The brief encounter between Irene Landy and Bryce Levison at the Versace store didn't give Irene a full sense of the massive sensation Simon's sudden release of three new singles was causing.
At 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Egret Portal officially launched the three music videos. As they were featured prominently on the homepage during peak website traffic hours, it took less than an hour for the combined views of the three songs to surpass 53 million. Discussion of the tracks quickly spread across major forums, social media platforms, and other interactive spaces, instantly turning the singles into trending topics across all platforms.
The conversation soon expanded to traditional media outlets.
Radio stations, newspapers, and television networks, upon discovering the news, rushed to prepare reports overnight. By early Monday morning, the release of Simon Westeros' new music had become a major social news topic across all media. Even the typically reserved Washington Post couldn't help but marvel on its front page, saying, "Simon Westeros has an extraordinary ability to create miracles effortlessly."
Music industry professionals were even more effusive in their praise.
Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine, stayed up all night writing reviews for the three singles, publishing them on both the magazine's website and his personal blog. Beyond the detailed analysis and high praise, Wenner predicted that the singles would not only set a trend but also provide endless inspiration for future creators.
From 8 p.m. on April 2 to 8 p.m. on April 3, within just 24 hours, the total play count for the three singles had reached a record-breaking 739 million.
Given the current global internet user base, this meant that the average internet user had listened to each of the three songs more than once.
This was, in fact, true.
A female astrophysics student at UC Berkeley, known for sharing cosmic trivia on Facebook and boasting over 300,000 followers, posted in the afternoon: "I've spent the whole day in my dorm looping Simon's three new songs. I'm in love! Just realized it's already evening… Oh well, screw Black Hole Physics."
The simple post, riding on the wave of the singles' popularity, unexpectedly garnered more than 50,000 comments.
"For Simon's new songs, screw Advanced Math!"
"For Simon's new songs, screw Electronic Structure Theory!"
"For Simon's new songs, screw Contemporary Sculpture!"
"For Simon's new songs, screw Quantum Mechanics!"
"For Simon's new songs, screw Architectural Migration!"
And so on.
This clearly demonstrated that most listeners hadn't listened to the songs just once.
Egret's official stats showed that among the 70 million global users who accessed the portal that day, the average user played each song more than three times.
These three songs alone put Egret's global data centers through a significant technical challenge.
On Monday evening, after the 24-hour play count had been tallied, Egret announced via its official Facebook account that they would be submitting a Guinness World Record application for Young and Beautiful, the most played of the three singles within the first 24 hours.
Young and Beautiful, the only track with lyrics, had reached 275 million plays in that time frame. Coming in second was Blizzard, a song Simon had renamed, with 241 million plays. The last track, Bach's Last Day, featuring a solo dance by Russian dancer Yulia Shulshkina, garnered 223 million plays.
Without a doubt, this was an unexpected entertainment phenomenon.
Initially, Simon hadn't intended to profit from these three songs. He had provided a basic concept and left the execution to the teams at Daenerys Records and Egret.
While the three music videos were released for free and didn't generate direct revenue, the indirect benefits were undeniable.
After Egret abandoned its strategy of bundling its homepage with the IE browser, the newly revamped IE browser offered two modes: the traditional 'homepage' mode and a new 'blank' window mode. The latter, though labeled as 'blank,' featured a default Google search bar and six shortcut links.
Whether it was the customizable homepage or the six shortcuts in 'blank' mode, they became hot commodities fiercely contested by major internet companies.
Egret's decision to give up its homepage monopoly had resulted in it losing over 80% of its dominant market share in the portal space due to competition from other portal sites and platforms. The most recent statistics showed that Egret's market share had dropped to 73%.
Although Simon's strategy was to abandon the soon-to-be-outdated 1.0-era business model of portal websites, even though Egret's search engine, social networking, and e-commerce platforms had exceeded expectations after the shift, the rapid decline in portal market share still worried Egret's executives.
Everyone focused on the portal site, fearing that further decline could impact Egret's upcoming IPO.
Now, thanks to the heat generated by the sudden release of the three singles, Egret's position in the minds of internet users had been significantly reinforced. From the evening the songs were released until 24 hours later, it was estimated that over 3 million users had reset their IE homepage to Egret, boosting its market share by 2 percentage points.
That was one major benefit.
The three singles also highlighted the importance of content, something that competitors like MSN and AOL, among others, quickly took note of, holding meetings on Monday to address the issue.
Additionally, since the music videos for Blizzard and Young and Beautiful included clips from "DC Universe" films and iconic scenes from famous Hollywood actresses, Egret added Amazon store links below the videos for users to purchase the films.
The "DC Universe" included seven films, excluding Suicide Squad, which was still in theaters.
As for the "Hollywood actresses" video montage, it featured scenes from a wide array of movies, totaling 39 films starring 27 of the most iconic Hollywood actresses, from the Golden Age to modern times. These included films from the Universal and MGM archives, as well as recent hits produced by Daenerys Entertainment. The roster ranged from Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Audrey Hepburn to more recent stars like Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and Jodie Foster.
