Xiami Music will be closed? Ali’s “rich daughter” did not grow up

What is the fate of Xiami music? It is reported that Xiami Music was reclassified from Alibaba Cultural and Entertainment Group in June 2019 and belonged to the Alibaba Innovation Business Group. The reporter asked Ali related parties for verification, and the other party said “no comment.

Besides the discussion, Wang Hao, the founder of the user @虾米音乐, tried to verify the rumors. As early as a few years ago, Wang Hao, who returned to Ali, transferred to a business line other than music. Although he will still comment on Xiami Music’s related issues on Weibo, as of the press time, he has not commented on Xiami Music’s upcoming issue. Any response to the rumors of closure.

This article is from WeChat official account:Economic Observer Network (ID: eeojjgcw), original title “shrimp music will close the renewed rumors Ali” eutrophication daughter “the end does not grow into”, author: Feng Qingyan, Qian Yu-juan, title figure from: vision China

From 2012 on Zhihu, there was a discussion post about “Will Xiami.com go bankrupt or decline in the last five years?”. Although Xiami Music has lasted for five years, Xiami Music has once again been “closed”. rumor.

On the evening of November 29th, the user “Xiang Zheng” who was certified as the “Leader of NOVA Entertainment, former Marketing Director of Warner Music/Universal Music China” posted a Weibo saying, “Rumors, Xiami Music It will be closed in January next year. Is an era coming to an end?”

As soon as this news was released, it immediately triggered netizens to comment on the “Xianzheng” Weibo. Some commentators said “It’s a pity!” and called Xiami Music “the father of niche music.”

Dissolve rumors

In the comment area, Xiangzheng also wrote, “I hope it’s not true, it’s still a shrimpRice is the strongest. When a reporter from the Economic Observation Network asked him for confirmation, he replied that he had heard the news from Xiami because of his “record company origin” and “the music industry is not big”.

But he went on to add that the reason “I only talk about rumors” was because “there was no final”, and he was reluctant to talk about other things since then.

This time, the rumored lock-in time is more precise, not within a few years, but in January next year, which is very close at hand. The reporter found through a search that more than this piece of news about Xiami Music’s upcoming closure, a user named “Kuhu Enlarge Light” also posted on Weibo after “Xianzheng”, “Xiaimi Music’s chief editor and operating director is currently in Beijing. In the meeting, some personnel changes will be implemented when going back. Xiami Music is likely to be disbanded.”

However, you can see on Weibo that in addition to the discussion, Wang Hao, the founder of the user @虾米音乐, verified the rumors. As early as a few years ago, Wang Hao, who returned to Ali, transferred to a business line other than music. Although he will still comment on Xiami Music’s related issues on Weibo, as of the press time, he has not commented on Xiami Music’s upcoming issue. Any response to the rumors of closure.

Past and Present

Xia Mi Music, formerly known as EMUMO (abbreviated from Earn Music & Money, which means music that “listens to the song and earns money” People)‘s name exists at the end of the page, which was later called Xiami.com, and its positioning of “high-quality music, discovery, and sharing” made it the most reflective of Chinese music in the last PC era The product of the feelings of gold nuggets.

According to public information, four of the five founders of Xiami Music are from Alibaba. For example, Wang Hao used to be an Alibaba system analyst. The remaining members of the founding team are Wang Xiaowei, the former operation manager of Alibaba’s Chinese station, Chen Enwei, the former technical director, and Wu Yiqun, the former Chinese station development engineer.

In 2008, Xiami Music received an investment from Shenzhen Venture Capital. In 2010, it received a grand investment. In 2013, Xiami Music was acquired by Ali.

In January 2013, Alibaba adjusted its structure and established 25 business divisions. Among them, the music division included Xiami.com acquired by the group. At that time, Wang Hao and other founding members all returned to their old owners.

It should be mentioned that Ali has since acquired the music player Tiantiandongting, and Xiami Music has formed Ali Music with it. With the blessing of Ali Capital, in 2014, Xiami Music bought the music copyright of the third season of “The Voice of China” for 30 million yuan. In 2016, Gao Xiaosong, Song Ke, and He Jiong joined Ali Music and brought a large number of fans to Xiami. In 2017, the first CEO internal letter in the history of Alibaba Music, “Growing Food, Not Building a Wall-Three Directions for Alibaba Music’s Future Development” was exposed, and it was interpreted by the outside world as Xiami Music will receive greater attention in the future. Although Ali continues to bless its capital, popularity and resources, Xiami Music, which once stood at the top of the online music contempt chain, reached the bottom of all music charts in 2018.

