Restart life

Chapter 381 0371 [The Winter of Online Music Has Arrived]

Throughout August, the nation's attention was focused on the Olympics.

Wolf Totem, Professor Yang, Sanlu melamine... While these topics have received some coverage, they are all considered scraps of news in newspapers and websites.

The player who truly reached the peak in sales and traffic was Liu Xiang, who withdrew from the competition in the first round.

There were those who offered blessings and comfort, but also a deluge of doubts and insults. Some even said that Liu Xiang was under too much pressure and dared not compete in his own home country, so he pretended to be injured to avoid it.

Putting aside the opinions of a small group of people with ulterior motives, the main reason why Liu Xiang was criticized was that the Chinese people had too high expectations of him.

The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

Of course, the reason is also due to his excessive media exposure before the competition.

For more than six months, whenever you watched TV, no matter which channel you switched to, you would see commercials featuring Liu Xiang every few minutes. It gave the impression that he didn't need to train and was busy filming commercials all day long.

Oh, and there's a meeting too.

Liu Xiang could be seen at all sorts of meetings, and the media would always make a point of interviewing him.

This long-term and massive exposure contrasts sharply with his withdrawal in the first round, and could easily cause the public to feel disgusted with him.

Most people are unaware that Liu Xiang did not personally accept those advertisements; rather, the Track and Field Management Center was responsible for contacting, negotiating, and signing the contracts.

The Olympic Games officially ended on August 24.

In the realm of the internet, Sohu emerged as the biggest winner of this Olympics.

Thanks to its status as the exclusive online sponsor of the Olympics, Sohu's net profit for the quarter reached $4020 million, a year-on-year increase of 604%!

Zhang Chaoyang was at the height of his fame, having reached the true pinnacle of his life.

ByteDance also took the opportunity to scavenge a lot of leftovers.

Weibo, in particular, saw over 160 million new registered users, bringing its total user base to over 400 million. This is an astonishing number.

Of course, this is also related to the widespread use of mobile phones.

Let's leave everything else aside and just talk about smartphones.

From January to July this year, smartphone sales in the Chinese market reached 1567 million units!

You said you were still using a feature phone back then, which couldn't even take pictures. But smartphone sales really did reach over 1500 million units in just six months.

Of all these smartphones, Nokia accounted for 70% of sales. (Symbian system)

Motorola accounted for 15% of sales. (Based on Linux system)

Samsung, Dopod, and others account for 10%. (Based on Windows Mobile system).

Other manufacturers account for 5%. (Various operating systems, including Apple's.)
The chaotic state of mobile operating systems makes it difficult for apps to be compatible, and third-party manufacturers cannot keep up with the demands.

The smartphone market at this moment can be described in four words: chaotic!
The groundbreaking Qualcomm QSD8250 chip had not yet been released at this time.

Chen Guiliang's HarmonyOS phone was developed based on the Qualcomm MSM7200A.

Some time ago, Chen Guiliang had a dispute with several researchers, and they almost got into a fight.

The R&D team believed that while Texas Instruments' OMAP850 chip had a much lower CPU frequency and required additional external chips, its mature market validation, excellent power consumption control, and abundant development resources made it a more reliable and faster option than Qualcomm's MSM7200A.

Chen Guiliang didn't care about any of that.

He doesn't understand technology, but he recognizes the word "Snapdragon".

Upon further inquiry, he learned that the latter possessed stronger data processing and graphics processing capabilities, making it more suitable for 3G networks. While the former was more mature and stable, it was better suited for mass-produced feature phones and low-end smartphones.

……

Bian Guanyue ended her volunteer career and was so tired that she stayed at home to rest for several days.

Tao Xue had already returned to school.

During this time, Chen Guiliang, along with Bian Guanyue, invited Chen Xiaoxu to visit Professor Yu. They presented him with cassette tapes of Peking Opera and Sichuan Opera as gifts and sang several songs and operas for Professor Yu.

As the start of the semester approached, Chen Guiliang took Bian Guanyue, along with her unfinished thesis, to visit Professor Dong, whom she was planning to apply to.

