Chapter 260 Time Music Group is established
"Boss Yang, this way please."

Xie Guomin knew of Yang Xiao's arrival in advance. After a brief greeting, he took Yang Xiao to a meeting room.

He actually felt a little strange inside. Yang Xiao contacted him through an internal Sina employee. At first he found it quite interesting. Why would a "big internet celebrity" on Weibo contact him?
As an official senior executive of Weibo, he naturally also participated in this Weibo Night.

To him, this was just their company's annual party, where they invited some celebrities to perform and he just watched for fun.

Unexpectedly, after this young man revealed himself on stage, his true identity and background were discovered to be so complicated, which really gave him a surprise.

In comparison today, Yang Xiao’s identity as a “big internet celebrity” is just his lowest-end and cheapest title.

This made Xie Guomin very interested.

Otherwise, a mere internet celebrity wouldn't have such an honor to be received individually by the vice president of Sina.

"I'm very curious. I wonder why Mr. Yang came to talk to me specifically? It seems that we don't have any business dealings." Xie Guomin asked his doubts first.

Yang Xiao smiled and said noncommittally: "Haha, how can there be no business dealings? In a disguised way, I am also making a living from Weibo. Besides, Mr. Xie, you are the general manager of [Sina Music], and I also have a music player called [Time Cloud Music], so we are also in the same field. Isn't it that I came here specifically to seek advice from you, my senior?"

Hearing this, Xie Guomin laughed at himself: "Haha, Mr. Yang, are you making fun of me? [Sina Music] is now half dead, not many people in the market have heard of this app, and all the users have left. Not to mention compared with the mainstream music apps on the market, even Mr. Yang's [Time Cloud Music] is far ahead of [Sina Music]. It is well known that I have failed so badly, so why do you want to learn from me?"

What Xie Guomin said is true.

Sina has also been involved in music player software, and even started its early planning as early as 2007. At that time, it even planned to build China's largest digital music distribution channel and established one of the few platforms for operating genuine music at that time.

Unfortunately, in 2007, getting legitimate products was like lighting a light in the toilet - it was like seeking death.

At that time, it had been just over a year since the famous "Baidu infringement case" in history ended.

At that time, the Baidu MP3 platform openly pirated music from major record companies and was jointly sued. In the end, due to imperfect laws, it lost the case!
This marked the beginning of the “dark ages” of rampant piracy.

Xie Guomin still wants to promote legitimate music at this time. Is he mentally ill?
As soon as various authentic versions were launched on his platform, other platforms immediately uploaded his original resources to their own platforms without saying a word, without even a word of thanks!

[Sina Music] It was Xie Guomin who was pushing it at the time, but users were used to other platforms. For things like music players, everyone has feelings for them, so why would they easily buy into new things?
Platforms like [Tiantian Dongting], [Qianqian Jingting], [Domi Music], [Xiami Music], etc., have a large number of die-hard fans.

After these softwares that carried the youth of most netizens died, the number of netizens crying their hearts out could range from the first ring to the fifth ring.

Therefore, the failure of Sina Music was already doomed.

It started late and has no unique advantages. In the eyes of users, so-called genuine music is worthless. Who would buy it?
So, in other words, how could he succeed?
There is no logic for success!

Many people have never even heard of this thing, how sad!
But Yang Xiao's emotional intelligence is still online. Although it is a failed work, as a junior, it is not good to rub salt into the wound in front of him. Now it is natural for him to say good things.

The purpose of his words was just to open up the conversation between strangers who met for the first time.

"Mr. Xie, you are too modest. You are a senior in the industry. Regardless of success or failure, there are always things that I, a newcomer in the industry, can learn from you. Moreover, your spirit of not associating with piracy and only producing genuine products is also worthy of our respect."

After hearing this, Xie Guomin's expression relaxed. He looked at Yang Xiao approvingly, then sighed:

"Alas, pirated music is everywhere in the country now, and people take piracy for granted. Only those of us in the industry know the pain. There are not many young people with your awareness nowadays."

"No, no, the so-called fight against piracy is everyone's responsibility, isn't that what we have been taught since childhood?"

Yang Xiao then stopped judging the success or failure of Sina Music and instead said something that surprised Xie Guomin.

"I heard that Mr. Xie is planning to leave Sina and start his own business?"

"Hmm? Why did Mr. Yang say that? Where did this news come from?"

Xie Guomin was very confused. Not many people knew about this matter. He only told a few senior executives of Sina and his confidants.

How did Yang Xiao, an outsider, know this?

Could it be that this young man has some relationship with those people?
Yang Xiao was smiling at this time. He did not answer, but pretended to be mysterious and said, "It's not worth mentioning, just some gossip."

"Mr. Yang, you are really well-informed." Xie Guomin smiled faintly and looked at Yang Xiao deeply.

