Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3150 Film and TV + Music
During this period, Zhou Buqi's main work was focused on the streaming media field.

The evening conference call was still about streaming media.

This was a meeting with senior executives from Ziweixing Global.

First, I introduced the latest situation of Peacock. The number of paying users has reached 1820 million, and it will definitely break the 2000 million mark within this week!
The growth rate is so fast that it is simply a miracle.

Of course, Apple has also made a significant contribution behind this miracle.

Two popular companies have emerged recently due to hacker incidents.

One is Apple, which was severely criticized by the public because they violated the rights of female stars and refused to compensate; the other is Ziweixing Global, which was warmly welcomed by the public because they protected and actively safeguarded the rights of female stars and stood against Apple without fear of power.

Benefiting from this positive effect, Peacock's popularity has also soared, and new users are pouring in rapidly.

However, tonight's conference call was not mainly about the Peacock film and television streaming product.

It's music streaming.

After the massive success of Peacock, this gave great confidence to the management of Ziweixing Global.

I also further realized the importance of Boss Zhou’s strategic decisions.

Abandon the traditional DVD market and fully enter the streaming media market.

Now the effect has become apparent. With nearly 2000 million paying members and 2000 million free users, the company can generate a stable income of 2.6 million to 2.8 million US dollars each month, which has almost caught up with the revenue of the DVD market in the past.

Streaming media is far less harmful to film and television content than selling disposable DVDs, and is more sustainable.

The correctness of the layout of streaming media has made everyone in Ziweixing Global feel the benefits of streaming media, especially the licensing contract just signed with Netflix for the MGM film and television library with a total value of US$62 billion in the next five years, which has increased year by year and made everyone almost breathless.

In response to this good news, Ziweixing Global's stock price soared by 28%, and its market value soared from US$1695 billion to US$2169 billion!
Who dares to challenge Boss Zhou’s decision?
Hurry up and agree with it!
Even Jason Kilar thought so, so under the repeated calls from within the company, they wanted to create a new streaming product - music streaming.

Ziweixing Global owns a record giant - EMI Music.

This is also the record company that Boss Zhou bought against all odds. A few years later, the value of EMI finally emerged in the Internet era. Now all the songs of EMI are licensed to Spotify.

However, there are not as many exclusive licenses for music copyrights as for film and television copyrights.

In that case, why not make a music streaming product yourself?

Jason Kilar is also very radical about this. "I think we need to do this. Most of EMI's music does not have an exclusive licensing agreement. Instead of licensing it to other music streaming platforms, we might as well do it ourselves."

Zhou Buqi said, "But you have to know that music is not like movies. Movie streaming can make money, but the profit attribute of music streaming is too low. Most of the copyright income of movies and TV belongs to the copyright company. Half of the copyright income of music has to be distributed to musicians. This is fundamentally different."

“That’s a very insightful observation.”

Jason Kilar had to admit that the big boss had a great vision.

Zhou Buqi said: "The profit effect of music streaming is far less than that of film and television streaming. With Peacock's current development momentum, I estimate that in three years, Peacock's annual revenue will exceed 200 billion US dollars and its profit will reach 100 billion US dollars. Music is not so good. Most of the revenue is distributed to musicians, and the remaining part is used to maintain the operation of the platform. It is difficult to generate much benefit."

Jason Kilar nodded. "That's true. There are such concerns."

This was a telephone conference, so there was no need to show one's face. Zhou Buqi was more unrestrained, holding Bao Meimei in his arms, and spoke into the speakerphone on the table far away: "The companies that do music streaming are all Internet companies. If they are short of money, they can continue to raise funds. If they are short of money, they can continue to look for funds from the capital market. Ziweixing Global cannot do that. We can only use our own funds."

Jason Kilar said: "If we don't consider the individual businesses, we may be able to think about this issue from a strategic level."

"Oh?"

“If we have our own music streaming business, it can complement the film and television streaming business. Now, Peacock charges $6.99 per month. If the music streaming product is priced at $3.99 per month, we can launch a unified premium membership at $9.99.”

"Hmm? Why does it sound so familiar?" Zhou Buqi seemed to have heard someone talk about it before.

Jason Kilar laughed and said, "Amazon is doing both movie and music streaming at the same time. That's their thinking."

Zhou Buqi held Baoshan, who was a little nervous and dared not speak, in his arms, buried his head in breastfeeding and said with a smile: "Yes, it is Amazon! Apple will also have a similar strategic design in the future, with a 'film + music' membership to promote and support each other."

"In fact, ten years ago, when I was working at Amazon and building its membership system, I had a similar plan to introduce film and television and music content to improve the competitiveness of membership services. Compared with the income of traditional businesses, membership business can provide the most stable cash flow, which is the biggest advantage."

Jason Kilar is bragging about his past exploits at Amazon again.

Zhou Buqi said: "We still need to be cautious."

Jason Kilar said: "Neither Amazon nor Apple has a music company. They purchase their music copyrights from record companies. We are different. We have EMI! EMI will not change its previous plan to license to external streaming platforms, but will only supply its own music platform. It is equivalent to adding one more channel and making more money. Amazon and Apple can do it, so there is no reason why we can't do it."

Zhou Buqi stated that he had no objection to EMI Records launching its own music streaming platform.

But don't rush.

Let’s make Peacock first.

Let’s stabilize this business first.

As for music streaming, don’t be too anxious, consider it again in a year!

Spotify is not as profitable as Netflix, but its ability to make losses is stronger than Netflix.

In overseas markets, music streaming is much more difficult than film and television streaming; in China, it is slightly different. In China, music products are easier than film and television products. (Note)
Let's wait and see.

Let’s see how the market trends next year.

Spotify's current business and industry position are still unstable, and it is far from being comparable to Netflix. Launching a self-operated music streaming platform at this time will easily affect Spotify's performance and survival.

But Jason Kilar is right.

The "film + music" membership system can more effectively promote the development of both businesses at the same time. This can even reduce the share of the music business in the membership through internal related transactions, and transfer all the income to the film and television platform... From Ziweixing Global's perspective, it is the same whether it is transferred from the left hand to the right hand.

However, half of the music platform's revenue must be distributed to musicians.

In other words, the structural design of the VIP membership can transfer the musicians' income to the film and television platforms, which is equivalent to using the musicians' income to subsidize the film and television platforms, and putting the musicians' income into their own pockets.

This kind of thing is what Hollywood does best.

The conference call was over.

Aunt Xue knocked on the door gently a few times, pushed it open, stuck her head in, and whispered, "Are you busy?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and waved at her, "I just finished my work."

Xue Baoshan in his arms was a little hasty. He stood up quickly, pulled up the straps of his nightgown behind Aunt Xue's back, and simply adjusted his collar. With a red face and a little embarrassment, he hurriedly said, "Then you guys chat. I'll go back to my room to see the baby."

I don’t know when Baoshan started to develop the habit of avoiding things.

Whenever Zhou Buqi and Aunt Xue were alone together, she would leave immediately to give space to the two of them.

I don't know what she is avoiding.

(End of this chapter)