China Entertainment: Starting from 07 Kuainan

Chapter 382: A big stick in one hand and a pie in the other!

Sinan Mansion.

Arriving at the front door of the club, Xie Zhenyu found that he was a little nervous. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

After all, he is already an old man, and the person he is going to meet today is much younger than him.

The two are fully ten years apart.

But when he thought of the other party's identity, Xie Zhenyu felt a little relieved.

As the founder of Kugou Music, he is of course a music lover, and a very senior one.

He is very clear about Lu Yuan's status in the music world.

Maybe, Lu Yuan is the next Michael Jackson.

The last album was released only half a year ago, and its global sales reached 10 million. Even if foreign copyright protection is better, it is still an extremely impressive number.

There is also a piracy problem abroad.

At the beginning of the millennium, The Pirate Bay, which started off by relying on pirated music, has gained the popularity of countless young people in Europe and the United States.

Also, spotify also has a criminal record.

If I had to say who is cleaner, it would probably be companies like iTunes and Google Play. They are all products incubated by big companies.

It's a big company that wants to lose face, so of course it's too embarrassing to do it for nothing.

Didn’t Google also launch an acquisition of The Pirate Bay?

The price quoted was in the tens of millions of dollars.

(PS: The Pirate Bay is the world’s largest BT seed publishing website, a piracy-hit area. Google, like Qiandu, has also been sued for infringement by foreign copyright companies)

After a while, Xie Zhenyu, led by the service staff of the club, came to a teahouse with a style of the Republic of China.

"Hello, Mr. Xie!"

"Mr. Lu, hello, I have long admired your name."

Seeing Lu Yuan's overly young face, Xie Zhenyu was filled with emotions.

Others may pay more attention to Lu Yuan's achievements as a singer and actor, but as the boss of a music platform, he pays more attention to it.

Lu Yuan is also active in business.

I won’t mention Starlight Records, the most popular record company in China, and its unique and unadulterated sales reports have slapped many people in the face.

What a damn relief!

Although Kugou Music also engages in chart-buying behavior, Xie Zhenyu himself hates similar fraudulent behavior.

In order for the company to survive, he can only do this. The income from singers buying charts is one of the few ways to monetize it.

For example, a certain Chunchun spent a lot of money.

A big customer.

Not long ago, Starlight Records reverse-purchased the equity of Huayi Music and became the majority shareholder of Huayi Music.

Although Huayi Music is no longer in the spotlight, the former sister Zhang Liangying signed a high-profile contract with Universal, and later super girl Shang Wenjie terminated her contract.

But a skinny camel is bigger than a horse.

Yu Quan, Yang Kun, Huang Zheng, Li Huizhen, BOBO Group, Yu Kewei and others are still Huayi's contracted artists.

The acquisition of a record company and the acquisition of Kugou shares show that Lu Yuan's ambitions are not small.

The two chatted for a while, and Lu Yuan took the lead in starting the conversation.

"Mr. Xie, you have heard about what is happening in the film and television industry, right?"

"Mr. Lu." Xie Zhenyu said in surprise: "You mean, this gust of wind will spread to the music industry soon?"

What the two mentioned was nothing else but the breaking news that video websites were starting a copyright war.

In the past few years, the information network dissemination rights of film and television works have been rising.

In 05, the online broadcast rights of a movie only cost a few hundred yuan, and a large-scale production could cost up to a thousand yuan. No matter how high it was, it was impossible!

But this year, the broadcast rights of "Source Code" were sold for 300 million.

Three million is neither a permanent license nor an exclusive license. It is just a three-year agreement price, which is close to the annual license fee of 700,000.

If I could describe it in two words, it would be magical!

Because it's truly magical.

It costs 700,000 a year, but someone still buys it!

Four video websites, Youku, LeTV, Sohu, and Kuliu.com, all spent money.

After joining Shanda, Kuliu.com overtook these four video companies, merged with Hurray, and completed a backdoor listing.

Youku will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange this year.

Sohu.com is backed by four major portals.

As for LeTV?

Known for his wealth and wealth, Boss Jia has strong connections with the upper management, and his investments in video websites and film and television have flourished.

"almost."

Lu Yuan nodded and said: "The wind in the film and television industry will soon spread to the music industry, and it will only happen in the past two years."

In the original timeline, the most stringent copyright order was issued in 15 years. Now, with Lu Yuan's efforts, it is one or two years ahead of schedule, so the difficulty is not too great.

In fact, copyright issues have been a hot topic more than once.

This year alone, Lu Yuan’s second album has exceeded one million in sales in a single week. During his consecutive years on the Billboard album chart, it was a hot search every week.

