Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1043: I'm ignoring you today, but I won't be able to reach you tomorrow.
“Every era has its own way of listening to music!”

In front of the camera, Tang Jun talked freely, "In the last century, countless people listened to music on phonographs, in the 20th century it was vinyl record players, in the 1960s it was cassette players, and in the 1970s it was Walkmans!"

"Ten years ago, it became CDs and CD players!"

“Technology is advancing, and the way we listen to music is also changing. Every ten years, a new way of listening to music will emerge.
And now is the age of the Internet!"

Tang Jun said to the crowd, "This year, the number of Internet users worldwide will exceed 150 million, and using computers for work and entertainment will become a daily routine for these users.

These Internet users should also have the right to listen to music.

Therefore, Himalaya Internet Radio will launch an online music function section today, and it will have background functions so that users can listen to music on their computers.

I declare that from today, music will enter the Internet age!"

Tang Jun shouted to the reporters in the media, and when they heard Tang Jun's words, there were sporadic applause from the audience.

However, many reporters were still somewhat surprised. A reporter from Silicon Valley Daily couldn't help but ask Tang Jun, "How are you going to solve the music copyright issue at Himalaya Radio?"

You know, there have been people who have tried to enter the record industry over the years, but they all ended up with bad results.

The five major record companies have already taken control of the music markets in America and old Europe. Anyone who dares to challenge music copyright will be humanitarianily eliminated by the five major record giants.

Even a powerful company like Sony could only acquire Columbia Records in order to obtain music copyrights for its own Walkman and CD players.

Now Tang Jun suddenly announced that Himalaya Radio is going to enter the music industry. The first issue it has to face is the copyright issue. How can it get the five major record groups to give the music copyright to Himalaya Radio?

Otherwise, without copyright, what kind of music would Himalaya Radio play?

“Himalaya Radio is currently preparing a copyright library for its music channel, and we hope to reach cooperation with the five major record groups.

In addition, we are also acquiring music copyrights from independent record companies and individual creators.

Of course, the most important thing for Himalaya Radio is the music podcast creators!"

Tang Jun revealed the trump card of Himalaya Radio. In terms of copyright library, Himalaya Radio is definitely no match for the five major record groups.

As for purchasing music copyrights, with the capital of Himalaya Radio, it is estimated that it cannot buy many copyrights.

The only advantage is Himalaya Radio itself, which attracts more music podcasters to join. Well, to put it simply, it’s... free.

It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, to see if you can come across that kind of musical genius and put the song on Himalaya Radio's online music channel.

“Himalaya Radio and music podcasts will adopt a new profit-sharing model. As long as the song is first released on Himalaya Radio, the price of each song on Himalaya Radio Music will be US$0.99.

Currently, when individual music podcast creators join Himalaya Radio, they can directly receive 70% of the revenue for each song sold. If the song can reach the sales chart or win an American music award, Himalaya Radio will also take out 10% of the song's revenue as a reward for the singer! "

Tang Jun said that since Himalaya Radio had just opened, they had to give some sweet incentives, basically splitting the profits between the singers 30% and 70%.

For example, when a record company releases a record, it has to pay the production costs for each record sold, share the profits with the seller, and then there are various expenses such as publicity and taxes.

As for the 70% share, this condition is already a fantasy in the record industry.

For example, in major record companies in America today, when a singer releases an album, if the singer is a new singer, they can only get about 7% of the album sales price.

Well-known singers can get 18%, and superstars like Michael Jackson can get 25%.

Himalaya Radio did offer generous conditions, but the media and reporters present were not so optimistic about Himalaya Radio's launch of the Internet online music function.

It is not easy to make a singer famous. The five major record groups have joined forces to divide up the entire industry. They also have special scouts, training and creation systems. Any potential talent would have been poached long ago.

Singers, arrangers, songwriters, scouts, MV directors, record sales channels, concerts, etc. are all in the hands of a few major record companies. In the eyes of these media reporters, the entry of Himalaya Radio is almost like a gnat trying to shake a tree!
“Himalaya Radio announces its entry into the record industry!”

"Tang Jun, General Manager of Himalaya Radio, announced that he has signed several singers and claimed that Internet music will be the future of the music industry!"

"This is the first Internet company to announce its entry into the Internet industry. Currently, Warner Music, Sony Columbia Music, EMI, Bertelsmann Records, etc. have not yet made a statement on this matter!"

"Some senior people in the record industry believe that the Internet online music model may be difficult to change the traditional music model due to copyright issues!"

As one of the well-known Internet companies in Silicon Valley today, along with Netscape and Yahoo, together with Himalaya Radio, it is very close to Hollywood and the sports circle.

Therefore, the news of Himalaya Radio's entry into the music industry was reported by many media. However, in these media reports, people generally did not look favorably upon Himalaya Radio and were not sure what kind of news it could achieve. They did not think that Himalaya Radio could compete with the major record companies.

