Tencent banks on original music to become China’s Spotify

The internet giant’s music arm is launching a campaign to solicit grassroots original music composers and musicians onto its online platforms

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Tencent Holdings’ music arm is banking on original music composers and musicians to help it become the Spotify of China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:45pm, 24 Jul 2017Updated: 11:26pm, 24 Jul 2017

The music arm of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings is betting big on original music composers and musicians to expand its content offerings to become the Spotify in China, a market historically hindered by piracy.

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) vowed to “support the building of a new original music ecosystem regardless of the cost” in a campaign launched on Monday that is designed to help the company attract more grassroots music composers and musicians onto its platforms.

Like Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming provider that is preparing for a listing this year, TME has been investing in striking deals with content owners and musicians to draw more listeners and subscribers.

In May, TME announced an expansion of its music-streaming business with a licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. The deal makes it the main distributor in China for Universal records and artists.

Spotify is planning to go public this year. Photo: Shutterstock

Called the Tencent Musicians Plan, TME said the new campaign aimed to help original music composers and musicians in China obtain the respect and monetary returns that they deserve.

“Our goal is to ensure that original music composers and musicians on our platforms would have earned a total income of 500 million yuan (US$74 million) in three years,” said Cussion Pang, chief executive officer of TME, without disclosing any investment numbers.