at present, several major international platforms are optimistic about Chinese digital music, pointing out that China has 650 million online users and has great potential. Before that, popular singers in Europe and the United States would bypass Asia and go to Australia to promote their works. But the current situation is changing, and China is expected to become a high-end market for paid music in the future.
original title: digital music makes the Chinese market high-end
strong > strong > "Music Matters" discusses the mainland digital music market for the first time / strong > along with the rapid development of digital music in mainland China in the past two years. The music market in mainland China has attracted more and more international attention. The Asian entertainment industry "All That Matters" forum held in Singapore the day before yesterday officially ended, with a four-day discussion on music, sports, digitization and other contents. In the "Music Matters" Music Forum, QQ Music, together with senior executives of Warner, Sony and other record companies, shared the current situation and changes of the digital music industry in mainland China, and discussed the various possibilities of future business development. This is the first time that the digital music platform in mainland China has been invited to participate in this Asian entertainment industry forum. At present, several major international platforms are optimistic about Chinese digital music, pointing out that China has 650 million online users and has great potential. Previously, popular singers in Europe and the United States would bypass Asia and go directly to Australia to promote their works. But the current situation is changing, and China is expected to become a high-end market for paid music in the future. strong > phenomenon 1: global simultaneous release / strong > global synchronous release, domestic and North American simultaneous release. These familiar contexts have existed in the film industry for many years, but now they are gradually involved in the music industry. Anti, the latest album of popular European and American pop singer Rihanna, was released simultaneously around the world at the end of last year, with more than 2 million paid downloads in China, surpassing Japan to become the number one in the Asia-Pacific region. strong > Viewpoint interpretation: China is expected to become a high-end paid music market / strong > "China's music market is still in its infancy, and we are also trying to transform this market into a paid high-end market." This is one of the views made by Gavin Parry, chief executive of digital music and new business development for Sony Music Entertainment Asia, at the forum. He said that European and American singers would bypass Asia and go to Australia, but this situation is changing. "the United States has always been a huge market in the pop music industry, followed by the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. In fact, Japan is the second largest music country in the world, but this is far from enough. I know that some singers will bypass Asia and go to Australia, so we need to build up the Chinese market so that it has a voice in the international arena. " Gavin Parry affirmed the great potential of China's paid music market. "We have tried this model with four or five partners in China." I remember it was a world-famous singer album, and we used the paid download model, and the result was ideal and completely unexpected. Many years ago, no one was willing to spend money on music, but now if you can really create something great and value-added, Chinese users are willing to pay for it. " strong > phenomenon 2: Tien Hou's physical record release / strong > at the end of last year, British pop singer Adele released her third solo album "25". In the first three days, sales in the United States alone have reached 2.3 million. The result broke the previous record of 1.28 million in the first week of Taylor Swift's "1989". What's more, both diva singers rejected the most popular digital media model and released only physical CD. strong > Viewpoint interpretation: the physical record market will continue to shrink / strong > although two popular European and American divas have set records one after another, the whole industry is still not optimistic about the physical record market. Simon Wheele, head of the new media department of the BGI Group, said bluntly that the physical CD market will continue to shrink. "now the CD market is like the flow of goods." Consumers don't buy CD to listen to themselves, but to show it to fans at acting events. So I estimate that the physical music business will continue to shrink by 8% to 12%. " Gavin Parry of Sony Music also affirms this view. "it is clear that the current business is all focused on digital music." I don't think most people will spend money on physical products, so it's best not to do this part of the business, because the market is really small, but we can do some promotional physical products on the road. " strong > phenomenon 3: Swedish streaming media has become the world's largest music service platform / strong > Swedish streaming music service platform Spotify was officially launched in October 2008, and has now become the largest streaming music service in the world. As of June this year, Spotify's monthly active users had exceeded 100 million, of which 30% were paid subscribers. The industry believes that Spotify has reshaped the music industry, replacing paid downloads with unlimited monthly subscriptions, but Spotify still faces challenges. In terms of gross profit, every additional free value-added user Spotify loses money. strong > Viewpoint interpretation: diversified marketing mode is unique to China / strong > different from the profit model of streaming music platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify, which is mainly based on member subscription. Several major digital music platforms in China, such as QQ Music, Ali Music, NetEYun Music and KuGou Music, are more inclined to diversified marketing models. Not just providing music services. Wu Weilin, general manager of Tencent QQ Music, pointed out at the forum that QQ Music is fully opening up panoramic ecology such as copyright, products, interaction, content, commerce, and full Tencent product chain resource support. to carry out more diversified music social networking, music e-commerce, fan economy, O2O performance, digital distribution and other extended business, the ultimate goal is to establish a complete music ecosystem, "We have a lot of big data: in fact: It is impossible for users to make full use of the subscription service, and a user generally downloads about 10 to 15 songs a month. However, what we want to change is the way users think. " The uniqueness of the operation of China's digital music platform has attracted international attention. "to some extent, we hope the West can do the same." So says Simon Wheeler of the Bajas Group. Simon Robinson, president of Warner Music Asia, believes that the output value of China's music market may soon rank among the top three in the world. "in the film industry, China is replacing Hollywood. In terms of video games, the world's total revenue is 100 billion yuan, while China accounts for 25 billion yuan. In terms of music, China could not be found in the top 20 many years ago, but now it is probably in the top ten, but I think the Chinese market may soon be in the top three. " strong > phenomenon 4: strong China breaks through platinum sales / strong > on May 20 this year, the new album "Dangerous Woman" of the post-90s diva Ariana Grande in the United States was simultaneously released on various major digital platforms in China, breaking through platinum sales in China in just 48 hours. "Dangerous Woman" is another album released simultaneously in China and the world after Rihanna's "Anti". strong > Viewpoint interpretation: let more singers be famous through digital platform / strong > with the legalization of domestic digital music and the gradual formation of users' payment habits, the Chinese market and users' preferences for listening to music are attracting the attention of the global music industry. The current digital album model not only provides a superior platform for the familiar international stars of Europe and the United States. It also opens the first step for more popular rookies to enter the Chinese market. QQ Music has 15 million of the genuine music, of which Chinese songs account for only 4 per cent. However, the report shows that 80% of users only listen to Chinese songs, that is to say, 80% of users only listen to these 4% of Chinese songs, so we still have a lot of room for development in this respect. But recently we have found that more and more users begin to listen to English songs and Korean songs, which must have great potential for development in the future. " While Wu Weilin of QQ Music points out that the market potential for English and Korean songs is huge, Simon of Warner Music. Robinson said that he has focused on this area of their future business, saying that the current digital music model has given more European and American singers the opportunity to be exposed. "after all, there are only a handful of famous singers in the world." most of our singers are not that famous in China. China's music market is still in its infancy. What we need to do is to develop a variety of services and try different things. Understand the tastes of users and make more singers famous. " Edit: nancy