Music king Justin Bieber: A risk home for the investing world

In the latest issue of Forbes, the cover article impressively is "venture capitalist Justin Bieber". As we all know, the hot Chili chicken Justin Bieber not only sings well, but is popular on social networks. But in fact, related to other things, such as investment and financial also make a sound, in addition to the album opened a concert to earn a bowl full, he also turned to Silicon Valley, frequent investment in the start-up of High-tech Enterprises, the music of the small King to become a venture capitalist, really a promising future.

In a studio in Hollywood, Justin Bieber invited me to listen to his new album, "Believe," the first cut, I was the team outside the creation of the honor, I believe this will make thousands of American girls envy jealousy. Bieber said: "You should listen to this song, really good, its name is" Die in Your Arms. "Soon there was a beautiful song in the studio, reminiscent of the early Jackson 5 band," he said. Next he sang "Happier when We ' re up", this song tells about is the journey of him, always worried about his girlfriend away from him. At last he sang "You re the one" and improvised a space dance.

Over the past three years, Bieber has sold 15 million albums, touring more than 150 million dollars in more than 20 countries. His autobiography, never-Say-die, was the first-week box-office revenue of $30 million trillion, the most successful concert-themed film in history, and finally topped 100 million dollars in the box office. Last June, he endorsed the perfume brand someday, which sold 60 million dollars a year after the listing. All this helped Bieber earn 55 million dollars in the past 12 months, compared to $108 million in the past 2 years. Tim Mosley, a famous pop producer, has been involved in the production of Bieber's new album, "Believe," and said: "I think half of Bobbie is from Earth and half is aliens." ”

His popularity as a social network is more notable than his ability to absorb gold, which is why he has become the third-place Forbes celebrity in 100 this year. He has 21 million followers on Twitter, after Lady Gaga, and Facebook has a total of 43 million fans, more than Mitt Romney and Obama combined. On YouTube, his single "Baby" was browsed 740 million times, the most watched video on the site.

Today's Bieber fame and fortune, but even more amazing is how he used to earn money. In the studio, I found some clues. After a song Bieber suddenly came to the inspiration, and then sat to the keyboard after a number of new melodies, he played with these cutting-edge equipment, like a generation of singers playing guitar as easily. Then he said to an engineer on the side: "Can you help me to cycle the contents of the bombs just now?" Bieber told me that he likes high-tech things very much.

Compared with music, Bieber seems to be more immersed in technology, which is the main way for artists to turn fame and quick money into lasting wealth. He believes in Peter Lynch's investment model, Bieber said: "I will not invest in things I do not like, I must believe the results." "Instead of buying some well-known value stocks, he quietly dropped money into new high-tech companies. His manager says he has more than 10 shares in the company. "Forbes" can confirm four: information platform Tinychat, comment website stamped, game company Sojo UBM and the most important Spotify, this subversive music website was founded by Daniel Ike, including Sean Parker and Li Ka-shing, Many people invest in it.

Investment does not mean that Bieber publicly supports these companies, and many companies are reluctant to link themselves to him, for example, although Spotify is trying to gain a foothold in the United States, they are not talking about Bieber's investment. But he is the leader in the latest Hollywood game: A High-tech socialite uses his prestige to gain a stake in Silicon Valley's favorite, and the average venture capitalist can only anxious.

Compared with the first time more than a year ago, Bieber has made great progress in managing his finances. In the 2011 Grammy Awards, he said: "I have a business manager, the basic role is to sum up my problem." "Now things have changed," said Bieber, "Every week I talk to my business manager and my lawyer, and every week I learn something that's important to my business and my career." ”

However, Bieber is still an inexperienced teenager, he is still naïve to think that the world will revolve around him. Although his judgment of technology ultimately determines which projects to invest and which not to invest, and some projects are indeed found by himself, the person who is actually looking for them is Scott Braun, his agent. "We've been looking for the next project, and if there's any use of Bieber's name, brand, preference or social influence, we'll try to get the deal done and negotiate a reasonable price," Braun said. ”

Four years ago Braun found that the story of Bieber, now sounds like a myth, but Bieber is not willing to mention, he said: "Dude, you want me to tell you how I started?" Sorry, I don't want to say. "Bieber was born in Stratford, Ontario Prov., Canada, a small town with only 30,000 people." His mother, who had Bieber when she was 18, lived in government-guaranteed housing.

