Tencent Music Entertainment Group Releases Year-End Report for China Digital Music Industry in 2021

SHENZHEN, China, May 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Music Entertainment Group ("TME," or the "Company") (NYSE: TME), the leading online music and audio entertainment platform in China, released a year-end report for the China digital music industry in 2021. Developed by the TME Research Institute, the report describes the Chinese music landscape in 2021 and highlights key developments using TME's industry-leading insights and data analysis capabilities.

Download Link: https://yobang.tencentmusic.com/pdf/DigitalMusic2021.pdf 

The report is composed of three sections that provide a complete overview of the music industry from different perspectives. The first section describes a new evaluation methodology that uses five parameters to analyze the music industry: industry productivity; new content consumption; leading artists and songs variability; ecosystem diversity; and content crossover capacity. The second section discusses four industry trends in 2021, while the third section supplies a review of the year's top songs and artists.

A vital industry with booming scale and increasing variability

Productivity, which is a core evaluation index, reflects the industry's vitality. In 2021, China's music productivity set a new record in terms of scale and speed. According to the report, the number of new songs in 2021 reached over 1.14 million, representing year-over-year growth of 53.1%. Moreover, newly-launched music attracted more user attention, with listening growth of 9.3% and listening share expansion to 24.3%. The number of new musicians rose 41.2%, indicating a trend that indie musicians can increasingly create and distribute original music works of their own. More than 100 musicians achieved at least 500 million annual streams, reflecting the increasing variability of the industry, which brought vast opportunities to more musicians and contributed to the long-term vitality of the industry's development.

In addition, genre diversity was greatly enhanced in 2021. In terms of rap, R&B, electronic music, rock, and folk music, the number of songs that received more than one million streams increased by 4.5%, with prominent growth in the rap and electronic genres. Chinese traditional cultural music and global pop music also enjoyed a recognizable increase in popularity, with the listening volume of the former rising 26.2% compared to that of 2020.

Crossover with other content forms also led to improvements in the music industry's vitality. Apart from movies and comics, music crossover penetrated into business marketing, recording 206 commercial songs with brand cooperation agreements by TME in 2021, with average annual listening volume of over 6.82 million.

Improving music quality, and providing superior user experiences

The report provided observations and analysis of widely-discussed topics in the industry, and shed light on the future outlook, serving as an insightful reference for music professionals. The report pointed out that the development of the Internet has lowered the requirements to enter the industry, as musicians have more opportunities to create and distribute music. With this change, music platforms need to integrate resources and data to support music creation and musician cultivation. As of July 2021, the number of musicians who had earned an average monthly income of more than RMB10,000 on the Tencent Musician Platform increased eight times compared to the same period in 2020. 

Facing unprecedented growth in music creation, the industry started to consider how to build up a high-quality music ecosystem. The report indicated that music labels should shift their focus from quantity to quality in music creation, while music platforms should introduce advanced technologies for content distribution and user recommendation. Through such efforts to seek strategies that benefit the ecosystem, the industry will achieve healthy and sustainable development.

With this attitude of embracing more cutting-edge concepts, the music industry also tapped into the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT) in 2021. TME pioneered NFT initiatives by introducing NFT vinyl records, 3D digital collectible figures and others, providing new ways for interaction between musicians and fans.

TME is dedicated to providing leading insights and advisory to China's music industry. By driving innovations in products and services, TME will continue to empower musicians, enrich user experience and fulfill social responsibilities. TME is committed to using technology to elevate the role of music in people's lives, to promoting the healthy development of China's music industry, and to optimizing the music ecosystem.

About Tencent Music Entertainment Group

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE: TME) is the leading online music and audio entertainment platform in China, operating the country's highly popular and innovative music apps: QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing. TME's mission is to use technology to elevate the role of music in people's lives by enabling them to create, enjoy, share and interact with music. TME's platform comprises online music, online audio, online karaoke, music-centric live streaming and online concert services, enabling music fans to discover, listen, sing, watch, perform and socialize around music. For more information, please visit ir.tencentmusic.com.

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SOURCE Tencent Music Entertainment Group