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

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

At the Yanjing branch of Tencent Music, Yan Kuan sat in his office, repeatedly refreshing the Music World forum.

My brow has been furrowed ever since Xianming issued that statement three days ago.

"Mr. Yan, we still haven't found any information." The operations manager stood in front of him, looking anxious.

"The news was kept tightly under wraps. All we know is that Baidu sent two legal representatives there, and not a single word has leaked out."

Yan Kuan's gaze remained fixed on the computer screen.

The post announcing that statement has already garnered over 30,000 replies.

"First! I'm eagerly awaiting Xianming's new plan. I hope it's not all bark and no bite."

"Even Baidu's legal team went there, I guess it's related to copyright? Are they planning to set up an online copyright platform or something?"

"I switched to NESTS before, but now I'm a little panicked. I have a feeling that there might be something good in NESTS."

"Indeed, thankfully I haven't been to NESTS. My support isn't absolute, but it's definitely not."

The topic of immortal names has garnered over a million views across all forums.

Almost all music audiences and creators are guessing what the immortal name is up to.

"And..." The operations manager paused, his tone becoming even more flustered.

"Our new submissions to NESTS have dropped by almost 60% in the past three days."

"Many creators have stopped uploading, saying they will wait until the Xianming platform is launched before making a decision."

These words finally made Yan Kuan raise his head.

What he feared most was never Xianming making a direct move, but rather this suspense of holding back the attack.

In just three days, the curiosity of the entire internet was piqued to its peak, and even he himself couldn't help but wonder.

Yan Kuan leaned back in his chair, trying to clear his mind, "How much longer until I go online?"

"There are... fifty-eight minutes left until 10 o'clock."

Yan Kuan took a deep breath: "Notify the technical department, everyone keep an eye on Xianming's platform."

"The moment it goes live, I'll dismantle all the features and rules! I want to see what tricks he can pull off!"

"It's ten o'clock!" the operations manager suddenly shouted.

Yan Kuan refreshed the page abruptly, and the announcement about the immortal's name arrived as scheduled.

He ignored all announcements and tutorials and quickly clicked on the link.

A very clean interface popped up, with no pop-ups or errors.

The top is the search bar, and the middle has four navigation bars.

Storytelling, music charts, funny stories with pictures and text, and copyright registration announcements.

"Technology Department! Everyone, get back to work! I'll point to something, you guys dig out the logic there!"

Yan Kuan quickly issued the order and clicked the mouse directly on the most important music chart.

He didn't even bother to look at the various song categories and directly clicked on the first popular song.

The three lists are presented side-by-side, with the rules clearly marked in small print.

Newly uploaded songs go directly to the charts without any restrictions, and are sorted by time.

The songs are automatically selected for inclusion in the new song chart based on listening and collection data.

Then, based on more complex metrics such as listen completion rate and comments, they will advance to the featured list.

The rules are as clear and visible as leveling up in a game.

There are no shady dealings or barriers; as long as creators upload their work, they are guaranteed to appear on the list of creators who upload their work.

Whether a song can make it onto the new song chart or the best song chart depends entirely on whether the audience approves of it.

Yan Kuan muttered to himself, "No wonder they need to categorize songs, otherwise the sunk costs would be too high."

He then clicked on the upload page.

Fill in the information, upload the full track, and check the ownership commitment box—all in one step.

"The system automatically extracts a 30-second preview clip; the complete audio source is only stored in the background and is not released to the public."

"The copyright registration service is under improvement, and works that meet the data requirements will be given priority access through a fast track."

Yan Kuan finished reading the rules with a furrowed brow.

"Not only is manual review unnecessary, but a million participants would be more than enough."

But then he suddenly realized something and looked towards the legal department.

"They upload these without copyright protection; don't they face any compliance issues?"

The legal representative gave a wry smile, "That's their most insidious aspect; everything else is compliant."

"Only 30 seconds of the song are provided, which does not involve any copyright infringement of the full audio source."

"And, and..."

The legal representative paused for a moment, then said, "There's the Internet safe harbor principle, so there's no point of attack in terms of compliance."

Yan Kuan paused for a moment: "Can we do a 30-second audition?"

The operations manager shook his head: "It can't be done."

"Headquarters will absolutely not agree to spend resources to build another middle platform."

"Even if it's done well, what's the point? Why not just let users upload to QQ Music directly?"

