Huayu 2002, I'm going to dominate the music scene!

Song Mo's timing for time travel was unfortunate; the World Cup in Japan and South Korea had already ended when he arrived, so his hopes of getting rich through betting on football were dashed.

Fortunately, the era of ringback tones will arrive next May.

Yang Chengang's song "Mice Love Rice" alone can earn him over ten million yuan in ringtone revenue.

This is a genuine opportunity of our time.

He put on his headphones and started going through each song one by one. He mentally compared the melody, rhythm, and vocals of each song. When singing these songs, he deliberately changed his usual singing style to make it more in line with the original singer. After all, the original singer's style had already been tested by the market, and he didn't want to take any risks.

When he recorded "Mice Love Rice", he stopped and listened to it once, and then listened to it again.

When the chorus started, he couldn't help but laugh as he listened.

Is it rustic? Yes, it is.

But when the commission for the ringback tone is paid out, nobody cares if it's tacky or not.

He recalled a report he had read in his previous life: Yang Chengang sold "Mice Love Rice" to a record company and only received a buyout fee of tens of thousands of yuan. Later, the song's ringtone revenue reached tens of millions of yuan, all of which went into the company's pocket.

There's also Pang Long, whose song "Two Butterflies" became a nationwide hit. It's said that he also received millions in commission from ringtone sales, but he signed a full contract, and the majority of the profits went to the company.

He didn't want to fall into these traps.

So during that month, he saved up money to buy equipment while making three trips to the China Copyright Protection Center.

He registered the copyright for each of his works, including "Mice Love Rice," "Two Butterflies," and "Seeking Buddha."

He also posted these lyrics and melodies on Sina and Sohu's music channels, and kept screenshots of the initial release pages. These will serve as evidence should any copyright lawsuits arise in the future.

There was another thing that he had been thinking about for a long time.

These ringtone creations cannot be registered under one's own name.

It's not that I don't want this reputation, it's just that the timing is wrong.

Public psychology is a very complex thing. Don't be fooled by the fact that everyone listens to these songs and even enjoys them. If you ask them what they think of viral internet songs, nine out of ten will say they are corny, cheesy, and lack substance.

If Song Mo were to appear in the public eye now as an online singer, once that label is attached, it would be difficult to remove it later.

But what if it's the other way around?

If he can first establish himself in the mainstream music scene and make a name for himself.

Even if it's revealed that he wrote those viral internet songs, public opinion will turn to comments like "I never knew he had this side to him," "He appeals to both highbrow and lowbrow tastes," and "He's brave in exploring new avenues."

First impressions have always been very important.

In his vision, his musical journey requires a two-pronged approach.

One leg is signing with a record company, releasing albums normally, and following the mainstream route. The other leg is ringtones, which provide him with a steady stream of cash flow to help him try more things, since a music empire can't be built just by releasing albums.

To completely separate these two legs, he did something special: he established a cultural communication company called "Ink Dot".

Starting a company these days isn't easy; it's all about paid-in capital, with a minimum registered capital of 50 yuan.

Where would he get so much money? It was only with Anming's help that the verification issue was resolved. This kind of operation is commonplace in this day and age, and there are quite a few companies that specialize in doing this.

Currently, the licensing rights for all these ringtone works are held by Modian Culture Media Co., Ltd.

It has no direct relation to him personally.

Even if someone investigates in the future, they can only find out that this song was produced by Ink Dot Culture. As for who is behind Ink Dot, that's another matter.

He finished the last song, took off his headphones, and rubbed his eyes.

It's late at night. I've gone through everything again. All the hard work these past few days has been worth it. Now that everything is done, I can finally move on to the next step.

The next morning, Song Mo went to Feiyu Internet Cafe.

This is currently the largest internet cafe in Beijing, and even in the whole country, with two floors and thousands of machines.

Since the Blue Speed ​​fire in June, internet cafes have been strictly inspected and are not allowed to stay open all night, so there weren't many people in the internet cafe this morning.

Looking around, Song Mo saw that almost everyone was playing games: StarCraft, Red Alert, and Counter-Strike. The screen was filled with the sounds of gunfire and shouts.

He turned on a computer, but instead of playing games, he opened a few music forums and glanced at some of them. Just seeing Liangyan made Song Mo burst out laughing.

Music forums today are actually quite similar to the fan circles of later generations, where arguments can easily escalate to the point of chaos. This is especially true of Xici Hutong, which, as the stronghold of artistic youths at the time, was filled with people tearing each other apart over Pu Shu and Dou Wei.

Song Mo didn't pay much attention to these things. He came today to find someone to make Flash animations for those songs. How could a viral internet song be successful without these abstract Flash animations?

These days, Flash animations are incredibly popular on the internet. After all, with such limited bandwidth, people can only enjoy these kinds of images for amusement.

Moreover, these days, people who can make Flash animations have a shining nickname—Flash animators.

Many people learn Flash animation because of its cool name, which is somewhat similar to that of a hacker.

Song Mo directly opened the website of Flash Empire. Flash Empire is currently the largest and most authoritative Flash portal in China, equivalent to "Bilibili + GitHub" in later generations. Almost all top Flash artists have their homepages or works displayed here.

Last year, Xuecun's "Northeasterners are all living Lei Fengs" became a hit across the internet with its catchy lyrics and Flash animation. Under the influence of that wave of popularity, Flash animation technology also gained some mainstream recognition, and as a result, many newcomers to Flash began to emerge.

As soon as Song Mo opened the forum, he saw that some people were discussing how to make special effects, some were sharing tutorials, and some were asking for songs. The atmosphere was much better than Tianya, Xici Hutong, and Mop.

Without hesitation, Song Mo started typing.

Post title: "Seeking expert help to create Flash animations for several songs, payment offered"

The content is simple: I have a few original songs and want to find someone to turn them into a Flash animation, with the style inspired by "Northeasterners are all living Lei Fengs". The fee is negotiable. If you are interested, please leave your QQ number.

These days, the internet is all about passion and loyalty. Many people play Flash games simply out of hobby, and few people think about making money from them.

Many people even believe that talking about money is vulgar.

At the beginning of the millennium, romantic artistic sentiment and pragmatic realism that prioritized money coexisted.

Song Mo was aware of this, but he didn't have much time or time to be sentimental or loyal to people. These things were too difficult to quantify among strangers; money was much simpler.

Luo Hongming is a third-year student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

That day, he opened Flash Empire, intending to see if anyone had posted any new works.

Then I glanced at a post that said: "Seeking experts to create Flash animations for a few songs, paid service."

Paid?

He clicked on it and saw that the post said they had several original songs and wanted to find someone to make Flash animations for them, with payment to be discussed.

Luo Hongming's heart skipped a beat.

He studied art and had been working with Flash for two years, making him quite well-known around the school. This wasn't difficult for him; he could finish one in a day or two. The key point was that he was paid.

He has a girlfriend, is a junior in college, and has many expenses. Eating out, watching movies, buying art supplies—all of these cost money. His allowance from home is meager, and he has to carefully budget every month.

If I could earn some extra money...

He added the QQ number listed at the bottom of the post with some skepticism.

The other party quickly accepted the verification.

"Hello, did you come here after reading the post?"

Luo Hongming typed: "Um, I wanted to ask, what are the specific requirements for your Flash animation?"