33 33 - Journey to Stardom

"Take this, boy, you did well to help us out today, if you need a place to perform, you can come back here." The manager said as he handed me a $100 bill.

Looking at the $100 in my hand, I was surprised because it was the first money I'd ever made in my music career!

Considering it was a four-piece band, I thought $400 was a fair amount for how much we'd rocked the bar. As I sang, I could see that the place was getting fuller and fuller, to the point where the bouncer at the entrance had to stop more people from coming in so it wouldn't get too crowded.

When I reached a table near the stage, the manager finally introduced me to the customer he wanted to meet.

Looking at her, damn, she was a beauty. A beautiful blonde woman with green eyes, her appearance made her look about 20, but from the clothes she was wearing I'd say she was about 24.

Her body was very nice, even though she was in a dark bar, she was the kind of woman who had the right curves in the right places.

Of course, I wasn't analyzing her body like a pervert, these observations were the result of a simple glance for a second.

When she saw us coming, she smiled and stood up to greet me with a big smile.

"Hi, I'm Selena Sinclair, agent for American Journey and Performance Entertainment, or as everyone calls it, AJP." She said as she held out her hand to me.

(Selena's Visual Representation is at the Characters Tab)

Surprised, I smiled back as I replied, although I had never heard of AJP before. "Hi Selena, I'm Noah Black."

"Hi Noah, I watched your performance from the beginning and I can see that you have a lot of potential, are you interested in becoming an artist?" She asked with her big green eyes looking at me curiously.

I wondered if I should say that and thinking about her profession, I thought I could. "Actually, I've already started my career, of course, I'm just at the beginning."

Upon hearing this, Selena was shocked. "Jeez, are you already signed with another agency? Because I've never heard of you."

"No, I'm an independent artist. I just make my music, put it on my MeTube channel and try to grow on my own." I replied.

"What is your rank?" She asked curiously.

"Rank?" I asked back, confused.

"Your star rank, you know, the rank that shows how popular you are?" She tried to explain, but I didn't really understand what she was saying.

"You mean my listener rank on Spokify?" I asked, trying to understand.

Upon hearing my question, Selena was even more confused than I was as she stared at me, trying to understand. "Are you serious that you don't know what star rank is? Rank C, B, A, and S... none of that makes any sense?"

Thinking about it for a moment, I think I've heard of it somewhere, mostly in some comments on my songs or Jacob's artwork, it also came up when I looked up the names of some songs on the internet, but I never really looked into any of it to find out what it really meant.

To me, those ranks were just a way for fans to classify artists.

"I guess not...?" I replied a little unsure.

At that moment, Selena was really shocked by me, her little mouth actually dropped open as she struggled to formulate a sentence.

"Have you been living under a rock all these years?" She asked incredulously. "How could someone grow up without hearing anyone comment on an A-list artist, or even an S-list artist, it's in the news all the time..."

Listening to her explanation, I really realized that this rank thing is apparently something very common in this world, and that neither I nor the former Noah really bother to watch newspapers or gossip sites talking about famous artists.

The only thing I know about famous artists are the artists from my old world that I looked up and couldn't find here.

"I never consumed much news content about artists, I just posted my music and responded to compliments." I replied uncertainly.

Looking at me a little skeptically, Selena took a few seconds to decide if she believed me or not, but after a small sigh, she asked while picking up her cell phone. "What's your stage name?"

"BlackVelvet." I replied, earning a small smile from her as she related my last name to my stage name.

Selena clicked a few times on the screen of her phone, taking a few seconds to look at it as she began to explain Rank to me. "Since you don't really know about Rank, basically it was something developed by all the artists guilds around the world, the Global Artists Association (GAA), which created an artificial intelligence that analyzes all the data about an artist, from the number of followers, to the number of views, to how much people engage with the artist's stuff, and even how much people are talking about that artist."

Nodding my head, I picked up my glass of Toxic Lake and took another sip as I sat down in the chair opposite her and continued to listen to what she was saying.

"Based on the analysis of all this data about an artist, a rank is defined for that person, ranging from Rank F, which is for anyone who has made and posted any kind of art on the Internet, to people with growing popularity who are starting out on their career path as an artist.

After Rank F is Rank E, which are the more unknown artists, such as the band Midnight Echoes, who are currently in the top 1,000 of Rank E, a very good number for a new band. After Rank E comes Rank D, then Rank C, Rank B, Rank A."

"These six ranks are local, which means that you can be a Rank A artist in the US, but if you go to Korea, you may not even be in the rank there. She explained.

I nodded my head and waited for her to continue.

"And finally the S Rank, the only global rank, the rank where only the biggest stars from all over the planet are, the people who no matter what country they're in, there will be crowds of people who know them."

Selena explained when she finally finished typing on her phone.

"From what I've found out about BlackVelvet, he's an independent artist who started his artistic career a few weeks ago and has single-handedly risen from someone at the bottom of Rank F to the top 100 of US Rank F, very close to climbing to Rank E. From what GAA's AI has analyzed, his influence is growing in the 14-22 age group." Selena explained in surprise how rare it was to find an artist who was close to Rank E without using strategies to climb the rank, as I hadn't even known the rank existed before.

Listening to her explanation, I was shocked that I had no idea that this AI existed, analyzing the data of all artists to rank them.

"Did my performance today affect my rank?" I asked, confused.

Looking at the data on her phone, Selena nodded. "Somehow, your rank went up a bit, from rank 98 to 97, but not because you performed, but because BlackVelvet's song was sung and posted on the Stories of several people in this bar. Since you weren't announced as BlackVelvet, the popularity that you, Noah, gained today wasn't credited to BlackVelvet," she explained.

