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Chapter 287 A single GG stirred up a storm.

The iPodGG shoot, which was originally planned to be completed in three days, was dragged out into a five-day in-depth tour of Paris by Ernst.

The reason given is, to put it nicely, that artistic creation requires reflection; to put it bluntly, that an outsider knows what an insider does. This tycoon likes to give acting advice to actors whenever he has free time, sometimes for an entire night, and I don't know what he has to say.

The director was incredibly frustrated, his anger burning like a raging fire, but he dared not vent it. He could only silently complain to himself, "It's already a lot of face for you that I, a Hollywood film director, am here to direct GG, and you keep delaying my work."

But despite the complaints, the director could only obediently endure them. After all, Ernst's status was undeniable; even if he stayed for a year, let alone five days, Ernst wouldn't dare utter a sound.

Since there's no way to resist, we might as well go with the flow and treat this filming trip as a free trip to Paris.

So, during their five days in Paris, everyone enjoyed a blissful life of visiting tourist attractions in the morning and taking photos in the afternoon.

Despite rushing to finish, the iPod's GG movie was successfully completed three days before Christmas and aired on major television networks around the world on time.

Then a huge uproar swept through the global music industry, directly causing a massive drop in the stock prices of major music companies worldwide.

At this moment, Philips CEO Cole Boonstra sat on a luxurious sofa in his office, staring coldly at the iPod GG playing on the television screen, his face so gloomy it seemed to drip water.

In GG, the iPod's compact and exquisite appearance, convenient operation, and powerful music storage function, every scene is like a sharp knife, stabbing hard into Cole's heart.

He clenched his fist tightly and said through gritted teeth, "We've been tricked by MGM!"

At first, it was thought that MGM was interested in the consumer electronics industry and might even launch innovative products. Executives at Kohl and Philips thought that MGM wanted to make a big splash in the consumer electronics field.

In an effort to win over MGM and secure its support for Philips' CD audio format, thereby consolidating Philips' dominant position in the standard, they readily extended an olive branch, selling PolyGram's online music rights to MGM for a low price of $1500 per year, and signing a 12-year contract.

Little did anyone expect that this was a trap set by MGM.

The release of iPod GG, coupled with the earlier launch of Google Tunes, brought the truth of everything to light.

MGM doesn't actually want to enter the consumer electronics industry; it clearly just wants to be a middleman.

They bought PolyGram's online music rights at a low price to pave the way for the launch of the iPod.

Thinking of this, Cole felt as if a bottle of mixed emotions had been overturned, with regret, anger, resentment, and other feelings intertwined, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He suppressed his anger, looked up at the secretary standing in front of him, and gestured for him to continue reporting on the situation.

Sensing the oppressive atmosphere emanating from Cole, the secretary cautiously began, "According to our investigation, this iPod, manufactured by iTech, can connect to Google's iTunes. Google iTunes was updated this morning, and the new version even includes a dedicated tutorial for using the iPod."

"It's obvious that this was premeditated; they planned from the beginning to make the iPod and Google Tunes work together to seize market share."

Seeing Cole's face darken further, the secretary swallowed hard. "We even specifically studied the MP3 format they're pushing so hard."

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"Back when the MPEG organization was selecting and defining audio formats, MP3 and our CD format engaged in fierce competition, going all the way to the end. However, MP3's algorithm processing requirements were much higher than CD's. Given the hardware capabilities at the time, our CD format was clearly better suited to market demands, so ultimately our CD..."

The format ultimately prevailed and became the mainstream in the market.

"However, with the rapid development of technology in recent years, processor performance has been greatly improved, and the biggest problem of MP3 format's high hardware requirements has been perfectly solved. At this time, the advantage of MP3 format's small file size becomes apparent. With the same storage capacity, MP3 format can store far more songs than CD format."

The more Cole listened, the more irritated he became, and his already gloomy face turned even uglier.

He impatiently interrupted his secretary, "Just tell me the final conclusion."

The secretary breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "Our internal assessment is that if the iPod's storage capacity really does reach the 5GB announced by iTech, then it can probably store a thousand songs."

"With the same 5GB capacity, our CD-format products can only store around 300 songs at most. That means the iPod can store at least 600 more songs than our products."

Upon hearing this result, Cole could no longer control his emotions and snapped the cigar in his hand in two. The ash from the cigar scattered all over the ground, just like his broken heart.

The gap is so huge, how can we even compare them?

Philips' original advantage in the CD format field seems to have vanished in the face of the iPod.

Cole knew that compared to PolyGram's $1500 million annual online copyright licensing fee, the challenge facing Philips' CD format was the most fatal threat.

Once the iPod succeeds in the market, consumers and manufacturers will be drawn to the MP3 format, and the market share of the CD format will shrink significantly, thus shaking Philips' dominant position in the audio format field.

Unlike Cole's restraint, other music giants didn't have such good self-control.

After the iPodGG was released, the executives of these music companies were like cats whose tails had been stepped on, jumping up and down and cursing Ernst and MGM CEO Robert Iger.

It's worth noting that when Google Tunes was first launched, these music giants were overjoyed, thinking Ernst was just a fool with too much money.

They believe that Google's CD burning and online music purchasing services will not shake the traditional music market at all and will definitely suffer heavy losses. Ernst's business is a losing proposition.

But the advent of the iPod completely stunned them, and they realized how ridiculous their initial idea had been.

