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

February 15, 2006, night.

The buyer's trading section of the Xianming platform is stuck in the last nine hours before it goes live.

"alright."

Wu Yue pressed the Enter key one last time, took off her glasses, and rubbed her reddened eyes.

"The permissions have all been granted. Send the login instructions to all the clients who have previously sent cooperation letters."

"Testing complete, going live tomorrow at 9 AM."

……

At the same time, Yan Kuan was also awake in the office of Penguin Music's Yanjing branch.

On the computer in front of him, there was a login guide email from Xianming.

The subordinate added, "Regarding the playback interface for 'Immortal Name,' the collection and comment mode..."

"Qiandu has been fully launched."

Yan Kuan was not surprised.

In the era of rapid expansion and market share acquisition on the internet, everyone is exploring new trends in digital music.

The music libraries of all the stores are completely empty.

The fact that someone is now standing up to unite independent creators outside the record label system is something everyone is paying attention to.

The next morning, Yan Kuan turned on his computer five minutes early and logged into the Xianming central platform.

Refresh, refresh.

Sure enough, a transaction function has been added. Enter your information and log in.

He paused for a moment the instant the page finished loading.

A total of 392 songs have been confirmed as tradable.

The purchasing manager leaned over and blurted out, "392 songs? All of them have been registered? And they've only been online for a few days?"

"Even excluding older songs, there are still over two hundred new songs. What kind of growth rate is that??"

Yan Kuan didn't say anything, but opened the data package of a song.

Views, number of favorites, completion rate, geographic distribution, and fuzzy age segmentation.

It can even pinpoint which city had the highest completion rate.

"This data..." The operations manager took a breath.

"So when purchasing songs from record companies, all they give you is the finished product. Data? None."

"Whether he can become popular or not depends on what he says: that his bag will become popular."

"And the songs here, once bought, don't need to be left in a corner to ferment; they can be directly targeted at new users."

I hesitated for a while before making the purchase.

"But... these are all non-exclusive licenses. If we buy them, other companies can buy them too. What's the point?"

The office was silent for a few seconds.

Yan Kuan looked up: "The significance? At this stage, whoever captures the volume will be able to retain users."

"The songs of record companies are the existing stock, while this is the new stock. The existing stock can wait, but the new stock cannot."

He chuckled. "Tell me, how many small to medium-sized record companies can you find that have been around for five years?"

After some thought, the purchasing manager said, "At most two hundred songs, and the copyright might still be somewhat unclear."

"That settles it."

"We can't produce that many new songs, let alone this much data. Even if we searched for three months, we still wouldn't find this many."

He selected all.

"No need for exclusivity." Yan Kuan closed the page.

"At this stage, keeping the artists alive is more important than holding onto the songs. If they live, there will be another batch of 392 songs."

He stood up and said crisply, "Your purchasing and legal departments need to draft a quote quickly and send it over before you leave work today."

"Also, release the news of our cooperation with Xianming."

"The title itself states that Tencent Music is the first to integrate with Xianming's original content platform, promoting a new digital music ecosystem."

The operations manager was taken aback: "Is this helping Xianming Education Market?"

"We're helping ourselves," Yan Kuan said.

"Once the news is released, more creators will flock to Xianming, and more platforms will follow suit."

"With such a big plate, whoever eats the most in the end will have to rely on their skills."

Someone asked an extra question: "What about NESTS?"

"Why bother with NESTS?" Yan Kuan chuckled.

"Don't waste resources on useless things. First, establish the 'Immortal Name' model and expand the scope."

Almost at the same time.

The business teams from Baidu, Kugou, Kuwo, and Sohu all accessed Xianming's buyer platform.

Looking at the list of 392 songs, I pressed the export button.

The lively atmosphere in Xianming's small building began with the crackling of the fax machine at ten o'clock.

And then it never stopped.

"Paper, paper, the fax machine is almost out of paper."

Jiang Yilei's voice came from the front desk on the first floor, where she was holding a stack of faxes that had just been printed out.

"Ma Xiaojun, come over here quickly and tidy things up."

Ma Xiaojun rushed over, "Has Sohu Business gone mad? First they sent out a full quote for 200 songs, and now they're doing this again?"

While doing it, he muttered and cursed, "Can't you just give me the whole report at once? Stop being so stingy."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the landline next to him rang again.

"Mr. Wang! 56.com's business team is contacting you to confirm the scope of authorization for video background music, saying they don't see this category on the platform!"

Wang Song hurriedly took the document: "The rules for video background music are still being improved, please wait patiently."

"If you are willing to wait, we can grant you trial access first."

The second floor.

