It had been over a month since Aric released the songs on the Internet. As expected, without any promotion, there were initially no views or listeners. However, considering the vast human population, if a song was good, it wouldn't remain undiscovered for long.
For a while, there were only around 10 or 15 listens, but even these few garnered him subscribers. About a week ago, the numbers began to change rapidly. Aric was puzzled at first, but then he discovered that somebody had used their songs as background music for a VR video.
When Apis applied for copyright, he was very clever about it. Since it was his first song, he allowed others to use his songs for public use without charge. He needed exposure with his initial songs and didn't want to be hesitant about it.
That didn't mean the music label and publishing company wouldn't charge them, but it would be 50% less. Those who used his songs would understand that he was acting in good faith and doing the best he could as an artist. (The music copyright laws are not something I understand; I can only speculate about the laws that an interstellar company might have.)
The video somehow went viral, featuring the song in a VR fight. In this universe, there were both 2D and 3D videos. While great directors of movies across galaxies preferred 2D videos for their storytelling, they would only make those once they were accomplished in 3D VR movies.
So 3D movies and videos still dominated about 90% of the market, as they were easier for any random person to make. One of these new and upcoming directors filmed a 3D movie filled with action and fantasy, using an LP song in the final climax fight.
The song gained more popularity than the entire movie. This was the breakthrough Aric had been hoping for, and he couldn't help but thank the director for using his song.
"There are already 500 million listens. Congratulations, you have hit it big with your first album," Apis said as he showed him the total listens. Aric couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.
"Apis, how much will I get for 500 million listens?" Aric asked.
"50,000 Sora credits, more or less. I can't track the target audience, but songs that cater to adults tend to receive more money," Apis explained.
"50,000 is good enough," Aric said, content with whatever money he was receiving. Buoyed by his success, Aric didn't stop there. Now he finally had the incentive to upload more songs. He uploaded tracks from artists like Blue, Justin Timberlake, Akon, Eminem, and others. He had them stored on his memory stick, thanks to the slow 2G internet, and after hours of waiting, he was able to download them.
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Instead of going to a café to download them, he opted for the more convenient option of using his colored mobile phone with minimal internet access to get the pirated songs and then transfer them to his memory stick. Once again, he uploaded them to the internet on Echorysia under the same username.
Unlike last time, he made the songs 'payable' for those who used them. It may have been a bit of a selfish move, but he needed to earn a living in this place. He knew it would be months before he could see a significant rise in his songs, and he didn't mind the wait. He had plenty of time to spare.
Back at home, Aric wore a wide smile. He had finally made a name for himself in the interstellar world, and hopefully, his career would only continue to rise from this point on.
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Three more months had passed.
Many things had happened since then, but two significant events stood out. First, his songs had actually hit the billion mark and were now rising sharply towards the trillion mark. Aric couldn't believe his eyes as his songs skyrocketed in popularity last month. A few days ago, he finally cashed in his total income up to that day: a whopping 1,025,000 Sora credits. This money was already taxed, so he didn't have to pay anyone. It was enough for him to start a few things he had always wanted to do, and he had already ordered the necessary items, which were on their way to his storage unit.
The second important thing he did was to acquire another runic circle. After two months of distributing coke, papers, and pens, he had accumulated enough to buy another runic circle. However, he wasn't very optimistic about it. There were reasons for his skepticism, as he had discussed with Gopher.
"The runic circles take up a massive amount of space for those under 15 years of age. Drawing more runic circles doesn't mean a thing if you can't control a single one. Before one becomes an Acolyte, they can draw three or four runic circles at maximum. That's already too much, and the best students always draw two or three and try to master them," Gopher had said.
"Does it take so much time to master?" Aric had asked, recalling how he was able to use the cleaning dust runic circle with ease and fervor. At times, he could clean the whole room with a single spell.
"No. Any runic circle can be mastered in a few months even though they are quite tough to control. Another reason why someone who hasn't become an Acolyte doesn't go for more is because 2 or 3 spells wouldn't matter to them as it is not enough to defend himself. One small fire ball runic circle or such circles are the most these people are ready to waste their time upon. But once, one becomes an Acolyte, it's a different story then." Gopher had explained.
"Why so?" Aric had asked.
"Once one becomes an Acolyte, one can master upto 9 runic circles." Gopher had replied with a glee.