NetEase Cloud Music Competitive Product Analysis Report

When it comes to music software, many people think of NetEase Cloud Music . To stand firm in the fierce market competition, it is not just about relying on "excellent comments" to stand out.

1. Project Description

1. Overview of Competitive Product Analysis

This document is designed to optimize the product structure of NetEase Cloud Music by understanding and analyzing the market conditions, user portraits, and user demand pain points of the online music industry, comparing the functions, structures, and other modules of NetEase Cloud Music and its direct competitors, comparing their respective strengths and weaknesses, and drawing improvement suggestions.

2. Product testing environment

2. Market

1. Industry background analysis

1) Current status of industry financing

Figure 1 Total financing of the music industry from 2010 to 2020

Figure 1 is a chart showing the total financing amount of the music industry from 2010 to 2020 compiled by the FASTDATA website. The data in the figure shows that from 2010 to 2020, the total amount of financing in the music industry has generally shown an upward trend. Especially from 2013 to 2014, the increase was huge. However, from 2014 to 2019, although the financing growth in the music industry was high, the fluctuations were sharp and frequent, with the maximum fluctuation reaching 6 billion yuan. Since 2018, the amount of financing has tended to decrease rapidly year by year.

Conclusion: Figure 1 shows that investment in the music industry fluctuates frequently, which indicates that market financing in the music industry has entered a mature stage in recent years, investment has gradually slowed down, and the investment growth rate has begun to decline. The reason for this phenomenon may be that the quality of works in the music industry is unstable, and the production period of music with different quality may cause investment fluctuations.

Since 2014, the amount of financing in the music industry has remained above 4 billion yuan, which shows that the amount of investment in the music industry is still huge. Although financing in the music industry fluctuates frequently, it also indirectly shows that the music industry still has vitality, that is, constantly innovating and improving music products.

2) Market size

Figure 2 Changes in the output value of the online music market

Figure 2 is a chart showing the changes in output value of China's online digital music market from 2015 to 2020 compiled by the FASTDATA website. The data in the figure shows that the output value of China's online music market has been increasing rapidly and continuously from 2015 to 2020. Especially in the two time periods of 2017-2018 and 2019-2020E, the growth rate was very high, reaching 4 to 6 billion yuan.

Conclusion: Figure 2 shows that the output value of the online music market continues to grow. The reason for this phenomenon may be that more and more music playback software are beginning to implement paid music listening and EP distribution. In order to listen to their idols' new songs, users have begun to adapt to paid listening and electronic album purchases. The ever-increasing market output value proves that, although the online music industry has been developed for a long time and is no longer an emerging industry, the market output value of online music is still accelerating year by year. This industry is still relying on the Internet to continue to develop, and its development vitality is not inferior to many emerging industries.

2. Macro industry analysis

1) Policy environment

The "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Online Music Industry" issued by the central government clearly requires that the online music industry will increase its output by 30% by 2020. In addition, various local governments have introduced local policies to require and support the increase of leisure industry penetration. In 2019, the online music industry became a market that benefited from policy dividends. The State Council government report pointed out that the online music industry will be conducive to improving people's quality of life.

2) Economic environment

From the perspective of the market and financing, the online music industry continues to have hot demand, capital is favorable to the online music field, and the industry's long-term development is positive. From the perspective of the music industry's industrial chain, the growth in transaction volume in the downstream industry has provided new impetus for the development of the online music industry. From the perspective of residents' consumption, the per capita disposable income of residents was 28,228 yuan in 2018, a real increase of 6.5% year-on-year. The improvement in residents' consumption level provides an economic basis for the market demand of the online music industry.

3) Social environment

The traditional online music industry has low market barriers, lack of unified industry standards, and no professional supervision of the service process, which affects the development of the industry. The combination of the Internet and online music reduces the intermediate links and provides users with cost-effective services. From the perspective of people who use online music, people born in the 1990s and 2000s have gradually become the main consumers of online music.

4) Technical environment

Technology empowers YR, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 5G and other cutting-edge technologies to gradually transition from first-tier cities to second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities. The emergence of these technologies has enabled the popularization of technological experience in the online music industry. The online music industry has introduced systems such as ERP, OA (office automation), and EAP (employee assistance program) to optimize the information management construction process and improve industry efficiency.

