Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1329 Cut off their supplies and block their retreat; only then can you subdue the enemy without fighting.

The entire record industry began a crackdown on pirate music websites like Napster, and a massive copyright lawsuit ensued.

Everyone knows that once this music copyright lawsuit goes to court, Napster's chances of winning are extremely slim.

It's not that there's absolutely no hope of winning the case, but unless Napster has the financial resources to reach an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff's record company with a huge sum of money, there's no way they can win.

In addition to the lawsuit, the legal letters from the joint lawsuit team formed by Himalaya Music were sent out like snowflakes.

In addition to sending it to pirate music websites like Napster, demanding that they stop infringing on the music copyrights held by Himalaya Music, it was also sent to various other websites!
The people who know you best are your own people, and only your own people know how to hit you the hardest!
The record industry is completely at a loss when faced with the chaotic online music market.

But Himalaya Music is a true "insider" in the internet industry, and knows all too well how to handle these messy situations.

Himalaya Music first reached agreements with various websites, requesting their assistance in removing all music sources copyrighted by Himalaya Music, as well as links and web pages containing pirated music from Napster.

In response, Himalaya Music is willing to pay advertising fees in exchange for these websites losing music traffic. In other words, it's about paying protection money to get these websites to remove pirated music links and stop the spread of such content.

It's hard to say how effective it will be, but most internet users access the internet through portals, browsers, search engines, and other similar means.

If these channels are blocked, what's left are internet users who sporadically share music with each other. At most, they might share a few songs a year, so the impact isn't significant.

Leveraging its connections with Himalaya Music and the Zhi Xing Foundation, Yahoo, Netscape, Microsoft MSN, ASK, Souxin, Google, and others subsequently removed a large number of Napster links and web pages.

The effect of this method was immediate. When Napster's webpage could no longer be widely disseminated and shared on mainstream websites, Napster's traffic and user activity plummeted by more than one-fifth that very day.

Users can still listen to and download music on the Napster website, but Napster is no longer available on other mainstream websites.

It was just a small change, but it caused Napster to suffer its biggest loss since its launch!
When Warner Music and other industry giants saw Himalaya Music's methods, they couldn't help but think, "Wow, they can do this kind of thing!"
They had been relentlessly targeting Napster, wanting Napster to remove their music copyrights, but of course, Napster completely ignored them.

However, Himalaya Music's strategy of cutting off its supply lines has had an unexpected effect.

In reality, Himalaya Music's current methods are still conservative and restrained; real business battles are often quite simple and unpretentious.

If it were Microsoft, which is known for its rogue tactics, they would probably resort to their killer weapon: incompatibility between Microsoft systems and Napster!

My computer crashes as soon as I open Napster, let alone any software!
Another less sophisticated method is hacking, which can make the other party's website or server inaccessible.

Or they could find various pretexts to put the other party's founder in federal prison. As for shooting someone six times in the back or sinking a yacht at sea, those are the tactics of Wall Street institutions and federal giants. Internet companies haven't reached that level yet.

Compared to those, Himalaya Music's methods are quite mild, basically within the rules.

Of course, not all websites are willing to cooperate with Himalaya Music and give up the traffic brought by internet music.

For these internet companies, all we can do is send lawyer's letters and file lawsuits, and then take down the tough nuts one by one.

However, the tactics demonstrated by Himalaya Music have at least put the record companies at ease. Himalaya Music has proven that it is not a pushover and that it truly has the means to fight against websites like Napster, both offline and online!

……

While Himalaya Music and Napster were battling it out, Apple suddenly announced its entry into the MP3 industry, stating that it would soon launch its own MP3 brand, as well as the iTunes music store, Apple's music platform.

This is practically a public announcement that they are entering the MP3 industry and going head-to-head with Feiyan MP3!

With the performance of last year's iMac all-in-one, Apple is showing signs of a revival, and Steve Jobs has once again proven his abilities.

Apple's sudden and high-profile announcement of its MP3 launch has attracted considerable attention, with Wall Street firms anticipating its performance. Following the announcement, Apple's stock price immediately surged.

And it's not just Apple; another American company, Diamond, a top brand in the graphics card and sound card industry, has also announced its entry into the MP3 industry!

With Apple, Diamond, Samsung and LG which had already announced their entry into the MP3 market, and a host of Japanese brands such as Toshiba and Panasonic about to enter the market, the global MP3 market has suddenly become like a game of mahjong.

Of course, from another perspective, it means that many brands are optimistic about the MP3 market, and the global MP3 market is showing a trend of explosive growth!