Global sales exceeded 10 million, and copyright protection was on the hot search several times, and it stayed on the list for two days.

Among them, the record company's handwriting is naturally indispensable.

Those who want to crack down on piracy the most are definitely record companies. In the old days of physical records, there was still a buffer period for piracy.

In the digital music era, albums released in the morning will be pirated all over the world in the afternoon.

Except for those die-hard fans, basically no one would spend money to buy records.

In addition, Lu Yuan's remarks calling for combating piracy and protecting copyright have been reproduced by overseas media many times and made headlines in many newspapers.

With the joint efforts of many parties, this year's Operation Sword Net has obviously increased its intensity of attack.

After hearing what Lu Yuan said, Xie Zhenyu was silent for a while.

Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet.

As a practitioner, it is impossible for him to have no information channels at all.

"No matter how long it takes, it is inevitable that copyright will be formalized."

Seeing that Xie Zhenyu remained silent, Lu Yuan avoided the copyright issue and asked instead.

"Mr. Xie, what do you think the future of digital music should be like?"

"Is it the iTunes route or the Spotify route?"

iTunes is Apple's paid music software. It adopts a purely paid model, and users can only listen to the songs they purchased.

Songs that you haven't purchased can only be 'tried', and the trial period is time-limited. Once the time limit expires, you must pay.

Spotify is a website that originated in Sweden. It adopts a free listening + offline paid download model.

Currently, although Spotify is not allowed to enter the American market, it is far ahead in the European market.

Boss Lu also tried to invest in Spotify, but he couldn’t afford the price they offered.

In other words, he didn't want to vote.

In 08, Spotify's valuation was as high as more than 8000 million US dollars. Now, its valuation needs to be added with a zero at the end and an additional million US dollars.

That's a billion dollars.

5% of the shares, $ million.

Although Boss Lu knows that Spotify will be very popular in the future, but at this time it is valued at one billion US dollars, he is not taking advantage of it.

"It must be the Spotify route." Xie Zhenyu said firmly: "The iTunes model is too overbearing and will never work in China."

"Mr. Xie, I think so too." Lu Yuan clapped his hands and said, "However, no matter which model it is, copyright fees are an unavoidable threshold."

"As far as I know, Spotify has not entered the America market for a long time because of copyright."

"Apple uses its monopoly position to interfere with Spotify's acquisition of copyrights in America from record companies such as Universal, Sony, and Warner."

"Do you know how much Spotify has paid to obtain the copyright?"

Xie Zhenyu asked curiously: "How much?" "Spotify quoted Universal an upfront copyright fee of US$2000 million over two years."

"800 million will be paid in the first year, 1200 million will be paid in the second year, and payments will be made every quarter."

Hearing this number, Xie Zhenyu's pupils suddenly trembled.

Ten million dollars a year?

Is it too late to open a record label now?

Damn it, grab the money!

After pondering for a moment, Xie Zhenyu said doubtfully.

"Mr. Lu, is what you said true?"

Although Lu Yuan is one of Universal's most popular singers, he cannot and does not want to believe such an outrageous offer no matter what.

"real."

Lu Yuan continued to break the news: "In fact, in order to obtain the copyright, Spotify is willing to sell part of its equity to the three major record companies at a low price."

"One record company charges 10 million US dollars in royalties a year, and three companies charge 30 million US dollars. How do they make money?" Xie Zhenyu asked.

"Make money?"

Lu Yuan smiled slightly: "That is not something Spotify considers. Investors will give them money, just like Ahri, who has been losing money for ten years, but it has not affected his financing."

The trick that Internet companies are best at is exchanging money for time, first gaining dominance, and then wielding the sickle.

Mainly anti-customer!

When you are weak.

Record company, you are my dad.

Developed?

Record company, I’m your dad!

At this moment, domestic capital has not yet entered the film and television and music circles on a large scale. Shanda and LeTV's crossover is just an appetizer.

Therefore, Xie Zhenyu has not yet felt the shock of the Internet financier.

He also did not understand the true meaning of 'money for time'.

This time, he remained silent for longer.

a long time.

Xie Zhenyu slowly raised his head: "Mr. Lu, can I ask, if you invite me today, do you want to acquire the company as a whole, or invest in Kugou?"

"I want more than 50%. This is the bottom line, and I don't rule out the willingness to make additional investments in the future."

Lu Yuan smiled and said: "Of course, if possible, I hope you can stay."

"Mr. Xie, are you interested in hearing my plan?"

"All ears."

Xie Zhenyu's shareholding of more than 50% did not make him turn around and leave. Although Kugou has a high number of active users, the competition among major music software is not small.

