Boyfriend – 61,438 views] +61,438 views

[42,109 subscribers] + 23,432 subs

Spokify music is playing: 432,000 = $1,728

Instabram: 17k followers

|————————

The difference in my social networks was huge compared to last week, all because of the rapid growth The Lazy Song made with the channel, which created a chain effect that made all my songs grow faster and generate more views.

People listened to the song and went to my channel to look for other songs that I also had to watch, the problem being that since the songs were not in the same style, it meant that few people subscribed to the channel because they didn’t like the other style.

I probably would have gotten twice as many subscriptions this week if the other songs were in the style of The Lazy Song, but I preferred it this way.

It was better to grow slowly and steadily than to be held hostage to my chosen style of music and never be able to do it again.

So I was satisfied. When I added up the money I made from MeTube and Spokify, it was already $3,400, which was very close to what I was making from the art, literally doubling my estimated income.

I thought I would end the month with “only” around $4,000, but the total amount I received was very close to $8,000, which could both help me a lot to buy the equipment I need for my studio, and also help my father a lot with the household bills, now that he would have another source of income at home to help out.

Maybe next month, if I can continue to earn this amount or even increase it, I can convince my father to quit one of his jobs and have a normal work routine.

“So how tired are you?” Selena asked as we drove back to my house.

Since Ethan was very tired, he went with my parents in their car while he slept, leaving just me and Selena in her car.

Thinking for a moment and analyzing how I was doing, I replied, “It’s a different routine, but I think I can do about three shows like this in one night once I get used to it.

She nodded her head and said. “I have the contact details of some bars and clubs with free times tomorrow, do you want to try and do 2 shows tomorrow? I think trying 3 at once might be dangerous, we can take it slow.”

“Sure, what time are those shows?” I asked excitedly.

“One starts at 9pm and the other at 11pm.” She said.

“Those are good times, I can do my routine during the day and still go to the concerts at night. What about the middle of the week?” I asked curiously.

“Since you’re a minor, we can’t put a workload on you that would interfere with your school performance, of course, if you went to a school specializing in music, we might be able to get you some extra time off, but in your current situation, the company protocol is to only do concerts on the weekends while you focus on developing your social networks during the week.” She explained. “If you could get into a rhythm of doing at least three shows a day on the weekends, it would be a huge boost for your career and for the company to recoup some of its investment in you.”

Remembering the $4,000 the company invested in the animation for my music video, I realized that if they took 20% of the commissions from my shows while keeping me on such a low income, it would take a long time for them to get it back, not to mention the salary of Selena, who is currently my exclusive agent.

But that’s because the amount I was being paid was that of a Low Rank E artist, which would increase as I moved up a rank.

If I did 3 shows a night and got paid $5,000 a show like a lot of higher ranked artists, that would be $3,000 a night for them too, which would be a total of $24,000 a month just from commissions for the shows I did, not counting when I got older and could do shows during the week, or not counting any promotions I might do, which not only pay more, but they would be entitled to 20% of that.

But if they were responsible for finding those campaigns for me, which I had no idea how to do, I wouldn’t have a problem.

“One question, would you have a problem playing for weddings, corporate events or birthdays?” Selena asked something she thought would melt my heart.

I thought about her question and wondered why.

Since such shows were probably much more problematic to do, as well as more boring for the artist, few people would accept them, but they also paid better.

“I guess it depends, if it’s not too much trouble I might do it.” I replied without worrying too much.

I may not be someone who’s crazy about money, but having a little extra money, gaining more popularity, and being able to help my family at home more would be things I wouldn’t turn down.

If doing shows like this would help, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

“What about benefit concerts?” She asked.

“No problem. As long as it’s not some kind of money laundering scheme, I’d be fine with it.”

Nodding her head in satisfaction, Selena just stood there ponderously as she drove the rest of the way, which I figured meant she was possibly planning my future path, so I didn’t interrupt and went back to paying attention to my cell phone.