Summary: The policy support and economic status of online music indicate that online music is still the trend direction of national policies and market capital dividends. The social and technological environment also indicates that the user base and technical support for online music are still hot.

3. Business Model

1) Advertising payment model

As a traditional profit model, paid advertising is a business model that relies on traffic monetization. Online music platforms rely on a huge user base. While users enjoy online music services, they are also pushed an acceptable number of advertisements. Service fees are charged to advertisers based on corresponding data indicators such as number of exposures, number of clicks, and transaction amount.

The charging standard is: 0.8 yuan/1000 effective clicks

Advertising formats include: splash screen ads, banner ads, interstitial ads, etc.

For example: entry ads and page ads of software such as NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music.

2) Member value-added services

Since the income from the traditional advertising payment model is limited and the state's control over music copyright is becoming increasingly strict, major online music platforms have gradually shifted from providing music services for free to charging partial music service fees. Taking NetEase Cloud Music as an example, it currently includes two types of member value-added services. One is ordinary members, who can enjoy online music playback and download 300 lossless music. The other is super members, who, in addition to enjoying all the rights of ordinary members, also have ad-free, mall discounts, ticketing privileges, personalized interface settings and other services.

Membership price: 6-7 yuan/month for the first month and 10 yuan/month for each subsequent month

For example: NetEase Cloud Music’s Vinyl VIP and QQ Music’s Green Diamond membership.

3) Genuine paid download

Due to the rapid development of information networks, people are more willing to enjoy music services anytime and anywhere, so traditional physical records are gradually declining and replaced by emerging digital records. Genuine paid downloads are customized content services for specific individual music, currently including single song downloads and entire album downloads. Single song download means that users can obtain lossless sound quality download rights by paying a single digital music price to the service provider. Similarly, whole album download means that users can obtain lossless sound quality download rights by paying the price of an entire digital music album to the service provider.

Price: EP price 3-5 yuan/piece

For example: music trials and EP purchases on NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music or Kugou Music.

4) Game joint operation model

The game joint operation model refers to an online music platform that, through good operations, directs the high-stickiness users accumulated by the platform itself to its web game interface, injects a stable user base into the company's own game segment, and effectively converts it into profit income. This model is generally based on the service provider’s own game platform or the parent company’s game platform.

For example, taking QQ Music as an example, based on Tencent’s huge game resources, it recommends some high-quality games to QQ Music platform users and gives away game gift packages, successfully attracting a large number of potential game users.

5) Mall Services

Mall service refers to an e-commerce mall established by an online music platform based on its own huge user base to sell goods, including headphones, speakers, musical instruments and other music-related peripheral products. Since the target users of online music platforms are the general group of people who love music, selling music-related products on this basis can achieve obvious results and become another channel for online music platforms to make profits.

For example: NetEase Cloud Music has a built-in cloud music mall, where users can purchase hardware music playback devices that are used with the NetEase Cloud Music software or peripheral products co-branded with NetEase Cloud.

3. Users

1. User Tags

Figure 3 Online music user tags in 2020

Figure 3 is a user distribution map of the online music market in 2020. The data in the chart shows that more than 60% of users are born in the 1980s and 1990s, accounting for more than 65%. In addition, users born in the 2000s have also grown into an important user group in the online music industry. From the perspective of gender structure, the proportion of male and female users is relatively balanced. Females slightly outnumber males, accounting for 51.7%.

Summary: The main users of the online music industry are young people aged 16-30. They constitute the main user group in the online music market. This shows that the online music industry has strong youthful vitality, and the younger generation is still the main force of online music users. The change in the proportion of users born after 2000 indicates that they have begun to choose to use some casual social software, and online music has begun to attract teenagers. The proportion of females is slightly higher than that of males, probably because females are more dependent on and fond of music and use it more frequently.

Figure 4 City distribution of online music users

Figure 4 shows the city distribution of online music users. The above chart shows that nearly 60% of online music users come from third-tier cities and below. Second-tier and above cities only account for 40%.

Conclusion: Online music users mainly come from third-tier and lower cities, indicating that people in third-tier and fourth-tier cities have a higher usage rate of music playback software. This may be because people in third-tier and fourth-tier cities have more free time to listen to music.