Professor Dong didn't take it seriously at first, but out of politeness and a desire to make friends, he hosted the two of them at his home.

Especially after seeing how beautiful Bian Guanyue was, he basically guessed that she was Chen Guiliang's girlfriend. He planned to give her a perfunctory answer and let Bian Guanyue take the written test first, and then make a decision after the test results came out.

"Please give me your feedback, Professor Dong." After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chen Guiliang briefly introduced Bian Guanyue's situation and handed over the unfinished paper.

"The Resonance of Regional Musical Genes: A Comparison and Origin of the 'One Leads, Many Harmonize' Form in Sichuan Opera's High-pitched Tune 'Xiangluodai' and Bashu Weeding Songs"
Professor Dong was immediately intrigued just by looking at the title of the paper.

He stopped talking and began reading the paper intently.

After carefully reading it, Professor Dong praised it highly, saying, "In many places, the arguments in the article are very far-fetched, purely personal speculations, and lack supporting evidence. But as an undergraduate student who is not an art major, it is already very rare to be able to write such a paper. Moreover, it is very rare for undergraduate students to be willing to write papers on their own initiative, and to write such original papers."

"Thank you for the compliment, Professor Dong," Bian Guanyue said happily.

Professor Dong asked, "You come from a family of folk musicians?"

Bian Guanyue replied, "My grandparents and mother used to be in a Sichuan opera troupe. I learned Sichuan opera from a young age, but later traditional opera didn't work out, so I switched to vocal music for a few years in middle school."

Based on Chen Guiliang's brief introduction, Professor Dong asked curiously, "Then why didn't you attend an art school?"

Bian Guanyue said, "Because of conflicts with my family, I was quite rebellious at the time and switched to being a regular student in my senior year of high school."

Professor Dong remarked, "You only switched to a regular student position in your senior year of high school, yet you still managed to get into the Capital University of Economics and Business, which shows you're very strong in your academic subjects. But less than a third of your paper discusses Sichuan Opera. Are you also familiar with other folk music and local operas?"

Bian Guanyue said, "Starting from my sophomore winter break, I would visit folk artists every year during my vacation to learn traditional musical instruments and songs from them." This shows her true love for folk music!

Professor Dong has already developed a love for talent. Putting aside everything else, just considering interest and initiative, he is very willing to accept students like that.

Professor Dong said, "You need to do well on this year's written exam."

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, it was clearly conveyed that he would accept the job as long as the candidate passed the written test.

Bian Guanyue quickly bowed and said, "I will definitely do well on the exam!"

The gift Chen Guiliang brought was quite valuable, but Professor Dong had previously refused to accept it, leaving it untouched on the sofa.

When they left, Professor Dong did not mention letting them take the gifts with them.

This counts as accepting it.

After seeing the person to the door, Professor Dong went back inside to unwrap the gift.

Upon opening it, Professor Dong chuckled and said, "As expected of a big boss, he gives Zou Xusheng a fine product as soon as we meet."

Zou Xusheng is known as "China's No. 1 Flute". He was the first to use the twelve equal temperament to arrange the holes on the flute. He also made 12 tuned flutes to solve the problem of tuning the flute.

The flutes he made by hand were priced at one or two thousand yuan at the time, but you had to wait in line to buy them.

The flute that Chen Guiliang gifted is also a masterpiece among Zou Xusheng's works, and it would cost several times more to sell it.

Chen Guiliang drove his car back to his residential compound.

As Bian Guanyue unbuckled his seatbelt, he said, "The Olympics are over, and for the next few months, I'll be focusing all my energy on preparing for my exams. You go to work, I'm going home to study!"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "So you're just abandoning me after I've served my purpose?"

"If you're bored and have nothing better to do, go to school and find your junior, Tao." Bian Guanyue closed the car door behind her.

Chen Guiliang quickly followed and went home to have dinner together.

Too lazy to cook it myself, I called a restaurant near my apartment complex to order takeout.

He arrived at the company in the afternoon and immediately learned the good news: HaiNei.com's registered users have officially surpassed 7000 million!
Moreover, during the Olympics, HaiNei.com had a particularly high daily active user rate, and this level of activity continued even after the Olympics ended.

