Chapter 63: Matter of Time

Tyler was at a luxurious beach club for yet another amongst many Hollywood White Parties he never seemed to get tired of attending when a fellow industry colleague casually called out to him;

"Yo, Tyler! You seen the charts!?"

Currently following a model whom might as well have worn nothing instead of the body-hugging, almost transparent, off-cream, mini-dress she was wearing, her seducing gaze suggestive, Tyler chose to ignore the remark.

Of course, he had seen the charts.

His song was dominating everything like crazy despite several mainstream artists releasing their music at the same time.

What else was there to check?

That he’d probably hit well over a hundred or two hundred million streams in a little over a week?

That also wouldn’t come as a surprise to him.

Afterall, asides from being a very catchy, formulaic-song that was bound to be played everywhere, the powerful folks at his record label were also pushing and promoting it heavily, just to ensure it retained that spot.

The way they saw it, they would recuperate the costs invested into it after making the song impossible not be heard everywhere.

That way, they could fully utilize their rights and licenses to the song, and coast on by the shit-ton of royalties they would gain from it later on.

As for Tyler? He honestly couldn’t care less. As long as he got paid the big bucks, one that could easily fund the lavish lifestyle he was living, he really didn’t give a rat’s ass what they did with his music.

Afterall, him becoming famous and wealthy was the sole reason he had even considered becoming a musician in the first place.

It just so happened that he had the looks and the heartlessness to go for it, no matter what it would’ve cost him.

In any case, it didn’t take long before he and said model had found themselves in a rather secluded room in the luxurious club.

With the booming thumps of music--his music by the way--from the amps and speakers muted and fading into the background, both got ready to do the deed... only for Tyler’s phone to suddenly interrupt them.

Typically, he’d have never picked it up, especially when he was so far into doing what he was about to right now.

However, he knew better than to ignore a call from his manager, especially since he’d set up a separate ringing tone for him.

Truly, that was the only individual he prioritized first before anything else. Afterall, he was the only manager whom could not only, but was also willing to balance his debauchery with the glitz and glam of his career effectively.

Giving the lady a brief wink of apology, and a quick smooch to tide her over, he then picked up the phone;

"Hey Paul. What’s up?"

"What’s up, is that your song’s spot on the charts is about to be compromised," came the man’s rather agitated voice from the other end of the line.

Slowly, the lust in Tyler’s eyes began phasing into a sense of uneasiness, a frown forming on his features as he asked;

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don’t... I don’t even wanna go into the details now so just check the charts," the manager replied, then added, an apprehensiveness to his tone;

"What I will tell you though, is that a lot of the executives whom have been banking on your song, aren’t too happy about it."

"They believe it’ll have a detrimental impact on the plans that they’d had for it." he continued.

"So for now, get your shit together and lay off the controversies without fail. That’s all I’m gonna say." Paul left him with those words and then hung up the call.

By now, Tyler’s need to engage in the activity with the lady was effectively buried. Unfavorable news had a tendency to kill the libido.

Which was why, as the model leaned back in for them to continue, he roughly shoved her aside with a swipe of his arm, prompting the lady to stare at him with a stunned, annoyed, and yet, equally frustrated look.

Without so much as a word, she huffed, fixed her already revealing dress and headed out, leaving an already ticked off Tyler to himself as he pulled up GrooveBox and navigated over to the charts.

-

Buzzing 100

└ 1. [Closer, Baby] – 254,924,112 Streams

└ 2. [Homicidal] – 151,601,747 Streams

└ 3. [Touch me] – 150,928,946 Streams

└ 4. [Dicey Girl] – 150,143,298 Streams

└ 5. [Whip It] – 149,009,069 Streams

-

For a brief moment, Tyler saw nothing wrong with the charts. Then his eyes caught sight of a change in the lower five in real time.

-

...

...

└ 8. [Hello, Goodbye] – 148,999,998 Streams ↑

└ 9. [In Da Hood] – 148,989,536 Streams ↓

-

No sooner had he seen that, his gaze flickered... only for his eyes to widen in shock when he saw the name of the featuring artists in the song!

