A content that can be consumed by fans, but the community nature of the entire QQ Music has not been enhanced.
Moreover, as the follow-up strategy mentioned above is destined to be invalid, the star group of the Plop community this time is actually between the Weibo Chaohua and Douban groups, although it can not only play the role of idols, but also discuss gossip , But it is easy for users to find the unique positioning of this product.
The demand from fans to list idols is indeed very strong, but there is already a Chaohua community on Sina Weibo to meet this demand. As for celebrity gossip and other demands, many products have already done well. Users will still use QQ Music as a tool, because there is no strong and lasting connection between its multiple contents, and fans do not have enough reason to stay on the QQ Music platform for a long time and achieve social goals.
Three, copyright barriers in the music field are difficult to last
On the whole, products that have met specific user needs and formed a community atmosphere can basically defeat pure tool products that meet similar needs, or at least can get most of the users in the market.
However, in areas such as music or video where users can be seized by strategies such as copyright or premiere, the strength of funds has increased the uncertainty of competition.
QQ Music used to be a tool for listening to songs in the mental positioning of most users, not a place to share and exchange feelings or leave great comments.
However, due to the well-known strong group background, Tencent Music’s music products rely on strong financial strength to monopolize the copyrights of songs in a large amount, forming the current situation of leading the user base.
In 2015, QQ Music obtained exclusive authorization from more than 20 mainstream record companies such as Warner, Sony, YG, and Fumao, forming an exclusive copyright monopoly. More than 90% of music copyrights were collected under its authority.
This approach is very effective in the short term. However, in the medium and long term, whether copyright can continue to lead products depends on two points: one is that copyright can be transformed into tangible commercial income, and the other is whether copyright barriers can be maintained for a long time.
On the first hand, from the 2020Q2 earnings report of Tencent Music, it can be seen that Tencent Music’s paid subscribers reached 47.1 million, an increase of 51.9% year-on-year. The growth rate is a good result. However, with its huge user base of 651 million, the payment rate is only 7.2%.
Compared with Spotify, It has 130 million paying users, with a payment rate of over 50%. The revenue contributed by paid music users accounts for nearly 90% of the company’s total revenue. That is to say, in the general environment of China, buying a large amount of copyrights for the exclusive monopoly of the market is not worth the gain in terms of commercialization.
On the other hand, NetEase Cloud Music has also obtained a large amount of copyright this year. Today, NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music each officially announced that they have reached a strategic cooperation with Universal Music. Under this cooperation framework, NetEase Cloud Music will not only be authorized by Universal Music’s music library, but the two parties will also jointly explore more in-depth and extensive cooperation in more innovative areas at the level of music products, services, and publicity. In this way, NetEase Cloud Music will no longer need to sublicense the copyright of Tencent Music, and can directly play Universal Music songs.
At the same time, NetEase Cloud has also reached copyright authorization with Warner Copyright, Rolling Stone Records, Studio Ghibli, “The Year of the Singer”, etc. It also reached a cooperation with Japan Studio Ghibli in March this year. Obtained full authorization for the music of Hayao Miyazaki’s works such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away”. NetEase Cloud Music’s copyright problem, which has been criticized by the industry and users, will be gradually resolved, and the copyright defense line of QQ Music will be disintegrated.
Tencent Music’s high copyright fees have created barriers. For example, in 2017, TME obtained Global’s exclusive license for 350 million US dollars in cash and 100 million equity, and this price was 10 times higher than before. However, the music pay rate and ARPU value are not high, and the main income depends on live broadcast.
For this reason, it is easier to understand that Tencent Music’s failure in the copyright field may cause user loss and the dilemma of increasingly fragile commercial realization capabilities, so it chose to develop community products. However, it chose the more anxious follow-up strategy, which was destined to be difficult to succeed.
At the same time, some industry reports pointed out that Tencent Music has also chosen many strategies for quick success in commercialization. For example, some time ago, media reported that users said that during the use of QQ Music, there will be interstitial voice ads when switching songs. . It is understood that the interruption of the voice advertisement is 15 seconds, and non-members are not allowed to close or skip it. At the same time, advertising posters also appeared on the playing interface of the song. For the mass music users who pay attention to the essence of listening to songs, once there are other platforms that can listen to the songs they want to listen to, then leaving QQ Music is a matter of minutes.
NetEase Cloud Music, which has the stickiness of the underlying community, has been at a disadvantage in the previous copyright disputes, but the user’s community atmosphere has been cultivated. Moreover, NetEase Cloud Music is also familiar with the listening habits of young users and offers personalized recommendations. All of their songs are what they like, and a sentence “NetEase Cloud understands me” is better than Qianjin investment. Recently, the whole network has become popular with the “Net Yiyun” stalk. In the discussion of Tucaoqi’s music review culture and anti-playing stalk, people can see the huge traffic and user stickiness of the community, which can be said to help NetEase cloud out of the circle again.