Wu Yue stared at the screen, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

"Wang Song! All our business correspondence has been uploaded online, and we're all crammed into the backend exporting data."

Wang Song took a closer look.

Baidu, Tencent, Sohu, Sina, TOM.com, 56.com, Kugou, Kuwo...

Wang Song thought for a moment, "It's only the first morning, are you sure the server can handle it?"

Wu Yue glanced at the market share: "It's still enough. If we can get through this first transaction, things will be much better afterwards."

Wang Song nodded, and his phone vibrated.

The message came from Zhao Lan: "People from Qiandu have come directly here with a price list. They're downstairs and say they want to talk in person."

After reading it, he replied: "Have them come up to the conference room."

The moment the meeting room door closed, the receptionist on the first floor erupted in chaos.

"Deputy Director Jiang! Tencent called and said they sent us their quote twice, asking if we received it!"

Jiang Yilei ran back from the conference room door, grabbed the phone, and exclaimed, "President Yan, hello! I received it!"

"We're processing it! Yes, yes, there's a lot of work today... Okay, okay, I'll definitely get back to you this afternoon!"

Jiang Yilei hung up the phone and pointed to the stack of unorganized price lists in Ma Xiaojun's hand.

Ma Xiaojun glanced down and his expression froze.

"Penguin Music, full price for 392 tracks, fixed licensing fee of 426592."

"A minimum of 215 yuan is guaranteed for every 10,000 plays; high-quality songs with 100,000 plays will participate in GG revenue sharing."

In the conference room.

He flipped through two pages; at the bottom was Sohu, then Kugou, then Kuwo…

Ma Xiaojun swallowed hard: "This...this is going to be a windfall?"

Jiang Yilei ignored him and ran towards the photocopier with another stack of price lists in his arms.

In the conference room.

Attorney Zhou, who had received support from Baidu, sat opposite them. The person who came was an old acquaintance, Boss Xiong.

"Mr. Wang, of these 392 songs, we already have 78 on Qiandu, which is an encouraging number, so we came immediately."

Wang Song nodded.

Old Xiong continued, "We will continue to use the old model for revenue sharing and the minimum price per 10,000 plays."

He pulled a list from his bag and handed it over: "This is a fixed licensing fee; this is our quote."

Wang Song glanced at it and saw genuine sincerity; not only did they offer the highest bid in the range, but they also added the previous 78 songs.

Wang Song held out his hand: "No need to look."

"We've used the lawyers you provided; let the legal team handle the contract."

Old Xiong shook his hand: "It's a pleasure working with you. I bet you've had a very busy first day."

"Attorney Zhou, can we hold on for a few more days?"

Six o'clock in the evening.

The first round of bids has been basically collected.

"Ah~ I'm exhausted." Ma Xiaojun slumped into a chair.

"I received more phone calls today than in the previous twenty years combined."

Wang Song nodded, "Thank you all for your hard work. Keep up the good work, things will get better after the first day."

He looked down and flipped through the list.

Wang Song took the list and began flipping through it.

392 songs were offered for by seven platforms in one day.

I've signed a contract with Baidu for all 392 songs, and the fixed licensing fee has been credited to my account.

Sohu asked if they could buy by region, as they only wanted the batch with good data from North China.

The price quote from Tencent has been confirmed; they truly live up to their reputation as a major company.

I'm still hesitating with Kugou and Kuwo, saying I need to go back and discuss it.

Two smaller platforms directly paid the lower end of the quoted price range without even negotiating the price.

He closed the list and asked, "What about the finance department?"

Rodin sat in front of the computer, with three sheets of printing paper spread out beside him, covered with dense numbers.

"Qiandu's money has arrived."

"Reset to zero, reset to zero."

"After deducting the registration fee and the 5% service fee, the total is 495 yuan..."

The atmosphere in the legal team's office was also more efficient.

"This one is different." Zhao Lan raised her head.

"Our standard template is to submit to the Yanjing Arbitration Commission, but theirs says to submit to the court where the defendant is located."

Old Chen leaned over and took a look: "Tell them to change it. If they don't, send it back. We can't take that risk."

……

Nine o'clock in the evening.

The sounds of keyboards, fax machines, and telephones have all disappeared.

A few lights were still on in the small building.

The lights in the finance office were still on, and the occasional sound of a reset button could be heard.

Old Chen stood up, stepping on the scattered scraps of paper, and slowly strolled around the building.

He reviewed the contract that Zhao Lan hadn't looked at closely during the day.

Old Chen walked over to the fax machine and saw a stack of papers lying there.

I received the inquiry from SP this afternoon, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

He sorted them out one by one, placed them on his workstation, and muttered to himself.

"I don't understand internet pricing, but this... is alright."