Today, a source close to the investment department of Alibaba (hereinafter referred to as “Ali”) revealed that Ali is in talks with a music copyright giant to discuss the acquisition. Regarding the specific amount and detailed stage of the transaction, the person familiar with the matter said it was inconvenient to disclose further.
If the acquisition is reached, it will be another major move in the music field after Ali invested in NetEase Cloud Music for $ 700 million in September last year.
Just last week, Ali just announced that it has reached a cooperation with Taihe Music, the largest music copyright company in China. The shrimp music, Tmall Genie, and short music products such as Wing Ming and Duck Singing, all under the Creative Enterprise Group, will be authorized by artist songs. And content solutions. According to people familiar with the matter, the acquisition is also an attempt to innovate the Tmall Genie’s family strategy in order to expand the rich family entertainment scene around smart terminal devices.
And the music rights acquired by Ali are not limited to music playback. People familiar with the matter said that Ali will also open a new business model of digital music content in the fields of live broadcast, IOT smart devices, and online K-songs. During the epidemic, the form of “online live concert” attempted by Taobao Live will continue, and will enter users’ homes through Tmall Elves, mobile phones and other terminal devices.
In the music field, the “copyright battle” for many music platforms has never stopped, but the right to speak has always been firmly in Tencent’s hands. In this regard, Tencent has always been a dominant player. In 2018, Tencent Music was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first stock of Internet music. It also occupied more than 80% of domestic music copyrights, with a music library volume of over 20 million, and ranked second at that time. Netease cloud music was severely left behind.
Also as a giant, Ali has also been famous in the music field.
In January 2013, Ali acquired Xami Music and established the Music Division. In March 2015, Sami Music and Tiantian Dingting merged to form Ali Music. With the arrival of the strictest copyright order of the year, Ali reached a cooperation with the three major record companies, and owns the exclusive rights of well-known record companies such as Rolling Stone Music, Believe Music, and Huan Ya Records. A number of singers were also included in the bag, and even invited Gao Xiaosong and Song Ke to hold important positions.
After that, due to management problems and strategic mistakes, Ali Music entered an endless period of reversed water. In the field of music, Ali Planet, which integrates functions such as music players and live broadcasts, announced its death in less than a year. In addition to users, the copyright of singers has continued to lapse. After the organizational structure adjustment in 2019, the music business was removed from Alibaba Entertainment and classified as Innovative business groups, even after completing their investment in NetEase Cloud Music last year, NetEase still emphasizes that “the company enjoys control of NetEase Cloud Music alone.
Ali’s exploration in the field of music can be said to be a hard journey. But the huge market dividend still makes it impossible to give up the cultivation of this market. According to statistics from the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, as of June 2019, the number of online music users in China reached 608 million, an increase of 32.29 million compared with the end of 2018, accounting for 71.1% of the total Internet users; the number of mobile music users on the mobile phone reached 585 million, At the end of 2018, it increased by 32.01 million, accounting for 69.1% of mobile Internet users.
Therefore, it is reasonable for a giant that does not lack money and holds traffic to open a consistent “buy, buy, buy” model if it does not work out in person. Once this acquisition is reached, it will be In other words, in addition to the field of copyright and player, other application scenarios in the expansion business plate are taking advantage of the situation.