SERA00 Regimen: 00 rank

Hey everyone!

This will be the third post in the SERA00 Regimen series, so if you haven't read the first two, do that now. Here we go!

00 RANK

Congratulations, we've passed the gruelling pre-debut stage and now it's time to show off your skills to the world as new SERA00 00 ranks!

Coming from the pre-debut period, the girls usually have the current 00 rank stage down pat, plus a selection of around 10 singles and their coupling songs. Until they learn more, these will be the songs they perform. By the time a 00 rank gets promoted, they'll have all the major singles and respective coupling songs down. Stages for each team aren't taught to 00 ranks until they get promoted.

In terms of schedule, 00 ranks are really a mix between pre-debut and official member. I mentioned before that the reason the pre-debut period is so short is that SERA00 emphasizes growing and learning with the fans. So we may not be perfect when we debut, but our fans will support us and can watch us transform into the idol we want to be.

00 ranks don't have classes and evaluations anymore. It's cut down to vocals, dancing, academics, and training. Dancing is not freestyle but trying to teach you all the choreography for all existing SERA00 songs. Everything else they want to teach you is squished into training.

The one thing that is more similar to official members is working. When you're a 00 rank, you perform basically everyday in the SERA00 Stage, and you perform in major concerts. Prior to debut, you won't perform anywhere but for the teachers -_-

For appearances and concerts elsewhere, like at a music show or on TV, you already know that the members that show up are either 1) picked, or 2) a team. 00 ranks do occasionally get picked to go to these events, mainly because management wants to promote them. However, the strongest fan support usually happens during stages.

I don't think there's much to say about 00 ranks. Their events aren't radically different. The day would go something like: take classes during the day and perform the SERA00 Stage in the evening. If you have a schedule (work), schedules take priority over classes, but academics take priority over schedules.

00 ranks can stay in 00 rank for as short as a couple of months or as long as a few years. Basically, the management will pick you based on a couple of factors.

Can you perform all the major singles and coupling songs? Are you currently well received as a 00 rank? Are you steadily rising in popularity? Do you learn and improve quickly? Are you enthusiastic in your job as an idol?

If the answer is yes, you're well on your way to promotion. But in the end, the one question that needs to be answered to pull all the others together is; does management want to promote you?

Question: do 00 ranks get paid?

Answer: yes! But differently than official members. 

First, I've mentioned this countless times, but you have to understand that SERA00 functions like an agency. Here in North America, the artists hire the companies to produce them, but it's not like that with SERA00 and many overseas agencies. It's actually the other way around. The agency hires the artist. The agency produces the artist, the revenue goes through the agency, and the artist is paid a salary set by the agency.

So while, say, Taylor Swift could switch labels and still produce music under her own name, a chunk of SERA00 girls couldn't detach themselves from the rest and go to another label and produce a record as SERA00. In that way, you have to think of SERA00 as a job. You go to the job, you can work for the job, but you aren't the job.

So, back to the main topic. When you join SERA00, they pay for all your expenses. Living, food, training, everything is covered. In return you sign a contract saying you agree to be managed by SERA00 management. When you're training, you don't get paid, because you're not really contributing to SERA00, it's just SERA00 spending money on you.

Once you get to 00 rank, since you're still considered "in-training", you don't get a salary yet. However, you do get paid for performances and appearances as SERA00. They are like pay-per-view performance-type. 

For example, 00 ranks get paid $20 per  SERA00 stage performed during the day and $22 on weekends. (approx rounded numbers). For TV appearances it's $26/hour of work.

Let's calculate. If a typical 00 rank performs one stage per weekday and two on each day of the weekend, plus an average of 4 hours filming a week, for fifty weeks each year, what is a 00 rank's annual income? $14 600. That's not bad at all, considering that you're not an official member and SERA00 paid for your training, and continues to do so along with your housing and food and stuff. To be continued...

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