In early March, on an unusual night, many people were watching TV shows at home. At around 8:15 p.m., the TV series ended and entered the advertising world. At this time, a short commercial for Apple's Walkman began to play on the TV.
ABC TV and NBC TV are two of the three major TV stations in the United States, with wide coverage and very high ratings.
As soon as the commercial aired, naturally many families saw it.
People couldn't help but be surprised.
"Oh, what is that, so small, you can carry it around and listen to music?"
"Walkman? Is it a portable music player?"
"This is a new product from Apple?"
"… "
An ad ends, attracting a lot of attention!
During the prime time of the night, this advertisement appeared every time it entered the advertising time. People were quickly attracted by this Walkman product, especially young people in the United States, who showed great enthusiasm.
The next day, American schools began discussing Walkman on a small scale.
"Do you know Walkman?"
"What it is?"
Another student exclaimed excitedly: "I know I know! It's a small and exquisite music player that can be carried around. Not only can you listen to music with headphones, but you can also play it directly through the speaker! It's so cool! If With it, you can listen to music anytime, anywhere!"
"Oh, there is such a product, what does it look like?"
"You turn on the TV at night and watch an ABC commercial."
"There are commercials on NBC, too, and that's what I learned from the commercials on NBC."
"Really? The company that makes the Walkman is quite powerful, and it actually advertises on ABC and NBC at the same time?"
"I saw Apple's LOGO, it should be their company's latest product!"
"That's great, let's go to Apple's flagship store after school and have a look!"
"it is good!"
The white-collar workers of many companies are also discussing, how can such a fashionable and interesting product not attract their attention? After lunch, they discussed in the office one after another.
It didn't take long for Apple's phones to blow up, almost asking questions about the Walkman.
Apple's flagship store welcomed a lot of people, but unfortunately, they couldn't buy the Walkman, and the salesperson told them the product wouldn't be officially released until April 1. However, you can experience it here in advance.
As a result, Apple's flagship store was bursting, and many people came here to listen to songs.
However, the Walkman also exposed some problems. There were too few songs on the tape, and many customers expressed that they wanted to listen to other songs. The employees of the flagship store had no choice but to say that Apple is negotiating with the record company, and once successful, other songs will be on the shelves immediately.
Over time, the Walkman attracted more and more attention. [Zero ↑ Nine △ Small ↓ Said △ Net] Apple's flagship store is full almost every day!
This situation has caused concern for record companies.
Led by Warner Records, began to contact other record companies to form an alliance to boycott the Walkman tapes. Soon afterward, Universal Music, EMI, BMG Records, CBS/Sony Records, etc. joined the "Anti-Walkman Alliance" one after another.
Without him, the rise of music tapes will certainly impact the vinyl record market.
Li Zetian may not know that when Sony launched the Walkman, it was also opposed by major record companies, but Sony has its own record company. Compared with Apple, it has opened up the situation more easily. The existence of Walkman is not only impacting Sony's record companies, but also the global vinyl record market, but Sony can make a fortune from tapes. Naturally, other record companies will not sit by and watch Sony make money, so they have to join in. In addition, when Sony launched CD records, it was once again strongly opposed by the record company, because the impact of CD records on vinyl records was more serious than that of tapes. The defects of tapes were obvious, the sound quality was not good, and the storage capacity was small. Musicians will still buy vinyl records, but CD records are only slightly worse than vinyl records. If you are not a music enthusiast, you generally cannot hear the difference.
At this moment, Li Zetian feels a headache, it seems that the record companies are targeting him, they are all against him!
Apple's investment in the Walkman is huge, and if it fails, it will deal a huge blow to Apple.
Li Zetian resolutely does not allow the existence of failure!
He thought for a while, then came to Tian Shuai's office and said in a deep voice, "The big record companies have already joined forces to boycott us, but there are still some small and medium-sized record companies whose sales of records are not big, so they should be easy to win over. . We can promise to help them sell the music tapes of their record company when they sell Walkman, or even bundle it! In addition, we will also give them the profits of the music tapes for the time being, let’s open the situation first!”
"Okay, that's the only way to do it." The record company's matter was very difficult, and Tian Shuai could only helplessly nodded.
Li Zetian patted Tian Shuai on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, it will be fine!"
In the next period of time, Apple threw an olive branch to many small and medium-sized record companies. Their company's record sales were not large, just in time to catch the Walkman's popularity, and maybe they could make a lot of money on tapes!
As a result, some small and medium-sized record companies have joined Apple's lineup.
But soon, rumors spread that the "Anti-Walkman Alliance" headed by Warner Records issued a ban order, and anyone who dared to help Apple would ban the record company. I don't know if this news is true, but in short, it makes some small record companies stand naked, or even back down. In this era, many small and medium-sized record companies do not have their own song distribution channels and rely on large record companies to survive. Once blocked, they have to build their own distribution channels. You must know that establishing channels is not that simple. How can a small company have such financial resources? This is not the future Internet era, with very cheap online distribution channels…
Li Zetian was very angry about the unethical behavior of the "Anti-Walkman Alliance", and then he came to Apple's Legal Department and asked: "The 'Anti-Walkman' Alliance uses its monopoly position to conduct unfair competition, are we right? Can you sue them?"
"If the blocking order is indeed issued by the Anti-Walkman Alliance, we can indeed prosecute them! However," the Attorney General nodded, "First of all, we have no hard evidence, and this kind of case can usually drag on for months or even a month. More than a year, and our Walkman release is imminent, I'm afraid..."
"No matter how long the lawsuit will drag on, suing them shows Apple's attitude! Otherwise, the other party will think that we are easy to bully, so they will be even more aggressive!!!" Li Zetian said coldly.
"Okay, Mr. Li, then I'll start preparing materials and collecting evidence now!"
"Um!"
Li Zetian came out of the Ministry of Justice, and the anger in his heart weakened a little.
At present, there are still some record companies that are not afraid of being blocked. They have their own record distribution channels. Although they are small, they do not need to be exploited by large record companies like other small record companies. And these small record companies don't join Apple's camp, but it is beneficial to them, because they can get more promotion resources from Apple.