This very interesting post was pitched from our friends from Hong Kong: Metal Postcard Records
Three Trends They Say…
I. Draconian oversight permeated the music business
What happened: Alternative music became political without any politics.
Image courtesy of http://www.chinamusicradar.com/
II. The Rise of the Labels
There were the big ones: Douban’s D-Force, Xiami, Vice. There were the tastemakers: Fake Music in Beijing, Groove Bunny Records in Jinhua, Subkvlt in Shanghai. And there were the many, many niche operations all over the country.
Labels dominated the alternative music landscape this year, propelling some acts (Modern Sky’s heavy hitters prominent among them) into what you might call the upper-tier of indie fame. To be fair, this is still a tiny slice of the pie, but 2015 saw the consolidation of this indie upper crust, driven by labels.
III. A Looming Music Bubble?
If there’s one thing 2015 made clear, there’s a lot of money swimming around in music in China.
What happened:
- Big money is pouring in from the tech giants. Apple Music enters the China market. Tencent signs deals with the majors, and the establishment of Alibaba Music leads to a veritable ‘copyright war’, with suits and countersuits sprouting up everywhere. Yinyuetai inks a deal with Billboard to establish the definitive Chinese charts, and LeTV is selling cheap high-definition TVs with music content plans bundled.
