After discussing the naming of the MP3 player, Bill Olson continued: "The next step is the Yahoo Music Store, or the Yahoo Music Box. At present, we have obtained the online sales authorization of about 200,000 songs, but it has nothing to do with music copyrights. The cooperation negotiations of the five world-class record companies with the most abundant resources have not made much progress. Therefore, the main source of music for Fireflyer should be CD discs. Thanks to the promotion of the MP3 audio format, more than 50% of CD discs currently use The most important is MP3 format, even if it is not MP3 format, we can convert it to MP3 audio through transcoding.”
The original contract between Yahoo and Microsoft will expire in two years. Although Microsoft has been frequently troubled by antitrust investigations in recent years, it is foreseeable that after the original contract expires in July 1999, once Microsoft abandons the original contract The 30% equity acquisition plan will inevitably lead to the loss of Yahoo Browser as the default browser on the Windows platform. Eric's initial 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 impact on Yahoo's browser. dependency.
The same is true this time, the two teams of Yahoo and Firefly Electronics worked together to refine Eric’s 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 easier to develop a dedicated software module to identify pirated CD discs and prevent them from being used for audio copying. To be honest, because of the living environment in his previous life, Eric didn't think about it at all at first. He is also glad that Yahoo and the Firefly Electronics team thought of this. The company is bombarded with lawsuits.
In front of the projector, Bill Olsen said this, looked at Eric again, and said: "Eric, although Yahoo is trying to concentrate a large amount of music resources on its own online store, it is to activate more music resources under the Yahoo platform. Paying users. But I think it is not cost-effective to do so. Just like Sony, although they have Walkman, they still don’t expect all record companies to give them the copyright to make music tapes. This is simply impossible. In my opinion, Fireflyer definitely has the potential to replace the Walkman. If we can be more open and authorize each record company to operate its own online music store independently, the influence of Fireflyer will expand rapidly. The current annual sales volume of Walkman is 15 million pieces. If Fireflyer At that level, at $299, we could do $4.5 billion a year in sales.”
Eric said: "However, Bill, Fireflyer doesn't have the kind of influence at all now, and it can prompt major record companies to set up dedicated music stores for it. If we insist, the record company will definitely open their mouths. On the other hand , if Fireflyer has enough influence in the future, we don't need to compromise with the record company at all, they will only actively seek cooperation."
"But there must be a suitable time, Eric," Bill Olson said. "Although we have installed a pirate identification module on the Yahoo Music Box, we cannot stop all pirates after all, and the risk of lawsuits still exists." , If we can completely cut off the channel of CD disc copying and realize complete digitization, we can avoid this situation as much as possible.”
Eric actually knew what Bill Olson was thinking. He hoped that Yahoo Music Box could be separated from Yahoo and operated by Firefly Electronics alone, but Eric rejected it. Since Firefly Electronics could not occupy this 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 smiled and said: "Bill, we all know that it is still impossible to stop the piracy problem after fully realizing digital sales. However, since Sony's videotape lawsuit won, it is no longer possible for the copyright owner to stop the technology through litigation. Moreover, all the 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 only need to do what we can do as much as possible, and You don’t need to worry too much about that.”
Bill Olsen knew from Eric's smile that he had seen through his mind, so he was not embarrassed. He bypassed this topic and continued to discuss the construction of Fireflyer's component procurement system, sales network and product marketing.
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 patent rights, which are specifically used in MP3 players. There is not much R&D on the player. After all, Firefly Electronics has a total of more than 190 R&D teams 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, the budget plan for Fireflyer made by Bill Olson, from component procurement to product marketing, reached 200 million U.S. dollars, which gave Eric the feeling that it was like spending 60 million U.S. dollars to make a movie, but It will cost $200 million in publicity and distribution.
Of course, the development prospect of Fireflyer is definitely worthy of this budget. As Bill Olsen mentioned at the meeting, if Fireflyer can replace Walkman, it will bring billions of dollars in revenue to Firefly Electronics every year. Moreover, 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 four o'clock in the afternoon, and the detailed release and promotion plan of Fireflyer was confirmed. Eric and Chris visited the company's R&D department together with the two heads of Firefly Electronics.
At six o'clock, everyone had dinner together, and Eric took advantage of the night to fly back to Los Angeles. Chris will continue to stay and lead the integration of Firefly Electronics and the British ARM chip company. The relevant plan has been confirmed through a conference call with ARM management yesterday. Before this, Firefly Electronics had produced samples of e-book readers, but because the current production cost of this machine is close to 400 US dollars, if sufficient profits are to be ensured, the sales price should be set at least 700 US dollars, which is common Prices that are difficult for consumers to accept. After everyone's discussion, Eric decided to temporarily abandon this product, but 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 phase 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 haze of night. Eric had just got off the plane when he received a call from Michael Eisner himself, asking if he was free to have dinner together tonight.
