I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

"Little goal..." Wang Ling's mouth twitched.

This phrase was indeed Wang Ling's father's famous saying, but even for Wang Ling's dad, the "little goal" was only a billion, whereas the market value of Wangyi Music was seventy to eighty billion, a five hundred times difference!

"What's your plan?" Wang Ling asked, "Even though Wangyi Music is a listed group, all the shares are held by Ding Sanshi, Ding Yuxi, and Ding Sanshi's wife; it's almost like their family business. No matter how rich you are, if they don't sell, you can't possibly acquire it, right?"

"No, no, no, you still don't understand my purpose," Zhang Menglong explained, "I said I want to acquire Wangyi Music, not because I actually want to buy it, but because I want to bring it down. I want them to know how easy it is for me to crush the entire Wangyi Group and then make them willingly offer it as an apology!"

"You're quite scheming, but I like it!" Wang Ling felt he was at the forefront of 'eating melons'. This time, he was going to be the first in line to 'eat melons.' "Tsk tsk tsk, how thrilling. Even Ma Hua's Tengxun Music couldn't manage to bring down Wangyi Music."

"He couldn't do it because he's too poor!" Zhang Menglong declared.

"Holy shit! Ma Hua, poor?" That statement shattered half of Wang Ling's worldview—if Ma Hua is considered poor, then probably only Zhang Menglong could be considered rich in the world.

But on second thought, they hadn't succeeded simply because the cost of copyrights was just too high.

It wasn't that Tengxun and Wangyi couldn't afford that much money; they had to consider the ratio of investment to returns. Even if they secured the copyrights and defeated their rivals, the small fees from VIP subscriptions, data charges, and advertisement fees simply couldn't cover those costs.

But Zhang Menglong was different; he completely didn't care about making money. He was all about having fun. As long as he was pleased, even if he was losing money every day, he'd probably still be happy since, to him, a few hundred billion US dollars were just petty cash.

"The competition among music platforms is essentially a competition of copyrights," Zhang Menglong remarked, "Look at those few music platforms that are still alive; they've gotten exclusive rights to the most popular singers. As long as the fans are willing to pay, those platforms stay unshakable, whether it's Tengxun or Wangyi—they've obtained some singers' copyrights"

"What do you plan to do?"

"Think about it. What if there was a platform that had all the copyrights of all the singers, and it was totally free? How many people would want to use it?"

"Damn, are you planning to monopolize the copyrights?" Wang Ling seemed to catch Zhang Menglong's drift.

"How can you call it a monopoly!" Zhang Menglong laughed, "As long as those singers don't grant the copyright to others, what does it have to do with me? I don't know if the Monopoly Law covers this, but you can eat shit randomly, but you can't talk nonsense!"

"That's shameless!" This whole business of song copyrights was indeed too subjective; as long as the money was right and those singers didn't hand the copyrights to someone else, even if Zhang Menglong was essentially monopolizing, no one could really fault him for it.

"By the way, Wang Ling, don't you own a music media company?"

"Musical Forest Media, just a small venture," Wang Ling responded, "We've just signed some Internet singers, nothing too grand."

"Do you guys have your own app product? Like Tengxun Music or Wangyi Music's music platform software."

"Yes."

"Sell the whole company to me," Zhang Menglong said, "however much you've spent, I'll double it!"

"You are at it again!" Wang Ling knew that about one or two billion US dollars had been invested in Music Forest, but it had yet to turn a profit. Based on the current situation, it might take another year or two to start making money. If Zhang Menglong was willing to buy it, he could make a quick billion or two.

"No way!" As the son of a business tycoon, Wang Ling naturally had a good business sense.

Although Zhang Menglong had said that his music platform would be completely free, that was just what appeared on the surface. Once the user base grew, whether it was traffic or advertising, that would be a significant income.

Though this money might be a drop in the bucket compared to music royalties, he wouldn't have to pay for the rights, so it was all profit for him!

"How about this, I won't sell it to you. Just invest the money and you can convert that cash into shares for me, how does that sound?"

"You're quite shrewd!" Zhang Menglong knew that his businesses were run by a strong team of managers, and even if they didn't charge for listening to songs, he believed these people could still make a fortune in other ways. Wang Ling was looking at the long-term development.

"Hahaha, if you feast on meat, Zhang, I wouldn't mind sipping a bit of soup — that's not too much, right?"

"Alright, let's do that, and let's skip converting it into any shares. I'll just give you a straight thirty percent stake."

"Deal!" Wang Ling agreed immediately. This thirty percent might seem like a loss, but consider this: if Zhang Menglong were to buy the rights to those songs, ten billion wouldn't be enough. Strictly speaking, he was probably still getting an amazing deal.

"I don't understand operations, and I can't be bothered to handle them; I'll just manage the negotiations and funding!"

"Given your demeanor, you don't look like someone who would handle things," Wang Ling rolled his eyes, "I can take care of most of the singers for you. You just need to provide the money. However, some cases won't be this easy, like with Zhou Dong's songs!"

"Yes, Wangyi Group and Tengxun have been trying for years and haven't managed to secure Zhou Dong's song rights. Currently, it seems only 'Hulu Music' has the rights, but for just three years. Counting the time, about two months from now, those rights should be expiring. I heard they are discussing renewal now."

"Oh? What about other platforms?"

"Hehe, you should know that even though Zhou Dong is now busy drinking milk tea and being a dad, barely releasing new songs, his old songs are still timeless. Whoever secures Zhou Dong's music rights pretty much dominates the music platform scene, who would give that up?"

"What do you mean?"

"According to some insiders, Tengxun seems to have prepared five billion to buy three years of Zhou Dong's music rights. Wangyi Music is also prepping a similar amount. As for 'Hulu Music' since it's free, it simply can't compete financially with these giants. It looks like they are gearing up for a final showdown!"

"Hahaha, then I'm going to disappoint them all this time!" Zhang Menglong grinned maliciously, "Any chance you can intercept this deal?"

"Coincidentally, at the beginning of next month, Zhou Dong is going to Modu to promote his new album. The guy finally wrote new songs. Even though he's been engrossed in drinking milk tea and got a bit chubby, his fans are nearly making debuts themselves," Wang Ling commented sarcastically, "I'll try to arrange a meeting for you then. With my dad's influence, it shouldn't be a problem.

The rest of the negotiations are up to you."

"Okay, let's do that!" Zhang Menglong suddenly remembered something, Lu Yiyao was a huge fan of Zhou Dong, and they had even talked about attending the same concert once, "By the way, what do you think, if I wanted to sign Zhou Dong to perform concerts at my home every day, how much would that cost?"

Wang Ling gave Zhang Menglong an angry middle finger: "Damn!"