Business Closed Loop: Starting with Ringback Tones to Take Down Giants

January 18, 2006, Wednesday, 1 PM.

In the office area of ​​SkyNet

"Mr. Chen, within three hours of the release of 'Wait a Minute' and 'Decent,' the number of listens exceeded 10,000 and the number of orders exceeded 1,000."

Xiao Liu, the person in charge of liaison with Xianming, practically ran over.

"Purely organic traffic, without touching any local channels."

The data is clear and concise, showing that the geographical distribution is almost entirely within the university areas of Yenching University.

Old Chen looked down at his tablet, then turned and asked, "What's going on over there?"

"Everyone else went home for the holidays, leaving their boss in Yanjing."

"Their people have been posting on the forum these past few days to keep the buzz going."

Old Chen glanced at it and said, "That's enough. Use all our local channels and have it featured on the operator's homepage for seven days."

Xiao Liu paused for a moment, then said, "Mr. Chen, what about the release of those signed singers next month...?"

"squeeze."

January 19, a business hall in a county town in Henan Province.

Wearing dusty work clothes and clutching his newly received year-end bonus, Li Guozhu walked into the largest mobile phone service hall in the county.

"Get a card."

The young woman didn't even look up. She took the ID card, typed a few words on the keyboard, and asked, "What kind of package do you want?"

"The cheapest one, as long as it can make phone calls, is fine."

A series of option boxes popped up, but she barely glanced at them.

Click "Next" repeatedly. Caller ID is enabled by default, as is the monthly 30 SMS package. ...

The cursor paused for 0.01 seconds on a checkbox labeled "Monthly Ringback Tone Service".

The girl glanced at the small pop-up window in the lower right corner of the screen.

That was a notification sent by the SP partner just yesterday.

"This month's featured songs have been updated to the system's recommended section. Please guide customers to experience them."

The following are two song titles: "Wait a Minute" and "Decent".

She didn't guide me; she just checked the box.

In any case, most customers won't carefully read the three-page service agreement, and even if they do, they'll just cancel it next month.

For each user successfully linked, the SP (Service Provider) will give the business hall a commission.

"Monthly rent is eighteen, plus a fifty-yuan prepayment for phone credit." She printed out the form, pushed it over, and said, "Sign here."

Li Guozhu took the pen, and without even looking at it, he wrote his name crookedly in the customer's signature area.

As the girl handed over the new SIM card, she added a sentence.

"You can use the card as soon as you insert it. The first month is a trial period for some value-added services, which are free."

She spoke vaguely, but it was in accordance with procedure.

A month later.

A text message popped up on Li Guozhu's phone.

"Your subscription to the 'Wait a Minute' ringback tone... costs 2 yuan. Reply TD to unsubscribe."

He glanced at the 2 yuan/month figure but didn't think much of it.

After all, his kids all praised him, saying, "Dad, you're pretty trendy, and this song is quite nice."

He doesn't know what trends are; he only knows that if the kids like it, that's enough.

January 21, Guangdong Province, a workshop producing pirated audio-visual products.

Old Du stared at the computer screen, his brow furrowed. He asked the worker beside him, "Still haven't found the complete version?"

"Brother Du, really, there isn't any." The worker said with a bitter face.

"The only thing available for download online is a 40-second MV clip, which was scraped from Tudou.com. There is no full version on any major music websites."

Old Du swore.

He has been making pirated CDs for over a decade, from the cassette tape era to the CD era. What kind of songs hasn't he copied?

"Too Softhearted," "The First Snow of 2002," "Mice Love Rice"...

Which song didn't become a hit across the country? Which song didn't have its master tapes obtained overnight?

But this time, something strange happened.

He found the songs "Wait a Minute" and "Decent" on a forum.

A bunch of young people were discussing how beautiful and tear-jerking the song was, even when rumors circulated that the king had rejected the manuscript.

His professional instincts told him that this song was going to be a hit.

Now, these two songs are at number 38 and 52 on the ringtone chart, further confirming his idea.

But he searched through all available channels and couldn't find a complete version.

SP has it, but SP only makes ringtones, not releases records.

Record company? This song wasn't signed with a record company at all.

Creator?

You mean, a pirate rushes up to the legitimate creator, demands the complete version, and tells them, "I want to make a pirated copy?"

"Damn it!" Old Du cursed again.

"These days, musicians are taking increasingly unconventional approaches."

The young worker asked cautiously, "Brother Chen, shall we still carve it?"

"Carve! Why aren't you carving?" Old Chen slammed his hand on the table.

