I’m in Hollywood

After discussing the naming of MP3 players, Bill Olsen continued: The next step is the Yahoo Music Store, or Yahoo Music Box, where we have licensed about 200,000 songs for online sales, but with music rights The cooperation negotiation of the five world-class record companies with the most abundant resources has not made much progress. Therefore, Fireflyer's main music source should be CD discs. Thanks to the promotion of the MP3 audio format, more than 50% of CD discs currently use It's in MP3 format, and even if it's not in MP3 format, we can convert it to MP3 audio by transcoding.

The original contract between Yahoo and Microsoft will expire in two years. Although Microsoft has been plagued by frequent antitrust investigations in recent years, it is foreseeable that after the original contract expired in July 1999, once Microsoft gave up the original contract. The 30% equity acquisition plan will inevitably cause Yahoo browser to lose its status as the default browser on the Windows platform. Eric's original suggestion was to develop a Yahoo music store website, but in order to avoid Yahoo's browser being squeezed out by Microsoft in the future, Yahoo has been promoting the separate software of its various network products in recent years to reduce the need for Yahoo's browser. dependencies.

The same is true this time. The two teams of Yahoo and Firefly Electronics cooperated to refine Eric's original rough idea in detail, and developed a separate Yahoo Music Box software as a sales platform for online music stores. At the same time, Yahoo Music Box can also It is more convenient to develop special software modules to identify pirated CD discs and prevent them from being used for audio copying. Seriously, because of the living environment in his previous life, Eric never thought about this at first. He is also glad that the team of Yahoo and Firefly Electronics thought of this. Otherwise, when Fireflyer is released, Firefly Electronics will definitely face major records. The company's lawsuits bombed.

In front of the projector, Bill Olson said this, looked at Eric again, and said: Eric, although Yahoo tries to concentrate a lot of music resources into its own online store, it is to activate more Yahoo platforms. Paying users. But I don't think it's worth it, just like Sony, although they have Walkman, they still don't expect all record companies to give them the rights to make music tapes, which is simply impossible. In my opinion, Fireflyer definitely has the potential to replace Walkman. If we can be more open and authorize each record company to operate their own online music store, Fireflyer's influence will expand rapidly. The current annual sales of Walkman is 15 million, if Fireflyer To be able to do that, at $299, we'd be able to reach $4.5 billion in annual sales.

Eric said: But, Bill, Fireflyer doesn't have that kind of influence right now, and it can prompt the major record companies to set up a dedicated music store for it, and if we insist, the record companies will definitely open their mouths. On the other hand , if Fireflyer has enough influence in the future, we don't need to compromise with record companies at all, they will only actively seek cooperation.

But there's always the right time, Eric, Bill Olson said. Even though we installed a pirate identification module on the Yahoo Music Box, it didn't stop all piracy.

The risk of being sued still exists, which can be avoided as much as possible if the channel of CD copying can be completely cut off and full digitization is achieved.

Eric actually knew what Bill Olson was thinking. He originally hoped that Yahoo Music Box could be separated from Yahoo and run by Firefly Electronics alone, but Eric refused. Since Firefly Electronics could not own the platform, out of Considering the interests of Firefly Electronics itself, Bill Olson hopes that the music sales platform will be more open.

Spreading his hands, Eric said with a smile: Bill, we all know that it is still impossible to eliminate the problem of piracy by fully realizing digital sales. However, since Sony's video tape lawsuit won, it is no longer possible for the copyright owner to block technology through litigation. Moreover, all current audio and video playback platforms such as Walkman, VCR, CD player, MD Walkman and DVD player cannot completely eliminate the problem of piracy, so we just need to do what we can do as much as possible, and You don’t need to worry too much about that.”

Bill Olson knew from Eric's smile that he saw through his own mind, and he was not embarrassed. He bypassed this topic and continued to discuss Fireflyer's component procurement system construction, sales network construction and product marketing issues.

Eric has invested about 60 million US dollars in the research and development of MP3 players and e-book readers in the past two years, which also includes the cost of entrusting Seagate to develop micro-hard drives and the cost of acquiring WIFI patents, which are used in MP3 There is not much research and development in the player. After all, Firefly Electronics has a R\u0026D team of more than 190 people responsible for the two products. Although the annual salary of engineers in Silicon Valley is generally high, the salary expenditure in the past two years is only 30 million.

However, Bill Olson's budget plan for Fireflyer from component procurement to product marketing reached $200 million, giving Eric the feeling that it was like spending $60 million to make a movie, but $200 million in publicity and distribution costs.

Of course, Fireflyer's development prospects are definitely worth the budget, as Bill Olson mentioned at the conference, if Fireflyer can replace Walkman, it will bring billions of dollars in annual revenue for Firefly Electronics, and, AI Rick knew better than anyone that the Fireflyer had the potential to replace the Walkman and every other portable music player out there.

The meeting lasted until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the detailed sales and promotion plan of Fireflyer was confirmed. Eric and Chris visited the company's R\u0026D department together with the two leaders of Firefly Electronics.

At six o'clock, everyone had dinner together, and Eric flew back to Los Angeles in the dark. Chris will continue to stay and lead the integration of Firefly Electronics and the British ARM chip company. The relevant plan was confirmed yesterday through a conference call with the ARM management. Before that, Firefly Electronics has taken out samples of e-book readers, but since the current production cost of this machine is close to $400, if you want to ensure enough profit, the selling price should be at least $700, which is common Prices that are difficult for consumers to accept. After everyone's discussion, Eric decided to give up this product temporarily, but to use the accumulated technology to develop a tablet computer YahooPad with more functions under the joint cooperation of Firefly Electronics, ARM and Yahoo. The second stage of Eric's plan, and plans to launch mature products around 2000. At that time, with the further development of the electronics industry, the manufacturing cost of YahooPad will definitely drop to a more reasonable price.

