WMG Streaming In China - Pollstar News

Warner Music Group announced Nov. 13 it is teaming up with Chinese Internet company Tencent to distribute Warner’s repertoire to Chinese digital music services and promoting its artists across Tencent’s digital and social platforms, including local streaming service QQ Music.

Warner also acquired Gold Typhoon Group, a huge Chinese entertainment company that features a catalogue of 600,000 songs by Asian acts, though it also holds the rights to a number of Western acts.

Tencent’s main business, according to the Wall Street Journal, is online games and social networks. The company boasts 468 million monthly users of its WeChat smartphone messaging application. Warner’s advantage in the endeavor is greater exposure on Tencent’s streaming services through special promotional campaigns, including concert ticketing services when Warner artists tour China. In addition, Tencent owns a 15 percent stake in JD.com, China’s second-biggest web shopping mall, which is expected to prioritize digital music, T-shirts and other items sold by Warner.

Tencent already distributes Warner’s music online, but according to Stu Bergen, head of international operations for Warner’s recorded music division, the relationship will become “much deeper.” With these two deals, Warner now moves ahead of its bigger competitors, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, in making deals to expand online distribution in Asia, which is still a problematic market owing to widespread piracy.

The deals, however, may shut Warner off from other, larger players in the Chinese market, like Alibaba Group Holdings, the biggest e-commerce company in the world, and search provider Baidu. The former is Tencent’s biggest competitor while the latter is QQ Music’s main rival.

Daily Pulse