Music Ally has been writing about the digital-music market in China for more than a decade, tracing its development from an almost-entirely unlicensed territory through to today, when China is the seventh biggest recorded-music market in the world, with hundreds of millions of people using streaming services from companies like Tencent Music and NetEase.
In recent years, our coverage has ranged from conference keynotes by Tencent’s Andy Ng and NetEase’s Mathew Daniel; to our analysis of Tencent Music’s business as the company went public; via expert insights from Outdustry and the IFPI on China’s growth; western independent label Beggars Group explaining how it built a thriving business there; the emergence of Bytedance (and TikTok) as a social-app giant; and China’s new-found status as the biggest single market for smart-speaker sales, to cite just a few examples.
Suffice to say, we’re fascinated by how China’s music market is developing, and what that means for artists and labels within China, and those elsewhere in the world who are keen to do more business there. Now we’re making what we think is an exciting move to improve that coverage: this month, we are teaming up with Chinese music-services company Kanjian Music to launch Music Ally China, headquartered in Shanghai.
It’s not just an exciting new territory for Music Ally: it’s an exciting new way of publishing for us. Music Ally China will publish in Chinese on the WeChat and Weibo social platforms: a mixture of regular news, plus strategy and advice for Chinese artists and companies looking to do business globally.
We’ll also be helping western and Japanese music companies to connect with audiences in China, including bringing our international readers more editorial coverage of industry news, technology innovation and artist-marketing strategies in China.
This is actually our second international expansion of 2019, following our launch of Music Ally Japan in January, with our office in Tokyo now providing weekly news and analysis in Japanese to hundreds of industry subscribers there – plus providing our marketing and training services to help Japanese music companies grow internationally.
“With China’s market maturing every day, this partnership brings to the table business intelligence and practical know-how on a truly global scale,” says Kanjian Music CEO Shen Jia. “We believe that Music Ally China will make it easier than ever to understand better what’s happening on either side of the Great Wall, giving artists, labels and managers alike the freedom to collaborate and reach brand new audiences.”
Music Ally CEO Paul Brindley is equally enthusiastic about the potential in. “This new venture couldn’t come at a better time as China continues to emerge as one of the world’s most important new music markets,” he says. “As with the launch of Music Ally Japan, we feel that an increased understanding of large global markets is essential for the health of the overall industry; and building connections between those markets is driven by that understanding.”
The Music Ally China website is live now, with the necessary codes to find our content on WeChat and Weibo. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to this partnership helping us to write about China for our international readers even more insightfully: watch this space!
The full press release follows:
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MUSIC ALLY CHINA LAUNCHES THIS MONTH
Supported by local partner Kanjian Music, new venture aims to become a knowledge and skills hub for the Chinese and international music business
London, Shanghai – 7pm Monday June 24th: Music Ally (www.musically.com), a leading provider of knowledge, skills and services to the global music business, is teaming up with Kanjian Music (en.kanjian.com), a leading Chinese music services company, to launch Music Ally China. This new venture will bridge the gap between the rapidly-expanding and commercially-unique Chinese music business and the western and Japanese music industries.
Music Ally China will publish in Chinese on the huge platforms WeChat and Weibo, posting regular news as well as strategy and advice for Chinese artists and companies looking to do business on a global basis. The new venture will also help western and Japanese music companies find and connect with audiences in China.
Music Ally China will be headquartered in Shanghai and is supported by local partner Kanjian Music. The fast-evolving Chinese industry will benefit from an increased understanding of how to reach, engage with, and build businesses on western music platforms. Meanwhile, the local knowledge base will enable Music Ally’s international subscribers and customers to gain exclusive insights into how to understand and do business in the world’s largest high-growth market.
The agreement marks the second stage of Music Ally’s international expansion, following the launch of Music Ally Japan in January 2019. Headquartered in Tokyo, it now provides regular news and analysis of the modern music business to hundreds of industry subscribers, as well as marketing and training services to help Japanese music companies grow internationally. With China a key export market for the Japanese music industry, and with Kanjian Music opening an office in Tokyo as well, the launch of Music Ally China will provide subscribers in Japan with even more industry leading insights.
“We are delighted to be launching Music Ally China. This new venture couldn’t come at a better time as China continues to emerge as one of the world’s most important new music markets. Together with our launch partners Kanjian Music we hope to bring knowledge and value to the local market and increase the connections with the global music business,” said Music Ally’s CEO and co-founder Paul Brindley. “As with the launch of Music Ally Japan, we feel that an increased understanding of large global markets is essential for the health of the overall industry; and building connections between those markets is driven by that understanding. Music Ally aims to become a worldwide knowledge hub, helping to develop skills and build the networks that are essential for the modern music business to thrive.”
“People across the industry have long embraced the knowledge and skills that Music Ally advance to empower the way they make music and develop careers today. With China’s market maturing every day, this partnership brings to the table business intelligence and practical know-how on a truly global scale.” Kanjian Music CEO Shen Jia said. “Together, Music Ally and Kanjian Music will provide our shared partners and customers with insights that put them at the heart of the ‘new music industry world’. Our partnership with Music Ally is a strong support to our business and we believe that Music Ally China will make it easier than ever to understand better what’s happening on either side of the Great Wall, giving artists, labels and managers alike the freedom to collaborate and reach brand new audiences.”
You can find Music Ally China at www.musically.com/cnMusic Ally Japan at www.musically.jp
Kanjian Japan at https://jp.kanjian.com/
About Music Ally
Music Ally launched in 2002 with a mission to help the global music industry to thrive from digital disruption rather than fear it; publishing news and insight with a focus on the way that technology was driving change.
There is now a new breed of empowered artists, labels and managers, building sustainable careers in a fairer system, for whom Music Ally provides more hands-on marketing services.
Music Ally also brings its editorial insights and practical experience to bear in training content, focusing particularly on smarter music marketing, which is used by professionals around the world.
Music Ally also plays a role connecting different communities by organising regular conferences, including NY:LON Connect and Sandbox Summitin London and New York, and social events. Partners include Music Biz, by:Larm, AWAL, Midem and Circulart.
Music Ally clients are across the music and technology sectors, and include all of the major labels, many independents, music publishers, management companies and music platforms like Spotify, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
About Kanjian Music
Kanjian Music started in 2012 aiming to enable more artists to create music and more fans to discover it, leveraging technology to bring them together to the largest consumer market in the world – Asia.
A new, optimistic generation is coming of age in China now: one born in a fully modern, fully digitized country, comfortable with the consumerism of the global middle class – one that Kanjian Music understands and is truly a part of.
Kanjian Music works with a wide range of copyright holders to help them enter the market and develop a sustainable business model, providing comprehensive rights management tools and reports as well as dedicated business and promotional strategies.
Kanjian Music also connects its clients with China’s tech, film/TV, fashion and social media business worlds, creating new revenue streams and marketing opportunities. Partners include Huawei, Xiaomi, WPS, Taobao, China Mobile, YSL, Tencent Pictures, WasuTV, Toutiao, VUE and Douyin/TikTok.
Kanjian Music has already helped more than 7,000 labels and 200,000 artists to reach more than 1 billion online listeners worldwide, including China.
Further information
For more information please contact Sam Shemtob (sam@namepr.co.uk)
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Lead photo by Adi Constantin on Unsplash
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