Chapter 517: Steve Jobs' Confusion

"Damn! Is there anyone in this world who knows me better than I know myself?!"

After failing to win the argument against the account ID "Golden Fish," Sun Yanzi, filled with resentment and humiliation, logged off at light speed—only to grow angrier and feel more cheated the more she thought about it.

Sun Yanzi, who considered her Chinese to be quite good, suffered her first loss today due to her lack of fluency with Chinese phrases, and for the first time learned what is meant by the profound and extensive nature of Chinese culture.

That "Suohai" on the other end of the internet line must be from the Cantonese region!

Mother of Xi Pi!

Can't fight him, can't out-curse him—

Since she started surfing the web with a small account, when had she ever suffered such grievance!

She instinctively slapped the table; a "Dong" sound erupted from the surface. Sun Yanzi, whose cheeks had just been puffed up with anger, immediately opened her mouth wide to scream—

"Hiss!"

Probably considering that she was currently at the company, Sun Yanzi, whose throat rolled several times, ultimately did not howl out; she could only forcibly swallow the cry of pain, while shaking her hand and continuously hissing "Sih-Sih" with her mouth—

Occasionally, she pressed her stinging palm against her lips and puckered them to blow on it twice.

"Yanzi, your new album's—"

The slightly ajar door of the lounge was pushed open. Li Sisong, who had come with the complete arrangement files, saw Sun Yanzi sitting in front of the computer, her facial features twisted as she kept shaking her hand and hissing; a question mark inevitably formed on his forehead: "What are you doing?"

"Ah? No, nothing, I just accidentally hit the table while swatting a mosquito, hehe."

Instinctively pulling her swinging right hand behind her back, Sun Yanzi immediately stood up and turned around, using this to block her computer screen which she hadn't had time to switch back via shortcut keys; she bared her teeth in a grin and changed the subject: "Have all the arrangement files for the new album been finished? I—"

"Wait a minute, you move aside."

Li Sisong, seeing through her guilt at a glance, spoke with an uncompromising tone—

"Ah? No need for that, let's go, let's go, Teacher, let's go record the song; I've already prepared the chocolate myself!"

Suddenly startled in her heart, Sun Yanzi immediately pushed and shoved the teacher out; at the moment she stepped out the door, her steps paused, her right heel hooked, causing the door to close: "I've already prepared one pass!"

To prove she wasn't slacking off, Sun Yanzi immediately established significance before the teacher, her tone and expression so firm that she almost fooled herself.

Just...

One minute on stage, ten years of work off stage.

The result does not lie.

Sun Yanzi, who had passed the pronunciation of the first two songs relying on her own talent, ultimately got stuck on "Meet," being drilled by her own teacher from 9:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night; fortunately, she was well prepared, so whenever she was about to shed little pearls, she just chewed some chocolate...

"Ah! I'm exhausted!"

At 10:30 at night, Zhou Yi, back in the hotel suite to rest, sank heavily into the sofa as if his bones had turned to jelly, lying diagonally on it: "I think it would be better not to hold this kind of celebration banquet next time."

Cheng Hao, who had brought him back, gave the man an annoyed glare: "Didn't you enjoy showing off quite a bit?"

"That's different; the 'me' during the celebration banquet time before needs to be cut off."

Zhou Yi, half-paralyzed on the sofa, shook his head and swayed: "The 'me' now has reached the sage time."

"... Day after day, I don't know how you come up with such words; you're almost ruining the Chinese characters."

Cheng Hao pretended to be helpless, holding her forehead and sighing.

Having spent so many years with Zhou Yi, she didn't claim to know all the various tiger-and-wolf words that came from the man's mouth, but at the very least she could guess and understand about seventy or eighty percent.

"You continue your celebration banquet; I won't join the fun anymore. I'm going back to the Imperial Capital to stay."

Not knowing what she was thinking, Cheng Hao paced to the head of the sofa; as she bent over, her eyes looked down at the man's slightly drunken gaze, and the neckline of her wine-red evening gown opened a bit lower with her bending motion—

The clearly visible curves and capital, along with the pleasant scent of perfume, drilled into every nerve within Zhou Yi's body.

Cheng Hao, her eyes full of smiles, raised her right index finger and pressed it down on the tip of his nose from above: "I'm going to start making money too."

The money she bought together with Zhou Yi back then has now grown geometrically for her; she now has sufficient capital for investment trial and error.

Zhou Yi smiled noncommittally, twisted his neck, and his head moved up a few centimeters along the curve of the sofa armrest—his nose rubbing against the evening gown that was basically worn only once: "Good luck to you."

Cheng Hao, with no trace of anger, raised her eyebrows in surprise: "You're not going to stop me?"

The investment industry is a bottomless pit.

Putting Zhou Yi aside, she herself was actually a child brandishing heavy gold in public; the so-called projects eyeing the money in her hand were not few, especially after NetEase stock soared like a rocket.

