Behind Jay's digital album breaking 30 million: The fan economy promotes the development of paid music

In the past 18 months, QQ Music digital albums have sold a total of 20 million, with total sales exceeding 100 million. The total sales of "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" alone have reached 30 million yuan. At the launch conference of Jay Chou's new album "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" on July 11, the organizers announced such a set of seemingly beautiful data, which is behind the changes in music listening habits and the continuous improvement of the market copyright environment.

Original title: Jay Chou's digital album exceeded 30 million. Is it the self-satisfaction of the fan economy or the dawn of paid music?

In the past 18 months, QQ Music digital albums have sold a total of 20 million, with total sales exceeding 100 million. The total sales of "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" alone have reached 30 million yuan. At the launch conference of Jay Chou's new album "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" on July 11, the organizers announced such a set of seemingly beautiful data, which is behind the changes in music listening habits and the continuous improvement of the market copyright environment.

From tapes to CDs to digital music, in this city where every inch of land is precious, physical record stores are more like nostalgic symbols collaged in a modern prosperity, which is a little cramped. This seems to coincide with the living status of physical records. Compared with its practical value, its symbolic meaning may be more glamorous, but this is still for real music fans. In the eyes of people who only regard music as a consumer product, a CD is completely dispensable.

Physical recording is declining, and record companies are gradually abandoning traditional business concepts and commercial operations in search of a way out. On the other hand, digital music platforms also hope to maximize the realization of copyright through new business models. As a result, the digital album allowed both sides to happily swing the sculls of friendship.

"The digital album model has become the most cutting-edge and successful business model in the domestic music market." QQ Music believes that the free model is "giving way" to payment, and the era of payment has arrived.

However, beautiful data and gorgeous rhetoric are often followed by doubts. As early as December 2014, Jay Chou's new album "Ouch, Not Bad" was exclusively released on QQ Music in the form of a digital album for the first time, which also opened the domestic digital album model. Later, QQ Music successively released digital albums by more than 40 singers at home and abroad such as Li Yuchun, Lu Han, BIGBANG, Adele, and Rihanna, and the released data were all equally good.

However, some people believe that these are all purchases under the fan economy and have nothing to do with the popularity of the paid model in the music market. The implication is that without the brainless fans, the paid music market is still barren.

Remove brainless fans, is the future of paid music really so pessimistic?

Fanatic fan buying behavior is characterized by large-scale "swiping" purchases, which often reduces the objectivity of the data. When placed in the discussion of digital album sales and the future of paid music, one conclusion will be drawn-the rise of paid music is an illusion, just a bubble created by fan behavior.

However, we can't jump to conclusions on everything. We still have to use facts to speak. For this reason, titanium media reporters acted as brainless fans and used the method of "swiping the bill" to investigate the 30 million results "on the spot."

As of around 9 p.m. on July 11, the album "Jay Chou's Bedside Story" has sold a total of 875422 copies, or 870,000 +. For repeated purchases, the QQ music platform is very encouraging and has also launched a "nameplate upgrade" activity. If you purchase more than two albums in total, you will get a "nameplate upgrade". You can see the number of the purchased album and your ranking on the local tycoon list.

After purchasing two digital albums, I successfully obtained the nameplate and ranked 19084 on the list of local tyrants, which means that one-tenth of people purchased them repeatedly. Then I purchased a third album, and my ranking jumped to 3913, which means that those in the range of 3913 to 19084 purchased 2 to 3 albums, while only 3913 people purchased more than three albums.

After looking through the top 100 local tyrants list, I found that the most wealthy purchased 311 photos, and to the 100th place, there were only 19 photos. However, it is impossible for everyone to buy 19 photos from 100 to 3913. This number is gradually decreasing.

In addition, users with the same purchase volume are not ranked in parallel. As shown in the figure below, they purchased 20 copies from 91 to 98, but they all occupy the same ranking. That is to say, there is a possibility that they only purchased 3 copies from 1000 to 3913 (of course, this is an exaggerated speculation, for ease of understanding).

To sum up, compared with the base of 870,000 +, repeated purchases are still a minority. In addition to a small number of fanatical fan behaviors, more people choose to buy for the music itself.

Fan purchasing behavior and paid music popularity are not opposites.

If the above calculations are just inferences, then look at the data given by IFPI.

The IFPI International Recording Industry Association's "2016 Global Digital Music Report" shows that in 2015, global music industry revenue increased by 3.2%. Digital music revenue surpassed physical music for the first time. Digital music revenue accounted for 45% of the total music industry revenue, surpassing 39% of physical music.

Paid subscription services have also shown a significant growth trend, with an estimated 68 million people currently paying for music subscriptions. This number was only 41 million in 2014, compared with only 8 million in 2010.

China's music market has also performed well. In 2015, China's music sales increased by 63.8%, and digital music revenue increased by 68.6%. The International Federation of the Recording Industry believes that this is due to various initiatives launched by competing digital music platforms and the firm belief in moving China towards a payment model.

In other words, the protracted copyright competition on online music platforms such as QQ Music, Netease Cloud Music, Ali Music, and Kugou Music has directly promoted the increase in digital music revenue of record companies.

Returning to the fan economy and paid music, for fans, purchasing albums is a form of support for their favorite singers, whether it is a physical album or a digital album. Buying digital albums has also become more a way for fans to interact with singers, and there are also many fans who pay for copyright.

Whether the dawn of paid music comes is not a choice question of "yes" and "no". Everything will not be accomplished overnight. If even fans are unwilling to spend money to buy albums, the popularity of paid music will be even more out of reach.

Editor: Nancy