Without thinking twice, he pulled up the song’s metrics.

-

[Hello, Goodbye].

Release Date

└ 1st of March, 2017.

Chart

└ Buzzing 100.

Buzz Score

└ 99.9

Debut Rank

└ No. 97.

Current Rank

└ No. 8.

24-Hour Gain

└ ▲ 35 Places.

Projected Peak

└ No. 1

-

No sooner had Tyler seen it, a cold sweat broke over his forehead.

Not only had [Hello, Goodbye] released the same week his song had, it had also begun at the very bottom of the Buzzing 100 charts... a placing he knew for a fact, that only indie musicians tended to battle for.

Yet, that very song was now in the top ten and was equally projected to reach number one?!

"Over my dead, body!" he audibly muttered, refusing to give up the top spot so easily as he dialed a number.

It was one thing for a rando named Niall Parker to release a smash indie hit.

It was another for that rando to have featured the one people he never, ever wanted their career to see the light of day, ever again.

*

(Two days later...)

A certain video had gone really viral on TicToc.

One that was made by one of the regulars who frequented Midnight Avenue’s café.

In it, Sam, Archie and Lucas were questioned by one of the regulars as to how they’d gotten to make a song that was gearing up to be one of the biggest indie hits of the year in the music industry.

-

"How did you guys even get up to making a song like that with him. It’s so good." a bald-headed, middle-aged man who looked very friendly, open and approachable curiously asked, his awe evident.

"Honestly, we didn’t do much," Sam laughed as he and his buddies sat upon three individual stools on the small makeshift stage in their small café, their instruments next to them.

"But Niall... he’s just that guy, you know. He’s intelligent, he’s talented, his work ethic is off the charts... and most of all, he’s a really, really great guy with an even bigger heart." he added with a genuine smile.

"And for a fact, you should all know that he up and attached us to the song without even informing us. And we’re so, so grateful for it." Archie chipped in to which Lucas expatiated;

"Seriously, when he brought the song to us, it was completed. The lyrics, the tune, the feel he wanted for it. Everything about [Hello, Goodbye] felt perfect to us."

"But he kept saying he needed to fine tune it. To elevate it just a tad bit more ’cause it was missing a little something he couldn’t quite pin down on his own for the tune." Sam picked up from there, their audience genuinely invested as the trio kept explaining.

"So, we listened to the song a couple times over, and sure enough, we picked up on what he meant rather quickly." Lucas vaguely gestured with a palm.

"In return we, suggested a few things he could do to get a stronger hit of that nostalgia-infused, reflective feel of the tune he wanted and did some backing vocals for the chorus." Archie remarked, looking to his buddies and then the small audience in the room.

"That really was all we did... and the rest as you know it, is why you’re asking us this very question now." Sam concluded and a wave of light chuckles rippled across the room.

-

That was where the video had ended.

And yet, that single video alone had gotten well over sixty million views on the platform and was only ticking up by the minute.

As one would expect, it also didn’t take long before people began reposting it across several social media platforms, hence pulling the interest of more and more people to the song.

To that effect, [Hello, Goodbye] got yet another surge in stream counts, the song settling firmly at number two on the charts.

Yet, for some odd reason or the other, despite consistently coming close to Tyler’s [Closer, Baby], it always fell short as the mainstream artist’s song would suddenly get a surge of streams again.

One that would put it roughly in slightly above the indie hit by a couple fifty to a hundred thousand streams, every blessed time.

Yet, even despite this, [Hello, Goodbye] stuck close to it, hot on its tails like a freight train unwilling to stop until it had thoroughly rammed it off the tracks.

And for Tyler’s [Closer, Baby], it unfortunately was only a matter of time before it would inevitably be dethroned from its top spot on not just the Buzzing 100 charts, but several other charts across several streaming platforms and music industry combined.

Advance Chapters are available on Patreon!

/Caer07