2. User Conduct

Figure 5 Music APP usage time of users in different cities

Figure 5 shows the distribution of music APP usage time periods of online music users in different cities as compiled by the Fastdata data center. The data shows that there is some overlap in the usage time periods of users in first-tier and new first-tier cities and second-tier and below cities. But there are also some differences. Users in first-tier cities and above are more likely to use online music on their way to and from get off work. That is, the peak listening time is around 8 am and 7 pm, and the total usage time does not exceed 4 hours a day. Users in second-tier cities and below can use online music freely throughout the day.

Conclusion: Regardless of the city level, online music users spend most of their time commuting to and from get off work. This shows that most of them choose to use music software in their free time. However, compared with users in first-tier and new first-tier cities, users in second-tier and lower cities have more freedom in using online music and use it for longer periods of time. This shows that for users in first-tier cities, listening to music can only be used as a way to relax in their spare time, while for users in second-tier cities and below, listening to music is a lifestyle habit.

3. User Group (NetEase Cloud Music)

• Listening to music
• Music publisher
• Organize users who publish playlists

4. User portrait (NetEase Cloud Music)

1) Music users

Image 1: Free music listening users

Basic attributes: Li Ze, male, 25 years old, working professional

User behavior: Listening to music on the way home from get off work

User characteristics: niche music lovers, playlist seekers

Usage scenario: Li Ze is an ordinary employee of a company. The company is far from my home, and it takes 40 minutes to take the bus or subway to go to the company every time. That day, he worked overtime until eight o'clock in the evening and then took the subway back home. He felt very tired after a busy day, so he took out his mobile phone to relax. Because his eyes were sore from reading the novel, he opened NetEase Cloud Music and played his collection of niche music playlists.

Portrait 2: Vinyl VIP user

Basic attributes: Liu Ze, female, 20 years old, college student

User behavior: Listening to idol songs and pursuing high sound quality

User characteristics: high requirements for song quality

Usage scenario: Liu Ze is a sophomore female college student. I have loved listening to Angela Chang’s songs since I was a child and I am her loyal fan. She also likes to listen to Angela Chang's songs using some music player apps, but finds that their sound quality is not very high. Then she found that as long as you open a vinyl VIP account on NetEase Cloud Music, the sound quality of the songs is very good, and you can switch between different sound effects, which she thinks is worth it.

2) Music publisher

Portrait 3: Independent Musician

Basic attributes: Qian Yu, female, 24 years old, singer

User behavior: Find a song publishing platform to show yourself

User characteristics: Cover song enthusiast

Usage scenario: Qian Yu is an independent musician. After graduating from the music college, he started to create independent music. Besides that, she also likes to cover her favorite songs. But what troubled her was that she couldn't find a suitable music publishing platform. The songs she released on many platforms were listened to by very few people. But she discovered that NetEase Cloud Music has a "Cloud Village" platform, where many niche singers release songs they create or cover, and have gained a lot of fans. So she started releasing her own songs on this platform and gained a large number of fans.

Image 4: Music Studio

Basic attributes: Lelai Music Studio

User behavior: Join niche musicians to form a group and release songs

User characteristics: Music group

Usage scenario: Lelai Music Studio is a newly established music studio. Its daily business is to help niche singers create and publish music. The studio released their songs on various platforms, one of which is the NetEase Cloud Music platform. Unlike other platforms, NetEase Cloud Music prefers to organize the songs released by their studio into an independent playlist. As long as the songs are released by singers from their own studio, they can be included in this playlist. In this way, the studio can train multiple singers at the same time, so the studio will release more songs on NetEase Cloud Music first.

3) Users who organize and publish playlists

Portrait 5: User who publishes a playlist

Basic attributes: Zeng Dan, female, 24 years old

User behavior: Collect songs of the same style

User characteristics: likes to categorize songs

Usage scenario: Zeng Dan is a loyal user of NetEase Cloud Music. I usually like to listen to songs of various styles. Besides that, he also likes to put songs of the same style together. Before he knew it, he had compiled eight or nine playlists of different styles. He wondered if he could release these playlists, perhaps gaining other people's attention that way. So he released one of the playlists, and it received tens of thousands of listens and likes.