Incorporated into Ali’s Xiami Music, although it is constantly revising and launching new product features, its road is not smooth, and user retention and new additions have become a “big problem”.

A set of data shows that in the field of China Mobile Music in 2019, ranked by monthly active users of all major platforms, Xiami Music’s monthly active users are 5 million, and its market penetration rate is only 1%. NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou Music, and Kuwo Music are behind.

Xiami Music, which has been losing money for years, seems to be no longer the heart of the “rich daughter” that Ali once claimed. In September last year, when Ali bought NetEase Koala wholly, it also used Alibaba and Yunfeng. Funds and others invested 700 million US dollars in NetEase Cloud Music and obtained about 10% of the latter. Ali did not invest the funds in its Xiami Music, but instead invested in Xiami Music’s competitors. This abnormal operation not only caused speculation at that time, but Ali’s two major products on the music track There will be internal competition, and of course there are speculations that Ali will abandon Xiami Music.

Now that rumors are recurring, reporters will continue to pay attention to where the fate of Xiami Music will go.

An Internet-related person who did not want to be named stated that when Ali’s membership system 88VIP and NetEase Cloud Music reached a strategic cooperation, although the official stated that NetEase Cloud Music and Xiami Music are the same in the entire 88VIP rights system, “Users “You can choose one of the two music choices”, but this person told reporters, “Users tend to choose where the music is genuine and whichPlatform resources are richer.” In other words, music copyright has become the key to the survival of current music platforms.

As we all know, Xiami Music allowed users to upload music resources to the music library in the early days. Although this move has achieved the platform’s “small and beautiful” feelings in users’ hearts, according to the music industry’s observations that the media “music first “Sound” seems, this action makes Xiami “success and defeat.”

Especially after the National Copyright Administration issued a policy requiring online music service providers to stop disseminating unauthorized music works and offline unauthorized music works on the platform, not only Xiami Music, but also QQ Music and Kugou Platforms such as Music, Kuwo Music, NetEase Cloud Music, etc. have successively invested in copyright.

According to public information, Xiami Music has cooperated with rivals Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music in copyright in 2017 and 2018. However, many users on Xiami Music platform complained about “how little copyright is so small”, one should not be ignored. The fact is that the copyrights of most of the singers are collected by QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music.

The reporter was informed that since this year, Xiami Music has cooperated with music companies such as Taihe Music Group on copyright, but in comparison, the current situation for Xiami Music is obviously unfavorable for a successful copyright battle on the platform.

As soon as the rumor that Xiami is about to be closed, the reporter did not know whether the reason behind it was related to copyright restrictions, but a user of Xiami Music said, “Because many songs have been removed, my Xiami Music library can To describe it as riddled with holes.” He even complained, “Due to platform competition? You can’t share Xiami music on WeChat, which makes me very sad.”

There is also a user who started using Xiami Music a year after its establishment. He once “moved to QQ Music” in 2014, but “the experience of music library and information introduction was too bad” and returned to Xiami. “As a result, Xiami’s music library has also degraded, and there are more and more problems behind.”

Although I can’t help complaining when I mention this product, the above user still doesn’t want to see Xiami Music finally close. This is also a situation that “Xianzheng” does not want to see. “It’s a pity.” He believes that even if you simply look at the categories of music and album singles EP, “Xiami is still the most professional.”

Small Editor Sui Sui Nian

In fact, before becoming a Yuncun user, Xiaobian was also a loyal player of Xiami Music. I have to say that song copyright is indeed the key to the survival of music apps. In NetEase CloudBefore its explosive growth, Xiami also held a large-scale music library in its hands. Basically, the popular songs can be satisfied on Xiami. Moreover, the Xiami music, which is known for its feelings, has precise daily push logic and niche aesthetic needs, so that in the environment where music authorization is becoming more and more stringent, shrimp with a little copyright in hand still has so much A small group of diehard fans.

The news that Xiami might quit the music scene in January next year has been revealed, and many netizens have called “Ye Qingjie”. What is your favorite music app? No… it’s dried shrimp, right?

This article is from WeChat official account:Economic Observer Network (ID: eeojjgcw), author: Feng Qingyan, Qian Yu-juan

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