HaiNei.com's 70 million daily active users are far higher than 51.com, which claims to have over 100 million users.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Please come in."

Huang Xinyuan, head of the SP business department, walked in: "Boss, this is the proposal I prepared. We need to strengthen our cooperation with Xiami Music, otherwise we won't be able to continue with the ringback tone business."

Chen Guiliang, without reading the proposal, said, "Explain in detail."

Huang Xinyuan said, "The major telecom operators started centralized operations last year, and this year they have already taken back most of the rights of their provincial branches..."

Previously, mobile operators like China Mobile operated their SP (Service Provider) services, such as ringback tones, independently through their provincial branches.

The management is extremely chaotic.

For example, if I'm a service provider (SP) and I get a song to use as a ringback tone, I go and cooperate with China Mobile in Guangdong Province. But then China Mobile in Fujian Province jumps in and partners with another SP to make that ringback tone available for pirated download.

How the hell am I supposed to file a lawsuit?
Therefore, the major telecom operators have reclaimed control over their branch offices, placing them under unified management and operation from headquarters. This effectively prevents piracy, improves user experience, and enhances operational efficiency. In short, there are many benefits.

However, SP service providers have been completely relegated to the margins, because mobile operators and other carriers have chosen to cooperate directly with record companies!
In other words, Chen Guiliang can no longer buy song copyrights himself if he wants to continue making ringtones.

Even if you manage to buy it, you still need to contact the mobile headquarters and hand it over to them for unified operation.

Using this tactic, the mobile company headquarters has now captured 80% of the ringback tone market. SP operators have all become beggars.

This situation is beneficial to copyright protection and record companies.

But this is a disaster for SP service providers. 90% of small and medium-sized service providers will go out of business, while large SP service providers will be forced to transform.

And what about the vast number of online singers?
Although it protects song copyrights, it doesn't benefit online singers.

They used to be exploited by websites and pirated by various companies, but at least they still had some value. No matter how much they earned, at least they made money.

That's no longer the case. With music websites and SP (service provider) profits plummeting, they're unwilling to help newcomers and lesser-known singers with promotion. Meanwhile, mobile companies, which dominate everything, are also heavily promoting songs from record labels after securing high-priced partnerships.

The era of diverse and vibrant online music is coming to an end!
Copyright protection means the end of online music.

Until the revolution in network and mobile technology, when mobile devices can no longer control the market, online music will be able to open a new chapter in another way—such as the three giants of QQ.

Huang Xinyuan said, "The largest SP service provider in China was forced to delist from the US market last year. Fenbei.com, which used to be very arrogant, can now only make money by organizing online singers to perform at commercial events. Our ringback tone business has also been ruined by China Mobile, so I want to bring Xiami Music under unified operation. Xiami Music's CEO will continue to be responsible for daily management and website operation, and I will only take over the wireless operation rights of the songs."

“Yes, continue,” Chen Guiliang said.

Huang Xinyuan said, "The SP business used to be characterized by simple agency and extensive operation. Now we must become more professional and refined. Xiami Music is the best in the country in terms of professionalism and refinement. Let them continue in this field; I can't do as well as them. In the past, we relied too much on operators. Now we must expand diversified channels, explore ways to directly reach users, and engage in cross-industry integration. We need to shift from SP fees to derivative revenue such as data services. We also need to build our own billing and user system to enhance user experience and reduce our dependence on mobile companies..."

Chen Guiliang carefully reviewed the proposal.

Huang Xinyuan's core plan was to develop the HaiNei.com WAP site into a diversified mobile service community. This involved integrating it with the HaiNei.com PC website, connecting it with Xiami Music, and also managing its Weibo account, thus integrating various resources to create a large-scale, comprehensive mobile online community.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll call Wang Hao to discuss it. You can fly over tomorrow and discuss it with him in detail."

“Okay,” Huang Xinyuan said.

With China Mobile leading the way, China Unicom is naturally following suit, and they are joining forces with record companies to destroy online music.

In trying to rectify copyright issues, the entire industry is often wiped out!
(End of this chapter)