Chapter 326: The Dawn of Cooperation (Two in One)

Sony, an old enterprise, an old giant.

Two years ago, its market value reached an all-time high of $138 billion, ranking among the top 30 global companies by market value.

Two years later, it is less than $80 billion.

In other words, it has lost 12 of today's Apples in two years.

But even so, a company with businesses in film, television, music, media, finance, digital products and other fields is a giant that makes people feel awe.

Yike and Apple are challenging only one of Sony's many businesses, the music player.

Let alone Yike, even Apple, I'm afraid Sony won't take it seriously. Despite the lively competition between the two companies, the total sales of MP3 music players in the United States this year will not exceed 800,000 units.

As the most intuitive performance, Apple's stock price did not rise much because of its release of iPod, but only rose slightly after it announced support for Microsoft system.

In the mainstream cognition, this kind of behavior of challenging giants will not even make the giants react.

After all, Sony's Walkman has been a best-seller in the world for more than 20 years, and the brand has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

If someone says that he can defeat the giants, everyone will think he is arrogant.

Even Fang Zhuo, he is only a little bit arrogant, and can only say that he "has done some minor work in line with the trend of the times."

Even so, such a little bit of arrogance will still be considered too arrogant.

Like partner Yu Hong, investment institution IDG, and the company's employees, everyone listens to Fang Zhuo's judgment, and their expectations for Yike are only to get some market share of music players and successfully enter the stock market.

In this case, among the music copyright agencies and record companies that Yike has contacted recently, there is no Sony record company.

We are thinking about how to deal with the other party, who has the face to go to their music department when encountering difficulties?

Fang Zhuo has.

He just took a try-and-see attitude and found the phone number of Sony Music's executives to express his interest in Sony's music copyright library.

I don't know if the other party has discussed it. Anyway, it was the first call in the evening and there was no reply until midnight.

——We can talk.

On the morning of September 29, Yi Ke and his team of five went to Sony's US headquarters in Manhattan, New York.

"Will they cooperate? I still think it's outrageous. Not to mention cooperation, just this meeting is outrageous." Yu Hong expressed her surprise on the way.

Although the music player is only one of Sony's businesses, it is also the most important and classic part.

"The factions within Sony are more serious than you think." Fang Zhuo said, "We are talking to Sony Music, not Sony. Don't confuse this part."

Yu Hong shook her head. It was like the Yi Ke marketing department she was in charge of helped Apple iPod to lay out the product line. She had no other feelings except outrageous.

"To be precise, the full name is Sony Columbia Music Entertainment. Its current president is Howard Stringer from Columbia. The will of Sony Music's execution does not come from Sony, but from Stringer." Fang Zhuo was explaining to Yu Hong and strengthening his own ideas.

Sony Music has successively acquired the film and music departments of Columbia CBS since 1988, and handed this subsidiary to Stringer in 1998.

Stringer spent 30 years of his career at Columbia Pictures in the United States. He became the president of Sony (USA) in 1998 and fully led the work of Sony Music.

Does he have the same understanding of the current market as Sony?

Is Sony Music important or the entire Sony important?

More importantly, even if Stringer believes that the entire Sony has a better development path, will Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei be willing to change his course?

Fang Zhuo's judgments are reflected in his contact actions.

Sony is a giant, and Sony Music is also a record company giant.

But the former is facing challenges in many fields, and its stock price and market value have already shown a downward trend. The latter also has to face the trend problems encountered by the entire record industry.

Whether it is a giant giant or a global leader with a market value of 100 billion US dollars, once it fails to grasp the direction of the times, all the brilliance will be eclipsed.

In this regard, the collapse of Nokia's mobile phone business is the most impressive. It was a company with a peak market value of 200 billion euros, which was higher than Sony, and it ended in a dismal way in just a few years.

Now, record companies are also facing a similar situation.

Not only Sony Music, but also Universal Music and Warner Music have discovered a problem through their own data. With the development of the Internet and the exchange of information, record sales have declined.

