Category Archives: International Music

Business Analysis, International Music, Music Industry

Apple Music in China Part 2

Copyright, Legality, and a little bit more Pricing

For those of you who don’t know, China actually has copyright law, by large similar to the US one.  However, the enforcement of copyright law has been a problem for years. Ever since 1979 China opened its door to welcome western trade and culture, major amount of music, TV shows, movies, entertainment programs, etc, has been made available. The popular mean to consume these copyright protected content is through torrent and “safe-harbor” sites. Good news is that, the Chinese government has been working on this issue for quite a while. According to China’s Legal Daily website, in the past ten years, 1,926 copyright-infringed sites were closed, and 4,241 copyright infringement cases were processed. There is definitely progress,

Because of the enforcement problem, the majority of population has not yet fully adapt to the idea of “paying for intellectual properties,” which is, in fact, also a new idea in western countries. The smart strategy about Apple Music is that, the extremely low price of 10 Yuan (approx. USD $1.52) can create an illusion of paying for only “the service,” instead of “the copyright content.” Now, it’s hard to judge so quickly whether or not the dirt cheap price is ethical, since it seems, at least right now, that this cheap price is the only bet for not just Apple, but also perhaps any streaming service to gain market share in China. Long before this Apple Music conversation, I had the fortune to use a Chinese streaming site, Xiami (虾米), for a while. Owned by Alibaba, Xiami is arguably the largest streaming site in China right now. However, it also faces lots of legal issues since the site charges so less, essentially 10-15 Yuan per month (depending on whether you buy an entire year worth of membership at once or not). It also has a free tier with limitations, just like Spotify does. I have noticed that there is a lot of content, mostly foreign, made unavailable on Xiami, possibly because of copyright issues. What’s relevant and intersting is that Apple’s price in China matches Xiami’s, which makes Apple so competitive since it has a much larger selection and of course less copyright issues because it can afford paying royalties. Worst thing comes worst, it can pay its way out. Voila!

The sense of not paying for intellectual properties is so deeply rooted in China for many generations, so much so that it makes it extremely hard for intellectual content, by itself, to generate revenue there. While the situation my be severe in China, I really believe even in the U.S. or Europe, this phenomenon still exists. The reason behind this current phenomenon has two main factors: lack of education about intellectual content and the traditional perspective of valuing only tangible properties. In day to day life, people still value houses, gold, stocks and bonds… pretty much anything that can turn into cash relatively quickly. Very few sees the value of creativity, art, vision, intelligence, aka “the things that are necessary for human society and growth but no one realizes we need it until it’s gone.” Well, if we don’t appreciate, if we keep refusing to pay, they will be gone, very soon.

 

Legal Daily on Copyright Enforcement (Chinese) http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/index_article/content/2014-10/26/content_5814731.htm?node=5955

Pricing for Xiami (Chinese)                                     http://www.xiami.com/vip

Business Analysis, International Music, Music Industry

Apple Music in China Part 1

I want to write a series of blogs about Apple Music’s ambitious China launch because it is exceptionally interesting to me. This blog post has some of my initial thoughts, just barely scratching the surface. I’ll come back with more observation and thoughts quite soon. Stay tuned! 🙂

Finance and Strategy (ish)

Apple Music, the most trendy type of service provided by the biggest company on Planet Earth, is coming to the country with the largest population. Isn’t that intriguing?

I just got the news a few days ago on Chinese website, Sina. Apple Music is launching in China, at last, after all the epic fail(s) of pretty much every other streaming music service providers out there. Oh boy, Apple certainly dreams big. Not only that the enforcement of Chinese copyright law is a complete disaster, but also because there are already lots of options for streaming music out there in that land, legal or not. Spotify hasn’t been able to launch in China for years! Have you ever wondered why?

Now, what’s interesting about Apple’s case is that, while Spotify, as a company, struggle to break even, Apple has got tons of cash sitting there doing virtually nothing. Compared to Apple’s value sets that they always talk about (the innovation, radical thinking, and unconventional approach, blah blah blah. You get it), when it comes to finance, it seems that Apple is actually quite conservative. But really now I see why they need the cash for – to fund the project they know that they won’t make any profit.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.The subscription fee for Apple Music in the United States is $9.99 per month, in the United Kingdom is £9.99 ($15.16), in the Euro Zone countries is €9.99 ($11.20)… And guess what they set the price for China? CN¥9.99. What’s that in USD terms? $1.57. One dollar and fifty-seven cents, respectively, for monthly subscription. In my own experience living in China, 9.99 is not even enough for a decent lunch in the city. Now, I guess the first-world folks are all super mad at us.

Great news for the Chinese folks, bad news for Apple. At the end of the day, a dollar and fifty-seven cents per month is never really a business, especially when you are obligated to pay huge amount of royalties, and by that I mean, some serious cash, to songwriters and right holders every quarter. Even if you have a huge user base, like Spotify does, I’m really scratching my head to see how Apple can make Apple Music a profitable business. The only way I can think of is that, maybe those Cupertino folks never expect it to be profitable! One thing for sure, though, is that Apple is DESPERATE to get some good o’ market share for its music service. I mean, let’s be real, Beats Music was a joke after all, and sure everyone at that company was terribly embarrassed. But this time, the game has changed:

1) Apple Music pretty much carries the same kind of variety as iTunes Store, which is insanely attractive.

