In the evening, the sky was half red and half black, and the woods around the tree house were tinged with a thin layer of red under the sunlight.
Ballmer turned down all the evening entertainment and came non-stop. He quietly called out Kurokawa Oike and asked him face to face about the outcome of the negotiations.
I saw him bending at a forty-five degree angle and replied respectfully: "I agree, everyone agrees!"
"Did it? How on earth did Lu convince them!"
Ballmer's eyes widened. It was unbelievable that he had conquered four record giants in just one week.
Kurokawa Oike reported truthfully, trying not to miss any detail of his words and deeds, and even imitated Lu Fei's tone of voice.
Ballmer listened carefully, said nothing, and made up his mind that Microsoft's 15% stake in Spotify was far from enough, at least 30%.
While thinking about it, the meeting in the treehouse next door ended, and crowds of people poured out from the two exits. On one side were the four major record companies, and on the other were Lu Fei, Li Kaifu and others. They met for a feast after the official signing.
With the help of bright lights, Lu Fei climbed down the stairs. A loud laughter suddenly sounded in the quiet woods, causing birds to fly.
"Hahaha, Bravo, Lu."
Ballmer showed his belly and narrowed his smile, "To celebrate, I'll treat you to a seafood dinner!"
"Did you hear that? Ballmer is paying for tonight's dinner!"
Seeing that he couldn't refuse, Lu Fei could only follow the crowd and went to a crab pot restaurant and bar facing the sea and under the Ferris wheel.
The menu was all crab set meals. He ordered one at random and sat face to face with Ballmer in the most remote corner.
"Lu, you're done with them, it's time to continue our cooperation."
Zhang Tianmei sat on the side and interpreted into Chinese for Ballmer: "Microsoft can endorse the logic and allow large supermarkets such as Wal-Mart to relax their entry barriers and put your products on the shelves immediately."
"Thanks."
Lu Fei saw clearly that this was taking advantage of small favors to gain control of financing, and it was thanks to his superior skills.
Even without Microsoft, lmusic1 and fantasy1 can still be sold across the United States, because they have received commitments from the four major record giants, and the traditional sales channels for albums are large supermarkets.
This job is easy and enjoyable.
After all, the more popular Logic’s MP3 players sell, the more users will sign up for Spotify, and the more they will earn.
Relying on Spotify, Logic has formed a loose community of interests with the record giant group, and both prosper and lose.
"Yeah!"
Ballmer stared blankly, how could he still do this?
If the help is not thorough, the help is in vain. What was originally a timely help has become the icing on the cake.
"The entry is a week earlier than expected, and the research and development of Spotify Mall must also be accelerated."
Lu Fei took a sip of cold Coke, "I have asked Logic's software development team to rush to Seattle as soon as possible. Can Microsoft's technical support team be in place? We plan to release the new Spotify 2.0 no later than April 1 next year."
"April 1st, April Fool's Day?"
Ballmer was shocked. Not only the date, but also the development cycle was only more than 4 months. Even a layman like him knew that such an important task was too tight and the time was too tight.
"Don't worry, Spotify 2.0 has been planned since the beginning of October. If Microsoft can support a team of 20 people, there will be more than enough time, and it will be available for internal testing in February next year."
Lu Fei turned sideways as he spoke and asked the waiter to bring a large basin of seafood to the table.
King crab, Dungeness crab, snow crab, as well as shells, clams, shrimps, paired with corn and potatoes, piled up like a hill.
"Click!"
Ballmer did not use scissors or a mallet. He roughly broke off the long legs of the king crab with both hands and vented all the accumulated depression.
What a icing on the cake!
"The top priority is to establish Spotify's North American headquarters."
Lu Fei used scissors to cut open the crab legs, "15% of the equity, how much do you consider investing?"
Ballmer reported several pre-A round financing data for Amazon, which ranged from US$8 million to US$12 million.
He opened his mouth wide, sucked the crab meat in an unsightly manner, and gave an expected number——
$12 million.
Lu Fei picked out the crab meat and ate it slowly while bargaining. Once Spotify succeeds, it will be a major contributor to saving the American recording industry.
At that time, all record companies that mess up online will have to join the Spotify base camp, whether they like it or not, which is equivalent to a faucet, controlling the entire upstream traffic of the digital music market.
Only 12 million?
Ballmer said the standard for measuring valuation, "Lu, our internal evaluation of Spotify, which is not authorized by the four major record giants, is three to five million. I set a compromise at 4 million. For every additional music company that authorizes it, the price will increase by 200." Wan, do you think it’s reasonable?”
