One in a Billion

Self Publishing

When Ludan Bone started making her phone calls to China in 1993 she was one woman with no contacts trying to sell an intangible, copyrighted product to an industry where royalties were alien. But over the next two decades, she built a formidable business from scratch and became the biggest player in the production music business in China.

The business memoir, One in a Billion, charts Ludan’s rise from a part-time marketing manager in Sydney to the head of her own top-tier firm in Beijing with one of the biggest music libraries in the world. It follows her successes and failures, the frequent overhauls in the Chinese broadcasting industry and the practical challenges of operating in the mainland business world. To get where she is today, Ludan had to educate an entire market and convince potential clients that her high-end product would revolutionize their way of working. Production music has transformed broadcasting in China, so much so that few today could do without it.

The book also gives insight into mainland culture and offers tips for would-be entrepreneurs, businesspeople in China and anybody trying to make an idea pay on the mainland. The information based on direct experience and applies to all those with a dream of taking an idea into uncharted territory.

One in a Billion gives a practical and accessible insider’s look at how a new business idea was turned into a reality against the odds. Ludan’s company, Songba, has risen from obscurity to one of the leading names in professional broadcasting. This book tells the story of an individual entrepreneur and how she relied on her own wits to make her way in China. In addition, it covers three themes that not found together elsewhere but that are more important than ever: copyright, media and music in China.