2) The price is so low to the point that almost everybody in China is able to afford it. There IS value attached to the exceptionally low price, aka major potential gain of market share, and sure this price is well matched to the average earning v.s. purchasing power of the currency in China (won’t even mention the crazy inflation out there).

3) And with the gigantic population count, if everything goes smoothly, Apple can soon become the largest streaming music service on Earth!

But how’s that gonna continue working if you don’t make a profit? Ah ha! That’s when the $203 billion cash on hand becomes handy. If anything happens, Apple can always pay. This is why all the other services failed. They are simply not able to feed themselves with such awfully thin profit margin, not to mention matching people’s different purchasing powers in other territories. I mean, Spotify struggles even when it charges $9.99, which is a price that people in other parts of the world may not even be willing to paid for. Apple, on the other hand, has the financial foundation to fund whatever business and do whatever they want, even if it is, virtually, throwing dollars into the Pacific Ocean.

 

Sina Tech on Apple Music’s China Launching http://tech.sina.com.cn/mobile/n/n/2015-09-30/doc-ifxifmki9632675.shtml

CNN on Apple Music’s China Launching http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/30/technology/apple-music-china

CNN on Apple’s cash on hand http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/22/investing/apple-stock-cash-earnings/

International Music, Music Industry

Fun Facts

Some fun facts about copyright popped up in my discussion with colleagues and friends today. It may be useful for you to know.

1. PROs in almost every other territory collect performance royalties from movie theaters, while the ones in the U.S don’t.

Yup. It’s pretty hard to believe. While movie business is lucrative in this country, maybe more so in recent years, it’s probably not so great for the composers. Out of every dollar collected from the box office in the entire country, as a composer, the PROs collect zero for you. Maybe it’s time to pursue another career…?

You would think that ASCAP, BMI & SESAC are the “better” ones compare to the ones out there in rest of the world and make sure everyone gets all their money. At the end of the day, the U.S. has one of the biggest music markets in the entire freaking world! Surprise, surprise. It’s not easy to make a living as a composer in this country, even when you are a successful one, if you rely solely on collecting royalties to put food on the table. Good news is , if the movie that uses your tracks got played in oversea territories, PROs in the U.S. WILL collect the money from foreign PROs and send it to you. Well, this process may take a while… To be precise, according to BMI, the money will be sent out 1-2 years after the performance occur. But money is money, right?

On the other hand, if you compose music for TV shows, or if the movies that use your tracks play on TV stations,  that usage IS under the jurisdiction of ASCAP, BMI & SESAC. So if you can get into that game, your life may be just a little bit easier.

 

2. Global content licensing?

Specifically, this is about Netflix. Ever wonder why you can’t watch Netflix when you go overseas? It’s because Netflix does not obtain the rights to provide streaming service for their content in every territory. Not yet.

However, Netflix is trying to reach global content licenses with the major production companies. In plain English, this means to pay a fixed license fee, obtain the right to play the content across the globe, and never worry about paying royalties. In this case, Netflix would have foreseeable and controllable costs. OK, from a corporate strategy point of view, it makes a lot of sense. In the wonderland of copyright? Not so much.

Because copyright law works on a territorial basis, it is hard to even think about the possibility of global content licensing. In some countries, the PROs are very involved in collecting money from every kind of public performance, so that they would simply not acknowledge the license and still demand royalties from Netflix. Well, that would destroy the whole purpose of global content licensing. In some countries, it may be even illegal.

In fact, we humans do not agree on a lot of things. There were disastrous wars caused by disagreement. It could be potentially dangerous. You just never know.

It seems like Netflix still have a long way to go before it reaches the 200 countries goal. It almost sounds like working for world peace.

 

 

 

What is Performing Right Royalties? (and what it means to you, if you create film music)  http://www.filmmusicmag.com/kb/questions/37/What+are+performing+rights+royalties%3F

ASCAP’s International Payment System http://www.ascap.com/members/payment/international.aspx

BMI International FAQs                     http://www.bmi.com/faq/category/international

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Talks Global Licensing (and other stuff) http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-netflixs-ted-sarandos-talks-global-licensing-sports-market-and-china-20150513-story.html#page=1

Netflix Wants the World http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/netflix-wants-the-world-can-it-really-expand-to-200-countries-in-2-years-1201411740/

International Music, Music Industry

BIGBANG & K-Pop

I’m not even gonna lie, at this moment, BIGBANG is K-Pop.

In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know who BIGBANG is, they are the most popular boy band in South Korea, and they have been for a good while. Fun fact, they are from YG Entertainment, the same company which PSY is coming from. Yup, you know who I’m talking about. That PSY.