5. User pain points

Listening to music

• Work is very tiring, I want to relax and unwind without using my hands or eyes
• I want to listen to my idol's high-quality music

Music publisher

• I want more users to hear my songs and gain more fans.
• Singers who want to find a music platform to promote their studios and studios

Playlist Sharer

• Want to share your playlist with others and gain recognition

4. Competitive Product Analysis

1. Strategic level

1) Product Introduction

2) Special features

NetEase Cloud Music:

Private FM, playlist

QQ Music:

Extensive song resources, karaoke

Xiami Music:

High quality sound, independent musician

2. Structural layer

Figure 6 Netease Cloud Music APP structure diagram

NetEase Cloud Music is divided into five major functional areas: Discover Music, Podcasts, My Music, Karaoke, and Cloud Village. It has relatively comprehensive functions, basically covering most of the functions that a music playback software should have. The launch of the Cloud Village function indicates that NetEase Cloud Music has officially entered the field of music social networking.

Figure 7 QQ Music APP structure diagram

In meeting the core needs of users, QQ Music makes full use of its powerful music library and search capabilities (its search function is basically spread across most of the interfaces) to meet users' high-quality needs for listening to music. Try using the pop-up feature to establish instant fan interaction. First of all, this feature can be turned on and off at will. If you don’t like it, you can simply not use it. The design of this function is very heartwarming for those who want to find companionship in music.

Figure 8: Xiami Music APP structure diagram

Xiami Music targets users who have relatively high requirements for music. In addition to basic music playback, they can also follow the ideas and stories of music experts, and there are related videos to choose from. Based on its own product positioning, the music discovery function is designed to be more comprehensive. Xiami Music's functions are relatively complex, with more nested frameworks and a more complicated structure.

Summary: The structures of the three music playback software are roughly similar, but they also have their own focus and characteristics. The functional design of NetEase Cloud Music is more inclined to facilitate the sharing of songs between users and to build a music community, such as the "Cloud Village" function. QQ Music focuses more on utilizing its own powerful music library resources and encourages users to search and discover songs, which can be seen from the ubiquitous search box in QQ Music. Xiami Music focuses on the symbiotic relationship between music, videos, and MVs, building a high-quality music platform.

3. Product comparison

1) Function comparison

Comparison of online features between NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, and Xiami Music

2) Comparison of “Like” playlist design

Summary: The data in the table shows that the song functions of the three software are relatively comprehensive, and they all have the basic functions that music playback software should have. In addition, they all have their own unique features and advantages. For example, NetEase Cloud Music’s unique playlist prediction and recommendation functions, QQ Music’s massive song resources, and Xiami Music’s high-quality music. But overall, Xiami Music lacks the online karaoke function compared to the previous two software. If we look at it from the perspective of platform comprehensiveness, it is recommended that Xiami Music consider adding a karaoke function.

Figure 9 Comparison of the “My” interface of NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, and Xiami Music

The "Like" playlist of NetEase Cloud Music is more prominently designed than those of QQ Music and Xiami Music. It combines the "Like" playlist and "Private FM" functions into one, and the two occupy the largest area of ​​the interface. This design allows users to quickly find their favorite songs, making it more user-friendly. However, the design of the "liked" playlists on QQ Music and Xiami Music is not obvious.

On my page, the layout of Cloud Music and QQ Music is basically the same, while the layout of Xiami Music is relatively simple, but more concise. All content related to the user's music listening history, including recent plays, favorites, etc., will be placed in the most prominent position of the page, with the playlist below. NetEase Cloud Music has functions such as private FM and latest radio stations at the top of the page, while Xiami Music is relatively simple. QQ Music places the personal basic information entrance, activity center, and membership center below the search bar, which also reflects the product's profit-making method. NetEase Cloud and Xiami place these functions in account-related modules.

Summary: Overall, Xiami Music is simpler and cleaner than the other two. The white main color and larger fonts make the page more high-quality. In addition, NetEase Cloud Music displays personal background on my page, reflecting the characteristics of a strong social chain.

3) Comparison of the "Song Playing" page

Figure 10 Comparison of the “Song Playback” interface of NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, and Xiami Music

NetEase Cloud Music only retains the most important information and functions, and is very "low-key". The protagonist of the entire page is the vinyl record in the middle. This space uses a frosted glass effect, leaving a lot of white space. It is said that the rotation speed was also debugged by Ding Lei himself. It also uses a full-screen effect to create a sense of immersion. Many users put on headphones to play songs and watch the cover turn all night long. The interaction of pause/play/song change is also a small highlight. This can be regarded as the ultimate experience of listening to music on a mobile phone. However, the "hidden" function of only showing the lyrics when clicking on the record is a bit unfriendly to new users. The function of leaving messages is relatively high in the layout, and it is not difficult to see its UGC purpose.

