The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 496: Great Earthquake in the European and American Music Scene

After the thoughtful science popularization, Kay West, who was playing with his iPod as if he had found a treasure, put on headphones, listened to music and browsed the web at the same time. His face, which was gradually getting older due to the burden of life, had a more relaxed and comfortable smile.

Because he discovered another wonderful use of this iPod——

He can arrange the songs he has downloaded in order so that he can listen to his favorite songs in order.

This is definitely an epic update for Kay West.

He can freely combine the songs he likes and intersperse other people's songs between Zhou Yi's songs. This way, he can keep Zhou Yi fresh in his ears and avoid playing the same song on repeat until he gets sick of it.

"This feels so good! Jobs is a genius. How did he convince these international giants to license their record libraries? He even got Spike involved!"

"It's really convenient. The only downside is that you have to buy an iPod."

"That's fine. At least I can carry my iPod with me."

"I declare that Jobs' family members have been temporarily resurrected in my place!"

"Am I the only one who's worried about whether this will destroy the record market?"

"So what should we do? This is the age of technology. This is the result of the application of technology. This is the progress of the times. Can you still stop it? I think Spike is worthy of being Spike. He has such vision."

"That's right. Instead of all the money going to pirated versions and the singers not making a penny, it's better to support this kind of Internet payment system. I think it's great. If you don't have enough money, just listen to less. After all, it's only $1.99 per song."

“Isn’t Apple afraid that its music will also be stolen?”

"You may have some misunderstanding about Apple's legal capabilities. Jobs has been prepared for a long time and will fight against piracy if it dares to appear."

"..."

2003:7 a.m., July 24, , US time.

When people like Kay West, who lived far from bustling cities like New York and Washington, heard the story of iPod and gained satisfaction from listening to music from it, this evil wind built on the Internet era eventually spread throughout the United States at a speed consistent with the characteristics of the Internet.

Even Europe.

Britain, which has been in close contact with the United States, has always been the first to pay attention to American trends. After noticing that Apple's operation, which could be said to subvert the entire traditional record industry, had officially begun to be implemented, the British media in Europe was the most active in reporting on the trends.

All the big names and practitioners know that the physical record industry in Europe and the United States has been in a continuous decline.

It is also because of this that top companies including Sony, Warner, Universal, EMI and even Disney are willing to license part of their copyright libraries to Apple, basically based on the idea of opening up new markets.

Although the top players could see that the market was declining, no one was willing to accept Apple's invitation to officially move in because it was too risky.

Madonna, the only one who was interested, cut off contact with Apple after Zhou Yi ruthlessly suppressed her in marketing.

"If Apple fails, it means Spike's bet has failed."

new York.

Even though he is currently caught up in the vortex of a child molestation case, he still has a lot of lawyers. Michael Jackson saw through Zhou Yi's plan at a glance.

In a casual chat with his sister after dinner, the King of Pop, who is still in the mood to continue doing charity to gild himself, shook his head: "He gambled too much."

It is impossible for Zhou Yi to surpass European and American legends by following the traditional path, because each of those people has been given the title of "pioneer".

More importantly, the traditional record channels are controlled by European and American elders, and Zhou Yi cannot make any comeback in their hands.

"What if the bet fails?" Janet Jackson took a sip of coffee.

"Then his future albums will be boycotted by those channel dealers together, and then they will negotiate, and finally a big piece of their flesh will be torn off." Michael Jackson, who also suffered a great loss in the traditional channels, had a look of nostalgia in his eyes.

Traditional record channels actually make a lot of money. Don’t ask why. The answer is: channels are king.

You can’t just release a record and sell it casually. You need someone to help you sell it, and you need offline stores. This means that the bulk of the album profits actually go into the mouths of these channel dealers.

Giants like Sony and Warner are often exposed for various negative corruption cases, which are that they are prone to embezzling and falsifying data, thereby reasonably taking advantage of singers together with a large number of their own channel dealers and third-party channel dealers.

Michael Jackson once thought about resisting, but he had no choice but to give up in the end because he knew with his keen business sense that he could not control the channels controlled by these old people.