Xie Guomin didn't know what Yang Xiao was up to. Although he didn't admit it at this time, it was actually a disguised acquiescence.

Yang Xiao did not add fuel to the fire and did not say much on this issue. He then changed the subject and said, "Mr. Xie, what do you think of the current situation of the music industry?"

"Haha, what can I think? If I could understand it, I wouldn't have made Sina Music like this."

Xie Guomin laughed at himself. He didn't know what Yang Xiao was here for, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he looked at him and said, "It seems that Mr. Yang is not here to exchange experiences today, but to give me a lesson. How about you tell me your opinion? Let me listen and learn something?"

Yang Xiao heard the sharp tone in Xie Guomin's words, but he didn't get angry. Instead, he asked some wild questions:
"I heard that Mr. Xie was a lawyer before he joined Sina?"

"Oh? It seems that Mr. Yang knows me very well." Xie Guomin was more and more surprised. Did this man check on him specifically before coming?
Yang Xiao smiled and said to himself: "Haha, for the music industry, the law is actually a weapon to reorganize the online music market. This is also the reason why I came to visit you, Mr. Xie."

"What do you mean, Mr. Yang?" Xie Guomin was stunned and didn't understand what Yang Xiao meant for a moment.

Yang Xiao explained: "In fact, for the music industry, no, in other words, for online music today, piracy is rampant. In fact, whether it is Mr. Xie's [Sina Music] or my [Time Cloud Music], it is too difficult to gain a foothold in this music market war. Users already have their own music software, and it is difficult for them to get used to new platforms. Without core competitiveness, they will eventually die out."

"Boss Yang, I know what you said, but do you have any solutions to these problems?"

Yang Xiao did not answer at first, but talked about his own product: "Mr. Xie, I don't know if you have heard of my [Time Cloud Music]. Now I am vigorously promoting the support and training of 'independent musicians'. When the time comes, the copyrights of these musicians will all be in my hands. This is one of my development directions."

"Haha, Mr. Yang's idea is good, but I don't know if you have ever understood that in the entire music market, the truly active songs are in the hands of big-name singers such as Jay Chou, Mayday, and Jacky Cheung. The works of these stars account for 90% of the entire market in terms of both playback and download volume. What kind of waves can your independent musicians make? How can you compete with them?"

"Mr. Xie, I told you that independent musicians are just one of my development strategies. My other strategy is to buy their copyrights, and exclusive copyrights. I'm already spending a lot of money to buy them. After that, I plan to take up legal action to file a lawsuit for music copyright infringement and end this chaos."

Yang Xiao lied without blushing or beating his heart. How could he have the money to buy up copyrights in large quantities?
However, when he was out, he had long been accustomed to mixing truth with lies. This not only made him appear more impressive, but also served to scare Xie Guomin.

"Mr. Yang, are you so naive? It seems that you still don't understand the current market environment. What's the point of spending money to obtain exclusive copyrights? They are just a group of robbers. They will steal whatever they want. Will they discuss it with you and ask for your consent?"

However, Xie Guomin continued to attack Yang Xiao with a sarcastic smile on his face.

Now he was the one lecturing Yang Xiao.

Yang Xiao spread his hands indifferently and said with a smile: "This is easy. Let's sue those pirated platforms and build a professional team of lawyers at the same time."

Xie Guomin shook his head, smiled contemptuously, and said: "Haha, Mr. Yang is still too naive. Now the lawsuit is a mess. The notice of legitimate music has been issued in 09, but what's the use? Even if you win the lawsuit, even if he compensates you for some economic losses, can it make up for your losses?

How much money is that? Not even enough to buy the copyright!

To put it bluntly, it is just like the insignificant fee that a client pays you after having sex with you!
Then, your so-called exclusive copyright is still listed on other platforms, and you continue to waste time and effort on litigation? It will be fruitless! "

Xie Guomin was a little angry when talking about it. This was the reason why his [Sina Music] failed.

He doesn't even look like a freely traded prostitute, but more like a young girl who was raped helplessly. His ideals were screwed to pieces, and he hates these domestic music platforms.

All of them are people who have taken off their pants and had sex with him!

This hatred is huge!
Seeing Xie Guomin getting excited, Yang Xiao quickly smiled and comforted him, "Mr. Xie, don't get excited. Although the copyright issue is a mess right now, I believe the country will soon come up with regulations on music copyright. It is unstoppable."

Xie Guomin calmed down, sat up straight, and looked at Yang Xiao seriously: "Why do you think so? Several years have passed, and the country has not shown any signs of taking any action again."