"Now, any random company wants to get a piece of the pie in the record industry?" Watching the news on TV, Michael Fuchs, the most powerful figure in the record industry, president of Warner Records and Warner Pictures, threw aside the cooperation agreement provided by Himalaya Radio with some disdain.

Roger Ames, the actual person in charge of Warner Records, took up the agreement.

Although Michael Fuchs is in charge of Warner Group's record, film, television and other businesses, no matter how capable he is, it is impossible for him to do everything by himself.

Moreover, Michael Fuchs and Warner Chairman Levine were not on good terms. The two were fighting openly and secretly. Michael Fuchs' position was already precarious, and it was even more impossible for him to focus all his energy on the record company.

So Warner Records was actually run by Roger Ames.

Opening the cooperation agreement, Roger Ames saw that Himalaya Radio wanted to obtain the copyright of Warner Records and sell it on the platform, with each song priced at US$0.99 and each album priced at US$9.99.

This pricing is much lower than traditional vinyl records, tapes, and CDs. Now a CD costs around four or five dollars, and an album costs 15 dollars.

But the profit-sharing agreement proposed by Himalaya Radio is very sincere. For the music sold on Himalaya Radio, Himalaya Radio chooses to split the profit in a 30:70 ratio, and Warner Records can get 70%!

This is basically the same as the profit sharing offered by Apple iTunes in the past. In essence, it is all aimed at attracting singers and record companies to join in.

According to Warner Music's previous sharing of profits with record stores and distributors, for each record sold, Warner Music could only get a maximum of 40%, and 30% was the norm.

In addition to these, Himalaya Radio also proposed in the cooperation agreement that it will develop technical means to increase the anti-theft protection of digital music.

"Tell Himalaya Radio and Warner Records that it is impossible for them to give the music copyright to Himalaya Radio. Tell them to give up on this idea. If they want the copyright, they have to leave Warner Records!"

Michael Fuchs set a flag for Roger Ames, threatening that he would never agree to cooperate with Himalaya Radio unless he was kicked out of Warner Records.

After hearing this, Roger Ames, a pragmatist, had no choice but to put down the cooperation agreement in his hand.

Not only Warner Records, but all major record groups, without exception, rejected the cooperation agreement with Himalaya Radio.

Sony Columbia Records, in particular, was extremely disgusted with the cooperation proposal from Himalaya Radio.

Because it concerns the buttocks. Once Internet digital music becomes popular, everyone will use computers to listen to music, and everyone will listen to digital music. Who will buy Sony's Walkman or CD player? !
……

The American recording industry is not optimistic about online music platforms.

But Silicon Valley and the Internet are subtly different.

“Let music embrace the Internet and let the Internet realize music freedom!”

Inside the Yahoo office building, Yahoo has now surpassed Netscape to become the Internet company with the highest market value. Its stock price is doubling every month, and its market value is about to soar to 14 billion US dollars.

As the founder of Yahoo, Yang Zhiyuan's name as Yahoo Chief has become known around the world.

Yang Zhiyuan and several Yahoo executives opened the Himalaya Radio website on their computers, and the above sentence appeared on the banner of the Himalaya Radio homepage.

Operating the computer, opening the music section of Himalaya Radio, you will see that the entire page is very simple and the functions are basically clear at a glance, including song charts, sales charts, music categories, search bars, etc.

"There aren't any famous songs. These songs... are all sung by some outdated and unknown singers."

Kugel, the president of Yahoo, said that he was selected by Silicon Valley venture capital and Wall Street institutions. Yahoo is now basically a company controlled by Wall Street. Yang Zhiyuan is very famous, but his voice in Yahoo is constantly decreasing.

"Based on these songs alone, who would be willing to pay for the order? Besides, the purchase process is very complicated. I'm afraid it will be difficult for Himalaya Radio to promote online music on the Internet!"

Kug kept shaking his head as he looked at the outdated and unheard songs on the Himalaya Radio online music channel. He was too lazy to click on these songs, let alone buy them.

Moreover, Himalaya Radio’s payment channels are not yet complete.

There is no online payment now, so Himalaya Radio can only provide gift cards in shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. for users to purchase, just like the point card model of World of Warcraft and Fantasy Westward Journey in the past.

In addition to gift cards, there are other methods of payment such as credit card payment and telephone orders. E-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay basically use the same methods.

“But Ximalaya Radio is right. The Internet music market does exist. It is a market with more than 100 million users!”

Yang Zhiyuan looked at the Himalaya Radio website and said something that made executives such as Kuger feel creepy.

"Himalaya Radio's online music channel complies with music copyright. What if there are other Internet music platforms that don't care about music copyright?"

(End of this chapter)