In particular, the Napster website in 2000 took away a large number of consumers in the traditional record field with free downloads.

Then, Napster was strangled.

But the problem has not been solved. Many people are still looking for ways to share and using software tools such as iMusic and iTunes.

The development of the entire digital music market is savagely destroying the stability of the record industry.

At the end of September 2002, Sony Music received a call from the president of a company that was regarded as one of the disruptors. In just a few hours, Stringer browsed the ins and outs of the development of Yike.

So, Sony Music received a group of five people from Yike on the morning of September 29.

Stringer did not show up. The person in charge of connecting with this "available to chat" was Albert, the senior executive vice president of Sony Music, who was also the person who had a phone call with Fang Zhuo yesterday.

The two parties in the conference room exchanged pleasantries, and then fell into an eerie silence.

The visitor encountered trouble, and the respondent encountered industry-wide difficulties.

The former knows about the big problems facing the latter, but the latter does not know that the former knows.

Both teams thought it was a little weird.

"Mr. Albert, I'm glad you can let me sit here and share my views on industry changes." Fang Zhuo spoke first, hoping to get Sony Music to take a step forward.

Albert didn't think Yike was the only solution for Sony Music, and said a little rudely: "I thought Mr. Fang was coming to talk to us about copyright cooperation today, but I didn't expect that he also had the perspective of industry changes."

"Only when we reach a consensus can we discuss the possibility of cooperation." Fang Zhuo teased, "Otherwise, we will always feel uncomfortable if we force them to join together."

Albert didn't react at all, he just listened.

"The development of the Internet has triggered the decline of the record industry." Fang Zhuo first laid out the argument and then presented the materials, "This is the conclusion announced by Sony Music last year."

Albert glanced at it: "Say something new."

"Records are only one part of the music industry. Its decline does not mean the decline of the music industry. Now is a good opportunity to create a new ecosystem for the music industry." Fang Zhuoyan said concisely and comprehensively.

This is really new.

Albert understood these words, smacked the taste, and showed a smile of unknown meaning: "Records are the foundation of the entire music industry, and we have proven that we can boost its sales."

"Our Sony Music data for this year has not been released, and Mr. Fang has not seen it. It has rebounded."

Fang Zhuo shook his head: "Records are not the foundation of the industry. They are just a part of the current music business model. What is music? Are the songs that people record directly with equipment without going to the recording studio now not music?"

He argued rationally: "Take Sony's own data from last year, including record retail sales, live performances, music magazines, radio advertising, and musical instrument sales. How much of this did records account for?"

Albert pursed his lips.

Fang Zhuo announced the answer for the senior vice president of Sony Music: "Records only account for one-sixth of the entire ecosystem. It is only a link of your record company and does not need to be regarded as the foundation."

Albert shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, no, it's wrong to look at numbers purely. Mr. Fang, let me tell you, every year we have to select, train, screen, sign, and send people to the recording studio, as well as list and publicity , marketing, laying channels, other things are attached to the record.”

Fang Zhuo spread his hands: "So, the Internet era has become much simpler. Listing and promotion can now be copied to the user's player. How easy it is."

Albert was stunned. Record companies all hated the copying of information technology and believed that it harmed the foundation of records.

Since two years ago, the company including the guy in front of me has been targeted by the company's legal affairs.

He subconsciously wanted to speak, but thought carefully before offering a rebuttal.

The meeting between Yi Ke and Sony Music was at nine o'clock in the morning. Then, the president of the former and the senior vice president of the latter spent half an hour debating "whether the foundation of the music business ecosystem is records."

The members of the two teams could not say anything and could only watch this scene silently.

At 9:30 in the morning, after all, it was Fang Zhuo, the CEO who was accustomed to traveling around the world, who ended the debate with Albert with the view that "even if records are the foundation of the music business ecosystem, they need to be reformed."

Albert was no longer secretive at this time: "Why should we cooperate with you? Even if Apple's performance in the market is somewhat inferior, it is still a listed company."