Yang Xiao shook his head, obviously disagreeing with Xie Guomin's opinion, and said:
"It's hard to say. Wasn't there rampant piracy in the video copyright industry before? Wasn't there a policy to rectify it? The ownership of video copyright has become clear now, right? So, can the country just leave music alone? These are inevitable."

"Maybe there will be such a day."

Xie Guomin looked at Yang Xiao carefully. He didn't know why this young man was so sure. Was there some unknown background that made him receive some news in advance?
In fact, Xie Guomin has also been waiting for this day. He himself is a lawyer.

Even when Sina used the VIE structure to go public in the United States, it was said that Xie Guomin's legal background played a crucial role.

He now plans to leave Sina and is even working on the handover, preparing to join the "online music battlefield" where he was once defeated.

He didn't expect that this young man Yang Xiao would show up and have the same opinion as him. How could he not be surprised?
After pondering for a long time, Xie Guomin couldn't help but ask Yang Xiao's real purpose: "Mr. Yang, are you here today just to tell me this?" "Haha, of course not."

Yang Xiao smiled and said, "I came here this time to tell Mr. Xie that I also feel disgusted with the morbid development of the entire online music market. I am young and a little stubborn, so I plan to set up an online music group and prepare to stockpile a large number of exclusive music copyrights and take the opportunity to integrate them. Now I just happen to lack a capable partner, so I sincerely want to invite Mr. Xie to come and help steer the ship."

"Oh? Why me?" Xie Guomin was slightly surprised.

"No reason, it's just that Mr. Xie is a senior in the industry. I also admire Mr. Xie for choosing the legitimate music route in 2007. Now I just want to give it another try."

Yang Xiao's real purpose was actually because Xie Guomin already had rich experience and connections in dealing with many record companies when he was running Sina Music in the early days.

In a word, in any matter, as long as you have connections and ways, you are halfway to success.

What's more, Xie Guomin himself is a highly skilled lawyer, and as the head of Sina Music, he has been involved in this industry for four or five years!

With all kinds of BUFFs in one person, it can be said that he is a top talent who is professional, experienced and knowledgeable in this field!
If this matter is to be accomplished, Xie Guomin is indispensable!
Yang Xiao came here just for him!
But Yang Xiao didn't say it directly. He had known this information secretly for a long time. Instead, he played the emotional card at this moment and continued to deceive:

"Mr. Xie, this chaotic industry has too many people who don't follow the rules. We need to do a big cleanup to get rid of those who should be eliminated, and we will be their terminator."

Yang Xiao is a young man of twenty. He spoke with sincerity and passion, even with a hint of childishness.

However, it also touched the heart of Xie Guomin very appropriately.

Moreover, Yang Xiao's special visit to invite him also had a sense of "heroes sympathizing with each other", which made Xie Guomin feel that perhaps only a young and naive person like Yang Xiao would dare to say such ignorant words?

Such straightforwardness also made him, a much older industry veteran, feel quite sad.

Yes, he had spent four or five years on Sina Music and had already "failed" long ago, or even completely failed.

But this is more due to the limitations of the times and my own limitations, and there are too many objective factors!

After all, he is still in his prime, and he naturally wants to get up where he fell, so he has never been willing to give up!
Now that he met a young man whose ideas coincided with his own, how could Xie Guomin not be deeply touched?

However, doing business cannot be easily succeeded by just a few words, no matter how sincere those words are.

What you need to do business is money, and the business they are talking about requires a huge sum of money that is comparable to a bottomless pit!

"We? Mr. Yang, don't take me with you. You think too highly of an old man like me."

Xie Guomin couldn't help but sneered, and then asked: "However, I still want to ask, Mr. Yang, do you know how much it costs to buy the exclusive copyright of most of the best-selling songs in the market today?"

Yang Xiao understood the meaning behind Xie Guomin's words.

It's a disguised way of asking him, have you considered whether you have the ability to do it?
After all, this is a bottomless pit. To put it simply, hundreds of millions of funds are just the starting point, and they are barely enough to pick up chips and enter the market!
The amount of money that needs to be spent here is as high as tens of billions or even hundreds of billions!

"As for money, I have it, but it's not much at the moment. I can only afford to carry a gun and mount a horse."

Yang Xiao smiled awkwardly at this time, and then changed the subject: "So what I just said was that I wanted to find Mr. Xie as a partner. Mr. Xie must have the ability and strength, so that we can work together to achieve great things. Mr. Xie, don't you think this is the truth?"

When Xie Guomin heard Yang Xiao's shameless words, he was so angry that he laughed.

Oh my god, it turns out they were waiting for me here, and they want me to pay for it too?

It was hard for him to imagine that the boy in front of him was a human being?

Is he still planning to take advantage of his "pension"?

Xie Guomin is a veteran of Sina. After Sina went public, he cashed out a lot of money as the stock price continued to rise.