The Gulfstream business jet landed at Santa Monica Airport in the dim darkness. Eric just got off the plane when he received a call from Michael Eisner himself, asking him if he was free to have dinner together in the evening.

Eric is of course aware of Michael Eisner's intentions. The digital field will stop external cooperation. For a long time in the future, it will be difficult for Warner, Paramount, Universal and Sony to produce excellent CG special effects movies. God, the top executives of several major film companies have personally called in person to test whether Eric has the possibility of canceling this decision. Michael Eisner's call is still relatively backward.

Considering that there was no reservation tonight, Eric agreed and drove to Morton's restaurant in Beverly Hills, a well-known restaurant frequented by Hollywood filmmakers.

When he arrived at the restaurant, it was nearly nine o'clock, and Eric, led by the waiter, quickly found where Michael Eisner was.

Michael Eisner, who was sitting at the dining table reading a newspaper, saw Eric come over and stood up. The two shook hands and greeted each other. Eric couldn't help but tease: I didn't expect you to choose this. restaurant.

This sentence is not aimless, but a past event that most people in Hollywood know.

In the mid-1980s, Michael Eisner, who was still the president of Paramount, was thinking of jumping to Disney as CEO because of a tense relationship with Martin Davis, the chairman of the parent company. The parties negotiated the terms, and after resigning from Paramount, Disney's board of directors had a dispute over the decision to appoint Michael Eisner, which also led to Michael Eisner's sudden unemployment. Immediately, Michael Eisner, who had just left the center of power in Hollywood, immediately encountered the dilemma of people taking tea. One night, he planned to have dinner with his friend Michael Ovitz, and called Morton's restaurant to reserve a place. The time he was rejected was suddenly told that it was full, and Michael Ovitz, who was present at the time, called again, but was easily reserved. For a Hollywood tycoon, this kind of thing is simply a matter of time. kind of humiliation.

Michael Eisner heard Eric's ridicule, but his expression was very flat, and he said lightly: Always remind yourself often.

Heh, Eric smiled and the two sat down. Although he had already had dinner in San Francisco, Eric still ordered a meal.

When the waiter left, Michael Eisner took the initiative and said, Eric, I heard that you went to San Francisco these two days?

Well, a company that became over there has vacated a small thing, and it's going to be listed for sale soon. I'll go take a look.

Michael Eisner smiled and said, The things that you value are definitely not as simple as small things, right?

Eric suddenly realized something, but his expression did not change, but explained in detail: It's a brand-new portable music player, unfortunately the sample is in my luggage, otherwise I can send you one, too. It's an interesting little thing.

Now that Michael Eisner knew about it and he stopped hiding it, Eric even speculated that Michael Eisner probably already knew about Yahoo's approach to online music sales with Universal Music.

Obviously, Michael Eisner wants to use the copyright of Universal Music as a bargaining chip in exchange for some tangible benefits, such as the continued technical support of Universal Pictures in the digital field.

However, Michael Eisner clearly miscalculated.

Actually, I was having dinner with Doug Morris of Universal Music today, and happened to hear about it, Michael Eisner said without detour: I also heard that Yahoo and Universal Music are negotiating cooperation. , seems to be at a stalemate.

It's an inevitable thing, Eric said: Big companies always have the arrogance of big companies. They often can't see the situation clearly. , and will pretend to be a victim.”

In the original time and space, several major record companies had a far superior advantage over Apple in deploying MP3 players, but either in order to maintain their market position in the old-fashioned portable players that were about to be phased out, or the group management system was rigid and slow to respond. In short, In terms of MP3 players, which are low-threshold electronic products, although many record companies have tried, they all ended in failure. Apple eventually occupied more than 70% of the music player market, and finally had to succumb to Apple's online music sales. The rules of the platform are led by others by the nose, and from time to time they complain like a woman that Apple's players condone piracy and infringe on their own rights. Don't you know that even without Apple, in the Internet age, because of the substantial reduction in the cost of pirated music, records The industry simply cannot maintain its former glory.

Of course, Michael Eisner couldn't see the future scene. Although he felt that Eric's words were a little inexplicable, he did not refute it.

After chatting for a while, dinner was served quickly, Michael Eisner took a sip of red wine, put down the goblet, and continued: Eric, I think you must have guessed what I was thinking. It's like this. , I can help convince Mr. Bronfman that he supports the cooperation between Yahoo and Universal Music, but in exchange, I hope that the digital space will continue to open up cooperation with Universal Pictures, what do you think?

Eric shook his head and said, Sorry, Michael, I can't agree to your terms.

Michael Eisner was stunned. He didn't expect Eric to refuse so bluntly. During the day, he had already investigated the situation of Yahoo's online music store in detail. The number of song rights owned by the Yahoo Music Store is only 200,000, and the best-selling songs and albums are limited to the group of teenage pop singers that Firefly Records has cultivated in recent years. On the Universal side, Universal Music owns more than a quarter of the music copyright resources in the United States. If they can reach a cooperation with Universal, the attitude of other record companies will definitely not be so firm. (To be continued.)