The company is registered in Hong Kong, and its actual office is in Rongcheng.

The company is not big, and it is very convenient to integrate, and Zhang Yida handed over these things to Zhang Lan to follow up.

He took a Gulfstream G650ER to the UK and met with Ed Newton Ricks, founder of music AI startup Jukedeck.

Newton in the name is not much worse, and this Ricks is no exception.

Ricks studied composition from childhood to university and later studied music theory at Cambridge University.

In 2012, after attending a computer science lecture at his girlfriend's alma mater, Harvard University, he was inspired to start the music AI company with his best friend from the choir in college, Stobs.

The company, called Jukedeck, is researching the application of artificial intelligence to composing.

AI music mainly satisfies two aspects, on the one hand, background music, and on the other hand, music creation.

Jukedeck can quickly and cheaply create unique background music for a large number of videos, games, etc., solving the problem of expensive music rights and time-consuming editing music.

At the same time, they also provide assistance to non-professionals to realize their ideas of creating music.

Zhang Yida is eyeing this company, and he can't stand the endless blackmail of the three major records, and he has to find some way to fight one or two.

In a villa on the outskirts of London, Zhang met the two founders of Jukedeck.

The two were very enthusiastic, and as soon as they saw Zhang Yida, they began to praise how popular they were, and how they loved them.

Both of them are in their early thirties, and they feel like hairy guys in their early twenties.

Zhang Yida was not surprised, and exchanged a few words with the two.

Then, the two took Zhang Yida to visit their company.

The company is small, with 18 people including the two founders.

Ricks introduced: "Mr. Zhang, don't look at us, there are not many of us, but we are all elites.

There are 15 people who are engineers in different fields, and they have AI researchers who specialize in core AI systems;

There are software engineers, who are experts in music production;

There are also engineers for products, the whole line, infrastructure, etc......

All the people on the team are music professionals, but they also understand artificial intelligence, machinery, music information retrieval, and other technologies. ”

Zhang Yida understands, they are all compound talents, all-rounders!

"I heard that you got two rounds of venture capital, £625,000 from Cambridge Enterprises and £2 million from Cambridge Innovation Fund?"

Ricks nodded, he was very clear about Zhang Yida's intentions, so he spared no effort to introduce his company at this moment.

"Jukedeck isn't the kind of company that burns money all the time but can't get a practical application.

Two years ago, we officially launched JukedeckMAKE, an online music creation app based on AI compositing technology.

On this platform, by setting the music genre, piano, folk, rock, ambient sound, pop, etc.;

Mood: Happy, melancholy, angry, instrumental, and rhythmic parameters can automatically generate a 1 minute and 30 seconds of music in MP3 format in less than 10 minutes.

The app doesn't limit the number of pieces of music generated, but users have to pay a fee to download it.

$0.99 is the fee paid by the user for one download of the music, provided that the service is provided by an individual or a company with less than 10 employees, and the user only has the right to use the music;

Companies with 10 or more people pay $21.99 for a single download of the music, and they only have access to that piece of music.

If you want to own the rights to a piece of music, whether you are an individual or a company, you need to pay $199......"

Zhang Yida has figured out their source of income, and individual users are here to make a fresh picture.

Business users, such as game companies, spend $21.99 or $199 to buy a piece of music to make the soundtrack for the game.

This kind of music is still not as good as the master master himself, but it is basically okay for gamers to listen to it.

For Jukedeck, there is no cost either, and the music can be mass-produced.

The Jukedeck system feeds hundreds of tunes into an artificial neural network, which then analyzes them.

Calculate the probability of one note joining another and the collocation of chords to form a work with a similar style. An automated production program converts it into audio material.

But at present, Jukedeck's music cannot capture emotions, which is the next stage of the company's research.

In order to inspect the goods, Zhang Yida found his favorite song "Blue Lotus" from his mobile phone, played it for the two of them, and arranged a task for the two to make a song similar to the style of Blue Lotus.

Ricks understood that this was testing himself, and after listening to Blue Lotus a few times, he activated the mobile app and made a imitation song for Zhang Yida on the spot.

Zhang Yida listened to it, and could only say that it was okay, and it was really a little bit worse.

But for him, who is not highly accomplished in music, he is already above the qualification line.

Shaking eyes and the need for background music, just an immature music AI company can't meet all the needs, and it can only be said to be an attempt.

However, AI technology has already emerged, and it is necessary for Zhonghe Group to invest more resources in this area.

After chatting with the two founders and confirming that there were no major problems, Zhang Yida arranged for the AI team from China to start a technical exchange with the Jukedeck team.

Although it is not necessarily that this company is a parallel import, Zhang Yida does not understand technology, and for the sake of insurance, he still has to be inspected by professionals.

After the technical team finished the discussion, after confirming that there was no problem, Zhang Yida arranged for the negotiation team to start the quotation negotiation with the two founders.

Ricks and Stobs are not low, opening their mouths for £50 million.

In the end, the professional negotiation team was professional, and bargained from multiple angles such as technical reserves, revenue, and market prospects, and lowered the price all the way to 12 million pounds, equivalent to 16 million US dollars.

After some discussion with the team, Ricks finally agreed.

With the acquisition of Jukedeck, in addition to acquiring all of the company's intellectual property, the 18 employees will join Zhonghe Group's artificial intelligence lab in London.

With the growing growth of Zhonghe Group, in addition to opening operating branches overseas, it has also gradually begun to set up R&D centers.

R&D centers and laboratories have been set up in Silicon Valley, Singapore, London and other places in the United States to attract more talents.

It's similar to how technology companies like Microsoft and Oracle set up R&D centers in China.

……

Knowing that Zhang Yi had arrived in Europe, AC Milan's new club president Li Yonghong also made a phone call in person.

"Brother Zhang, you have done my brother a great favor this time. If you want to come to Milan to watch a football game, I will reserve the best box for you......"

On the phone, Li Yonghong was full of energy, and he could see that his spirit was very good.

Temasek, as a creditor, has been following Lee's every move lately.

Including spending 200 million euros in the summer transfer window, buying 11 new signings, and almost giving the whole team a big change;

In the stands, the excited fans even held up scarves and wrote "We are really rich" and other details, and wrote a special report, which was sent to Zhang Yida by Li Hengbo.

Zhang Yida understood Li Yonghong's plan at a glance, spending money to buy players to rush the results, as long as he played in the Champions League and received high bonuses, the club's finances will be greatly improved, and the valuation will also increase.

When the time comes, whether he sells the club or continues to operate, he has a way out.

Zhang Yida looked at AC Milan's results, and was not optimistic that Li Yonghong would be able to turn the tables, most likely he would still capsize like in his previous life.

Zhang Yida has already informed Li Hengbo that something is wrong. Immediately took over AC Milan.

Zhang Yida smiled and politely declined Li Yonghong's invitation, and made a pretense that it was already January, and he was going back to China to organize the company's annual meeting.

Li Yonghong no longer persuaded him, and repeatedly thanked Zhang Yida for his help on the phone, and asked Zhang Yida to go to AC Milan to watch the game when he was free and reserve the best position for him.

No one can see that the gentle and frugal uncle on the phone is actually a big liar.

Zhang Yida also hurriedly returned to China, because he received the news that there was a problem with the capital chain of Han Qing Group and he was about to start a tearful sale.