Huayu: From the Era of Ringtones to Becoming a Legend

"A reward of 20,000? Ninth Brother, no, President Lu, just you wait and see!"

Upon hearing Lu Jiuge's mission and promise, Wang Guangjun's eyes lit up instantly.

He excitedly pumped his fist and dragged the still somewhat dazed Ban Kaiwen into the company:

"Let's go, Kaiwen, hurry up and report to General Manager Chen. The sooner we finish, the sooner we get paid!"

"Ninth Brother, this... this will be our base from now on?"

Feeling down earlier, Wang Guangjun hadn't looked closely. Now, back in the office area, he was looking around like a country bumpkin visiting a grand garden.

"Wow! This chair has wheels! This computer looks way more high-end than the ones in internet cafes. We've really upgraded!"

On the other side, Ban Kaiwen walked straight to a computer, skillfully turned it on, opened the configuration, and exclaimed in surprise:

"Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU, 2GB RAM... This configuration is amazing! My efficiency for posting and video editing will double!"

Chen Bin walked over, patted the monitor of one of the computers, and said with a sigh:

"These guys, I picked them out one by one from Zhongguancun, spending almost 200,000 yuan. I never thought... they'd come in handy!"

Knowing Chen Bin's feelings, Lu Jiuge smiled and said:

"Old Chen, a good horse needs a good saddle; a treasure will shine sooner or later. From now on, this will be our warhorse for conquering cities and territories!"

He turned his head and formally introduced Wang Guangjun and Ban Kaiwen:

"This is General Manager Chen Bin, a veteran entrepreneur in the ringback tone industry. He will be the general manager of Qianxing Entertainment in the future. You two should learn a lot from him!"

After Lu Jiuge finished her introduction, Wang Guangjun and Ban Kaiwen, with great tact, stood up to greet her:

"Hello, Mr. Chen!"

"Haha, great!"

Hearing that voice again, Chen Bin was deeply moved. He laughed heartily, but dared not be arrogant, and humbly said:

"Don't call me General Manager Chen, just call me Old Chen. We all need to work under Xiao Lu's leadership to develop and expand Qianxing Entertainment!"

Lu Jiuge smiled and nodded, without saying anything more. She then called Liu Sixi over, and the group walked into the conference room together.

"This is the first meeting of the founding team since the establishment of Qianxing Entertainment! We don't have many people, so let's skip the small talk and focus on one thing today!"

As the big boss of Qianxing Entertainment, Lu Jiuge gave a brief opening speech and then got straight to the point:

"The first phase of ringtone downloads for the song 'Walking In The Sun' has exceeded 2.5 million, reaching a bottleneck."

"I've decided that starting tomorrow, Walking In The Sun will be available for free across all channels!"

"What? Ninth Brother, you really want to open up the copyright? Forever free?"

Wang Guangjun was the first to jump up, his face contorted with pain.

"That's like throwing money away! Those pirates will be ecstatic, burning CDs of the songs and selling them, while we won't get a single penny in royalties!"

Ban Kaiwen also expressed his opinion in a low voice:

"Free licensing might speed up distribution, but isn't our ringback tone revenue our only source of income? Is betting everything on this too risky?"

In comparison, Liu Sixi and Chen Bin were much calmer.

After pondering for a moment, Liu Sixi asked:

"Xiao Lu, do you know what this means? It means handing over a fortune to someone else. Nobody in this industry does that!"

Lu Jiuge waited until their voices subsided before slowly speaking:

"It's precisely because there's no precedent that we're going to do it!"

He looked at the four puzzled people:

"The craze for ringtone downloads will fade, but a song's true vitality and influence only begin when it becomes ubiquitous and a symbol!"

"I want this song to be everywhere, like the air we breathe!"

Lu Jiuge's gaze swept over the group:

From two-dollar stores, hair salons, and skating rinks on the street, to the background music on taxi announcements and online videos...

I want the melody of "Walking In The Sun" to fill the ears of every young person and become a part of their lives!

Chen Bin, who had only heard a general outline of the situation during the company acquisition, was also somewhat hesitant and echoed Ban Kaiwen's viewpoint:

"But isn't it too risky to bet your only source of income on ringback tones?"

