Restart life

Chapter 150 0147 [Music Platforms Are All Pitfalls]

"Let's go!"

After the two songs were recorded, Bian Guanyue bounced out.

Chen Guiliang shook hands with Li Jian and Li Chunsheng: "Goodbye, both of you. Hope to have the opportunity to work together again next time."

Li Jian offered a word of advice: "I know you're doing this to promote Renren.com and may not care much about the profit from the songs themselves. But when choosing an upload platform, it's best to carefully read the user agreements of those websites."

Chen Guiliang instantly understood what he meant: "Thanks for the reminder!"

After boarding the bus with Bian Guanyue, Chen Guiliang called Senior Sister Ao: "Manager, could you please hire a lawyer to come to the company? He doesn't need to be a top-notch lawyer, just someone who can understand network protocol vulnerabilities."

“That’s easy,” Ao Yanzhen reminded, “Give them some reward, don’t just settle for another barbecue.”

"No problem, haha." Chen Guiliang gave an awkward smile.

After Chen Guiliang hung up the phone, Bian Guanyue asked, "Is there something wrong with those music platforms?"

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "Li Jian just reminded us, otherwise we might have fallen into a trap. It's been too smooth lately, which made me lack a sense of crisis, and I didn't even think about that possibility."

When the two returned to the company, the senior colleague that Ao Yanchen had invited was already there.

Ao Yanchen introduced, "This is Xiao Shaohui, a senior from the law department."

"Hello, Senior Brother Xiao."

"Haha, Mr. Chen, I've heard so much about you. What do you need my help with?"

"Let's take a look at the user agreement of Fenbei.com first."

Fenbei.com is hailed as the cradle of online singers, and a large number of online songs, including "Mice Love Rice," became popular there.

Senior Brother Xiao Shaohui only looked at it for a few minutes, then pointed to the user agreement and said:
"The key parts are all vague terms. For example, here: 'The platform has the right to use user content for commercial cooperation projects.' What commercial cooperation projects? The scope is not clearly defined at all. After you upload a song, the website can do whatever it wants with it!"

"Furthermore, it only says 'users retain copyright,' but what about commercial copyrights? It doesn't mention that at all, so it'll be a mess in a lawsuit. Plus, there's no specific legislation right now, so even if a website infringes on copyright, the court will probably just arbitrarily order the other party to pay some compensation."

"And here too, the description is too vague..."

Following Senior Brother Xiao's instructions, Chen Guiliang carefully read through several vague descriptions: "Damn, this decibel.com is really shady."

It is precisely because of these vague clauses that any online song ringtone revenue exceeding 100 million yuan has nothing to do with the songwriters, composers, or singers.

The income of over 100 million belongs to someone else!

A platform with a conscience will only give you a million or two.

This platform is utterly disgusting; they'll just dump you for a few hundred thousand.

Going to court won't help. At most, the judge will take pity on you and order the infringing party to pay you two or three hundred thousand yuan.

Even more absurd is the case of an online singer uploading their songs to multiple platforms simultaneously. Then, each music platform claims to have obtained the copyright, leading to lawsuits against each other for copyright infringement.

It's like an honest person being robbed, and the robbers instead running to the authorities to report that other robbers stole their money.

The judge was dumbfounded; it was a complete mess.

After reading through the user agreements of those websites one by one, Senior Brother Xiao finally found a legitimate one: "This Jiutian Music Network is good. It clearly states that the platform only provides distribution channels and will not automatically obtain commercial development rights. If the song is used for ringtones, movies, etc., a supplementary agreement needs to be signed with the author and a share of the revenue needs to be paid."

"Write it down," Chen Guiliang said to Xie Yang.

After looking at a few more websites, Senior Brother Xiao reiterated, "QQ Music is also very legitimate."

Tencent may be disgusting, but it's alright in this respect.

Senior Brother Xiao spent half an hour reviewing the user agreements of more than twenty platforms. He read faster and faster as he went, heading straight for the vague terms.

As a result, only 9Tian Music and QQ Music were considered legitimate.

The rest are all sons of bitches!

Bian Guanyue said with lingering fear, "I spent so much time finding all these music platforms, but I never expected them to be full of traps. Luckily, someone warned me today."

"Haha, it's okay, I almost got scammed too," Chen Guiliang comforted him.

Chen Guiliang was thinking: Once I get the venture capital, I'm definitely going to set up a legal department.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Guiliang asked Xie Yang to upload "The Wind Rises" to Jiutian Music Network and QQ Music.

By the way, the official website of Three Kingdoms Kill also offers a download service for "The Wind Rises". Users on Renren.com who want to download this song can directly access the Three Kingdoms Kill official website via the link.

The school's intranet does not provide download services.

Next, the story "The Wind Rises" was embedded in a story relay activity page with three pictures attached.

Bian Guanyue also recorded the song "The Wind of the Bicycle," which she wrote on her own, and uploaded it to the music platform herself.

Bian Guanyue sat in front of the computer for a few minutes, then asked, "Why is the download count still 0?"

Xie Yang, who knew a little about computers, said: "Real-time updates to front-end data will put pressure on the server. Especially for music websites with huge download volumes, they usually update every two or three days, or even once a week."

"So, it means there will be 0 downloads for the next two or three days?" Bian Guanyue instantly lost her enthusiasm for looking at the data.