Among her own funds, the one that earned the most was NetEase.

If only this year's Hurun and Forbes rankings hadn't been revealed early; otherwise, Cheng Hao would surely have made it into the ranking of female tycoons.

Although the current value of this thing isn't high; Liu Xiaoqin, who is currently singing "Tears Behind Bars" to show off her voice, could have made the list back then with a net worth of ten million.

"Why would I stop you?"

Smelling the woman's hair fragrance, Zhou Yi, lying on the sofa like this, had no intention of sitting up; he smiled and looked her in the eye: "If you don't have enough money, I can lend it to you, just like you lent money to me back then."

"What does this count as, reverse sugar-daddy-ing?"

"What a thing to say; did you call that sugar-daddy-ing back then?"

The man's smile at the corner of his mouth increased instead of decreasing: "The rich woman that Tang Seng, Tang Zhanglao, met is what you call sugar-daddy-ing, okay? Do you even qualify?"

Dissatisfied, Cheng Hao used two fingers of her right hand to directly pinch the man's nose, gently pinching it twice; after letting go, she immediately straightened her body: "Your mouth is really hard; if that rich woman actually found you, you'd probably run faster than a rabbit."

"Hard to say; after all, the flower language of the steel wool ball is endurance."

"..."

Her face finally couldn't withstand Zhou Yi's continuous bombardment of acting like a hooligan; Cheng Hao gave him an annoyed glare: "I'm going back to the Imperial Capital. Be careful when you drink in the future; don't say such things randomly outside."

Everyone envies Tang Zhanglao's being sugar-daddy-ed, not knowing how low-status the job of a son-in-law who comes to the wife's house is. Between the couple after marriage, if you can't say they treated each other with mutual respect, at the very least you could say they weren't very familiar.

Tang Zhanglao had to ask for permission for everything he did, including their marital life, making it like reporting to a superior.

Like to go out and play with cultural artifacts?

Build a museum for yourself; don't go out.

In Zhou Yi's view, it was simply being treated as a human Tang Seng figurine and carried home by someone.

Of course, there was another reason: that rich woman didn't look good.

If she looked like Ding Jianguo, Fan Xiaopang, or Ah Ah Se's mother, then if he had no money, feeding himself to the tiger wouldn't be impossible.

He had his own flexible set of bottom-line standards.

"Pay extra attention when you go to Japan; being in a foreign land is not like being back home, and besides, that place is Japan."

In the end, Cheng Hao, who had originally planned to return to his room to pack his luggage, still felt uneasy and turned back to add one more warning: "Be careful of the people over there."

Because of Fuji TV's extravagant move of spending 3 million USD after tax just to invite Zhou Yi to make an appearance, after concluding the Guangzhou concert and taking a brief rest, Zhou Yi would head to Japan—

This was also the first time Zhou Yi had traveled to mainland Japan since winning the Grammy, and both Warner Japan and Fuji TV attached extraordinary importance to it.

Once the trip to Japan for appearances and endorsements was over, Zhou Yi would begin preparing for the filming of the music video for his fourth Chinese album.

The music video for "Anti-Aggression War" would definitely have to be filmed on location abroad to create a sharp contrast with the peaceful and beautiful music videos for subsequent songs like "Qi Li Xiang," "Mo Qinghua," and "Writing a Poem for You," but due to Zhou Yi's high standards, this would indeed consume a lot of time.

A conservative estimate was that finishing the fourth Chinese album by November would be a victory.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Just as he was speaking, the phone in Zhou Yi's pocket rang—it was a call from Qian Jiang.

"A-Yi, Apple's iTunes Store officially launched today; do you want to stay up all night monitoring it?"

Even Qian Jiang, an old hand who had weathered many storms, felt a distinct sense of uncertainty when facing this unfamiliar thing called the iTunes Store, and solemnity was clearly audible in his voice.

Even the mighty Steve Jobs had set an expected target of selling one million songs within six months.

And this was only after bringing in Zhou Yi, which was enough to demonstrate his expectations for the online music store.

So Qian Jiang was too nervous to sleep.

Zhou Yi, who was currently not in the United States, could be said to be frequently relying on various news outlets to keep his face in the public eye; the myth of physical sales he had previously created could be described as overwhelming for the European and American music scene.

But now, on the internet where piracy runs rampant, Zhou Yi, with no predecessors to pave the way, could be said to be the first person to eat the crab.

If he suffered a Waterloo, those competitors would absolutely not give up this opportunity to strike at Zhou Yi.

Online music, a music model that started with piracy, was undoubtedly a fantasy to traditional, conservative musicians; moreover, the United States possessed the world's most complete record industry, with millions of jobs directly dependent on it, so they looked down with contempt on online music, which completely bypassed their sales channels.

"Why monitor it? If you want to monitor it, you monitor it; I'm going to sleep, I'm exhausted."