Now he is a truly rich man, with two or three small goals in his account, and he has already achieved personal financial freedom.

This is also the reason why he dared to leave Sina and set up his own company!

Otherwise, if you don't have some ability, why would you give up a good job as vice president and easily get out of this big ship?
Xie Guomin did not answer for a while, obviously thinking.

After a moment, he asked, "Tell me, how much do you plan to invest? How much do you want me to invest? What is the equity distribution like?"

"How about this, Mr. Xie, to show my sincerity, I have two plans. In the first plan, I will personally invest 100 million yuan in the early stage, and you will invest 50 million yuan. We will divide the shares in a 60:40 ratio, 60% for me and 40% for you. You will be the CEO."

Xie Guomin did not comment, but asked curiously: "What about the second option?"

"The second option is that I will personally invest 5000 million, and for the remaining 5 million, I will exchange % of the shares of Easy Internet Technology Company with you, which means I will own all the shares of WIFI Master Key Company."

Yang Xiao was afraid that Xie Guomin didn't understand, so he added a little explanation and said, "Of course, whether it is the first or the second option, this is just a preliminary investment. There will definitely be more to come later. After all, this is a game of burning money."

"Oh? Mr. Yang is so willing to give up this coveted stock? As far as I know, many venture capitalists in the industry have been coveting it for a long time."

"That's why I said that this is my sincerity. I don't need to say much about how optimistic its shares are. And Mr. Xie, you are the first person with whom I am willing to share my shares." Yang Xiao said sincerely without changing his expression.

Hearing this, Xie Guomin fell silent again.

As a practitioner in the Internet industry, he actually knows the details of Yang Xiao's company.

He was quite surprised. Yang Xiao's company had unlimited potential, because anyone could see that as long as the number of smartphone users increased, the number of WiFi Master Key users would increase proportionally. The importance of this thing was second only to making phone calls and using QQ!
The valuation behind it is now rising steadily!
There were countless venture capitalists in the market who wanted to invest, but they were all turned away by Yang Xiao.

Unexpectedly, the young man in front of him was willing to give him a share of the pie?

To be honest, this was quite useful to Xie Guomin.

After all, it can be seen from here that Yang Xiao really wanted to invite him to join.

Originally, Xie Guomin had the ability to take on this matter alone, and there was no need for him to cooperate with Yang Xiao.

But the world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit.

Now the 5% shares of Qingsong Internet Technology Company are in front of him, tempting him. Faced with such tangible benefits, he cannot help but consider it carefully.

This young man has vision, strength, courage and sincerity.

What's more, he had heard from Yang Xiao before that they had already stockpiled the copyrights?

The opportunity had been lost, and he really couldn't think of any reason to reject Yang Xiao.

After an unknown amount of time, Xie Guomin looked at the determined smile on the young man's face, stretched out his hand, and said:
"Thanks to Mr. Yang's kindness, I, Xie, have agreed. I just don't know if the name of our new company has been decided?"

"How about calling it [Time Music Group]? Of course, if Mr. Xie has a better suggestion, you can also tell me about it."

"That's it. It's good."

Seeing that Yang Xiao had already made up his mind, how could Xie Guomin make such an untactful rebuttal?

It's just a company name, he doesn't take it seriously.

Yang Xiao also stretched out his right hand and shook it with him with a smile, "Mr. Xie, I believe that our future cooperation will be pleasant. Our [Time Music] Group will definitely be able to break through the siege. My plan is to acquire [Kuwo Music] within a year, and find a way to take over [Kugou] for integration within two years, and strive to end this war without gunpowder within four years."

Xie Guomin was a little curious at this time. He didn't know why Yang Xiao was so confident and dared to say such a big thing. You know, even the smaller Kuwo Music's valuation is as high as tens of millions of dollars. He couldn't help but ask the confusion in his heart:
"Haha, Mr. Yang is really a young and inexplicable person who is not afraid of tigers. It's just that you seem to be very confident about this? You know, our initial investment is so huge, and the amount of money we will spend on purchasing copyrights is also a bottomless pit. Mr. Yang doesn't seem to be worried about failure at all?
No matter what, even if the day of copyright regulation really comes, can we survive until that day?

This is a huge gamble. Besides, are you so sure that it will be over within four years? Does Mr. Yang have any inside information? Why not talk to me, Xie, and give me some reassurance? "

Hearing this, Yang Xiao sneered: "Boss Xie is really humorous. How could I have any inside information? Besides, what inside information would allow me to know it so many years in advance?
As for your saying that I am not worried about failure, that is really unfair to me.

When doing business, everyone is afraid of failure.

But how should I put it? I probably don't care, because I just treat it as a big gamble. What's more, Mr. Xie is here with me to support me, so what do I have to be afraid of?"

(End of this chapter)