Kugou cannot compare to Qianqianjingting, which is backed by Qiandu, nor QQ Music, which is backed by Penguin. The music player (Migu Music), which is backed by China Mobile, is even more powerful.

Therefore, it is not a bad idea to find a sponsor dad.

Even though Lu Yuan is young, he is rich and an insider in the industry. There is no such thing as an outsider guiding an expert.

"First of all, authenticity is the bottom line that must be adhered to."

As he spoke, Lu Yuan paused slightly: "Mr. Xie has a technical background, so he should know the disadvantages of P2P downloading, right?"

"P2P downloading will certainly reduce copyright risks, but its download speed is not only limited by network speed, but also by resources. Users are also uploading while downloading, and the network speed is getting slower and slower."

“Moreover, there are so many resources and the loading speed is completely uncontrollable.”

Ten years later, if you open a music software at will, it will load in almost seconds, but ten years ago today, this was not the case.

It is normal for a song to load for more than ten seconds or dozens of seconds.

Spotify's success in breaking through is also due to technological support. Relying on a new algorithm, Spotify's music buffering time only takes 2-3 seconds.

Compared with other products of the same era, the user experience is explosive.

"But it's different with the copyright library. We can build our own music library. As long as the server resources can keep up, the loading speed only takes a few seconds."

“The user experience is better.”

Xie Zhenyu said with deep agreement: "I agree with this, but all of this costs money, and it is not a small amount of money. The bandwidth cost alone is one million per month. If the number of users increases, the bandwidth cost will be even higher."

"Any problem that can be solved with money is no problem."

Boss Lu's gentle tone made Xie Zhenyu feel the power of the financial sponsor for the first time.

Is this the happiness of rich people?

"Copyright is also not an issue."

"With copyright, we can provide high-quality audio sources. As long as the user experience is good enough, there will always be users willing to pay."

High-quality sound sources will also be available everywhere in later generations, but at this time, whether you can find lossless music requires a little trick.

If you are not careful, you may also get Trojan viruses.

"In addition, Kugou Music's chart data will also be included in the selection by Tomorrow's Sons."

After the launch of "Tomorrow's Music Circle" magazine, although its offline sales were not high, its online momentum was considerable, relying on Lu Yuan's reputation and connections in "Contemporary Music Circle".

The selection of the Son of Tomorrow has become one of the names that fans must compete for.

Fans of new generation singers such as Deng Ziqi, Zhao Lei, Li Ronghao, Yu Kewei, Ping An, Hu Xia, Meina, etc. pay special attention to it.

They contributed to half of the sales of "Tomorrow's Music Circle".

Because voting for the Children of Tomorrow requires a voting card, and every magazine will come with a voting card.

It has to be said that Boss Lu has fallen.

The fans’ economic rice was clearly eaten by him.

of course.

He is not the kind of person who has no conscience at all. "Tomorrow's Music World" has both popular science and professionalism, and the overall quality of the magazine is worth the price.

the other side.

Xie Zhenyu remained silent. He had thought about all the things Lu Yuan mentioned. The only thing holding him back was money.

Without money, it can't be done.

Seeing that Xie Zhenyu was still unmoved, Lu Yuan was ready to throw out a heavier content.

"After the acquisition is completed, Canxing Culture will join forces with Kugou and Starlight Records to hold an 'online talent show' variety show."

"One flower blooming alone is not spring, but a hundred flowers blooming together fills the garden!"

"This project, I call it 'The Stars'."

“Making Kugou Music a gathering place for original musicians is also one of our future plans.”

The 'Stars' project is not only a part of the fan economy, but also a part of cultivating new forces in the Chinese music scene.

If you include the promotion of Kugou, it is one fish and three things to eat.

Hearing this, Xie Zhenyu's heart moved.

Canxing Culture?

That Canxing Culture that single-handedly created "The Voice" and "Running Man"?

"Mr. Lu, what is your quotation for Kugou?"

After saying that, Xie Zhenyu explained: "That's right, Kugou's equity does not belong to me alone. My team also has shares, and there are other shareholders."

"So, I need to discuss the acquisition with them."

"Currently, my valuation of Kugou is 80 million." Lu Yuan touched his chin: "The specific valuation can only be obtained after back-examination."

The reason why the quotation is 1.69 million instead of million is not because Boss Lu is playing tricks, it is a normal business method.

How can anyone expose their underwear to others at the beginning of a negotiation?

Eighty million?

Xie Zhenyu pondered for a moment and said: "I can't make a decision on this matter alone. Mr. Lu, I need to discuss it with the people in the team."

"Is that okay with me giving you an answer in a week?"

"of course."

(End of this chapter)