After discussing the naming of the MP3 player, Bill Olsen continued: "Next up is the Yahoo Music Store, or Yahoo Music Box, which has about 200,000 songs sold online, but there has not been much progress in the negotiation of cooperation with the five world-class record labels with the most abundant music rights resources, so the main source of music for Fireflyer should be CD discs, which are currently more than 50% thanks to the promotion of the MP3 audio format The CD disc is in MP3 format, even if it is not MP3 format, we can convert it to MP3 audio in the form of transcoding. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The original contract between Yahoo and Microsoft will expire in two years, although Microsoft has begun to suffer from frequent anti-monopoly investigations in recent years, but it is foreseeable that after the original contract expires in July 1999, once Microsoft abandons the original 30% equity acquisition plan, it will inevitably cause Yahoo Browser to lose its status 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 being sidelined by Microsoft in the future, Yahoo has been pushing for separate softwareization of its various online products in recent years to reduce its dependence on Yahoo.

This time the same time, the Yahoo and Firefly Electronics teams worked together to refine Eric's original rough idea and develop a separate Yahoo Music Box software as a sales platform for online music stores, and at the same time, Yahoo Music Box can also more easily develop a special software module to identify pirated CDs and prevent them from being used for audio copying. Seriously, because of the living environment in his previous life, Eric didn't think about this at all, and he was glad that the teams at Yahoo and Firefly Electronics thought of this, otherwise, when Fireflyer was released, Firefly Electronics would definitely face lawsuits from major record companies.

In front of the projector, Bill Olson said this, looked at Eric again, and said: "Eric, although Yahoo is trying to concentrate a large number of music resources on its own online store, it can activate more paying users under the Yahoo network. But I don't think it's cost-effective, like Sony, even though they have a Walkman, they still don't have the luxury of asking all record companies to give them the rights to make music tapes, which is simply not possible. In my opinion, Fireflyer definitely has the potential to replace the Walkman Walkman, and if we can be more open and authorize each record label to operate its own online music store, FireFlyer's influence will expand rapidly. The current annual sales of the Walkman are 15 million units, and if the Fireflyer can reach this level, we will be able to achieve $4.5 billion in annual sales at a price of $299. ”

"But, Bill, Fireflyer doesn't have that kind of influence right now, and it's going to be able to get 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 the record label at all, they just actively seek cooperation. ”

"But there's always the right time, Eric," says Bill Olson, "and even though we have installed a piracy detection module on the Yahoo Music Box, we can't stop all piracy, and the risk of lawsuits still exists, which can be avoided as much as possible if we can completely cut off the CD copy channel and achieve fully digital music sales." ”

Eric actually knows Bill Olsen's thoughts, he originally hoped that Yahoo Music Box could be spun off from Yahoo and operated separately by Firefly Electronics, but Eric refused, since Firefly Electronics could not occupy the platform, for the sake of Firefly Electronics' own interests, Bill Olson wanted the music sales platform to be more open.

Spreading his hands, Eric smiled: "Bill, we all know that it is still impossible to stop the problem of piracy when fully digital sales are realized. However, since Sony's victory in the videotape lawsuit, it is no longer possible for the copyright owner to stop the progress of technology through litigation, and all the current audio and video playback platforms such as Walkman, video recorder, CD player, MD Walkman and DVD player cannot completely eliminate the problem of piracy, so we only need to do what we can and do not need to worry too much about this aspect. ”

Bill Olsen knew from Eric's smile that he could see through his mind and was not embarrassed, so he bypassed the topic and continued to discuss the construction of Fireflyer's component procurement system, the construction of the sales network, and the marketing of products.

Eric has invested about $60 million 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 disks and the cost of acquiring wifi patents, which is not much for the research and development of MP3 players, after all, Firefly Electronics is responsible for the research and development of two products The team has only more than 190 people, although the annual salary of engineers in Silicon Valley is generally very high, but the salary expenses in the past two years are only 30 million.

However, Bill Olson's budget plan for Fireflyer, from component procurement to product marketing, reached $200 million, which gave Eric the feeling that it would cost $60 million to make a movie, but spend $200 million on publicity and distribution.

Of course, the development prospects of Fireflyer are definitely worth the budget, as Bill Olson mentioned at the conference, if Fireflyer can replace the Walkman, it will bring billions of dollars in revenue to Firefly Electronics every year, and Eric knows better than everyone that Fireflyer does have the potential to replace Walkman and all other current portable music players.

The meeting lasted until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the detailed launch and promotion plan of Fireflyer was determined, and Eric and Chris visited the company's R&D department with two heads of Firefly Electronics.

At six o'clock, after dinner together, Eric flew back to Los Angeles at night.

