We’ve reported this month on a Chinese regulatory crackdown on Tencent Music, which though milder than expected, is still forcing the company to unwind any remaining exclusivity deals with global labels. Could the knock-on effects include re-stimulating competition in the Chinese music streaming market?
The South China Morning Post suggests that it might, based on some recent trademark filings by tech firm Alibaba, owner of the recently-closed service Xiami Music. “Alibaba Singapore Holding has filed dozens of applications beginning in June for Xiami Music and Entertainment in various categories, including concert production, ticketing and music publishing,” it reported yesterday.
None of which, you may have noticed, are music streaming. So, this may be about Xiami Music being reinvented as another kind of music business that sits alongside the big DSPs owned by Tencent Music and NetEase. Alibaba bought a stake in NetEase Cloud Music in 2019, so an ancillary strategy might fit with that.
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