Restart life

Chapter 239 0236 [The goal is still to create ringback tones]

"Fan Bingbing's agent just called."

"whats the matter?"

"Given the numerous online rumors questioning whether she has undergone plastic surgery, she will go to a hospital to verify whether she has had plastic surgery after the college entrance examination this year, and have the verification notarized by an authoritative notary office."

"You're entrusting this news to us?"

"The exclusive rights to the news have been given to Sina Entertainment Channel, and Sina will send people to film the entire process. The day after Sina Entertainment reports, she will upload the photos and notarized documents to Haiwainet and Sina Blog. Hmm, she wants to buy the top spot on Haiwainet's trending search list that day."

"This is a great way to attract attention!"

Just as June began, Fan Bingbing was already planning something big.

This is good news for HaiNei.com, because apart from the official Super Girl pageant, finally some celebrities are actively buying their way onto the trending topics list.

Of course, when it comes to creating hilarious moments, Song Dazui is the best.

That is to say that Liu Tianxian is a transgender person, and that's why the matter was brought up on the talk show "Today's Law".

Song Dazui has also registered an account on Haiwainet, and his first post was: "I have submitted a lengthy letter to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television entitled 'Save the Children - A Letter to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television,' urging them to ban Hunan TV from hosting the Super Girl talent show. Super Girl is misleading people and making money, leading so many children astray. They created a fictitious idol, Li Yuchun, blatantly providing children with toxic spiritual food..."

After this was posted, Song Dazui's Haiwaiwang account gained over 3 followers on the same day.

A lot of people are criticizing him.

There are also a lot of people who support it.

The two sides started arguing directly in the comments section.

Next, Song Dazui revealed the inside story of Huang Shengyi's contract termination with Stephen Chow. He spoke with great seriousness, claiming that Huang Shengyi told him this personally because Song Dazui had played Huang Shengyi's love interest last year. He also mentioned his own film investment…

After being reminded by Haiwainet to be mindful of his remarks, Song Dazui issued a statement: "I take full legal responsibility for all my statements and they are unrelated to any website or news media."

Now, the first thing Chen Guiliang does every day when he logs onto Haiwainet is to check if Song Dazui has come up with any new content.

This person is just too damn abstract.

After a major case was solved, Song Dazui went to auction off a criminal's Porsche and then publicly announced that he would give it to a pop diva surnamed Yang. From then on, he embarked on a path of creating mischief.

Chen Guiliang clicked into Song Dazui's personal homepage and immediately saw his new message: "I've invested in a new film, and the female lead has been confirmed as Li Xiaolu. We'll also be inviting the famous actress Zhang Yu to participate..."

Zhang Yu is the one who confessed to sleeping with more than 30 directors.

After reading the article, Chen Guiliang had a premonition that Song Dazui's message today was just a small prelude to his new venture.

"Senior, I'm going into the exam room now," Tao Xue texted.

Chen Guiliang replied: "Keep it up! Good luck!"

"Ok!"

Tao Xue took a deep breath and handed the phone to her brother.

Unbeknownst to her, she was about to encounter the most outrageous college entrance examination in Longdu City. Not only did no one from the entire city get into Tsinghua or Peking University, but the undergraduate pass rate also plummeted.

Moreover, this was the case only for this year's cohort; all high schools in the city were the same.

Tao Chenggang watched his sister walk into the examination hall, while he stood outside doing nothing. Bored, he simply called Chen Guiliang: "Shi Yuzhu is too unreasonable. He has a promotion team of more than 2000 people, going all over the country to cooperate with internet cafes. In just over a month, I heard that he has already established more than 100 offices across the country."

"Take it slow," Chen Guiliang could only offer words of comfort.

Tao Chenggang complained, "I worked on it for more than half a year, but he surpassed me in online players in just one month. However, now the reputation of 'Zhengtu' is terrible. There are 'Zhengtu' ads everywhere online and offline, which has already attracted the resentment of many netizens."

"How much did 'The Emperor' make last month?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Chenggang laughed and said, "The revenue is over 2800 million yuan, and the net profit is over 1300 million yuan. I am also expanding the promotion team and plan to cover all second- and third-tier cities."

Chen Guiliang sighed inwardly. Compared to these money-grabbing games, "Three Kingdoms Kill" was still far less profitable.

Tao Chenggang said, "There's a player called 'Central Plains Thug,' whose family elders are said to be from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces who run coal mines in Shanxi. He logs in every day and spends at least 20,000 yuan, sometimes as much as 50,000 yuan. Moreover, he doesn't play the national war much; he spends so much money purely for fun. The game has added several new gift items specifically for him because he wants to buy gifts to give to the girls in the game."

“The coal bosses have so much money they can’t spend it all, let’s help them spend some,” Chen Guiliang joked.

Tao Chenggang said, "If I weren't making games, I would hardly imagine that there are people like this in real life. They really just throw money around for fun. The game even created a gift leaderboard specifically for them to see which player received the most gifts."

"Haha, this leaderboard is pretty good." Chen Guiliang couldn't help but chuckle, as he recalled receiving gifts during live-streamed PvP battles.

The landline rang, and Chen Guiliang pressed the speakerphone button.

Secretary Hu Yuexia said, "Boss, Mr. Wang Hao is here to visit."

"Invite him in."

Chen Guiliang then said into the phone, "I'm hanging up now."

"Let's talk again later." "Okay, goodbye."

Wang Hao walked into the office, smiled, shook hands, and said, "Mr. Chen, I've heard so much about you."

"No, no, please have a seat," Chen Guiliang said.

Wang Hao got straight to the point, saying, "Let me share my thoughts. I plan to completely revamp that music forum. I'll still stick to paid music."