"Is Sony Music willing to see a listed company that unifies digital music copyright? No? That won't be the case, right?" Fang Zhuo asked, "Is Sony Music willing to hand over its bargaining power to Apple?"

My weakness is my strength.

Fang Zhuo's words shocked Albert again.

The senior vice president of Sony Music began to think about a new problem, a new music business model that can be participated in, and a weak collaborator. What is this scene?

Albert found a better solution: "It seems that Yike will be more effective in the hands of Sony Music. Is Mr. Fang willing to join Sony Music?"

Fang Zhuo laughed: "I met President Nobuyuki Dei in China this month, and he also asked me. My answer is still the same, Yike will not sell it."

Albert frowned: "It's difficult for Yi Ke to buy music copyrights. Does Mr. Fang think I don't know this?"

Fang Zhuo shrugged.

Yu Hong interjected: "We have a certain intention with BMI. Not everyone is rejecting us. They only have some objections to our quotation."

In fact, BMI has drifted away.

BMI wants to cross-license, but Yike and Apple are worried. If a competitor uses the license to set the music for free or at a low price to engage in malicious competition, the money spent will be in vain.

Neither company expects its competitors to have self-serving strategies.

Albert flipped through the information.

Another vice president sitting next to him raised a new question, involving the digital music sales model that Yike is considering.

Fang Zhuo was in a hurry at this point, so his answer was not too detailed.

Instead of knowing that his competitors might charge 99 cents for a song, he wanted to rank the songs according to whether they were popular or not, 79 cents, 99 cents, and 119 cents.

Whether the fixed-price or tiered system is more suitable for the new model still needs to be verified.

The next time is for more people from both teams to discuss.

By 11 o'clock in the morning, the two parties had almost laid out their intentions for each other. However, because many of the contents were beyond Sony Music's expectations, Albert said that they still needed to digest it and could not give a statement for the time being.

Fang Zhuo understood very well. He did not ask for a response time from Sony Music. Anyway, he had a phone call to communicate.

At a quarter past eleven, the Yike team left Sony's US headquarters.

"Tired, exhausted, nervous."

As soon as Fang Zhuo got in the car, he shook his head repeatedly and said with emotion: "If we can't do digital music this time, we will concentrate on selling out the hardware here, and we will short these record companies when we return home!"

"Didn't you say in the conference room that the new business model will bring beneficial changes to the record company?" Yu Hong asked.

"It's not that easy. A lot of record companies will definitely die in the next few years." Fang Zhuo shook his head and said, "But no one is willing to wait for death. Participating in a new model is a struggle, but this is not Easy, there are problems both inside and outside.”

"Sony Music has a better choice. They can combine it with Sony's own players." Yu Hong said.

"The sharpness of internal conflicts is sometimes more terrifying than external conflicts." Fang Zhuo smiled, "External conflicts can still be reconciled. Internally, Sony's hardware department is in a strong position. It's not Sony Music that can ask for hardware cooperation, it can only The hardware makes the music work.”

Yu Hong suddenly thought of the "bargaining power" mentioned in the boss's conference room. At present, Apple's progress in digital music copyright is better than that of Yike. This lead may have an effect in the hardware market.

She asked softly: "Do you think Sony Music will agree to cooperate?"

"I hope so." Fang Zhuo couldn't guess based on just one meeting. He rubbed his fingers and said, "It's impossible to sit and wait for death. There is resistance within United Sony, and Apple's monopoly on digital copyright is a visible problem. If I were Stringer, I would agree."

He was silent for a while and then said: "I just hope Stringer doesn't want to get together with me."

"What?" Yu Hong asked.

"Don't be interested in our equity." Fang Zhuo looked at the street scene in Manhattan outside the car and said with a smile, "It can't be such a coincidence."

However……

Coincidentally.

Stringer from Sony Music gave his opinion just one day later. He wanted no money, increased share, and cooperation in equity - the equity would be calculated based on the cash that Yike planned to give.