I think I understand, so even if I introduce myself as Noah, the GAA won't be able to credit that fame to BlackVelvet, since not even the audience knows it was BlackVelvet who sang on stage.

"Right, now that I understand the whole rank thing and we know that I'm a Rank F Top 100 Artist, what made you come and talk to me today?" I asked, leaning on the table and looking at the blonde in front of me.

Hearing my question, Selena finally remembered why she had called me and explained. "I really liked your talent as a guitarist and wanted to hire you as an AJP guitarist, maybe find a band that needs a guitarist and put you in touch with them, but since you've already started your career as a solo artist, I'd need to hear your songs to give a more accurate opinion on your situation."

I nodded in surprise at her professionalism. "Well, if you want to hear them now, you can search for BlackVelvet on MeTube and tell me what you think."

Nodding her head, Selena picked up the two small noise-canceling headphones and searched for my songs on MeTube.

Meanwhile, I pulled out my phone and curiously looked up Jacob's artist rank.

Surprisingly, Jacob was only in the top 10,000 of Rank F, but what was surprising was that Jacob was in the top 10,000 in the US, but he was in several different positions around the world, which meant that Jacob's influence, although low in the US, was greater than BlackVelvet's around the world, which was surprising for someone who mostly just sold drawings of Furrys.

At least the GAA didn't realize that Jacob and BlackVelvet were the same person and didn't put that on their profiles... I thought as I let out a sigh of relief.

Out of curiosity, I also looked up Quacktus and saw that he was in the top 900 of rank E, almost moving up to rank D, which was pretty cool.

Now I remembered that he said something about his agent when we did Logan's Stream de exposed, so he was already in this world and I didn't realize it.

When Selena took off her headphones and put them in the case, she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and said. "Noah, your songs are amazing. The potential I saw in you before now seems greater than I ever imagined. I think if you sign with me, we can take your career from the F-rank to the D-rank in no time!"

When I heard this, I was surprised. "Really? But what are the conditions and benefits that signing with you would bring me?" I asked, still a little skeptical, but happy that she liked my music.

Feeling that the Toxic Lake in my glass had run out, I nodded to the waiter and ordered another, this time one I would pay for, while Selena continued.

"As one of the largest agencies in the country, AJP will get you great deals at events, lucrative endorsement deals, find you the best venues to perform and expand your audience, not to mention the production and distribution of your work and an expert to help you manage your social media accounts." She explained the benefits.

"Sure, but what are the terms?" I asked interestedly, these benefits of hers would really help me a lot, as I've never worried about this kind of thing before, and after today's performance I realized that even though I'm not at the weight I want to be, I feel like I need to perform on stage more often.

"In AJP, contracts are based on the rank of the artist. As a rank F artist, AJP would take 50% of all your earnings..." She started to explain.

But I heard this and was shocked. "50% of my income? Is that theft?!"

Hearing me interrupt her, Selena frowned and spoke. "Let me finish, please. AJP would take 50% of all your earnings if it were a normal situation, but since I see a lot of potential in you, I'd be willing to sign a Rank D Artist contract now, which would lower the amount AJP receives to 30%."

Hearing that she would sign a better contract for me calmed me down a bit, but considering that it was still 30%, it still seemed like a lot.

So after a little thought, as she stared at me with those big green eyes, I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Selena, but 30% of my income, as I see it, is still a lot. Even though it might be fair in the eyes of the industry, for me, who didn't even know about these ranks and grew quietly at my own pace, taking all the profits, I think in this case I'd rather continue as I am."

Hearing my refusal, I could see the reluctance on her face, she was probably new to this, right? I don't think it's good to show so much of what you're thinking...

"Wait Noah, I only have the authority to sign a rank D contract, can you wait for me to call my manager and ask if he'll approve a rank C contract for you? Since you already have experience and are doing a good job managing your social media, I can remove that as a benefit in the contract and increase the likelihood of my boss accepting the deal, how about that?" She asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, if it was just 20% of my income, with no one to control my social media and the agency just focusing on finding new work and gigs for me, that might work.

"All right, I'll wait." I replied with a smile after some thought.

Sighing in relief, Selena nodded and left the bar, cell phone in hand.

Meanwhile, the waiter brought me another glass of Toxic Lake and I picked up my phone.

[Hey, are you hitting on that blonde?!] - Olivia

When I saw the message Olivia had sent me, I almost choked and had to stop for a moment to catch my breath.

[No, she's offering to be my manager."] I replied, explaining.

[Oh I see, I thought for a second you were talking to a fan hehe...]

[I don't even have fans to interact with like that yet].

I replied, not knowing that my Instabram DMs already had dozens of messages from girls who had listened to my songs.

I took the opportunity to look up AJP and saw news about some problematic artists in the company, but no major scandal involving the company itself.

After a few minutes, Selena returned and I looked at her, who had a big smile on her face as she held out her hand to me.

"Noah, we have a deal! I convinced my manager!"

Smiling back, I shook her hand and replied, "Good Selena, how about we arrange to sign the contract tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? I've already had the contract printed out, if you want you can sign it now." She explained confusedly.

Laughing, I said. "I'm only 17, legally I can't sign it, you have to explain it to my parents again so they can sign it for me."

As soon as I said that, I pointed my hand at my parents' table and Selena saw the two adults, a teenager and a child, looking in our direction.

"You're only 17?" She asked in shock.

Unbeknownst to me, that was the moment my artistic career finally began.

From that day on, BlackVelvet would begin the journey from being a Rank F artist to becoming the world's superstar.

[End of Volume 1: Towards the Stage!]

I hope you've enjoyed the story so far!

I'm counting on your support for Volume 2!