The concert live broadcast market is fighting openly and secretly, and various businesses are circling the land and it is difficult to appear oligarchs in the short term

Not only Tencent, LeTV and other platforms have continued to deploy and expand their businesses in the field of live concerts, but platforms such as YY, Kugou, and Damai.com are also actively seizing the market, setting off a dividend battle in the live concert market.

has developed rapidly since the trial of water in 2012 to gradually becoming the music consumption choice of many music fans and fans. Among them, the commemorative concert recently held in Mayday achieved hundreds of millions of live video views, which once again proved the potential market space for live concerts. Nowadays, not only Tencent, LeTV and other platforms have continued to deploy and expand their businesses in the field of live concerts, but platforms such as YY, Kugou, and Damai.com are also actively seizing the market, setting off a dividend battle in the live concert market.

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order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his debut, Mayday recently returned to his hometown and chose to hold a concert commemorating the 20th anniversary at the place where he first performed on the stage. It is worth mentioning that in addition to the 35,000 fans watching the performance live, many fans watched the performance at the same time through live online broadcasts. Public data shows that the number of live video views has exceeded 110 million times.

Through observation, we can find that the high live video playback volume of the Mayday Memorial Concert can be regarded as a microcosm of the rapid development of the live concert market. As early as around 2012, online live concerts and concerts have been tested in China. Basically, they all use free viewing methods, but the attention is relatively small. With LeTV Music's live broadcast of Wang Feng's "Bird's Nest" solo concert in 2014, it became the first live broadcast concert in China to pay for online viewing, achieving 75,000 paid views and an online live box office of more than 2 million yuan, attracting widespread attention from inside and outside the industry, and allowing many capital to see the potential space behind the live concert market and continue to invest in it.

Traditional video websites and music platforms were the first to start live broadcasts and covered many major platforms that are in leading positions in the industry. Among them, in terms of video websites, Tencent Video, Youku Tudou, iQiyi, Sohu, PPTV, etc. have all taken action on live concerts. For example, Tencent Video launched LiveMusic, and Youku Tudou launched a U-Music series of live concerts. In terms of music platforms, QQ Music, LeTV Music, Kugou, Ali Music, etc. have also held live concerts.

In addition, the live broadcast platforms that have become increasingly popular in recent years are not to be outdone, and have become online live broadcast platforms for related concerts. Not only did YY LIVE broadcast live Zhang Liangying's concert, Yingke Live also broadcast the entire Bigbang concert in 2016, attracting attention from many fans and fans.

Today, the live broadcast concert market is still in a stage of rapid development. According to analysis by Intelligent Research Consulting, the scale of my country's live broadcast market reached 15 billion yuan in 2016, of which live concerts accounted for 13.3%. At the same time, it is expected that the scale of my country's live broadcast market will reach 60 billion yuan in 2020. If calculated based on this, the market size of domestic concert live broadcasts has reached 1.995 billion yuan in 2016, and will reach 7.98 billion yuan in 2020.

In view of the market space behind live concerts, capital in other fields has gradually entered this field. For example, Damai. com, which started from ticketing, cooperated with MaiSidian through its brand "MaiLive" to conduct simultaneous offline live broadcasts of concerts. The addition of many capitals and the competition for high-quality content have undoubtedly made the competition in the concert live broadcast market more intense.

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the eyes of some viewers, the live broadcast of the concert only broadcasts the live situation of the concert to other broadcast platforms through filming. However, such a seemingly simple process has a considerable cost behind it. The first is the copyright fee required to pay for the live concert. Sources show that at the end of last year, Faye Wong's concert offered a price of 100 million yuan for live broadcast copyright fees. This inevitably discouraged some platforms and also made the concert only live broadcast left when other cooperation was negotiated. Negotiations are still under way. Although Tencent Video finally won the exclusive global live broadcast rights and on-demand rights of the concert at a low price, in addition to copyright fees, Tencent also provided WeChat, QQ and other resources for the concert. In addition, when Yingke Live was operating the Bigbang concert project, the signing fee for just three concert live highlights reached 20 million yuan.