Google Tunes is not a money-losing scheme at all. It's a huge game that Ernst orchestrated in the music market using MGM, Google, and iTech, directly impacting the traditional music market model and severely damaging the interests of these music giants.

However, there are exceptions in the otherwise bleak music industry, with the German giant Bertelsmann Group being one of them.

While other music companies were fretting over the launch of the iPod, executives at Bertelsmann Group were popping champagne to celebrate this historic moment.

The fact that even the notoriously cautious Germans are so excited shows just how optimistic the market is about Atom Technologies' iPod products, and it also demonstrates how much MGM can gain from this incident.

It's important to know that MGM made a profit from this deal at almost zero cost.

This zero cost does not mean that no online copyright fees are required. Rather, it means that for products other than Google Tunes, MGM does not need to pay additional copyright costs when licensing online music copyrights.

With the launch of the iPod and the accompanying services of Google iTunes, a large number of products imitating the iPod will certainly appear worldwide.

These imitation products, as long as they involve online music playback functions, must obtain the corresponding online music copyright authorization, and then they will all need to pay online music copyright fees to MGM.

This means that MGM will receive a steady stream of revenue, and this revenue will continue to increase as the market develops.

Seeing this huge business opportunity, Bertelsmann Group not only celebrated with champagne but also convened an emergency high-level meeting.

The only issue being discussed was whether to contact MGM in advance to sell the remaining 49% stake in Bertelsmann Music Group as soon as possible.

At the head of the table, Bertelsmann CEO Meltzer's sharp gaze swept over every executive present. "Has the assessment regarding MGM's future market capitalization been completed?"

The moment the iPodGG was released, Melzer keenly sensed the business opportunity it presented and immediately ordered his internal team to begin analyzing MGM's future value trajectory.

The executive in charge of the evaluation immediately chimed in, "It's already out."

"Based on our internal analysis, and considering the six-year timeframe set in our previous contract with MGM, if MGM wants to acquire our remaining 49% stake in Bertelsmann Music Group after six years, the MGM equity they would need to give up is likely to be less than 2.2%."

"Although the global music market is currently in a stable state of development, MGM controls a large number of online music copyrights worldwide. With the popularization of products such as the iPod, the online music market will experience explosive growth, which will correspondingly impact the traditional music market."

"Therefore, six years from now, MGM's revenue in the music industry will likely be at its peak."

"If MGM continues to operate under the current model of charging Google 45% of the song's selling price as a copyright fee, then in six years, MGM's annual net profit from online music copyright alone will not be less than $4 million."

Moreover, this is only a conservative estimate; if market developments exceed expectations, this number will increase further.

Germans are not only meticulous and thorough in their work, but also very decisive.

The moment Melzer finished listening to the report, he had already made up his mind.

He glanced at everyone in the conference room again and said firmly, "I plan to personally go to MGM to discuss the sale of my remaining shares in Bertelsmann Music Group. Do you have any objections?"

The meeting room was silent. The executives looked at each other, but none of them raised any objections.

Everyone knows that Melzer's trip to MGM is definitely to make certain concessions and sell Bertelsmann Music Group completely.

Although from the perspective of immediate interests, this may seem like a loss, since Bertelsmann Music Group is currently still making a stable profit.

However, from a long-term development perspective, acquiring more MGM shares through share sales would undoubtedly be a more advantageous option for Bertelsmann Group.

MGM has already achieved absolute dominance in the online music copyright field, and its future development potential is limitless.

Owning shares in MGM is equivalent to owning a stable, high-yield investment project with enormous potential.

By selling shares, Bertelsmann Group can also raise a significant amount of funds, which can be invested in the Group's core publishing business to further expand its market share and enhance the Group's overall competitiveness.

Just as Bertelsmann was actively planning its collaboration with MGM, Wall Street's financial giants were also in an uproar over the launch of the iPod.

Prior to this, Wall Street investors were completely baffled by Ernst's series of seemingly unrelated moves.

But with the release of iPodGG, all the questions were answered, and Ernst's plan was finally clearly revealed to everyone.

Samsung's sudden increase in orders was actually in preparation for iPod production.

Google Tunes, which was previously widely regarded as a money-losing venture, was not actually aimed at small-scale businesses like CD burning. Its real purpose was to provide music services for the iPod and to compete in the consumer electronics and online music market.

Google's Wall Street shareholders, in particular, were so excited after figuring out the truth that they couldn't sleep all night.

While they were glad they had decided to invest in Google, they couldn't help but admire Ernst's boundless imagination and accurate business judgment.

They still remember that during Google's second round of funding, Ernst once proclaimed the slogan of "creating another Google".

After the launch of Google Tunes, shareholders were disheartened, feeling that the slogan of creating another Google was likely to become a joke.

But now, with the stunning debut of the iPod, all doubts and concerns have vanished.

It turns out that Google Tunes was just a prelude; the iPod was the final product in Ernst's plan to recreate Google.

The combination of iPod and Google Tunes could very well revolutionize the consumer electronics and online music market, much like Google's search engine did initially, creating enormous commercial value.

In this business storm sparked by the iPod, Goldman Sachs is undoubtedly one of the biggest winners.

Although iTech has not raised any funds and Goldman Sachs has not acquired any shares in iTech, Goldman Sachs is a major player with significant investments in the two key areas of software and copyright.

On Google's side, Goldman Sachs holds an absolute advantage among institutional investors, owning 12.433% of Google's shares.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs acquired MGM for free.

Thinking of this, while Wall Street institutions were excited, they also launched a new round of angry criticism against Goldman Sachs.

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