Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 325 Dawn of Cooperation (Two in One)

Sony, an old company, an old giant.

Two years ago, its market value reached an all-time high of US$1380 billion, ranking among the top [-] companies in the world by market value.

Today, two years later, it is less than $800 billion.

In other words, it lost 12 current apples in two years.

But even so, a company with businesses in the fields of film and television, music, media, finance, digital products, etc. is also a giant that makes people feel awe when they look at it.

The music player is just one of Sony's many businesses that Echo and Apple are challenging.

Not to mention Yike, even if it is Apple, I am afraid that Sony will not take it seriously. Regardless of the lively competition between the two, the total sales of MP3 music players in the United States this year will not exceed 80 units.

As the most intuitive performance, Apple's stock price did not rise much because it released the Ipod, but it only rose slightly after it announced its support for Microsoft's system.

In the mainstream cognition, this kind of behavior of challenging the giants will not even make the giants respond.

After all, Sony's Walkman has been selling well in the world for more than two decades, and the brand has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

If someone jumps out and says I can beat a giant, everyone will think he is arrogant.

Even Fang Zhuo, he only has a little bit of arrogance, and can only say that he has done some small work in line with the trend of the times.

Even so, such a modicum of hubris would be considered too hubris.

For example, the partner Yu Hong, the investment institution IDG, and the employees of the company, although everyone listened to Fang Zhuo’s judgment, their expectation for Yike was only to get some market share of music players and successfully landed in the stock market.

In this case, there is no Sony record company among the music copyright agencies and record companies contacted by Yike recently.

My side is thinking about how to fuck the other side, who has the face to go to their music department when they encounter difficulties?
Fang Zhuoyou.

With the attitude of giving it a try, he called the executives of Sony Music and expressed his interest in Sony Music's copyright library.

I don't know if the other party has discussed it, anyway, it was the first phone call in the evening before there was an intentional reply until midnight.

——We can chat.

On the morning of September 9, Yi Ke and his team of five went to the US headquarters of Sony Corporation in Manhattan, New York.

"Will they cooperate? I still think it's outrageous. Not to mention cooperation, just this meeting is outrageous." Yu Hong expressed her unfinished surprise last night on the road.

Although the music player is only one business of Sony, it is also the most important and classic part.

"Sony's internal factions are more serious than expected." Fang Zhuo said, "We are talking with Sony Music, not Sony. Don't confuse this part."

Yu Hong shook her head. It was as if the Yike marketing department she was in charge of helped Apple's Ipod product line. She had no other feelings except that it was outrageous.

"To be precise, the full name is Sony Columbia Music Entertainment. Its current president is Howard Stringer from Columbia. The will of Sony Music is not from Sony, but from Stringer." Fang Zhuo explained to Yu Hong , It is also strengthening one's own thinking.

Sony Music has successively acquired the film and music departments of Columbia CBS since 88, and handed over this subsidiary to Stringer in 98.

Stringer spent 30 years of professional career in Columbia Corporation of the United States, and began to serve as the president of Sony (USA) in 98, fully leading the work of Sony Music.

Is his understanding of the current market consistent with Sony?

Is Sony Music important or Sony as a whole?
More importantly, even if Stringer believes that Sony as a whole has a better development route, will Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei be willing to change course?
Fang Zhuo reflected these judgments in his contact movements.

Sony is a giant, and Sony Music is a record label giant.

But the former is facing challenges in many fields, and the market value of the stock price has already declined, and the latter has to face the common trend problems encountered by the entire recording industry.

Whether it is a giant Big Mac or the world's top [-] billion US dollars, once it fails to grasp the direction of the times, all the brilliance and beauty will be eclipsed.

In this regard, the collapse of Nokia's mobile phone business is the most impressive. It has a peak market value of 2000 billion euros higher than Sony, and it ended in dismal in just a few years.

Now, record companies are also facing a similar situation.

Not only Sony Music, but also Universal Music and Warner Music have discovered a problem through their own data. With the development of the Internet and the interaction of information, record sales have declined.

