Returning from Microsoft headquarters to the Seattle hotel, it was already late at night.
The negotiations with Ballmer and Bill Gates went quite smoothly. After all, the enemy of the enemy is a friendly force, and they want people to give to others.
Lu Fei got off the car and went back to the bedroom, took a hot shower to wash away the fatigue of the day, then sat in front of the computer and opened iTunes.
The interface of the current version is not what it will be in the future. It is just a music player with a smart playlist that allows MP3 music to be burned directly to CD, nothing more.
The iTunes mall has not yet been born, and by comparison, it is not as logical as Spotify.
My mind was clear, and Spotify's future plans and product feature designs suddenly emerged, just like going through a game guide before entering a level.
After thinking for a moment, he got up and walked to the window, opened the curtains, and looked at the moon in the night sky. The moon in foreign countries is not necessarily rounder than in China.
At this moment, a sudden knock on the door came.
"The door is not closed, come in."
Lu Fei put his hands in his pockets and turned around to see Guo Xing walking in without even changing his clothes. The bright smile on his face undoubtedly brought good news——
"Mr. Lu, Bezos knew it was our product. After trying it out, he agreed to put it on the shelves. The preliminary intention has been reached."
While he was talking, he took out an unsealed copy of "The World is Flat" from his briefcase. The four corners of the book were wrinkled and wrinkled, obviously it had been used for a long time.
"He hopes you can sign and bring it with you when signing the contract."
"How is the other online and offline progress?"
Lu Fei took the book and flipped through it. There were circles on every page, and there was even a bookmark stuck on the chapter on cloud computing.
"I haven't encountered any difficulties online yet, but there are more problems offline. For example, to enter Volvo, you have to sell it in the United States for a year and build a position."
Guo Xing was troubled, "Other large supermarkets like Costco have high barriers to entry."
Lu Fei put the book on the table, unscrewed the Parker pen, "Don't rush, take your time, it's only been two days."
"If Microsoft endorses it, things will be much easier." Guo Xing said with great anticipation: "Mr. Lu, how was your discussion with Microsoft?"
"Agreed." Lu Fei truthfully said that Microsoft was even willing to invest in Spotify.
Guo Xing was overjoyed, "Really!?"
"Don't be happy too early." Lu Fei laid out the prerequisites for persuading the record giant to authorize.
Guo Xing turned from happy to worried, and his wrinkled forehead caused his eyebrows to form an inverted figure.
Lu Fei patted him on the shoulder: "Everything in the world does not go as we wish. You want to do this, but you can't do it all at once. Sometimes the shortest shortcut is to take a long way around."
Guo Xing felt guilty and said: "Mr. Lu, those are the top five record companies."
"It all depends on people! There are still Microsoft executives."
As soon as Lu Fei said this, staff assigned by Microsoft appeared in front of the bedroom door. The visitors turned out to be Li Kaifu and Kurokawa Oike.
I saw Kurokawa Oike, regardless of the people present, his legs softened, and he knelt on his knees. His hands were spread out and placed on the ground. He leaned forward and hit his forehead heavily on the ground:
"Lu, Wai Rui Wai Rui Sao Rui."
Hey, it's only been less than a day, why are you so lazy?
The corner of Lu Fei's mouth rose imperceptibly, and he deliberately pretended to be confused and asked: "Hey, I saw this on TV, what is it called..."
Li Kaifu hurriedly explained: "Tuxiazao, Neon's highest standard of apology etiquette, Dachi begs for forgiveness for being rude to you this morning."
"Since it is the most important apology etiquette in neon, it should be said in Japanese, otherwise it won't taste like that."
Lu Fei looked down at Kurokawa Oike who was still kneeling on the ground. His butt was stuck out so high that it was higher than his head. He looked so much like "Song Jiang" played by Li Xuejian that people couldn't help but kick him.
Guo Xing pursed his lips and almost laughed.
Li Kaifu and others kept raising their mouths, wanting to laugh but trying their best to restrain themselves.
Kill people, but also kill your heart!
When Kurokawa Oike heard the translation, his face buried on the ground was twisted, the corners of his eyes twitched crazily, he stood up again, and kowtowed heavily again:
"Lu Feijun, red bean paste Smith Marseille!"
"Oh, it's just a small misunderstanding, why are you giving such a big courtesy?"
Lu Fei pretended to be reserved and helped him up, and then heard Li Kaifu say that from now on, their temporary team would cooperate and assist. Regardless of whether the negotiation with the record company was successful or not, it would be automatically disbanded at the end of the year.
Kurokawa Daichi said respectfully: "Lu, please give the order."
"I want you to collect some recent information in the music industry, as well as record company financial reports and other information."
Lu Fei specifically emphasized: "The most important thing is to find out to what extent their cooperation with Apple has progressed. How many days will it take?"
Li Kaifu said: "This workload requires a lot of time."
"Within three days, there must be information, and it must be detailed and accurate."
Lu Fei left no room for negotiation and made a firm decision.
…………
In the next three days, Lu Fei's mailbox continued to receive a large number of emails.
On Microsoft's side, he also entrusted MIH's Dawei and Friedman of the New York Times to help collect dense information and intelligence.
In addition to Zhang Tianmei, Guo Xing also assigned Wang Pu to speed up the translation of the manuscript.
Lu Fei was nestled in his suite, with his arms crossed and a white writing board in front of him.
The column above reads in sequence: Sony, Universal, Warner, EMI, and BMG. The five major record giants occupy more than 85% of the music copyrights in the United States.