&nbs-->>
[Reading updates are slow to load, there are ads, and chapters are incomplete. Please exit Reading and read again! 】
p; "This is a record giant that even Steve Jobs may not be able to talk to."
Lu Fei is knocking and cutting, and eating crab meat, which is completely different from Ballmer who is rudely eating the sea. There are two styles of painting, one is literary, one is martial, one is quiet and the other is dynamic.
The two of them competed with each other in a chaotic battle to eliminate crabs, and raised the valuation of a music company's license to $2.5 million.
5 homes, that’s $16.5 million.
Ballmer waved his hand and said: "Lu, I think Sony can forget it. It has jumped out of the cooperation plan and gone it alone and will not agree to authorize it."
"That's not necessarily the case. Sony's biggest advantage is that it is big, and its biggest weakness is also big. Each department works on its own, and each department will try its best to protect its own interests."
Lu Fei raised his lips, "The other four giants have agreed. Can Sony Music accept being isolated and going it alone?"
………………
That night, the moonlight was bright and the sky was like a wash.
Doug Morris separated from Roger and others, and the first thing he did when he returned to the hotel was to contact Jimmy Iovine from IGA Music Company. They have been friends for more than 30 years and have recently been troubled by piracy.
How can we enjoy such a good thing like Spotify alone?
Everyone must have fun!
"Rierli? Rielli!"
Jimmy Iovine was excited when he heard the ready-made solution, "No one can make it so simple, not even Steve Jobs, only him!"
"No, no, maybe Steve Jobs can do it too."
Doug Morris takes care of his old friend, and the addition of IGA is equal to adding a little more impression points to Universal Music.
Immediately afterwards, the two of them poured a glass of wine each from across the world, talked over the wine over the phone, and used their drunkenness to complain about the elder brother, who followed Sony and went hungry for nine meals in three days.
In the end, we reached an agreement that it’s okay for this big brother not to follow!
After making up his mind to terminate cooperation with Sony, he hung up the phone. Just as Doug Morris was about to contact the next record label, Jobs suddenly called.
"It's really rare that you would take the initiative to call me?"
"Morris, did you go to Microsoft?" Jobs showed an unusually good temper.
Doug Morris smiled and said: "Yes, EMI, Warner, and BMG are all here."
Jobs had a premonition that something was not going to happen and restrained his irritable temper. "Can you tell me why Microsoft gathered you here?"
"To be specific, it wasn't Microsoft that summoned us, it was Lu, the Huaxia Lu!"
Doug Morris spoke a little erratically due to the influence of alcohol. "He is like Moses, parting the Red Sea of piracy and pointing out a clear path for us. My intuition concludes that the new beginning of digital music may start today."
Huaxia Continent?
Jobs couldn't help but be startled. As expected, he knew that a mediocre person like Ballmer could do something earth-shattering.
As for this strange Lu Fei, he was both curious and afraid, "What path did he point to?"
"Sauri, we have all signed a confidentiality agreement and cannot disclose information to any third party."
Doug Morris could only choose what he could say publicly, "Lu has an MP3 product that is not inferior to iPod, and a music software that is not inferior to or even surpasses iTunes..." New
"Beyond itunes?"
When Jobs heard about products that surpassed Apple's, perfectionism made him instantly angry: "Are you drunk?"
Doug Morris argued: "No, no, no, Steve, you haven't seen Spotify. All our hopes of genuine payment are pinned on it."
"That's the latest itunes you haven't seen before!"
Jobs asked extremely seriously: "Isn't it a cool idea to put music products into vending machines and let those damn pirates put in coins to buy cheap songs like they buy drinks?"
"emm, yeah~"
Doug Morris was astonished. Just like the Spotify store, Lu Fei is indeed my favorite!
Jobs said aggressively: "Morris, do you think Universal should choose me or me now?"
There was silence on the phone for a long time, and you could vaguely hear the sound of drinking and swallowing. Finally, Doug Morris's voice rang again:
"Saori, I still choose Lu."
"Why?"
Jobs frowned, holding the phone tightly with one skinny hand and holding the other on his lower back.
Doug Morris bravely said: "Because it's not easy to follow you, coquettish..."
"Dududu~"
Jobs hung up the phone roughly and paced back and forth angrily. Suddenly he walked too fast, and intense pain swept through his body.
I'm dripping with kidneys!
Little did they know that in previous lives, many people had lost their kidneys just for apples.
ps: And...
