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Tun is a polyphonetic character. When pronounced as “tún”, it means “storage, accumulation”.
However, this originally neutral word, when combined with certain areas of the Internet, has become a synonym for a chronic disease: take mobile games as an example. In the previous period of time, mobile game companies have accumulated a large number of IPs, but lacked innovation in the specific operation and development of products. There are very few good products, which has had an extremely adverse impact on the development of the industry.
This "tún" phenomenon is not just in mobile games, it also appears in many fields, such as online music.
“Would you pay for music?” When I asked this question to my friends, 9 out of 10 people shook their heads and said, “No.”
This seems to confirm the low payment habits of online music. According to the 2014 Global Digital Music Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global total revenue of the music industry in 2014 fell slightly by 0.4% from 2013 to US$14.97 billion (US$15.03 billion in 2013), although the global digital music and physical music revenues were on par for the first time: in 2014, global digital music revenues rose by 6.9% to US$6.9 billion, accounting for 46% of total music sales, while physical music revenues accounted for the same 46%, and the remaining 8% of revenue came from music-related fields such as performance rights.
The music industry seems to have the largest user base, but it does not have a large user scale. How did this development dilemma come about?
Especially in China, where online music has been around for more than a decade, the piracy and infringement that have been complained about by industry insiders are gradually decreasing, but the development of the entire music industry is still difficult. Where are the opportunities in the industry?
Is hoarding copyright out of fashion?
In the past decade, copyright has been an unavoidable issue in China's online music market, which has caused complaints and dissatisfaction among many industry insiders. However, in recent years, with the strengthening of measures by relevant departments and the advocacy of industry self-discipline, online music is developing in a healthy direction.
It must be admitted that among the three giants BAT, Tencent is at the forefront in terms of music layout. Relying on its advantages in resources and funds, it has greatly demonstrated its "willfulness". However, the market does not take Tencent's "willfulness" seriously. An industry insider who wishes to remain anonymous told NetEase Technology that under the healthy development trend of the market, Tencent, which claims to have the largest copyright library in the industry, is not beneficial to the development of the entire industry. "This kind of arbitrary procurement and aimless backlog does not have good enough operation and development."
People in the music industry have similar views. One musician told NetEase Technology that Tencent is not a good platform for most new musicians, "It is too difficult for these people to get exposure on Tencent." On the contrary, a large number of independent musicians have gathered on platforms such as Kugou, Xiami, Douban, and NetEase Cloud Music. Their purpose is very clear: they need exposure.
This is very similar to the mobile game industry some time ago: a large number of companies blindly accumulated IPs, but did not know how to operate and develop them. They simply changed the skins and still could not bring real good products to players. The copyright of digital music is currently facing the same problem. While paying attention to copyright, should we also think about how to operate these copyrights? Behind these large amounts of copyrights are a large number of new singers and new music waiting to be discovered.
Where is the way out for these new people and new products?
Perhaps it is precisely stimulated by this demand that a large number of new products have emerged in the field of online music.
In an interview with NetEase Technology, Xie Huan, vice president of Kugou Music, believes that these new products are a good supplement to traditional industry participants, such as the company's Fanxing.com. According to Xie Huan, Fanxing.com has accumulated 70 million registered users (40% of DAU comes from mobile phones), and the platform has 20,000 registered artists with an average monthly income of over 10,000 yuan, of which 1,200 are from various record companies or are musicians themselves. Compared with other online performing arts platforms that have been ruined, Fanxing relies on the music platforms of Kugou and Kuwo, and users choose it for the sake of music. For users, its interactivity and sense of participation are what the one-way online music of the past did not have.
Among the new models extended from online music, there is also Changba.
In an interview with NetEase Technology, Changba CEO Chen Hua expressed that although the atmosphere of online music commercialization is very strong, there are not many visible opportunities. However, this also leaves room for innovation. Currently, Changba, which focuses on mobile karaoke, has extended its own model, expanding its own KTV from online to offline. In addition, it has built an independent Changba performing arts community online - Changba Live Room. The two businesses have formed a good interactivity for the extension of the online music industry chain.
In Chen Hua's opinion, what Changba has done is at least the best commercialization attempt for the current Changba platform.
He took Changba's offline KTV as an example. Although the current revenue scale is not large, for a large number of online users, singing karaoke is a social behavior. The experience that cannot be satisfied online must be completed offline. From the perspective of the entire experience, this is a complete closed loop. For the online music market, Changba does not only provide a place to sing, but also provides a large number of songs with exposure opportunities. Changba also needs to pay corresponding fees, which provides good support for the entire industry ecosystem.
Industry insiders believe that the emergence of various online models is the result of changes in user behavior migration. In more senses, the era of relying on traditional methods to accumulate copyrights and music libraries is over.
The advent of fan economy
It has to be said that the rise of Xiaomi has taught a lesson about the "fan economy" to a large number of Chinese Internet companies, which is something that neither Weibo nor WeChat has: on online music and performing arts platforms, users are increasingly looking forward to participating in the performance process. Such opportunities will not be given to large-scale offline concerts, nor will performers be allowed to provide them. The burden can only fall on the interactive model of the Internet and mobile Internet.
At the same time, although the offline performance market is booming with the improvement of the consumption capacity of the middle class, there is also a cruel reality: the 2014-2015 China Live Music Industry Report released by the Daolue Music Industry Research Center shows that the box office of live music in 2014 was 3.9 billion, and large and medium-sized concerts accounted for 93% of the box office with 47% of the number of venues. There are only dozens of singers who are capable of holding large and medium-sized concerts, which has become a red ocean market for various performance companies to compete for; although the live house that can allow more singers to perform has grown rapidly, with 100 new performance venues, the overall box office scale is less than 50 million, and 90% of the venues have less than one performance per week. Xie Huan told NetEase Technology that large-scale concert live broadcasts are the same as the current performance industry, only focusing on the big singers at the top of the pyramid, and most other singers cannot benefit.
Therefore, the burden for online music platforms is not just to provide songs to users, but more importantly to have an important and positive impact on the entire industry.
For example, Kugou's development of Fanxing, Changba's live streaming, Xiami's support for the niche user market, and the recent "Music Wars" attempted by NetEase Cloud Music are all centered around fans. As fans gather, good business models have been derived, such as online ticket sales, listening, and purchase of virtual products, which can well supplement the platform's investment.
Although there is no difference in business, for paying users, the change from paying to listen to a song they like to actively buying tickets, giving flowers and other forms of support for their singers is undoubtedly a good embodiment of the fan economy, and it can also form a good interaction, which is a good attempt for online music. In addition, various companies are trying to make smart hardware, from headphones, speakers and other products, to please users.
An online music practitioner said that for the entire industry, it would be better to abandon the limited thinking about copyright procurement as soon as possible, engage in less verbal battles and do more practical work. "Everyone should be equal in front of music. You can enjoy listening to songs, you can actively like and reward your favorite singers, and you can also participate in it in your spare time. Why not?" The practitioner explained his point of view in this way.
This may be what platform companies need to do.
As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
