With the expiration of Tencent’s copyright, there will be an opportunity for an online music giant to redistribute its sphere of influence.
Music copyright is a fat meat, and no one on the platform will let it go easily. On August 11, NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music successively announced that they have reached cooperation with Universal Music Group (UMG).
According to the official information, NetEase Cloud Music will be authorized by Universal Music’s massive music library and extended to its community product-Mlog. The two parties will also jointly carry out more changes in music products, services, publicity and other areas. In-depth and extensive cooperation.
On the other hand, Tencent Music has renewed a multi-year copyright licensing strategic cooperation agreement with Universal Music Group to deepen the partnership. The two parties will establish a joint-venture music label to jointly explore and cultivate emerging musicians. In addition, the scope of authorization includes scenes such as national K song and online music live broadcast platform.
As the world’s largest record group in the 20th century, Universal Music has licensed the music libraries of many leading musicians at home and abroad, such as Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Jacky Cheung, Eason Chan, Stefanie Sun, Huimei Zhang, Teresa Teng, Leslie Cheung, Faye Wong, etc. .
Universal Music’s cooperation with NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music separately breaks the situation that Universal has only cooperated exclusively with Tencent Music Entertainment Group in Mainland China. It also means that NetEase Cloud Music does not have to pay additional license fees to Tencent. Obtain copyright resources under Universal Music.
Usually, the music copyright licensing agreement will be re-signed every two to three years. This cooperation coincides with the expiration of the copyright cooperation between Tencent Music and Universal Music. Netease Cloud Music, which is also the first echelon, will naturally not let the new one Opportunities for rounds of copyright competition.
Previously, Tencent, which also owns the exclusive copyrights of the three major record companies of Warner, Sony and Universal Music, holds approximately 5 million exclusive music copyrights in its hands, and has a great say in the domestic music copyright market. But at the same time, it also faces huge copyright payment fees. In 2017, Tencent spent US$350 million and US$100 million in equity in acquiring the exclusive rights of Universal Music for three years, which was ten times more than Universal Music’s offer.
Although Tencent has been strictly guarding copyright through capital, high-premium copyright cooperation has undoubtedly increased the cost of competition on the platform, and such a huge investment has failed to achieve an equal return in the income of music services. Therefore, as music platforms turn to explore diversified business models, music copyright is no longer a rarity, and the buyer’s market has become more rational.
Although online music giants have eased the copyright competition of the three major music groups, the competition for differentiation will intensify in the future.
Because of copyright issues repeatedly “get stuck”