However, what truly shook the global electronics industry was not the entry of these American, Korean, and Japanese manufacturers into the MP3 market, but rather the emergence of a groundbreaking rumor.

Sony announced the launch of its new generation music player, NWHD. Although Sony did not explicitly admit that Sony's Walkman had failed, the launch of the NWHD player and its entry into the MP3 industry is a de facto choice.

The news of Sony's NWHD player immediately boosted the popularity of MP3 players. After all, if even Sony is going to launch an MP3 player, doesn't that mean that Walkmans are really an old relic?

Sony's followers, no matter how stubborn they are, saying that portable music players have better sound quality and MP3 players are electronic waste, they can't change the unstoppable trend. Feiyan MP3 is the next generation of music players!
The reason Sony was able to make up its mind was the strong performance of the Flying Goose 2 in Japan.

The Flying Goose 2nd generation caused a phenomenal event in Japan.

To compete for a limited-edition U2 Flying Goose 2 model with a Pokémon co-branded case and endorsed by Namie Amuro, more than two thousand users lined up overnight at the Shibuya fashion landmark 109 building, just to snag one device!
The Japanese media filmed this scene and broadcast it on television, causing a sensation throughout Japan.

Japanese tech users, who are traditionally conservative, are not actually as conservative as reported by Japanese media, nor are they different from young people overseas who dislike trendy electronic products.

Previously, there were simply no other options. Now, the Flying Goose 2nd Generation has ignited the trend among the younger generation of Japanese brands. The limited-edition collaboration, coupled with the popular Pokémon shells and endorsements from top Japanese celebrities, has directly exploded the Japanese market!

Behind this, something the media failed to notice is that, just as the five major overseas record labels were badly affected by Napster, the four major Japanese record companies also suffered a 30% drop in performance in the past year due to the Napster website, whose servers were hosted in Hong Kong!
This is in the world's most conservative Japanese record market, and the Japanese record industry has been wary of such disruptions.

Therefore, after the four major international record labels partnered with Himalaya Music, three of the four major record labels in Japan—Universal Japan, Avex, and Emperor Records—also opened their copyright libraries to Himalaya Music Japan.

This cleared the last obstacle for MP3 players to become popular in Japan. Then came the limited-edition Flying Goose 2nd Generation MP3, specially made for the Japanese MP3 market, which directly ignited the Japanese market!
When Sony saw the Flying Goose 2nd Generation cause such a sensation even in Japan, the home turf of the Walkman, it realized that the Walkman was doomed.

If they can't even hold onto the Japanese music player market, how can they possibly withstand the impact of MP3s elsewhere?
Whether by choice or by necessity, Sony Electronics has taken the opportunity to announce the development of a new generation of music players, the Sony NWHD.

When both Benedict Cumberbatch and Sony raised the white flag to embrace internet music and MP3s, it also marked the arrival of a new era for music and players!

But this time, the era of music and the era of music players are no longer dominated by Sony, which has dominated the music player industry for nearly 20 years. Instead, it has become Feiyan Technology, a subsidiary of Dongke, which originated in mainland China!
With MP3 players in one hand and Himalaya FM music in the other, Feiyan Technology is officially beginning to dominate the global MP3 and music market!
Many Japanese media outlets have begun to lament that Japan has lost its dominance in an industry, a fact that most people in the Japanese industry may not directly feel.

Just like in the past, when Japanese people used Xiaomi phones, watched Hisense TVs, used Haier refrigerators to store food, and Haier washing machines to wash clothes, and so on, and when these electronic and home appliances unknowingly became mainland Chinese brands, Japanese users would understand why the Japanese media reported on it as if they had lost their parents.

……

Li Dongling was surprised to see that Sony was developing its own MP3 player so soon.

The current Sony doesn't seem as stubborn as it was in its past. After losing the Walkman player market completely, Sony hastily started developing MP3 products.

Sony's influence hasn't waned yet, and with the release of MP3 players, sales are expected to improve, but it's likely just a few more units sold.

Li Dashanren is not worried that Sony's NWHD player will pose a threat to Feiyan MP3. Perhaps its sound quality is very good, but apart from sound quality, it probably has no other advantages.

For Sony Electronics, launching a best-selling MP3 player is not about technology, but about Sony's management.

They should have been able to relax and develop a trendy product, instead of trying to prove Sony's unwillingness to follow the crowd and insisting on being different, resulting in a product that was ultimately abstract...

(End of this chapter)