As a child, Bieber began to teach himself drums, trumpet, piano and guitar. At the age of 12, he won the runner-up in a contest to imitate the Neo song "So Sick", when his mother uploaded the video of the show to YouTube, and soon she began posting Bieber's songs regularly. Meanwhile, von Braun is a part-time party planner and executive at a small music company in Atlanta. When the singer Ken recommended Braun to watch a video on YouTube, he accidentally saw Bieber, he was immediately shocked by Bieber's range and voice. Von Braun immediately contacted Bieber mother and son, invited Bieber to Atlanta for him and r&b singer Arthur singing.

Bieber said: "This is crazy, I do not believe it is true, I came from a small town, this thing never happened before." "This did not happen before the Web 2.0 era. In the March 2008, however, Bieber's song completely conquered Braun and Arthur. The two-person joint venture Raymond-Braun Media group quickly contracted with Bieber, and Braun became the manager of Bieber. They released a record for Bieber in September through the Universal Music Group's IDJ record company. Bieber's first single hit the top 20 on the list in July, and his EP "My World" made him famous. In December, President Obama invited him to the White House to sing, and at Dick Clark's New York Inter-year concert, he cheered the entire American audience.

Social networks have spawned a cultural phenomenon: as long as a little bit of fame can cause huge repercussions in these digital echo chambers. In June 2009, Bieber opened his own Twitter account, and in September he had more than 1 million fans. In 2010, Twitter employees said that 3% of the company's resources were dealing with Bieber-related posts. He was also an early user of Instagram, a photo-sharing site recently acquired by Facebook at 1 billion dollars. There, he has 1.5 million fans, more than any other user.

Related industries: Investment industry

These social networks have created a huge platform for Bieber, and the challenge for the 30-year-old is to sustain the phenomenon. In many ways, the combination of Bieber and Braun is very similar to that of Elvis and Tom Parker, who have gained influence from young people who face the challenges posed by this impetuous market and the frantic maiden.

In order to turn the disposable meal ticket into a lasting feast, Parker undertook any projects that could be received, up to 50% of which were finally put into practice. But Braun had a more sensible judgment of controlling the quantity at 15%. He believes that long-term success needs to be selective, not accepted, he said: "I told Bieber, just do what you like." "This concept also turned Bieber into the world's most special venture capitalist."

Three years ago Braun began thinking about letting Bieber invest in startups. Like Diddy, who works with the poet Luo, Jess runs a Reebok production line, and Bieber should benefit from his core audience. But teens can't drink vodka, they don't have extra money to buy 150 of dollars of shoes, but they can spend their free social networks.

"I told Bieber that you can do a lot of things and you can have more than just making money, and you should try to do that and those startups will benefit from you," Von Braun recalls. Bieber added: "Social networking helps me start my career, without the Internet or YouTube, and I don't have a chance to show my music to anyone." ”

Bieber first investment began in 2009, although he did not disclose the name of the company, but since then he has been a venture capital. Last January, he and Burlaun, together with investment fund A-grade, were involved in a round of $1.5 million funding for Tinychat. In May, Bieber and Google VCs, along with Bain Capital, invested in stamped, an application that allowed users to rate everything. And the biggest investment in Spotify, in order to gain a reputation in the industry before entering the US market, has attracted a large number of musicians to buy Spotify's shares. The next step is to invest in Viddy, a video-sharing site similar to Instagram. "Braun has a team to look for investment projects, and usually we work together, and if I find anything, I'll come up with a discussion," Bieber said. Allen-DeGeneres introduced the online gaming company Sojo UBM for Bieber, and soon they invested in the company. Neither Bieber nor his agent will say anything else that has been invested, but Braun says the companies are operating. Braun did not disclose the scale of the investment, but said the amount is 2% to 5% of his worth, according to Forbes estimates, the total assets of the sum of 80 million U.S. dollars, which means that his risk investment of about 3 million dollars.

Of course, Bieber has more work to do, and this fall he will be on a one-year tour of the world, in addition to Antarctica, every continent he will go, the initiator of AEG Live has promised to give him 8 million of dollars in compensation. In the upcoming tour, Bieber will show a more mature side, which is considered as a key step from teenage idol to adult Idol. Bieber said: "I hope my music can be more mature, this can be suitable for all ages, of course, I do not want to lose my young fans." "Bieber insists on one of his role models, and that is Michael Jackson." Inspired by Jackson's enthusiasm for public good, every project in Bieber will be used for charity. "Bieber reminds me of Jackson, not just his music, but also his spirit and personality," said record producer Jenkins. "But perhaps Jackson is most familiar with bankruptcy and failed investments, but Bieber will be better off, not because of the songs he sings, but because of the assets he buys."