In particular, the Napster website in 2000 took away a large number of consumers in the traditional record field with free downloads.

Then, Napster was strangled.

But the problem has not been solved, and many people are still looking for ways to share, using software tools such as iMusic and iTunes.

The development of the entire digital music market is savagely destroying the stable situation of the recording industry.

At the end of September 2002, Sony Music received a call from the president of one of the disruptors. In just a few hours, Stringer browsed the ins and outs of Yike's development.

So, on the morning of September 9th, Sony Music received Yi Ke's group of five people.

Stringer did not show up, and the person in charge of connecting this "can chat" was Albert, the senior executive vice president of Sony Music, who also talked with Fang Zhuo on the phone yesterday.

The two sides exchanged pleasantries in the meeting room, and then fell into a strange silence.

The visitors encountered troubles, and the interviewees encountered industry-specific problems.

The former knows the big problems facing the latter, the latter does not know that the former knows.

Teams on both sides felt a little odd.

"Mr. Albert, I'm glad you let me sit here and share my views on industry changes." Fang Zhuo still spoke first, wanting Sony Music to get up and take two steps.

Albert didn't think that Yi Ke was the only solution for Sony Music, and said a little bluntly: "I thought Mr. Fang was here to talk about copyright cooperation with us today, but I didn't expect there to be views on industry changes."

"Only when we reach a consensus can we talk about the possibility of cooperation." Fang Zhuo provocatively said, "Otherwise, we will always feel uncomfortable if we force them together."

Albert didn't respond, just listened attentively.

"The development of the Internet has triggered the decline of the record industry." Fang Zhuo opened the article by throwing out his arguments and then presenting materials, "This is the conclusion announced by Sony Music last year."

Albert glanced at it: "Say something new."

"Records are just a part of the music industry. Its decline does not mean the decline of the music industry. Now is a good opportunity to create a new ecology of the music industry." Fang Zhuo said succinctly.

This is really fresh.

Albert understood the words, smacked the taste, and showed a smile with an unclear meaning: "Records are the foundation of the entire music industry, and we have been able to boost its sales, which has proved a point."

"Our Sony Music data for this year has not been released, Mr. Fang has not read it, it rebounded."

Fang Zhuo shook his head: "Records are not the foundation of the industry, they are just a part of the current music business model. What is music? Is it true that some people don't go to the recording studio, and the songs recorded directly with equipment are not music?"

He reasoned and said: "Take your own data from Sony last year, record retail, live performances, music magazines, radio advertisements, and musical instrument sales. How much of the record accounted for it?"

Albert pursed his lips.

Fang Zhuoti, the senior vice president of Sony Music, announced the answer: "Records only account for one-sixth of the entire ecology. It is just a part of your record company, and it doesn't need to be the foundation."

Albert shook his head again and again: "No, no, it's wrong to just look at the numbers, Mr. Fang, let me tell you, we have to select, train, screen, sign, send to the recording studio every year, and also play charts and publicize , marketing, laying out channels, everything else is attached to the record."

Fang Zhuo spread his hands: "So, the Internet age is much simpler. Now you only need to copy it to the user's player to make rankings and publicity. How simple it is."

Albert was stunned. All the record companies hated information-based duplication, thinking that it would damage the foundation of records.

From two years on, the company including the guy in front of him has been targeted by the company's legal affairs.

He subconsciously wanted to speak, but he thought about it seriously before making a rebuttal.

It was nine o'clock in the morning when Yi Ke met with people from Sony Music, and then the president of the former and the senior vice president of the latter spent half an hour debating "whether records are the basis of the music business ecology."

The members of the two teams couldn't intervene and could only watch the scene silently.

At 09:30 in the morning, after all, Fang Zhuo, the president who is used to wandering around, ended his argument with Albert with the view that "records are the foundation of the music business ecology, and they need to be reformed".

Albert did not hide it at this time: "Why should we cooperate with you? Even if Apple's performance in the market is somewhat inferior, it is still a listed company."