But now, things are obviously different from his previous era.

The rapid rise of Internet upstarts caught all traditional channel operators off guard, and even major record companies were at a loss as to what to do.

This is a brand new era, a musical era that is completely different from the 1980s and 1990s.

Whether musicians of the new era can make a name for themselves in the future with the help of Zhouyi, a pioneer, and have an additional means of negotiation and income channel depends entirely on the results of this cooperation between Zhouyi and Apple.

"Do you think he can succeed?"

Janet Jackson was obviously tempted. But Michael Jackson's shaking head made her feel cold: "It's impossible. The Internet is used to free things. Just look at the software that was jointly killed by several record companies. If you are really willing to pay, do you think they are unwilling to open it?
"There were so many Internet music software companies before Apple, some large and some small, but which one was successful?"

Los Angeles.

As a person with a good sense of marketing, Eminem also talked about this matter at a party with singers such as 50 Cent. This madman and ruffian in the eyes of the outside world was very calm and clear-headed at the moment: "So, it is impossible for him to succeed."

"Spike is betting that he can call the shots on the Internet payment system, so that he can occupy more position in negotiations with traditional channel dealers and obtain more concessions in the future." As a music businessman, Dr. Dre, the godfather of hip-hop who also has his own channels, made a rational analysis from a business perspective.

Just look at Linkin Park. Like Zhou Yi, they are also top Warner artists, but they still have not reached any cooperation with Apple. At present, they are not interested in Apple and have chosen to embrace traditional channels.

Scarlett Johansson in Washington, Kelly Brook in Birmingham, England, Mariah Carey in Hawaii, Johnny Depp at a promotion, and everyone who is familiar with Zhou Yi is paying attention to this silent battle to "challenge the old order."

They are all waiting, waiting for a result.

If Apple did not release its first-day battle report, it would be enough to show that Zhouyi had failed, they had failed, and the attempt at paid music on the Internet had failed.

Don’t say statistics are difficult, this is not a traditional channel. For Apple, it is easiest to count its own paid download data.

10:08, exactly 24 hours have passed since yesterday.

Under the watchful eyes of countless people in the European and American music and entertainment circles, as well as countless distributors, Apple's official website changed its page on time.

Zhou Yi put his hands in his pockets and stood sideways on the edge of the cliff with a smile on his face. Under the raging waves, that shining number almost blinded everyone who paid attention to the result at the first time!

2371512 songs!
In exactly 24 hours, Zhou Yi sold a total of 2371512 songs!
Based on a price of $1.99 per song, these million singles brought Apple more than $ million in revenue in just one day!

"How can this be?!"

"This is impossible!!!"

“Paid music is actually successful?!”

"Zhou Yi's bet was successful?!"

In just a moment, everyone who was watching this fight widened their eyes in disbelief!

what's the situation? !

Are you kidding me? !

Did he really succeed?!

Even the King of Pop Michael Jackson was no longer calm at this moment. He squeezed his sister aside, leaned over the computer screen to look at the information on Apple's official website, and was so surprised that his mouth couldn't close.

"Unbelievable, unbelievable!"

You know, since Apple's platform commission model is much better than traditional record channels, the more than 4 million US dollars in revenue that Zhou Yi can get is much more than that from traditional channels.

After all, Apple's publicly disclosed commission is only 30%.

Not to mention that Zhou Yi definitely has preferential profit-sharing terms...

"It is very likely that he is taking 10% or even a tiered clause that allows him to take all the income if he reaches a certain standard. Otherwise, a singer of his level would never wade into this muddy water..."

That is to say...

"Spike makes three to four million dollars a day through the online paid music system?!"

"Fuck!"

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"Oh my God! Unbelievable! Unbelievable!"

On July 2003, 7, at 24:10 am, the entire European and American music scene experienced an earthquake from within!

A large number of offline channel owners are shaking their hands when looking at this data...

"impossible!!!"

"This is absolutely impossible!!!"

“Apple must have cheated!”

"I do not accept!!!"

“I absolutely do not accept this!!!”