At the same time, in order to achieve better live broadcast effects, many platforms have worked hard on the technical level. 4K, 360-degree panoramic viewing angle, Dolby Atmos, etc., have almost become standard standards, while new technologies such as VR are constantly integrating with them. According to industry sources, although copyright fees are already a considerable expense, the investment in technology cannot be underestimated and can even exceed copyright fees. However, the maximum ticket for live concerts is now around 30 yuan per ticket, and some options are free. The difficulty of recouping costs by relying solely on tickets.

In this regard, the vast majority of platforms will use the advertising part to earn a certain amount of income through sponsors, title sponsors, etc., and each platform will also make other plans according to its own circumstances, such as bundling live broadcasts with members. Take LeTV Music as an example. The platform attempts to link live concerts with its own membership system. For example, members can watch live broadcasts for free, or enjoy the corresponding services exclusively. In addition, iQiyi has also chosen to integrate with the membership system, in which members can exclusively enjoy high-definition live broadcasts or watch content first. On the one hand, this method can drive part of the revenue, and at the same time enhance the stickiness with users.

In addition, strengthening interactivity has also become a choice for some platforms. Among them, Tencent Video LiveMusic has set up interactive methods such as interactive gifts, bullet screens, voting, and fan communities. Even fans can decide the songs sung by the singer. These interactive methods cover the elements of payment, thereby leveraging the appeal of idols to fans. Pay, and also design exclusive derivatives to earn a certain amount of income through the sale of derivatives. It is worth noting that many platforms, including Tencent and LeTV, are currently deploying content upstream, cooperating with music companies to obtain copyright, or becoming one of the organizers of concerts to open up more industrial chain links.

Short-term market oligarchs are difficult to emerge

. Judging from the current situation, in the field of live concert broadcasts, Tencent Video LiveMusic and LeTV Music have been deployed relatively early and have accumulated certain influence. According to Wei Pengju, dean of the Institute of Culture and Economics of the Central University of Finance and Economics, because Tencent has multiple platforms, such as QQ and WeChat in social affairs, entertainment tickets in the ticketing field, as well as QQ Music and Tencent Video, the user base is huge and multi-platform coordination can further expand the radiation scope. Investment analyst Xu Shan said that since Wang Feng's "Bird's Nest" solo singing attracted a lot of attention, LeTV Music has also obtained many high-quality content resources since then, and has opened up live concerts and membership systems to ensure a certain degree of user stickiness.

The popularity of concerts at this stage has continued and has gradually become the music consumption choice of audiences. According to data from the "2016 China Music Market Consumption Report", among the music consumption choices in 2016, 32% of respondents chose to watch paid online live broadcasts, surpassing small venues such as music festivals and Livehouse. This figure shows that watching live concerts is slowly being accepted by the audience, and paying habits are gradually developed. In addition, the "39th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China" released by CNNIC also shows that in the field of live video, the development speed of the live concert market in 2016 is second only to that of live games.

As there is more room for growth in the future, a lot of capital will be deployed one after another, and market competition will gradually increase. Under the fierce competition situation, will there be a monopoly situation in the market? Xu Shan believes that at this stage, live concert broadcasts are still in the cultivation and development period, which belongs to the stage where all parties 'capital gathers forces to jointly expand the market cake. Moreover, the business model of live concert broadcasts has not yet been fully improved and needs to be continuously optimized during the development process., oligopoly will not occur in the short term.

In addition, industry insiders believe that copyright fees in the music field are currently increasing, and it is unrealistic for a single company to obtain most copyrights. At the same time, based on the actual situation of previous live concerts, the technical level needs to be further improved and optimized, which requires the joint action of all parties to gradually realize it.

Editor: Nancy