"I'm sure the two of them, as well as the other incredible women around me, will provide me with plenty of guidance," Adam replied before adding, "I hope you will also offer advice and guidance where you feel I need it. I'm not above accepting help."
Kasumi raised an eyebrow in surprise upon hearing Adam's words before she once again covered her mouth to laugh, after which she looked towards Rowena and said, "I can see why you fell for him, Rowena. But I never expected you to be into humble men."
"I won't deny that they have never appealed to me before," Rowena replied with a shrug before asking, "Why? Are you saying you like humble men?"
"Perhaps," Kasumi replied while giving a slight shrug.
"Some would say he's too humble," Lorelie said with a smile while prodding Adam in the side.
"Is that right?" Kasumi asked as she stared at Adam with newfound interest.
"We are getting off track, ladies. Should we go over the contract now?" Aphrodite suddenly asked.
"Someone's awfully keen," Stacey remarked with a smirk.
"You can't really blame her. This is the first time any celebrity in the adult entertainment industry, even a diva, has had the chance to sign with an entertainment company. They're making history here," Tephe remarked, causing them all to look at her in slight surprise.
"What?" Tephe asked as she saw them all looking at her.
"I just never expected you to be so informative about the entertainment industry," Lorelie replied while Aphrodite gave Tephe a wink.
"Why not? It's not like I don't pay attention and listen to what you all talk about," Tephe replied while crossing her arms and pouting.
"Sorry, sorry," Lorelie apologised.
"Aphrodite is right. Let us go over the contract," Rowena stated.
The other women nodded in agreement before the four of them focused on the contract before them.
The room was silent as Adam, Stacey, Tephe and Eri let the four celebrities read through the contract in peace so that they could focus on it. However, as they read more and more of the contract, Adam couldn't help but notice their eyes widen in surprise before turning into a frown
Eventually, Kasumi couldn't help but ask, "Is it just me or do these terms seem rather…."
"Generous?" Rowena asked, causing Kasumi to nod.
"I was thinking the same thing," Lorelie remarked.
"I've never seen a contract before, but I have heard that in most cases the entertainment company takes the larger share of the profits," Aphrodite remarked before asking, "So why does my contract say that Spector Entertainment will only take thirty per cent of the profits while I get the remaining seventy?"
"Mine is the same," Rowena replied.
"As is mine," Lorelie stated.
"Mine is an even fifty-fifty split," Kasumi remarked in surprise.
"That doesn't seem fair," Tephe remarked before asking, "Shouldn't Kasumi's be the same?"
"No," Kasumi replied, surprising Tephe before she continued. "I am nowhere near as popular as the three divas; because of this, it's normal that I get a smaller cut of the profits.
However, it's still far more generous than what I get from Dynamic Entertainment. They only give me twenty-five percent and that's, and that's after Rowena helped me get a better deal."
"Even with my current contract with Dynamic, I only get forty percent of the profits. It's an industry standard for the entertainment company to take a large cut since they're doing all the background," Rowena stated.
"Only forty percent?" Stacey asked in shock.
"It was the same for me when I was still with Drotas," Lorelie stated before turning to Adam and asking, "Care to explain, darling?"
"There isn't much to explain. I told Spector to give you all better rates than the industry standard, "Adam replied before looking at Kasumi and saying, "You should notice a clause in your contract that states the percentage split will change to the same as the others once you become a diva."
"What!" Kasumi asked in surprise before going back to her contract and skimming through it till she found the clause Adam spoke of.
"There really is such a clause," Kasumi said in surprise before turning back to Adam and asking, "But why? You should have heard from Rowena how it's getting harder and harder to find me acting gigs."
"I have a few ideas regarding that," Adam replied mysteriously.
"That's super generous of you and all, babe, but can the company stay afloat if you're giving us such large cuts of the profits?" Lorelie asked.
Adam didn't reply and instead asked, "Spector?"
"Affirmative," Spector replied before explaining.
"As per your instructions, I worked out a rough estimate of the splits each celebrity is receiving from their signed entertainment company by cross-referencing how much each of them got paid compared to how much the company received for the job.
I also worked out the minimum needed capital that Spector Entertainment would need to make in order to stay afloat and add a certain percentage onto that for profit making incase of any future endeavours.
The result is the percentage cuts you see before you. Naturally, divas will receive better cuts since finding gigs for them is far easier than for those that aren't divas."
"Before I left Earth, there was this growing trend called K-pop," Adam remarked.
"K-pop?" Stacey asked curiously.
"It's short for Korean Popular Music. Oh, Korea is one of the countries on Earth," Adam replied before continuing. "K-pop entertainment company contracts were and probably still are rather brutal when it comes to the cut they take compared to the artist.
For new artists just starting out, the company would take between seventy and ninety percent of all profits because of what they called trainee debt. These contracts were often called slave contracts because of the amount of debt the new artists owed the companies.
Even after paying off the debt, the cut the company took still wouldn't drop below fifty percent.
I now have other sources of revenue, so why do I need to give the artists who work so hard a bad deal? I know what it's like to be poor and besides, won't artists be more loyal and hardworking for a company that treats them well?"
All the women looked at Adam for a few moments before Rowena suddenly gave him her signature smirk and said, "You're an idiot, you know that, right?"
"Huh?" Adam replied.
"You could have easily had Spector give us the same deal as what we were already receiving and we would have signed. Why did you have to go and be generous?" Rowena explained with a sigh.
Adam tilted his head with a confused expression while Lorelie also sighed before saying, "Sometimes I can't tell if he does it on purpose or he truly doesn't understand."
"Do what on purpose?" Tephe asked curiously.
"Cause chaos," Aphrodite replied with a smile.
"Huh?" Adam and Tephe replied at the same time.
"You really don't understand?" Kasumi asked as she stared at Adam, trying to determine if he truly didn't know or if he was faking his cluelessness.
"Know what?" Adam asked.
"The chaos the entertainment industry is about to go through once these rates become public knowledge," Lorelie replied.
"This is going to be so much fun to watch," Rowena stated with an evil smirk before adding, "It was already going to be fun and entertaining to watch the entertainment industry go nuts after they find out we're all signing with an unknown company.
But now a storm is going to brew over the difference in cuts Spector Entertainment pays compared to the other entertainment companies. Even top-tier entertainment companies like Nagi and Quasi Entertainment don't offer such great contracts."
"You're going to attract the attention of everyone in the entertainment industry," Aphrodite said with excitement before she added, "While most celebrities will love you for this. Entertainment company owners and board members will hate you for it."
"Way to go, honey, you just made yourself a ton more enemies," Stacey remarked with a chuckle.
"Oh, great, I'm so happy to hear that," Adam replied sarcastically.
"So, ladies," Lorelie suddenly said, gathering everyone's attention before she asked, "Does anyone have any issues with the contract before them?"
Sector 8, Galaminer Galaxy, Dun Daruhm.
On the capital planet of the Galaminer Galax and the homeworld of the Dwarfinian race, Dun Daruhm.
Around a dozen Dwarfinians sat around a large conference table that was situated on the top floor of the Dynamic Entertainment building.
Several of the Dwarfinians had similarities with each other that made it apparent they were related to each other.
As was normal with these board meetings since the previous owner's death. The siblings were arguing with each other about the direction in which the company should head. In fact, the only company-related thing that they had all been able to agree on was working in partnership with Erkath Fashion for its new Earth fashion line.
As the siblings continued their relentless arguing, the doors to the boardroom burst open as another flustered Dwarfinian rushed in.
For the first time since the board meeting had started, those sitting at the table fell quiet before one of them asked in an annoyed tone, "What is it?"