Does the Music industry in China have a future?
Click on all of the links within the following article:
http://www.inaglobal.fr/en/music/article/does-music-industry-china-have-future


Course Readings: Introduction to the Music Industry | Fall 2017
Dr. Stan Renard
Does the Music industry in China have a future?
Click on all of the links within the following article:
http://www.inaglobal.fr/en/music/article/does-music-industry-china-have-future

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The article mentioned how with the arrival of the internet “Chinese have assimilated sixty years of popular western music in just twenty years.” This proves rapid growth and spread of music in technology. Such as in the 1980s with the spread of rock, the youth have a huge influence on the music industry. As of 2016 however, China’s market is ranked number 19 in market size:
https://qz.com/627527/how-can-china-be-so-big-and-its-music-market-so-small/
Even though China is the most populous country in the world, I was surprised they were only 22nd in the music market. I realize it is because of the piracy problem due to counterfeit CD sales and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing sites. Luckily, the Chinese company called Baidu partnered with a local Chinese company and American major labels to crack down and take down sites. This link provides more information on Baidu and what they do:
https://www.engadget.com/2011/07/19/chinas-baidu-licenses-music-from-major-us-record-labels-for-str/
China has an enormous amount of potential. However, a majority of the consumers pirate their music. Actually, “majority” is a bit of an understatement; pretty much everyone in China pirates. It’s the biggest obstacle standing in the way of the Chinese music industry making the large amounts of money it should be. On the other hand, the apparent ease of piracy probably helps music fans bypass their country’s censorship laws and discover music like how dakou helped spread rock music throughout China. If you’d like to read more about Chinese rock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_rock
This article gives a good insight on how the music industry in China is growing overtime while still have the government in control of everything. I do like how rock took the country by storm and the youth have a huge influence on how China is today. However with the censorship and piracy its still going to take time for China to bloom in the music industry.
This article was really eye-opening for me. I had no idea that the majority of the population pirates music. China’s music industry has several unique characteristics that are very interesting. For one, China has the largest population of any country in the world. Also, there is a huge piracy problem, although, the IFPI is trying to remedy this with business agreements. This is was a very good read. I’ll have to delve more into Chinese music law and copyright infringement.
Interestingly enough, I came across a news site reporting about Yao Ming’s financial involvement with the company top100cn.com. It’s pretty awesome he was one of the key people to launch the site and help improve the music business in his country.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2006/02/21/339697/94546/en/Top100-cn-Launches-Largest-Chinese-Legitimate-Music-Download-Website-Today.html
China has immense opportunity for a successful music industry. They have a huge population and the internet is a very popular thing there, but China has a massive problem with piracy. In fact it is at 99%, piracy is seen as a national sport. Counterfeit CD’s, DVDs, and other pirated media is sold and makes money off of advertisement while the right holders see nothing.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2017/08/14/with-most-music-being-offered-for-free-why-is-piracy-still-growing/#69a84f736b24
It’s a shame that an overwhelming majority of music exchanged throughout China was pirated via burned CDs, P2P platforms, etc. That was an alarming statistic that raised my eyebrows. In a more recent article, I found that streaming services in China are booming and rightfully paying royalties to Chinese musicians for their hard work. It still is very much a slow start, but it’s heading in the right direction. Tencent, China’s #1 online streaming contributor, seems to be dominating in the current market.
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21725529-market-dominated-one-company-tencent-biggest-countrys-online-giants
It’s a bit surprising that China, with its immense population, is so low on the music market. However one thing that isn’t surprising is that similar to in the U.S today most artists in China make their money in live performances. The only difference is that in China it is even more crucial to profit off of your shows.
http://www.timeoutbeijing.com/features/Feature/157739/Beijing-Strawberry-Festival-2017-the-complete-guide.html
A lot of interesting facts within this article. I never knew that for China being one of the most over populated country’s that they were only ranked 22nd in the music industry. In all honesty that was a big shocker to me. It made me think about who is ranked above them, and why do they fall so low on the charts. I also found it interesting to learn about the People’s Republic of China and all the rules that apply which can get quite hard to work with or around especially with American music because almost any song now and days violates their rules. The way they were saying Judas by Lady Gaga had not been approved. Judas was never even really promoted here in America either because it was very controversial to many religions. The ministry bringing these songs down so that they could not be downloaded could also be what’s hurting their music industry. I looked up music industry ranked by countries and im going to attach a link that shows that China is technically in 12th place while falling behind reasonable countries with US being in 1st place of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_music_industry_market_share_data
I found it very interesting how China’s government dictates what kind of music people can listen to. I also found it weird that a lot of China’s music is pirated because the government is so strict on what they can and cant hear. I do like to see however, a lot of youth kind of rebelling this norm and making a change for themselves and allowing for the music to come through and be accepted. The fact that there was an entire committee committed to censuring and allowing or denying music to be heard in china was a bit confusing so here’s an article on what that is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China#Music
I wonder how effective their efforts are in keeping pirates… at bay. By pushing companies to take pirated songs off their sites and by the artists/ record companies suing the wooden leg off of the pirates, the problem is depleting. According to this website, 2.2 million songs have been deleted and I’m sure that since the blog came out more songs have been deleted.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/78xnwy/chinas-piracy-crackdown-is-working-chinese-government-says
It sucks how even though China has a lot of Musical potential and it is one of the biggest countries in the world, their music industry is still in the 22nd place and ita going down due to the abundance of piracy, people in the U.S should use china as an example of music industry failure to not have to deal with the same issues as they all are
https://qz.com/627527/how-can-china-be-so-big-and-its-music-market-so-small/
This article is interesting because it helps clarify some questions that people may have regarding China’s “small” music industry. In the business classes I take, I hear nearly all the time that China is a market with the most potential in many industries. I like hearing that the music industry is one of them, especially in regards to streaming.
https://www.techinasia.com/china-korea-digital-media
China is one of the biggest countries in the world as far as population and world economy so you would think they would have flourishing international artist.
Why is China’s music market still so small? — Quartz
https://qz.com/627527/how-can-china-be-so-big-and-its-music-market-so-small/
China has a lot of potential in the music industry, but the way you get into China is just not as easy as the US. China has one of the biggest populations so when it comes to music if they were open to other genres there would be so many more popular artists in that part of the world. I dislike that China’s government dictates the type of music they are allowed to listen to and doesn’t really give them many options. I think if they were to maybe loosen up on what is allowed and not require someone suggest certain music it would be better not only for the population, but the artists themselves too.