Yan Kuan sighed: "Users don't dare to upload songs that haven't been officially licensed."

"What if it gets stolen or registered by someone else? Who will be responsible?"

Yan Kuan continued, "We have already lost at the fundamental level of business rules and logic."

"We must conduct our own reviews and take full responsibility. The faster we review, the greater the risk."

Even if they can copy the technology, they can't copy the model.

He became increasingly flustered as he spoke, and clicked on the playback page of any song.

The interface is simple, with a 30-second preview that loops automatically, and basic buttons for pause, previous track, and next track at the bottom.

Next to it is a hollow heart, which is for saving; further down is the open comments section.

"Comments section?" Yan Kuan frowned even more as he opened the Qiandu MP3 interface.

Qiandu MP3 only offers search and playback, with no interactive features.

Xianming embeds the comment section under each song, allowing users to leave messages while listening to the music, and creators to reply.

This is turning a tool into a forum, instantly maximizing user engagement!

But then he thought about it again and realized that this model was simply the future of the music industry.

"Technology Department!! Send this playback interface and functionality to headquarters as soon as possible and let them discuss it."

The keen hunter still found his prey.

He continued exploring the webpage, the songs on the library charts were still up, automatically switching to the next song every thirty seconds.

Storytelling and Funny Stories Encyclopedia.

The story clearly states that this is a script being written by Xianming Studio.

"It's a script!"

"It also clearly states that copyright registration has been completed and that it has legal effect."

This means that this is a place for open bidding, and also a huge pool of user engagement.

Just like him, he listens to songs while reading stories, and if he likes a song, he adds it to his favorites.

The announcement is about the ongoing MV story writing contest.

Write a music video story for your favorite song, and the winner will have the music video funded by Xianming, with a maximum prize of 1,000 yuan.

"A madman!" Yan Kuan slumped into a chair.

"He's not building a music platform at all; he's building a one-stop content ecosystem."

"You can listen to songs while reading novels, or read novels while listening to songs, and you can even write an essay to participate."

"Once users enter, they can't leave, and creators' works can be exposed multiple times."

"In order to avoid direct competition with numerous online music platforms, we opted for a 30-second preview."

The operations manager explained, "This is a typical B2B2C model, serving both creators and music platforms like ours."

"On the one hand, we directly connect with users, forming a growth flywheel, so we need to increase our investment."

Their music platform, SoundNest, is still in the early stages of uploading songs and earning revenue sharing.

After a long silence, the technical staff cautiously asked, "President Yan, should we... copy it?"

Yan Kuan shook his head: "I can't copy it, at least not now."

"It all depends on whether headquarters is truly willing to invest resources and get involved."

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

Yan Kuan stood up and took a deep breath. "How's the forum's reaction?"

The operations team could only answer truthfully, "It's almost all praise; there haven't been any questions yet."

Yan Kuan looked at the forum excerpt.

"It's not hard work at all! There are no barriers to uploading, and once uploaded, my work will be showcased. Finally, people can hear my work!"

"A 30-second audio preview plus a forum-style interface, and you can even read novels—this isn't just a music platform, it's a paradise for creators!"

"Compared to SoundNest, no, compared to all music platforms on the market, it's a nuclear strike."

"I just removed the demos that were queued at NESTS and uploaded them all to Fairy Name. I apologize and I repent."

The operations team's voice was filled with despair: "Our creator churn rate has exceeded 80%."

"And... there are the withdrawals..."

Yan Kuan smiled helplessly, "Within a week, all the platforms on the Internet will copy their interface design."

"We didn't lose unjustly, let's formally start negotiating and cooperating."

Yan Kuan regained his former confidence, saying, "If the path of self-incubation is broken, then so be it."

"When it comes to resources, we penguins have never been afraid of anyone."

He paused, then looked at everyone in the conference room again.

"How long do you think their music platform model can last?"

"At what stage will users and creators trust our platform?"

The middle-aged man in charge of market analysis began:

"It depends on when we and giants like Baidu decide to get involved ourselves."

"Instead of the current situation, where the market is too small and people don't dare to openly spend money to attract talent."

"And when upstream record companies and content providers were successfully turned."

Yan Kuan thought for a moment, "How long will it take?"

"It will take at least one year, and at most two years, for us to enter the market once we have established a foothold."

Yan Kuan stood up. "Send them a formal business letter, give them a little something to offer first."