Of course Eric is aware of Michael Eisner's intention to come. The digital field will stop foreign cooperation. For a long time to come, it will be difficult for Warner, Paramount, Universal and Sony to produce excellent CG special effects movies. Today, in private, almost all the executives of several major film companies called in person to test whether Eric had the possibility of canceling this decision. Michael Eisner's call was relatively backward.
Considering that he didn't have any reservations tonight, Eric agreed to come down 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 almost nine o'clock. Under the leadership of the waiter, Eric quickly found Michael Eisner's location.
Michael Eisner, who was sitting at the dining table reading a newspaper, saw Eric approaching, stood up, and the two shook hands and greeted each other. Eric couldn't help but joked: "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 planning to switch to Disney as the CEO because of a tense relationship with the chairman of the parent company, Martin Davis. After the resignation from Paramount, Disney's board of directors disputed the decision to appoint Michael Eisner, which also led to Michael Eisner's sudden unemployment with an uncertain future. Immediately afterwards, Michael Eisner, who had just left the center of power in Hollywood, immediately encountered a dilemma. One night, he planned to have dinner with his friend Michael Ovitz, so he called Morton's restaurant to reserve a table. He was rejected that time, but he was suddenly told that the room was full. Michael Ovitz, who was present at the time, called again, but easily booked a seat. For a Hollywood tycoon, this kind of thing is simply a kind of humiliation.
Michael Eisner heard Eric's teasing, but his expression was very flat, and he said lightly: "Always remind yourself."
"Oh," Eric smiled, and the two sat down. Although they had already had dinner in San Francisco, Eric still ordered a meal.
After the waiter left, Michael Eisner took the initiative and said, "Eric, I heard you went to San Francisco these two days?"
"Well, a company established over there has created a small thing, and it will be on sale soon. I'll go over and have a look."
Michael Eisner smiled and said, "The things that you value must not be as simple as small things?"
Eric suddenly realized something, but his expression didn't change, but he explained in detail: "It's a brand new portable music player, but unfortunately the sample is in my luggage, otherwise I can give you one, too. It’s an interesting little thing.”
Now that Michael Eisner knew about it, he no longer concealed it. Eric even speculated that Michael Eisner probably already knew about Yahoo's contact with Universal Music for online music sales.
Obviously, Michael Eisner wants to use the copyright of Universal Music as a bargaining chip in exchange for some real benefits, such as the continued technical support for Universal Pictures in the digital field.
However, Michael Eisner clearly miscalculated.
"Actually, I had dinner with Doug Morris from Universal Music at noon today, and I happened to hear about it," Michael Eisner said, without going around the corner, "I also heard that Yahoo and Universal Music's cooperation negotiations , seems to have reached a stalemate."
"This is an inevitable thing," Eric said: "Big companies always have the arrogance of big companies. They always fail to see the situation clearly. , will again present itself as a victim.”
In the original time and space, several major record companies originally had an advantage over Apple in deploying MP3 players, but either they wanted to maintain their market position as old-fashioned portable players that were about to be eliminated, or the management system of the group was rigid and unresponsive. In short, As for MP3 players, which are low-threshold electronic products, although many record companies have tried, they all ended in failure. In the end, Apple 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, and from time to time, like a resentful woman, she complains 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 drastic reduction in the cost of pirated music, records It is impossible for the industry to 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 didn't refute them.
After a few casual chats, the dinner was quickly served. Michael Eisner took a sip of the red wine, put down the goblet, and continued: "Eric, I think you must have guessed my thoughts. It's like this , I can help persuade Mr. Bronfman to support the cooperation between Yahoo and Universal Music, but in exchange, I hope that the digital domain will continue to open cooperation with Universal Pictures, what do you think?"
Eric shook his head and said, "Sorry, Michael, I can't agree to your conditions."
Michael Eisner was stunned. He didn't expect Eric to refuse so simply. During the day, he had already investigated the situation of Yahoo's online music store in detail. Although he had already reached cooperation with some second- and third-tier record companies, but The number of song copyrights owned by Yahoo Music Store is only a mere 200,000, and the relatively popular songs and albums are limited to the group of teenage pop singers cultivated by Firefly Records in recent years. As for Universal, 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.)