Zhou Yi, who had just yawned, failed to detect any hint of nervousness: "I can't endure a time difference of over ten hours; are we cultivating immortality every day? People will be worn out."

"..."

On the other end of the line, Qian Jiang pressed his lips together, his expression somewhat strange—why did he suddenly feel like the Emperor was not anxious while the eunuch was?

Ah, pfft, pfft, pfft!

I am not a eunuch!

After hanging up the phone, Qian Jiang lit a cigarette, gently slapped his own cheeks twice, and then made the decision to stay up all night—

This could not be blamed on him.

If anyone was to blame, it was Apple for drawing such a huge pie; even he, an old hand, was deeply tempted.

On July 23, 2003, at 10:08 AM US time, Apple, which had delayed the launch of the iTunes Store from the end of April to the end of July due to broadcasting Zhou Yi's advertisements, officially announced that all of Zhou Yi's songs would be simultaneously launched on the iTunes Music Store—

Singles were priced at 1.99 USD each; standard edition albums were priced at 20 USD each.

As an effort by Apple to break into the online music market, in the album sector, the fledgling Apple directly reduced the price of all of Zhou Yi's standard edition albums to 20 USD each.

Because it was just the beginning, the Apple Store only dared to launch standard edition albums.

As for the deluxe editions that came with free gifts?

Well, sorry, you still have to buy the physical copies.

As for the extra songs in the deluxe editions?

Then you can only buy the singles.

Moreover, the Apple Store partnered with Warner to list all of Zhou Yi's Chinese albums and Chinese songs; this was a surprise specifically prepared for Zhou Yi's overseas fans—want to buy Zhou Yi's Chinese albums but have no channel?

Warner controlling the stock?

No problem, come to my Apple iTunes Music Store; we have everything you need!

As the anchor personally invited by Steve Jobs, Zhou Yi had full authorization for all his songs; as long as you paid to buy them, any song could be downloaded to an iPod to listen to!

The singles reduced to 1.99 USD and the albums at 20 USD appeared on the iTunes Music Store homepage in a banner format like a big-character poster, telling everyone who entered the store, bringing great surprise to many—

"Fuck! God, I admit I'm tempted; I didn't want to buy Spike's album because I didn't like some of the songs, but this single-purchase model of Apple's really hits the spot! Only 1.99 USD per song!"

"Although there are no free gifts with the physical copies, a standard edition album for 20 USD is also a great deal."

"All of Spike's songs are here, even the Chinese songs; that's great. I've always been curious about 'In the Name of the Father'; I'll buy it first! Just 1.99, you can't lose money or get scammed!"

"..."

Thanks to Apple's continuous and unremitting promotion since April, combined with the currently explosive success of "Pirates of the Caribbean" across the entire United States, even the purely instrumental theme song of "Pirates of the Caribbean" appeared in the Apple Store—

Single mode, still selling for 1.99.

With the buff applied, this "Pirate March," hailed as a classic, directly squeezed into the top ten of the download charts...

"What did you say? With the popularity boost from 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' it only barely managed to squeeze into the top ten?"

Apple, Steve Jobs' office.

Steve Jobs, who was solely responsible for this project and had bet the company's future rise on it, was monitoring the data with the executives while simultaneously receiving a data analysis report—

The "Pirate March," which was expected to reach number one thanks to the popularity of "Pirates of the Caribbean," surprisingly ranked only tenth in real-time downloads—the song ahead of it was called "Good Time."

Shocked and rubbing his head, Jobs asked a follow-up question: "Which song has the highest downloads right now? The World Cup one? Or one from his new album?"

"No, neither."

The subordinate coming to report had an extremely strange expression: "It's a song from his first album, the one that made him explode globally, 'Baby'; here are the data."

"..."

Seeing the subordinate's demeanor and sensing something was wrong, Jobs immediately took the document; the moment he opened it, his eyes instantly widened to the size of saucers—

"Six hours, and just the single 'Baby' has thirteen thousand sales?!"

Due to excessive surprise, Jobs shouted this out loud, and the other executives immediately cast incredulous glances at him.

How... how much?!

One song, six hours, thirteen thousand songs?!

According to the contract signed between Apple and Zhou Yi, digital songs listed on the music store within six months sold 800,000 copies; thereafter, the revenue split between Apple and Warner Zhou Yi would drop to 2:8.

Selling one million copies within six months would lower the split to 1:9.

Selling three million copies within six months would mean Apple would grant Zhou Yi an additional bonus incentive calculated as 40% of sales exceeding three million copies.

At the time, everyone thought they were leveraging Zhou Yi's fame to reach one million sales in half a year, build a reputation, and thus welcome more singers to join.

The clause about three million copies was purely for suppressing prices and painting a pie in the sky...

Jobs rubbed his head, then unconsciously shook it, somewhat bewildered: "Fuck! Spike isn't going to sell one million copies a day, is he?!"

(End of this chapter)