"You have so many copyrights?" Chen Guiliang said. "I know someone who made legitimate paid music, but he shut down his website last year and went back to the research institute to work as a researcher."

Wang Hao said, "My ideal music website is one where users pay to download music. The website then pays record companies royalties based on the number of downloads. Alas, record companies don't want a steady stream of revenue; they all sell copyrights in a one-time deal."

"Tell me your specific plans," Chen Guiliang said.

Wang Hao explained in detail: "The website conducts strict reviews of music files uploaded by users and resolutely refuses to use web crawlers or hotlinking. The minimum audio quality requirement for songs uploaded by users is 320kbps, which is far superior to the currently popular 128kbps."

"Song information must include the artist, album, track list, genre, year, language, and lyricist/composer. If a label is involved, it must be indicated. Vague information such as 'unknown artist' or 'multiple artists' is not allowed. If a user uploads an entire album, the track order must be correct."

"I want to create a Wikipedia for the music industry!"

Users can earn points by uploading high-quality resources or participating in resource review. Downloading songs requires points. Points can be obtained by recharging with RMB.

Chen Guiliang felt increasingly uneasy as he listened. This community operation model sounded so much like a small-scale illegal operation.
Wang Hao continued, "If there are infringing songs and the copyright holders come to me, I will discuss cooperation with them. That is, I will pay them a share of the copyright revenue based on the number of downloads. If we really can't reach an agreement, then I will have no choice but to take them down."

In other words, they still have to operate by infringing on others' rights.

However, they are very ethical in their infringement practices; they don't steal other people's copyrights, and they certainly don't use the content for ringtone marketing. Furthermore, as long as the copyright holder agrees, they are willing to share the copyright revenue based on the number of downloads.

"Why didn't you work at Alibaba anymore?" Chen Guiliang asked curiously.

Wang Hao said, "I played in a band when I was in college, and in 99 I started an underground music website. Before Taobao was launched, I created my own website to sell musical instruments. Business was pretty good."

"I'm not the Alibaba technical director that people are saying I am. In fact, I'm too proactive when it comes to coding. After finishing my own tasks, I like to help others modify their code. When my boss asked me to develop the Alibaba TrustPass feature, I also refactored other people's front-ends. I also built Alibaba and Taobao's UseCase system, which is still in use today."

He said these words with some pride, and at the same time, he was showing off his abilities to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang asked, "How much do you plan to sell your music forum for?"

“It’s worthless,” Wang Hao said. “I started a music website in 99, and it had tens of thousands of users in 01, but it was shut down just like that. What’s valuable is me. Everyone in the Hangzhou music scene knows me. All 10 users were audiophiles, and I had a very good relationship with them.”

Chen Guiliang cautioned, "You're taking the 'small but beautiful' approach. Once something grows big, commercialization is inevitable."

Wang Hao laughed and said, "You can take the mainstream route but also target a niche audience. Why do so many people dislike Dao Lang and Phoenix Legend's songs? Because they're played everywhere. People always seek to be different so they can show off their taste. The recommendation system I'm planning to implement will focus on recommending high-quality songs that aren't well-known."

This is indeed Xiami Music's approach. For example, "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" was heavily promoted by Xiami Music even before it became popular.

Users of Xiami Music always seem to discover high-quality songs that others don't know about. They then feel particularly unique and have a sophisticated taste in music.

Wang Hao said, “300 million yuan, not US dollars, just RMB is enough. I’ll sell you 70% of the shares. You’ll also need to invest another 200 million yuan as operating capital for the website’s commercialization, and this money won’t dilute my shares. You’ll gain tens of thousands of music enthusiasts, most of whom are willing to pay for music. I can build my own team, including people from Alibaba and top musicians from Hangzhou.”

The 300 million yuan was paid to Wang Hao, who would pocket it.

The 200 million yuan was the startup capital for the website.

"You can still pull people out of Ali?" Chen Guiliang laughed.

Wang Hao said, "Of the 70% stake you acquired, you need to allocate 15% to the team I recruit."

"can."

Chen Guiliang didn't mind.

If the company grows larger in the future and needs to purchase song copyrights, ByteDance will definitely have to make additional investments, easily diluting the shares held by Wang Hao and his team.

Wang Hao's abilities are beyond question, especially his exceptional ability to maximize user engagement, with users spending over 300 minutes per month at one point – the highest in the entire industry.

Then Alibaba brought in Gao Xiaosong, who was parachuted in as the chairman of Xiami Music.

“Let me also share my thoughts,” Chen Guiliang said. “I plan to have Renren.com and HaiNei.com collaborate on an original music competition. The physical record rights and performance rights of the submitted songs will remain with the creators. However, the online streaming and download rights will automatically be acquired by your music website. And the ringtone operation rights will belong to ByteDance.”

“When contestants participate in competitions, they sign agreements with the websites. I will not exploit their copyrights, and I will make it clear to them when signing the agreements.”

"Your website has a lot of professionals and enthusiasts who can score and comment on the entries. But most of the songs are probably not very good, so don't be too harsh when you comment. Talk to those musicians and support the grassroots music dreams."

"In addition to scores from professionals, there are also votes from registered users, including votes from new users. The final score is determined by taking all these factors into account."

"The community environment must be well managed. It's very likely that those hardcore veteran users will be sarcastic and cynical towards new users from Renren and HaiNei. We need to organize more in-site activities to encourage friendly interaction between new and old users."

Expanding business empires is a distant prospect.

Chen Guiliang's short-term goal is to make quick money by operating a ringback tone service.

As a reborn person, he knows which songs will become hits!
(End of this chapter)