"Just that 40-second clip, looped three times, made up two minutes, and the cover said 'Mysterious Dark Horse of the Ringtone Chart'."

"But if it's just a clip, what if customers...?"

"You don't know anything!" Old Chen glared at him.

"It's almost Chinese New Year, why are you still fussing about fragmented celebrations?"

"The more incomplete it is, the rarer it seems. How many people who buy pirated copies care about the sound quality? What they care about is having this song too."

The worker dared not speak and obediently went to burn the disc.

Old Chen opened Tudou.com and watched that rough music video again.

At the end, when the Central Academy of Drama's Xianming Studio came out.

He was even more confused.

Since you're a student, why don't you release an album with such great songs?

Why not sell it for money?

Why put it only in the ringback tone, making people spend two yuan a month to listen to it intermittently?

On the evening of January 22nd, the 1rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year in northern China.

Wang Song brought back a pack of dumplings from outside to his bungalow. Before he could even unpack the chopsticks, his computer started beeping.

He opened the group chat.

Jiang Yilei said, "I subscribed to ringback tones for the whole family and found that the ranking has moved up one position. It's now at 32 and 41."

"Boss, is there a reward?"

"Vice President Jiang, is your whole family a platoon?"

Ma Xiaojun was having a lot of fun being cheeky.

"Wait until I get back, I'll beat you to a pulp."

Zhang Zhen also said, "Boss, we really succeeded. People in our village are using our songs now."

Chang Sisi also wanted to express her opinion.

"I was shopping at a department store with my mom, and the background music was 'Decent.' I told her it was us singing, but she just wouldn't believe me."

Yao Beina, on the other hand, was much more composed.

"Boss, physical record distributors have contacted me, but I'm temporarily turning them down because of the complicated copyright structure."

Jiang Yilei: "Physical release? Does that mean we'll be able to see our CDs in record stores? Why doesn't the boss consider it?"

Zhang Zhen: "I support it! I'll have my dad set it up at the village store so everyone in the village can buy from it!"

Chang Sisi: "+1! I'm going to give one to each of my senior female students in the vocal music department, so they know I wasn't bragging!"

Finally, there was Liu Jianjun. His message stood out as particularly... pragmatic amidst a sea of ​​exciting reports of good news.

"Boss, have you prepared all the New Year's goods?"

"My mom asked me to ask you what you wanted to eat. She made sausages, smoked fish, and pickled a jar of sauerkraut, saying I should take some with me when I go back to school..."

"Fawning over the boss"

"That's so Liu Jianjun!"

Official certification from Ma Xiaojun.

Wang Song typed with a smile: "We'll accept the local specialties, but we're not in a hurry to release the physical product. The ringtone price is still rising, so let's talk about it after we finish the full version after the New Year."

He casually refreshed the SkyNet data interface.

"Wait a Minute" climbed to number 29 on the ringtone chart, while "Decent" reached number 37.

Within three hours, the order volume had spread from universities in Beijing to county towns.

The group chat was still buzzing with activity. Jiang Yilei was urging for New Year's benefits, Liu Jianjun was showing off his family's sausages, and Chang Sisi was trying to persuade her parents.

The notifications kept ringing.

The Lunar New Year, spent alone in a single-story house, didn't feel lonely.

He leaned back in his chair, looking at the numbers on the screen, and couldn't help but smile.

A month ago, he and Jiang Yilei were still scrimping and saving on the budget for recruiting for the music team.

Right now, this song alone has enough orders in just one day to pay for two months' salary.

He remembered the scammer telling him on the phone to just wait for the song to rot in his hands.

It sounded harsh at the time, but now it just sounds funny.

It's done! It's really done!

Ringtones are a crazy money-making game.

But precisely because it's so lucrative, everyone's crowding in, and the rules are rapidly collapsing.

Wang Song knew better than anyone that the countdown to official intervention was underway.

But my buddy finally caught the last train of the ringback tone era.

Although I almost got tricked when entering because I didn't understand the game rules.

But that's all in the past.

Once you're in, let loose and enjoy the ringtone market to the fullest!

The initial accumulation of capital soon came to an end.

Wang Song looked at the three windows on the screen.

The countdown to the shareholding reform has begun; the registration time and regions for the 2006 Super Girl competition have been announced; and YouTube is already on the rise.

The golden route of the stock market, Super Girl, and the Internet has finally found a decent vessel.

The team that's been built up by personal connections and the profit sharing based on verbal agreements—what will sustain them once they actually receive that money?

Wang Song withdrew his gaze and created a new document: Details of Profit Sharing and Responsibilities of Xianming Studio.