It seems that the wind will prevail and the rain will prevail, but piracy in the millennium has crushed the Chinese music scene, and the United States is not much better. New
Pirate websites-->>
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The spring breeze blows again, one Napster falls, and there are thousands of Napsters.
The five giants suffered serious losses, so the remaining four giants approached the big brother Sony, hoping that it would take the lead in formulating a universal standard for protecting digital music copyright.
But Sony is like a Michelin-starred Western chef, cutting fish, meat, and bread. The hardware and knife skills are superb, but when it comes to the software of Chinese cuisine, let alone cutting tofu, he can't even pat garlic.
Maybe if Zhang Xiaoquan is used, the kitchen knife will break.
He picked up a red marker and drew horizontal lines, with five arrows pointing to the "apples" in another column.
Zhang Tianmei turned over the manuscript and said: "Mr. Lu, these record giants went to visit Steve Jobs, hoping to outsource the development of codecs for music copyright to Apple."
"What's the result? Failed?"
Lu Fei raised his eyebrows, not matching the script of his previous life.
According to this script, Apple can at most earn some software outsourcing fees and collect some royalties. The record giants can successfully solve the piracy problem, online store sales will surge, and Sony will continue to be the leader.
Zhang Tianmei hurriedly turned to the next page, "Sony withdrew from the cooperation plan and wants to develop its own proprietary codec."
"quit?"
Lu Fei frowned and immediately saw Sony's ambition. He wanted to dominate the digital music era!
"The little neon dog can't change its habit of eating shit, it always wants to stud."
Immediately, the arrow drawn from "Sony" was erased and rewritten as "Go it alone". Let alone Apple, even with the logic of Microsoft's support, it was full of difficulties.
Among the remaining targets, Universal is the strongest, but it has flirted with Apple and wrote "Strive for" behind it.
Turn your attention to the other three companies and think about the first main point of attack. Just like facing a bunch of legions in a battle, hit the weakest and most critical one first, and then fall the first domino, and a chain will start.
reaction, the dominoes below will fall one after another.
America’s digital music standards will be set by me!
He thought for a moment and said, "Contact Li Kaifu and ask him to help me make an appointment with the president of Warner Music."
"Okay, Mr. Lu!"
Zhang Tianmei hesitated for half a minute, wondering in her heart, shouldn't it be easier first and then the harder, and win the easiest EMI and BMG first?
Lu Fei touched his chin and flipped through Warner's artist list.
………………
California, Office of the President of Warner Music Group.
Roger Eames was exhausted both mentally and physically. Pirated websites and software were making him dizzy. The company's profits from traditional channels had dropped sharply. His financial situation was deteriorating, and his position was unstable and precarious.
"Boss, the music download website is completed."
The secretary knocked on the door and entered with brisk steps, bringing exciting news.
"Rielly!"
Roger Eames immediately became energetic and couldn't wait to use Warner's self-developed music download service. The operation was as fierce as a tiger's. The smile on his face froze instantly after the MP3 file download was completed.
This song cannot be found on the desktop, nor is it in the folder. Even a computer search cannot find the existence of this song.
"Fuxk!"
He turned from joy to anger, and slammed the table with such a bang that the secretary who announced the good news was so frightened that he fell silent and cursed wildly.
"Ask them to redo it. If they can't do it, they will be included in the next round of layoffs!"
"Boss, you still need to hire professionals to do professional things. We are good at music..."
The secretary shrank his head, feeling bitter.
Except for Sony, the programmers of music companies are all a bunch of second-rate scum. Only if the software they make is not as bad as the world, is it good.
"Are you teaching me how to do something?"
Roger Eames glared angrily and asked his secretary to urge the R&D department to make rectifications within a time limit. Then, as if his soul had been drained, he slumped down on his chair and stared at the ceiling.
His eyelids fluttered slightly and closed unconsciously.
"On January 10, 2000, AOL officially announced that it would acquire Time Warner, the world's largest media company, for a sky-high price of US$160 billion. The two companies successfully completed the merger and became a super media integrating Internet services, publishing, news and entertainment.
Aircraft carrier surpasses Disney in one fell swoop..."
In his sleep, he couldn't help but look back on Time Warner's peak moments before the Internet bubble, with a proud smile.
After a while, dark clouds gathered.
As the dream turned into a storm, the super aircraft carrier Time Warner was in turmoil, falling into a huge loss of more than 50 billion US dollars, the stock price plummeted, the false accounting scandal was made public, layoffs and personnel turmoil...
Roger Eames' expression became more and more ferocious and twisted. He dreamed that the aircraft carrier was sinking and he fell into the sea and was drowned. He immediately woke up:
"ah!"
"Boss?"
The secretary heard the news and walked in immediately, "Areyouok?"
"I'm fine."
Roger Eames took a sip of water and pulled off his tie a few times.
The secretary looked at it suspiciously and reported: "The vice president of Microsoft just called and invited you to meet a person who can solve our current predicament."
"Microsoft?"
Roger Eames exclaimed, "Who?"
"Lu, Lu Huaxia, is the author of "The World is Flat"." The secretary shook it off.
"It's him!"
Roger Eames glanced sideways and saw an unopened copy of "The World is Flat" on the bookshelf, and he couldn't help but become curious.
"Boss, how should I reply?" the secretary asked.
"What time and where?"
"In the past few days, Lu is going to the headquarters to take pictures. He is the cover star of next year's first issue of Time magazine's Asian edition!"
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