The new version of Baidu Music launches relies on Taihe Group to launch the "ear economic belt"

On October 18, Baidu Music, a subsidiary of Taihe Music Group, held a press conference to announce the official launch of Baidu Music V5.9.0, and announced that Baidu Music will transform from a "player tool" to a "multi-functional platform" to create a personalized, scene-oriented, intelligent "music companion".

This is the first time that Baidu Music has made public its development path nearly a year after it was merged into Taihe Music Group. Wang Lei, general manager of Baidu Music, said that Baidu will leverage Taihe's copyright resources and offline capabilities to develop online and offline integration. He also revealed that Baidu Music has reached a cooperation with Tencent, and the two sides will exchange information on music copyright.

After 10 million copyrights, this is compared with users serving

up to 530 million online music users in my country. Since the promulgation of the "strictest copyright order" in 2015, the music industry has been reshuffled, forming a three-pronged pattern of "New Tencent Music, Taihe Music, and Ali Music". In 2015, Baidu Music, which has more than 400 million users, was included in Taihe Music Group.

Copyright analysts believe that Taihe Music Group itself can import a large amount of copyright for Baidu, and its cooperation with Tencent has also brought copyright. "For example, Xue Zhiqian and Fang Datong are artists under Taihe. Their music can be exclusively released on Baidu Music." Wang Lei believes that having been deeply involved in the music industry for many years is an advantage for Taihe and Baidu. A press conference can invite singers such as Lao Lang, Li Jian, and Xu Song to personally stand on the platform, and famous musicians such as Zhang Xinzhe, Qi Yu, and Tao Zhe can also send video congratulations. It is enough to prove Taihe's influence in the music industry.

However, Wang Lei said that Baidu Music currently has more than 10 million songs. When the number of copyrights reaches a certain level, it is of little significance to simply compete on the number of copyrights. "We have counted that there are about 50,000 songs that Chinese people often listen to. Baidu Music has covered more than 90%, and all major music apps are similar." Wang Lei said,"In such circumstances, it depends on who can provide users with the best experience and stick to users."

Therefore, after Wang Lei, who once built Netease Cloud Music, joined Baidu Music, he put improving the user experience first. Thanks to Baidu Music's huge traffic entrance advantage and strong support from Baidu Big Data, in the new version released this time, Baidu Music has improved its user system and member center, and also added a UGC system and music mall.

On the other hand, sitting on the online and offline resource pool of Taihe Music, from content production and copyright advantages to performances and fan communities, Baidu Music is also able to overcome copyright disputes, jumping beyond the limitations of music players and hoping to become a platform for connecting copyright, singers and offline operations.

Under his promotion, Baidu Music has moved from a player tool to a multi-functional platform. Wang Lei pointed out that the "second half" of the online music competition will more consider the integration capabilities and content production capabilities of the music company's entire industry chain. He proposed to be a personalized, scene-oriented and intelligent music companion, hoping that with the help of Baidu's artificial intelligence, he would eventually realize the supply of music to thousands of people, so that everyone could hear the music they wanted to hear most.

Listening to music does not make money, looking for opportunities in the industry chain

."The digital music download market is likely to decline faster than physical records in the next five years." The "Global Entertainment and Media Industry Annual Report" asserts that despite the rapid development of music playback platforms, it is still difficult to bring more revenue to the music industry. Taking the United States as an example, the total revenue of paid music downloads is likely to increase from 2015, the annual scale of around US$2.3 billion fell to US$1 billion in 2020.

The profit model of the online music industry has gradually become clear, and each family is also trying its best to avoid the difficulties of the online video industry. However, models such as user payment and traffic monetization also mean that the online music industry has been facing off by oligarchs for a long time., entering a protracted war. The integration ability of the entire industry chain has become the key to development, which is also why Taihe Music Group dares to add to Baidu Music.

Xiudong.com, a subsidiary of Taihe, can arrange more than 1000 offline activities a year, including fan meetings and small concerts, which provides an interface for the implementation of Baidu Music. This year, Baidu Music also "invested" in 19 Jacky Cheung concerts and began to work offline.

At the same time, Baidu Music has also jointly customized hardware with Birdie Audio, Nongke Earphones, and 1More Earphones, preparing to test the hardware market. However, Wang Lei emphasized that this is just a cross-border integration of Baidu music. For the time being, it may adopt the method of buying music members to send headphones, which will continue to expand around the "ear economic belt". Product implementation, performances, etc. are all explorations of the "ear economic belt".

Internet observer Ge Jia also pointed out that the top three online music players are different. It is still unclear whether it is better or worse to attack e-commerce, social networking, fan economy, etc., but in this protracted battle, Taihe Music Group belongs to the only company with the ability to integrate the entire industry chain. This advantage of balance of offense and defense also makes its value even more prominent.

Editor: yvette