The seven DC Universe films and the 39 Hollywood classics were available for individual purchase or as part of special limited-edition sets. Additionally, Egret offered steep discounts and free shipping. As a result, within the first 24 hours, Amazon received 9.17 million VHS orders, generating $220 million in sales.
The Amazon team had anticipated higher sales for the DC Universe films, as they were more recent. However, they underestimated the power of nostalgia. Of the 9.17 million VHS sales on the first day, over 6 million were for classic films like Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain.
Of course, the steep discounts on these older films played a role.
The DC Universe films, being newer, were still priced at $29.99 each, with only the shipping fee waived. The older classics, however, were priced at just $19.99 after discounts.
For the studios, this was a win-win.
These films, many of which had been on the market for over half a century, were now pure profit. Even at $19.99 per copy, after deducting the minimal cost of VHS production, the studios were still making a tidy profit.
Although Egret didn't release official sales figures, the numbers quickly spread.
While the media marveled at the success, executives from other studios couldn't help but express some sour remarks.
The success of the DC Universe films was one thing, but Young and Beautiful clearly favored Daenerys and MGM films. Many classic movies, like Roman Holiday, Casablanca, All About Eve, and A Streetcar Named Desire, didn't even get a single frame in the video.
It was, in their eyes, pure favoritism.
A Paramount executive couldn't hold back and complained on Facebook, sparking a heated discussion.
Amy Pascal, CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, personally responded on her own Facebook page, explaining that due to time constraints and to avoid potential copyright issues, they had only used clips from their own catalog and that of their partners. She added that there were simply too many classic films in Hollywood history and that Young and Beautiful, being only three minutes long, couldn't include everything.
Other studio executives could only mutter a silent "WTF."
If Daenerys had invited other studios to contribute clips, even without the promise of direct profits from VHS sales, the mere association with Simon Westeros' name would have been incentive enough for them to participate.
Now, 9 million VHS tapes sold in a single day.
It was like printing money.
Still, had the roles been reversed, they likely would have done the same. With Daenerys' acquisition of Universal and their control over MGM, they had thousands of films in their library. Why would they share the opportunity with others?
Yet, watching the other side rake in sales, they couldn't help but feel envious.
Coincidentally, other portal sites, seeing how Egret had sparked such a craze with just three songs, were also envious.
Both sides had a need, so talks began behind the scenes.
Even though they knew they couldn't replicate the same success without Simon Westeros' talent, Daenerys' resources, and Egret's platform, they figured it was better to try than to sit idly by.
Maybe they could grab a small piece of the pie.
In summary, what Simon initially didn't plan to profit from had turned into an incredibly successful business venture.
But it didn't stop there.
The massive success of the three singles also made record labels realize the importance of internet platforms for promoting artists and
albums.
A single song generating 200 million plays in a day was simply mind-blowing.
Many record companies worked tirelessly to push new songs, often struggling for months to generate such buzz.
If they could leverage the internet for album promotion, the results could be monumental.
Before other record companies had a chance to act, Daenerys Records, having the inside track, had already begun discussions with Egret about the next steps for collaboration.
On Egret's end, the success of the three music videos convinced the management team to accelerate the launch of a dedicated video website.
The name had already been decided by their boss.
YouTube.
Of course, given the limitations of current software and hardware, the upcoming video site would primarily feature movie trailers, music videos, and news clips, all under five minutes in length. They wouldn't accept external submissions for the time being and would focus on content produced within the Westeros system.
In Simon's view, this model was far from a true video-sharing site, more of a content supplement for Egret.
Content, content, content.
Even ten or twenty years later, content would always be in demand.
Besides, while the boss wasn't keen on managing the day-to-day, his subordinates certainly wouldn't ignore such a massive success.
Seeing how well the music videos were performing on the Egret platform, Daenerys Records quickly announced that they would release physical singles for the three tracks before Easter on April 16.
Additionally, Egret's supported online radio site, Broadcast, would release the songs this weekend, primarily to provide content for Tingkebell's upcoming product launch on April 8.
At that event, Tingkebell would unveil its iPlayer digital music player, which used a micro hard drive as its storage medium. Broadcast would serve as the official audio download site for iPlayer users, offering legitimate music downloads.
On the morning of April 3, Simon flew from New York to Melbourne.
The journey took over 20 hours.
While still on the plane, Simon heard the news about the singles' explosive popularity.
Although Brzezinski's "pacifier theory" might have been formally presented later this year at a global elite summit, Simon had long been subtly promoting this concept to protect the interests of the Westeros system as part of the societal elite.
So, he was more than pleased with the success of the three songs.
In fact, as he tallied recent events—the $200 million North American box office milestone of The Man from Earth, the global craze for the three singles, the upcoming opening of Universal Studios Osaka on April 6, and Tingkebell's April 8 product launch of a new digital camera—it seemed like there were "pacifiers" everywhere.
Life is short.
A world filled with music, dance, and indulgence... How wonderful.
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