Chinese Music Industry FAQs: Is China the Right Market for Me?
「寧可做真實的自己被人詬病」”Rather get judged for being real.” — C
This one is straight-forward. Below is my take on all the questions I’ve received over and over again. I will try not to tell you the stuff you can find online already, or lots of fancy words that aren’t useful for anybody. So, here we go.
Q: Greater China, China or Mainland China?
A: I’m sure you all know the ongoing political issues between mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. ‘Greater China’ covers them all geographically, but when targeting ‘China’ as a market, essentially, you’re talking about conquering ‘mainland China’.
That’s where platforms such as Youtube, Spotify, Twitter, Twitch andInstagram are banned. And instead, there are at least 20+ local equivalents of each of those platforms (but luckily, you don’t need to use all of them to have success). Shanghai, and the capital Beijing, alongside over 30+ cities are growing at a rather crazy speed day by day.
Q: How do I collect music royalties in China?
A: Asking this, you are probably an independent artist, or you run an indie label. The most credible answer would be to distribute via one of the majors in China like Taihe, otherwise to speak to the DSP’s directly.
You can also register as an independent artist on the platforms of NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music Entertainment. By then you can collect royalties from the backend. But if you are not able to read Chinese or if you never really understand those extensive instruction sheets, I don’t recommend doing this. You will probably get lost. Also, your music most likely won’t be heard amongst the vast competition, without proper promotions. Same goes for those who distribute to China via major distribution brands in the world. Your music will be on the platforms (that’s always a plus). But you won’t earn much without local exposure and a fanbase.
My personal recommendation is to always work on the product first before you go looking for revenue, because I find a lot of people doing it backwards. That never works in the long run. The competition is very high in the Chinese market. Even if you have only a couple million streams (that’s not a lot in China, unfortunately), I don’t recommend going through the pain to get to the DSP’s. But I do recommend to find a way to grow your fanbase through Chinese socials locally starting from those audiences. There are some independent companies that collect royalties for you, but be careful who you choose to work with, because you can be easily ripped off.
Q: Why are people fascinated by the Chinese market?
A: China is the planet's most populous country (around 1.4 billion). Shanghai alone has 26m people. The BBC said it’s the world’s largest media market and it has the largest online population. If I sit here and list all the popular social media apps, we’ll be here forever.
But what I can tell you is, all the big DSP’s that you’ve heard of have over 100m daily users per day, and there are many of them alike. Just like all the other industries, the music industry in China has its own game rules compared to the rest of the world. China’s music industry was worth more than 370 billion yuan ($53 billion) during 2019, and growing nearly 8% year-on-year, according to a November report from the China Music Industry Forum. You get the idea.
Also, don’t forget that Bytedance (Tiktok/Douyin) is also in the game now, which leads us to the next question.
Q: Seems like the world is banning Tiktok. What does that mean for my Douyin?
A: Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok. Both platforms are under the Chinese company Bytedance, but they’re not connected at all. If you’re an artist on Tiktok, you don’t have a Douyin account. They are completely separated. As I mentioned earlier, everything in China has its own life. Whatever is happening in the rest of the world does not usually affect what’s happening in China all that much, especially everything in the entertainment industry. Also, I wouldn’t worry about TikTok being banned. The tech giants are the smartest in the world, and they will always have a solution.
Q: Does my sound work in China?
A: I always say China is a big enough market for everybody. No matter what kind of music you make, there is always an audience group for you. The problem you need to solve is how to reach that group. Chinese love sentimental, melodic music (think about how big KTV is in the culture). For example, piano sound is a good one. Bands are very popular because of the live aspect and the Chinese rock music scene. In terms of dance music, anything leaning towards pop or gaming are the most popular. Vocal-wise, the higher pitched angelic style (Scandinavia has a lot of this sound) works wonders. Those are just a few ideas.. But indie, experimental music has its own (huge) circle of course, as does classic techno.
Q: How do I reach my audience in China?
A: This is a long story. First of all you will need a local agency (100%). Whether it’s the basic ones that do copy and paste jobs of your international socials, or the more professional ones that make a full marketing or mgmt/co-mgmt plan for you. There are so many visible and invisible rules in China that change all the time (the market complexity is real), you can get lost in no time. Or simply just become tired of handling it yourself (let’s be honest) and give up half way.
Let’s talk about platforms; if you are a mainstream pop act, I’d say always have Weibo as proof of legitimacy. But that’s going to be hard to build, initially. Weibo is the Twitter of China, where most celebrities interact with their audiences. If you are an independent artist with a niche sound (majority genre of dance music is considered niche in China), go for NetEase Cloud Music as well. If you are an influencer, model, make-up artist or someone with a lot of lifestyle content, you’d need Little Red Book as the extra one. If you are more of a mainstream act, or a band, or if you have a more pop sound, go for TME platforms (QQ Music initially, Kugou Music is next). On top of that, if you’re familiar with Douyin/Tiktok style content, make sure to have that on the side, too. You don’t need all of them to be fully fledged, and each artist will have their stronger platforms and weaker ones. The above is just a quick glance of some of the platforms that could be useful for you.
Q: How do I know if I have potential to grow in China?
A: Ok this one is serious. Your potential in China depends on the level of your dedication. Are you willing to (at least) double or triple your current workload? If you want to just have someone mirror your contents on the side, that is not real dedication. And don’t expect to get much out of it. Those may work, for superstars only. For example, Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan, Justin Bieber etc.
‘Organic’ is not a thing in China 95% of the time. It’s another world itself where everything changes rapidly. I find myself still learning something new every day. It takes time for people to fully accept something new there. The upside is anyone with REAL dedication can make it. But you will have to sacrifice a lot. No matter how special you are, there will be someone who can easily replace you (sorry). If you don’t plan on working hard (I mean non-stop), or pay someone enough to work that hard for you, then I don’t recommend going into the market. It’d be a waste of money. If you already have a big following in the west, you have a better chance to make it. But it all depends on how you speak to the audiences locally because people know whether you are being sincere or you just have someone copying and pasting for you.
I always remind my employees that not everyone wants to make it in China. Some are perfectly fine without it. Huge markets like this come with countless many opportunities. It’s up to people whether they want to grab it or not. Some are often offended by me saying “you are expecting too much for what you are willing to give.” You don’t have to take any of it. But do think about your goal and purpose before randomly going to an agency, pay a minimum fee and expect them help fulfil your dreams in a month or two. It’s unfair for everyone. And they will take the money and do it, but they most likely wouldn’t care about the result or your career. But you do, even if it’s $100 a month.
Ok that’s all I have for now. I hope it helped. If you have some other questions, feel free to reach out to us. Maybe I will talk about my experiences with all of these next.
Keep hustling.
— C