Chris will continue to lead the integration of Firefly Electronics with the British Arm chip company, and the relevant plan was finalized yesterday through a conference call with Arm management. Prior to this, Firefly Electronics had already come up with a sample of an e-book reader, but because the current production cost of this machine is close to $400, if you want to ensure sufficient profits, the sales price should also be set at at least $700, which is a price that is difficult for ordinary consumers to accept.

After discussion, Eric decided to temporarily abandon this product, but to use the accumulated technology, in the Firefly Electronics, ARM and Yahoo three parties to work together to develop a more feature-rich tablet Yahoopad, which is also the second stage of the original Eric plan, and plans to launch mature products around 2000, when the time comes, with the further development of the electronics industry, YahooPad manufacturing costs will definitely drop to a more reasonable price.

As the Gulfstream business jet landed at Santa Monica Airport in the dark of night, Eric had just gotten off the plane when he received a call from Michael Eisner asking if he had time to have a meal together in the evening.

Of course, Eric knows Michael Eisner's intentions, the digital field has stopped foreign cooperation, and for a long time in the future, Warner, Paramount, Universal and Sony will be difficult to produce excellent CG special effects movies.

Considering that he didn't have any reservations for tonight, Eric agreed and drove to Morton's 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 the location of Michael Eisner.

Michael Eisner, who was sitting at the table reading a newspaper, saw Eric coming over, stood up, shook hands and said hello, Eric couldn't help but tease: "I didn't expect you to choose this restaurant." ”

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

In the mid-80s, Michael Eisner, who was still president of Paramount, was thinking of moving to Disney as CEO because of a stiff relationship with Martin Davis, the chairman of the parent company. One night, he planned to have dinner with his friend Michael Owitz, and called Morton to reserve a seat, but he was suddenly told that it was full, and Michael Owitz, who was present at the time, called again to find a place, which was simply a humiliation for a Hollywood tycoon.

Michael Eisner heard Eric's teasing, but his expression was very flat, and he said lightly: "There are some things that you always have to remind yourself often." ”

"Heh," Eric smiled, and the two sat down, ordering a bite to eat even though they had already had dinner in San Francisco.

After the waiter left, Michael Eisner took the initiative to speak: "Eric, I heard that you went to San Francisco in the past two days?" ”

"Well, a company set up over there has a little thing that is about to go on sale, so I'll go over and take a look."

Michael Eisner smiled and said, "The things that can be valued by you must not be 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, it's a pity that the sample is in my luggage, otherwise I can give you one, which is quite an interesting little thing." ”

Now that Michael Eisner already knew about it, he didn't hide it anymore, and Eric even speculated that Michael Eisner probably knew about Yahoo's approach to online music sales with Universal Music.

It's clear that Michael Eisner wants to use Universal Music's rights as a bargaining chip in exchange for some tangible benefits, such as continued technical support for Universal Pictures in the digital field.

However, he clearly miscalculated.

"Actually, I had dinner with Universal Music's Doug Morris at noon today, and I happened to hear about it," Michael Eisner said without beating around the corner, "I also heard that Yahoo's cooperation negotiations with Universal Music seem to have reached a stalemate. ”

"It's inevitable," Eric said, "big companies always have the arrogance of big companies, they often can't see the situation clearly, they hold their own identity when they have the initiative, and when they lose the initiative, they will think of themselves as victims." ”

In the original time and space, several major record companies originally had far more advantages than Apple to deploy mp3 players, but either in order to maintain their market position of the old portable player that was about to be eliminated, or the group management system was rigid and unresponsive, in short, in the mp3 player, a low-threshold electronic product, although many record companies have tried, but they all ended in failure, and finally Apple occupied more than 70% of the music player market, In the end, the major record companies had to succumb to the rules of Apple's online music sales platform, being led by others, and from time to time complaining like a resentful woman that Apple's players connived at piracy and infringed on their own rights and interests.

Michael Eisner, of course, couldn't see the future scene, and although he felt that Eric's words were a little inexplicable, he didn't refute them.

After a casual chat, dinner was quickly served, and Michael Eisner took a sip of red wine, put down his goblet, and continued: "Eric, I think you must have guessed my thoughts. Well, I can help convince Mr. Bronfman to speak up and support Yahoo's partnership with Universal Music, but in exchange, I want the digital space to remain open to working with Universal Pictures, what do you think? ”

Eric shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Michael, I can't agree to your terms. ”

Michael Eisner was stunned, he didn't expect Eric to refuse so simply, during the day, he had already investigated the situation of the Yahoo online music store in detail, although it has reached cooperation with some second- and third-tier record companies, but the number of song copyrights 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 cultivated by Firefly Records in recent years. On the Universal's side, Universal Music owns more than a quarter of the music copyright resources in the United States, and if it can reach a cooperation with Universal, the attitude of other record companies will not be so resolute. (To be continued.) )