The entire page elements of QQ Music are relatively large, giving the entire page a full feel. It uses the currently very popular full-screen and frosted glass effects to create a sense of immersion. This should be considered to cater to users of all ages and make the product as easy to use as possible. And one page is not enough, it has to be divided into three pages with left and right swipes. There is no other way, there are too many functions. The interaction of viewing lyrics is also inconvenient. From the comparison of icon size arrangement, it is not difficult to find that QQ Music still hopes that users’ main purpose is to listen to music.

Xiami Music does not use the full screen and frosted glass effects. The upper part uses a large poster, and the lower part uses white space to place function icons, making the entire screen clear. Except for the play and up and down cut buttons which use planar icons, other buttons are weakened and use grayscale linear icons. Its friendly intention can be seen, but the design of the progress bar is too obscure, and many new users find it difficult to understand how to operate its fast-forward function. What is surprising is that the UI interface design when the playback interface is in horizontal expansion state is a hidden easter egg, which is not available in the other two apps. However, for novice users, this function is still relatively hidden, and I hope some hints can be given.

Summary: Different playbacks can reflect the emphasis on their respective interactive designs. NetEase Cloud focuses more on users' information acquisition. QQ Music focuses more on user experience. Xiami focuses more on UI design.

4) “Drawer Menu” Function Comparison

Figure 10 The “Drawer Menu” interface of NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, and Xiami Music

NetEase Cloud Music also uses the space to move around the entire module in the form of a tab bar. Each module contains the same function and adopts the icon+text format, but the icon is weakened, making the commonly used functions of the overall page obvious and easy to operate.

The account page of QQ Music uses the hamburger button "More" in the upper right corner of the homepage and is displayed in a drawer-style format. The main functions are divided using a mixed method of space and lines. The main functions are displayed in text form, and are obvious and easy to operate.

The entire Xiami Music page also uses the form of space-divided modules, but it has too many functions, so the ones that users use more frequently are arranged at the bottom, and the icons and text are on the same level in color, making the entire page look a bit too heavy visually. In addition, the display of personal information takes up too much space and has poor visual effects.

Summary: In general, the overall UI style of NetEase Cloud Music is relatively refined, creating a sentimental tone for users; because QQ Music's user group is for the general public, its overall UI style is simple, and the page elements are larger to meet the needs of users at all levels; Xiami Music's overall UI style is also relatively simple, with white and gray as the main colors, which also reflects nobility and elegance. The layout is concise and the elements are relatively large, giving it a minimalist style and attitude. However, the interactive effects on many pages are somewhat excessive, and I hope you can pay attention to this in future revisions.

5. SWOT Analysis

1. Advantages

• Personalized UI design, user-friendly experience
• Accurate daily recommendation algorithm
• Cloud Music Mall provides profit opportunities
• Community mode, song comments attract users' attention

2. Disadvantages

• Lack of music copyright may lead to loss of users
• Entered the market late, with weak foundation and small user base

3. Opportunities

• Original musicians move into NetEase Cloud, which can increase the source of music and bring in more users
• Users are increasingly willing to pay for music
• High user loyalty, easy to arouse public opinion and "screen swiping" on social platforms

4. Challenges

• As the copyright dispute intensifies, QQ Music stops licensing copyrights with NetEase Cloud Music
• Large-scale song removals have led to dissatisfaction among members or paying users

5. Conclusion

• Judging from the market situation, the industry scale and financing status of online music are in a mature stage. Although the financing of the music industry fluctuates frequently, it also indirectly shows that the music industry still has industry vitality.
• From the user perspective, NetEase Cloud Music's users are concentrated in young people living in second- and third-tier cities. They are used to listening to music to relax during their commute. In addition, different users have different usage scenarios for NetEase Cloud Music. Song uploaders can gain fans and profits from the platform. The listeners of the songs have a sentimental attachment to NetEase Cloud Music. Song collectors can also gain fans by sharing their playlists.
• From a competitive perspective, NetEase Cloud Music's advantages over its competitors (QQ Music, Xiami Music) lie in its more complete functions, more refined UI design, and more humanized interactive design. The disadvantage is that there are fewer music resources and the experience for novice users is poor.

Author: The Pokémon Who Loves Discharge

Source: Pokémon that loves to discharge electricity