Online music landscape temporarily stabilizes copyright remains important but no longer the only focus

QQ Music, Ali Music and Ocean Music (referred to by the industry as KAT for short) were once the three main forces stirring the online music industry. However, after QQ Music and Ocean Music announced that they were "together" in the middle of this month, the plot has been rewritten. Although the KAT landscape is over, the plot of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" may continue to be staged.

QQ Music, Ali Music and Ocean Music (referred to by the industry as KAT for short) were once the three main forces stirring the online music industry. However, after QQ Music and Ocean Music announced that they were "together" in the middle of this month, the plot has been rewritten. Although the KAT landscape is over, the plot of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" may continue to be staged.

Netease's continuous increase in investment in music business is the biggest variable in the online music industry. However, overall, the current strength of the main players on online music platforms is similar, and it is foreseeable that the industry will maintain a relatively stable state in the next two years.

Against the background that the copyright landscape is basically determined and the industry landscape is relatively stable, if each online music platform wants to gain more competitive advantages, it will further test the platform's operational wisdom.

The industry structure is stabilizing and

wants to fill the vacancy in ocean music is Netease, which has gained momentum in the past two years: Just on Monday, Netease Cloud Music announced that the number of users exceeded 200 million, the music library exceeded 10 million, and the total number of songs created by users reached 80 million.

The number of users and the size of the music library are two standard data for online music platforms to show off their muscles. The importance of the number of users is self-evident, and the size of the music library has become increasingly important in the past three years. The size of the music library depends on the number of copyrights obtained by each platform.

Copyright has been one of the keywords in the competition between online music platforms in the past two years. Since 2013, online music platforms have begun to increase investment in music copyright and at the same time increased their efforts to crack down on pirated music.

In July last year, after the National Copyright Administration issued the strictest copyright order in history, music copyright became a prerequisite for the survival of online music platforms.

Copyright requires a large amount of capital investment, which accelerates the reshuffle of the industry. A year after the copyright order was introduced, a number of smaller online music websites have been closed. Baidu split its music business through an aircraft carrier plan, and Ocean Music finally chose to join QQ Music.

According to information disclosed by China Music Group (referred to as "CMC", the former Ocean Music Group, the controlling party of Kugou and Kuwo Music) and Tencent Group, after the merger of the two parties, Tencent became the majority shareholder of the New Music Group through asset swaps. This conveys the message that Tencent occupies a dominant position in China's largest online music group.

Players with strong capital strength have become winners in the industry reshuffle. In the new industry structure, Tencent and Ali have equal strength and sufficient funds, and have each signed a batch of high-quality copyrights. Netease, which intends to squeeze into the mainstream track, has shown signs of increasing investment. Through mutual copyright licensing and other methods, Netease Cloud Music's music library is also quite large.

The relative balance of strength means that the pattern is relatively stable. For the three new main forces of online music, copyright is still important but no longer the only focus. The factor that determines the ultimate victory or defeat is not just money.

Netease cloud music reveals dark horse temperament

After the merger of QQ music and ocean music, Netease cloud music has become a new polar force to fill the gap in ocean music.

Three years ago, on April 23, Ding Lei appeared at the conference site of Netease Cloud Music. At that time, music was not Netease's core business. Even core business games rarely saw Ding Lei on the platform. Therefore, Ding Lei personally created momentum for Netease Cloud Music, which surprised the outside world.

Ding Lei's attention to music business, on the one hand, stems from his own love of music, more importantly, although Netease game business flourished at that time, but in the field of mobile Internet is completely backward, to create a mobile end music application, Netease for their own selected mobile Internet admission ticket.

Social networking was the focus of Netease Cloud Music's promotion when it was launched, but Netease Cloud Music, which had Ding Lei's platform, did not develop as expected in the first two years. Wang Lei, head of Netease's cloud music products, once said,"Unlike other products, which obtain the right to launch songs at high prices, the cooperation between Netease Cloud Music and singers is based on providing more creative publicity."

However, the online music industry landscape has undergone significant changes since 2013. The most direct reason for the change is that Internet giants have increased their investment in copyright. Platforms, record companies, and regulators are all working together to promote the development of online music in the direction of legalization. Netease did not take the lead in copyright.

Although the polishing of recommendation algorithms, product design and comment interactions has won Netease Cloud Music users, under the copyright order of the National Copyright Administration, Netease Cloud Music once faced the dilemma of almost no songs to play. Fortunately, copyright mutual grant was granted to Netease. Open a gap.

