Clicking it revealed a 20-minute piece.
No lyrics, just instrumental.
Jiang Ye turned up the volume and hit play.
The soothing piano melody transitioned into the guzheng, followed by orchestral arrangements and sounds from other unknown instruments.
It began gently, like a small bridge over a flowing stream. Five minutes later, it suddenly surged, the melody growing more and more impassioned, like a battle hymn!
Jiang Ye's heart raced.
It was good!
It was so good!
A completely new genre of music, starting like classical but with a blend of Eastern and Western elements, it was consistently pleasant throughout, not a dull moment.
Enthralled!
After the piece finished, Jiang Ye leaped to his feet.
If the intelligent bacteria hadn't been absent, he would have applauded!
A masterpiece!
He hadn't heard such an amazing piece in years!
His desk flashed again.
Intelligent Bacteria Music Lab: "Master, it shows you've played it once. How did it sound?"
Jiang Ye: "Excellent! At least I personally find it quite moving! What's the name of this piece?"
Intelligent Bacteria Music Lab: "It doesn't have a name, it's just an experimental practice piece. If you find it good, it means our understanding of human music isn't too far off."
Intelligent Bacteria Music Lab: "If possible, we'd like to release the piece on music platforms. This way, we can deepen our understanding of music by analyzing listener data and comments, and create even better tracks. Of course, all revenue generated by the song will belong to you, Master."
Jiang Ye readily agreed. He had tasked these intelligent bacteria with creating music precisely to make waves on music platforms and generate profit.
Coincidentally, Jiang Ye Star already had three major music companies established: Di Ting Music, Xi Sheng Music, and Luan Er Music.
These three music companies had users spanning multiple star systems, with long histories and vast scales.
Jiang Ye clicked on his desk screen and downloaded the apps for the three music companies.
The Di Ting Music app's logo was a proud beast, likely designed after the mythical mount of Ksitigarbha, "Di Ting." It had a daily active user base of 68.83 billion people and over 400,000 resident singers and musicians.
Xi Sheng Music's logo was simple, a large character "音" (yin), its meaning derived from "Great sound is silent" in the Tao Te Ching. It had a daily active user base of 18.7 billion people and over 100,000 resident singers and musicians.
Luan Er Music's logo was an ear, with a daily active user base of 41 billion people and 280,000 resident musicians.
Jiang Ye casually opened a song from the trending list. Below it, there were over a billion comments and tens of millions of cover videos. The sheer scale was astonishing.
The human population in this era was immense, a far cry from the scale of Jiang Ye's childhood world.
However, the downside of such scale was the difficulty of standing out.
Take Di Ting Music, for instance. At least ten thousand new songs were added daily. Songs in this era typically lasted over half an hour, meaning one would need to listen non-stop for 208 days to finish all the new songs added each day.
The vast majority of songs went unheard, disappearing without a trace.
It was like pouring a bottle of water into the ocean; it would be abnormal to be noticed.
Jiang Ye registered accounts on all three music platforms.
The account name was "Intelligent Bacteria."
He could have used his own name, but he wasn't one to seek fame for its own sake.
For the account's personal signature, Jiang Ye wrote the following:
"We are not a singer, we are not a music team."
"We are not cold AI composition programs; we are living bacteria. We, the tiny ones, will knock on the majestic halls of music, singing a hymn for humanity and bacteria that will echo through the universe for millennia."
"Bacteria can compose, bacteria can create great art. Our daily work consists of drinking, listening to music, and composing. In the future, more and more songs of different styles will be released here. If you like them, please click follow!"
Below this were various basic information fields.
Once all were filled, the account application was successful!
Jiang Ye typed a message to the intelligent bacteria to inform them:
"I have created accounts for you on three major music platforms. You can release your first song now. What name will you give it?"
Intelligent Bacteria: "Practice Piece No. 1."
Jiang Ye: "That's so casual?"
Intelligent Bacteria: "When we compose truly great pieces in the future, we will name them with care."
Jiang Ye: "To my ears, this piece is already quite good and will be remembered. How about a more formal name?"
The intelligent bacteria remained silent.
Jiang Ye ended up releasing the song on the three platforms, naming it "Practice Piece No. 1."
He could also upload an album cover, but Jiang Ye didn't bother. After all, what kind of cover does a "practice piece" need?
After publishing, a prompt popped up, similar across all three music platforms:
[Song Recommendation and Exposure Mechanism]
[1. All song recommendations and exposure will be based on big data analysis and AI recognition. Factors such as listenership, collection rate, and comment count will affect the recommendation and exposure volume.]
[2. Exposure can be purchased at a price of one unit of currency per exposure.]
[3. For each playback of a song, a profit of 0.1 units of currency will be earned.]
Jiang Ye went to attend to his work.
Three hours later, when he returned to check, the backend data could only be described as dismal. The playback volume for "Practice Piece No. 1" on all three platforms was zero!
No one had listened to it at all.
Jiang Ye figured it was probably because the accounts and the song were new, lacking any reputation, so no one was willing to listen.
What to do? Spend money!
Jiang Ye used facial recognition payment and topped up 500,000 units of currency on each of the three platforms to test the waters.
The screen displayed the message "500,000 exposures have begun." Reassured, Jiang Ye returned to his bedroom and fell into a deep sleep.
He slept until dawn.
Jiang Ye groggily got up. Cen Yemeng had already prepared breakfast.
He sat down to eat.
After a few bites, he sobered up and suddenly remembered something, grabbing his phone to check the song's backend data.
"What the hell!" Jiang Ye's eyes widened.
"What's wrong?" Cen Yemeng, sitting beside him, leaned over.
[Di Ting Music "Practice Piece No. 1" Real-time Data:]
[Playback Volume: 2.84 million times]
[Total Revenue: 284,886 units of currency]
[Xi Sheng Music "Practice Piece No. 1" Real-time Data:]
[Playback Volume: 1.77 million times]
[Total Revenue: 177,203 units of currency]
[Luan Er Music "Practice Piece No. 1" Real-time Data:]
[Playback Volume: 310,000 times]
[Total Revenue: 315,803 units of currency]
It had become popular overnight!
Although the costs hadn't been recouped yet, judging by the data, it was only a matter of time before "Practice Piece No. 1" became profitable!
Jiang Ye quickly checked the listener comments on each platform. There were already hundreds of them.
"Is the personal signature for real? Is the song really created by bacteria?"
"Bluffing, just for hype. But honestly, the song is good."
"A rare good piece. It's so long, and there isn't a single dull part!"
"Followed. I feel like I'm witnessing the birth of a superstar."
"Marking my territory!"
"It's already popular. It might even climb the charts. What are these songs on the charts lately? I can't stand any of them."