"Won't!"

Lu Jiuge shook her head:

"With a wider reach and a larger audience, I'm just betting on the odds; I can still achieve my expected revenue!"

"On the contrary, if we use the traditional methods of releasing records, not only will we fail to prevent piracy, but we will also find ourselves at odds with our listeners and unable to build a persona that resonates with them!"

After explaining, Lu Jiuge summarized:

"Everyone, remember this: from now on, all songs from Qianxing Entertainment will follow this path, completely abandoning the traditional music company model of relying on selling copyrights for a living!"

Although none of the people present, including Chen Bin, who had been in business the longest, fully understood the logic, they still nodded, demonstrating their determination to complete the task without fail.

Afterwards, Lu Jiuge led the group to her office and printed out the marketing plan that she had prepared in her QQ email a few days earlier, handing it to Chen Bin.

Chen Bin quickly assumed the role of general manager, took over the plan, and left with Wang Guangjun and the others to begin acting according to Lu Jiuge's plan.

With industry veteran Chen Bin overseeing things and her own detailed execution plan, Lu Jiuge felt much more relaxed than when she was promoting Walking In The Sun.

He didn't even participate; he stayed in the office, perfecting the scores for the songs "There's a Kind of Love Called Letting Go" and "Cooling Down."

At 3 PM that day, the official establishment announcement of Qianxing Entertainment Media and the statement of Walking In The Sun's permanent free authorization across all channels were simultaneously released through online channels.

At the same time, news also emerged that Walking In The Sun was simultaneously released on major music websites.

The announcement had an immediate effect.

People who were previously complaining about the lack of download channels for songs and having to transcribe recordings through low-quality videos immediately took action and eagerly logged into music websites to download them.

At six o'clock that afternoon, Lu Jiuge finished recording the melody of "Cool" on her computer and was about to call the others to have dinner together to celebrate.

But then they saw Wang Guangjun and the other three huddled in front of the computer, letting out excited exclamations.

Lu Jiuge leaned closer and asked:

"Judging from your expressions, the effect should be quite satisfactory, right?"

Wang Guangjun turned to look at Lu Jiuge, then opened his browser:

"Brother Jiu! It's blown up! Absolutely blown up! Forums and blogs are all talking about it! Our company name and the free licensing issue have already climbed to the bottom of the trending topics!"

"Walking In The Sun has surpassed ten million downloads on every music website, consistently ranking number one!"

Lu Jiuge looked at the data on the screen and nodded in satisfaction: "The effect is good!"

He turned around and looked at the four people:

"This proves we're on the right track! A fantastic start today! Let's go out to eat and celebrate Qianxing Entertainment taking its first step in disrupting the industry!"

The group answered and followed Lu Jiuge out, while Liu Sixi reported from the side:

"Xiao Lu, I've also received five or six calls regarding record publishing, all asking if we're exaggerating or trying to set a trap?"

"You can reply to them saying that this is completely true, and that we can directly issue a post-authorization letter to anyone interested in publishing and distributing it!"

After a pause, Lu Jiuge added:

"Teacher Liu, tell these publishers that we're not only offering free licenses, but the top three sellers will also receive a bonus!"

"As for the specific amounts, the first place winner will receive 300,000, the second 200,000, and the third 100,000! The competition period is three months, and the minimum entry requirement is one million album sales!"

Seeing Lu Jiuge make another shocking statement, Chen Bin reminded her:

"Isn't giving away 500,000 as a reward too much?"

Lu Jiuge shook her head:

"Not at all! Old Chen, people will die for money, birds will die for food; only in this way will they work hard!"

Stopping in her tracks, Lu Jiuge turned to look at Chen Bin and the others:

"And think about it, to win the award, the record needs to sell at least three million copies, and even with a mediocre audience, it needs to reach at least fifty million listeners!"

"If we only need a 5% conversion rate for ringback tones, our revenue will be one million!"

"Moreover, I want to use this song to boost Qianxing Entertainment's reputation in the industry, so this deal is definitely a win-win!"