"Is Sony Music willing to see a listed company that unifies digital music copyrights? No way? No way?" Fang Zhuo asked, "Is Sony Music willing to hand over the bargaining power to Apple?"

My weakness is my strength.

Fang Zhuo's words startled Albert again.

The senior vice president of Sony Music began to think about a new problem, a new music business model that can participate, and a weak partner. What is this scene?
Albert found a better solution: "It seems that Yike can play a better role in the hands of Sony Music. Would Mr. Fang be willing to join Sony Music?"

Fang Zhuo laughed loudly: "I met President Idei Nobuyuki in China this month, and he also asked me. My answer is still the same. Yike won't sell it."

Albert frowned: "It's difficult for Yi Ke to buy music copyrights. Does Mr. Fang think I don't know about this?"

Fang Zhuo shrugged.

Yu Hong interjected: "We have a certain intention with BMI, not everyone is rejecting us, they only have some disagreements with us on the quotation."

In fact, BMI has gradually drifted away.

BMI wants to cross-licensing, but Yike and Apple are not at ease. If the competitor uses the license to set the music for free or at a low price to conduct malicious competition, the money spent will be in vain.

Neither company will count on a rival's self-serving strategy.

Albert flipped through the files.

Another vice president sitting next to him asked new questions about the digital music sales model that Echo was considering.

Fang Zhuo was in a hurry to design this point, so he didn't answer too detailedly.

Instead of the 99 cents a song that his competitors might take, he wanted to rank the songs according to whether they were popular or not, 79 cents, 99 cents, 119 cents.

Whether the one-buy price or the ladder system is more suitable for the new model still needs to be verified.

The next time is the open discussion of more people from both teams.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, the two sides almost expressed their mutual intentions, but because a lot of content was beyond Sony Music's expectations, Albert said that he still needed to digest it, and he couldn't make a statement for the time being.

Fang Zhuo understood very well, he didn't ask for the receipt time of Sony Music, anyway, he had a phone call to communicate with.

At a quarter past eleven, Yike's team left Sony's US headquarters.

"Tired, exhausted, nervous."

As soon as Fang Zhuo got into the car, he shook his head again and again, and said with emotion: "If we can't do digital music this time, let's focus on selling the hardware here, and short these record companies when we return home!"

"Didn't you say in the conference room that the new business model will be beneficial to record companies?" Yu Hong asked.

"It's not that easy. A lot of record companies will definitely die in the next few years." Fang Zhuo shook his head and said, "But no one wants to wait for death. Participating in a new model is a way of struggling, but this is not Easy, there are problems inside and out."

"Sony Music has a better choice, they can combine with Sony's own player." Yu Hong said.

"The sharpness of internal conflicts is sometimes more terrifying than external conflicts." Fang Zhuo smiled, "External conflicts can be reconciled. Internally, Sony's hardware department is in a strong position. It is not that Sony Music can require hardware cooperation, it can only be The hardware makes the music work."

Yu Hong suddenly thought of the "bargaining power" mentioned in the boss's conference room. At present, Apple's progress in digital music copyright is better than Yike's. This lead may have an effect in the hardware market.

She asked softly: "Do you think Sony Music will agree to cooperate?"

"I hope it will." Fang Zhuo can't guess based on just one meeting, rubbing his fingers, and said, "It's impossible to sit and wait for death. There is resistance within Sony, and Apple's monopoly on digital rights is a problem that can be seen. If I were Stringer, I would agree."

He was silent for a while, and then said: "I just hope that Stringer doesn't think of me together."

"What?" Yu Hong asked.

"Don't think about our shareholding." Fang Zhuo looked at the street view of Manhattan outside the car and said with a smile, "It shouldn't be such a coincidence."

however……

Coincidentally.

Stringer from Sony Music gave his opinion only one day later, no money, increased share, and equity cooperation-the equity is calculated by converting the cash that Yike intends to give.

(End of this chapter)