Xie Yang said, "Not necessarily. For example, if it breaks 10,000 downloads in a short period of time, it might show 10,000 downloads. It depends on how the website is set up."

Senior Brother Xiao went to Ao Yanzhen to collect his payment.

Chen Guiliang went downstairs to get his bicycle and took Bian Guanyue for a leisurely stroll around the campus on the weekend.

People recognize him every now and then.

However, everyone was already used to it, and only those who were closer to Chen Guiliang would greet him. The others pretended not to see him, but would instead glance at Bian Guanyue a few more times.

"Wu Meng, come out and soak up the sun!"

Chen Guiliang stopped in front of the dormitory building and shouted towards the dormitory, as they had arranged it beforehand.

A short while later, Wu Meng came out with a roommate and waved to them, saying, "Hi, President Chen, Guan Guan!"

"We're going to visit the Old Summer Palace today," Bian Guanyue said.

Chen Guiliang said, "Why don't you rent bicycles too, and we can all ride there together?"

Four people, three vehicles, heading north. Bian Guanyue stretched out her palm, as if trying to catch the wind; she especially loved riding bicycles these days.

Wu Meng and her roommate followed behind on their bicycles.

"This is Chen Guiliang's girlfriend?"

"Yes, he was my deskmate in high school."

"Sigh, looks like I'm out of luck. All the handsome guys are already taken."

"Haha. Chen Guiliang has a good friend named Xie Yang, who currently works at his company. I'll introduce you two sometime."

Is he handsome?

"Hmm... I guess I could manage."

Handsome Xie Saobang is currently working hard at his company, and he has to work overtime every weekend.

Or rather, he's busier on weekends.

But I enjoy it.

When he has free time, he reads some professional books that Chen Guiliang borrowed, and then carefully studies them in combination with his own practical experience.

I only vaguely understood some of the content, so I wrote it down first. I'll find some time to sneak into Peking University to audit classes, pretending to be a Peking University student, and then ask those famous professors for help.

Busy and fulfilling, he felt more and more that he had wasted his senior year of high school.

However, I sometimes feel lonely and really want to find a girlfriend.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to go to the restroom, Xie Yang strolled to the office next door.

Xu Fengyin was also working overtime there, and she had volunteered to do so. Her rented apartment was shabby and small, so she might as well just hang out at the company.

"Still drawing drafts?" Xie Yang casually tossed her hair.

Startled, Xu Fengyin quickly picked up the keyboard and pressed her drawing underneath it, afraid that someone would discover what she was drawing.

It's nothing really, just a little astringent.

Working overtime on weekends to draw game skins is perfectly acceptable; one could simply collect a salary and slack off, occasionally taking a break to draw something else.

Xie Yang glanced at the customer service representative on duty in the distance and said in a low voice, "Eating in the cafeteria every day is boring. How about we have some stir-fry together tonight?"

As she spoke, she reached out and touched her hair again.

"Next time," Xu Fengyin just wanted this person to leave as soon as possible.

She usually seems cheerful, but she's actually a bit withdrawn. Especially after she became obsessed with comics in junior high, she spent all her time reading and drawing comics when she wasn't studying, and she communicated less and less with her friends and family.

She was quite enjoying it, didn't feel lonely, and was completely immersed in another world.

"Then you get busy first."

Xie Yang left with an awkward smile, feeling quite uncomfortable inside.

I finally mustered up the courage to ask a beautiful woman out to dinner, but I still got rejected.

Xie Yang thought to himself: If it were Master Chen, what should I do now? Damn, dating is so hard, I have absolutely no idea how to pursue a girl.

Back at his workstation, Xie Yang posted on Tianya using a secondary account: How do I pursue a girl?

The replies were varied and confusing, leaving Xie Yang even more bewildered.

Sigh, never mind, let's just keep promoting "The Wind Rises".

Reposting with a new account: Another hit song has come out on Renren.com, it moved me to tears!
Embed the audio and click Publish.

After mechanically posting hundreds of messages on various websites, Xie Yang threw away the mouse and started reading.

After watching for a few minutes, I became increasingly irritable.

He sent a QQ message to Zhou Jing, his high school crush: "This is my new QQ number, it's five digits long, please add me as a friend again."

"Five figures???" Zhou Jing replied almost instantly, probably also surfing the internet over the weekend.

Xie Yang instantly became smug: "Yes, I have excellent work performance, so Master Chen specially gave it to me."

Zhou Jing: "Is Master Chen's company still hiring? I want to work there too! I also want a five-digit QQ number!"

"Then fly over here."

"Forget it, it's too far."

"Here's a song I really like. Here's the link."

"Let me listen first."

After a few minutes.

"Wow, this song is great, I want to recommend it to my friends."

"I knew you'd like it."

"Actually, I also use Renren. Your website is really fun."

"..."

Before we knew it, it was getting dark.

Xie Yang only realized what was going on when Zhou Jing said she was going to eat.

Throughout high school, he was too afraid to talk to Zhou Jing or chat with her on QQ. But today they actually chatted for an hour!
It seems like chatting with beautiful women is quite easy.

Damn it, why didn't I know how to do that before?

Now that BBS has officially implemented real-name registration, Xie Yang used Chen Guiliang's account to log in to Peking University BBS to observe the situation.

A lot of people are talking about "The Wind Rises"!
Although it didn't generate as much buzz as the previous three-line love poems, the discussion was clearly more in-depth.

(End of this chapter)