On October 13 last year, Netease Cloud Music and QQ Music reached a copyright cooperation. The dilemma of Netease Cloud Music Library was alleviated. After solving copyright concerns, the development speed of Netease Cloud Music also accelerated.

On July 14 last year, Netease Cloud Music announced that it had more than 100 million users, two years since its launch. One year after breaking 100 million, Netease Cloud Music announced in July this year that its users exceeded 200 million, and the user growth rate has accelerated significantly.

However, copyright is still a hurdle in front of Netease Cloud Music: Although Netease Cloud Music claims that the number of music libraries exceeds 10 million, a large part of it is obtained through cooperation with QQ Music and other platforms. Netease Cloud Music's copyright weakness adds uncertainty to its development.

But Netease's investment in the music business may exceed the outside world's imagination.

According to the reporter, Netease is currently expanding its legal team, and one of the motivations for expanding the legal team is to prepare for competition for music copyright. Although most of the current high-quality music rights have been divided between QQ Music and Ali Music, the contract between the platform and the record company has a term after all, and when the contract expires, the possibility of Netease Cloud Concert waiting for an opportunity to prey on it.

Not long ago, Netease Cloud Music reported that it had independent financing. Netease Cloud Music, which has actions in terms of both team and funds, has become a player worthy of its opponents 'vigilance.

However, money may no longer be the only criterion for record companies to consider partners. Whether it is to compete for high-quality copyrights or enhance competitive advantages, copyright operation, original mining, and data opening have become more concerned directions.

Competition outside copyright

One of Alibaba Music's biggest moves this year is the official release of the Alibaba Planet APP on May 18. This app, which is a revised version of Tiantian Music, includes functions such as player, live broadcast, fan community, and trading platform. It is almost the most complex one among the current online music apps.

Not long ago, QQ Music announced that it has sold a total of 20 million digital music albums, with total sales exceeding 100 million yuan. The subsequent QQ Music Digital Music Sharing Conference attracted many record companies to come to the platform.

At the QQ Music Digital Music Sharing Conference, Chen Xiaoyun, director of Fumao Music's New Media and Copyright Company, said: In the era of no payment, people working on the platform cannot see any prospects. When an industry does not have any output value, no one can see the direction. Only the output value is everyone on the same front.

Being able to make money is not only the expectation of record companies, but also the expectation of online music platforms. The profitability of participants in the industry chain is a prerequisite for the healthy development of the industry. In the past two years, the legalization of online music has gradually been established with the participation of many parties. However, it is still not easy for participants in the music industry chain to obtain rewards.

Whether it is Alibaba Music's eagerness to insert a trading platform module into Alibaba Planet, or QQ Music's high-profile announcement that paid album sales exceeded 100 million, the two actions together reflect that after the copyright landscape is basically determined, the online music platform will operate copyright and mine copyright. The value, opening up the industrial chain, and building a healthy business model are regarded as more important issues.

In terms of business model construction, the paid album model pioneered by QQ Music has been recognized by most online music platforms. For the current music industry, the greater significance of business model construction is to promote the positive circulation of the entire industry.

Chen Xiaoyun mentioned that there are many Internet celebrities on the Internet, but people are popular but not popular. There are also many independent musicians, but song celebrities are not popular."Real artists must have both."

Many years ago, the emergence of the Internet destroyed the profit model of the traditional recording industry. Due to the inability of the industry to provide positive material feedback to practitioners, the power of domestic original music has gradually declined in the past few years. Now, online music platforms are beginning to try to build a new order in the music industry.

In 2014, Xiami launched the light-seeking plan for the first time. Although it began to support independent musicians earlier, Xiami music users were too small and had limited influence. Therefore, supporting independent musicians was still a relatively small operating method two years ago.

However, the situation changed last year. Last year, QQ Music and Cool Dog Music successively joined the camp of supporting original musicians. Netease Cloud Music launched the Ideal Musicians Support Plan last year. Support for independent musicians has also become the focus of Netease Cloud Music's promotion. This stems from the demand for high-quality content under Netease Cloud Music's weak copyrights, but it is also the current online music platform. The direction of strength.

Currently, QQ Music, Ali Music, and Netease Cloud Music have all launched plans to support independent musicians. Wu Weilin, general manager of QQ Music, also revealed that QQ Music will launch a larger plan focusing on supporting independent musicians, but it is inconvenient to disclose at present.

Overall, against the background of the tentative overall copyright situation, business models and content support have become a new battlefield for online music platform competition. Whether we can succeed in these two aspects is not only related to whether the online music platform can be recognized on the user side. It is also crucial to whether it can gain the trust of record companies and then obtain copyright.

Editor: yvette