I’ve been a fan of K-Pop since when I was a teenager, even though I diverged a little to Western music when I first came to America for high school. I mean, the Koreans have been always big in China, but I only have followed a selected few. I’ve known BIGBANG for a while, but I’ve only started to follow them for a bit over a year.

The reason why I write about BIGBANG right now is because they’re back after about 3 years of hiatus. They are releasing a full album soon. But just yesterday, they released two singles, and I listened to both of them today. The two songs are “Loser” and “Bae Bae.” Now, when I say they are the most popular boy band in South Korea, you may wonder, how popular? Last time I checked, the Youtube views of music videos on their channel are pretty impressive: one is about 4.2 million, another has even passed 5.9 million. They are #37 on US iTunes chart, right behind Taylor Swift’s “Style.” And let’s not forget that it’s been like what, one day. Hm, maybe it’s a good sign for people to stop overlooking Asian markets. Music wise, I think “Loser” is pretty much BIGBANG’s distinctive style, and it tells a very heartfelt story about feeling lost. The feeling of not belonging and not being understood is so personal yet universal.

That’s one thing I find BIGBANG different from hundreds of other Korean boy bands and girl bands out there. Yes, they are very much produced and packaged in a certain way, but somehow, their music manages to tell very real and heartfelt stories, sonically and lyrically. As much as I love K-Pop and my very own Asian culture, the common practice of putting artists in an unrealistically high place for people to worship, that they are called idols is just frustrating. They are human beings. We all know that. They have emotions, frustrations, troubles; their world isn’t glorious or perfect. They have feelings of love, lost, lust, guilt, anger, regret… just about everything everyone else has. I’m really grateful that someone like BIGBANG step down from “I’m up high in the cloud and all you can do is to look up to me” to a place that we can all relate to. And it isn’t even about singing heartbreaking songs that just crying “oh baby you are my one and only love and you leave me heartbroken.” It’s fine to sing about heartbreaks, but not all in the same way. No two heart break alike, right? More importantly, c’mon, we all get sick of the same story over time, especially when they sound made-up. Music is a form of communication. It’s about being real and tell the truth, because truth, and only truth can connect people with the art.

Ok, take it to my favorite, “Bae Bae.” Honestly, it’s such a weird song. Yes, the lyrics is about impressing a lover, a girlfriend, someone special. Musically, it’s so BIGBANG, yet so not… It sounds like they put pieces together from their solo work and somehow made it work (?) The music takes so many different turns, so much so that when I first finished the song, I was like “WTF? I gotta listen to it again!” It’s really hard to describe with words. But in all seriousness, if you’re a fan of BIGBANG, you gotta be kind of… weird. Because they are weird. Well, I guess that’s good because in the end, everyone is a little weird.

“Bae Bae” definitely doesn’t sound like any K-Pop song you’ll come across everyday. Even it’s so weird and random, some pieces of it are really coming out of nowhere, it does sound honest and fun, which is quite rare in K-Pop. I mean, Korean music industry is probably more developed than everyone thinks, and K-Pop songs are products of detailed planning and manufacturing. No offense, the common trend I find is that K-Pop artists seem to all adopt the same kind of boy band or girl band style. They not only look similar in terms of dressing styles, but also sound similar too! I swear, even after listening to K-Pop music for this long, I still mess bands up all the time. Another trend I notice is that K-Pop songs are either copying the hottest Billboard songs or each other, which I don’t know how far that will go in the long run. I quite understand K-Pop artists’ desire to break into Western markets, and some of them have tried over the years; but still, we’ve really only got PSY, who was not even intended to be that way. In my humble opinion, “Gangnam Style” doesn’t sound like any ordinary K-Pop song you come across or any Billboard song you would expect on the radio. PSY simply did what he liked. Maybe that says something?

Well, if you make it to here, I can tell you one thing for sure: after this, I feel so motivated to catch up on my Korean lessons.

 

BIGBANG – Loser                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CTced9CMMk

BIGBANG – Bae Bae                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKD03uPVD-Q

International Music, Just Music, Music Industry

Eddie. Eddie. Eddie.

Eddie Beatz, aka Eddie Chen. Not my brother, in case you wonder.

You may not have heard of him, not yet. He’s one of the most talented independent musicians I’ve met. He’s young and energetic. His understanding of music is mind-blowing. He always thinks outside of the box. More importantly, he’s my friend, my homie.

I’m not exactly a fan of electronic music, especially when I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift all these years (haha!). But ever since I’ve heard Eddie’s music, it’s really hard to resist it. Eddie always has got this super fresh vibe and just the right amount of boom boom kicks to keep you grooving. The texture is so thick yet so fresh. The right timing of drops keeps your ears excited, and the layers of different sounds are planned in such a detailed way. When you hear it, you know everything happens for a reason. Then you want to listen again. It’s truly a work of art. Here’s a classic example.

“Eight Zero Eight”

 

If you think that’s all Eddie can do, you would be so wrong. Some of his songs are melodically dramatic and simply, romantic. Eddie loves blending the vintage stuff with futuristic sound, one of the most compelling reasons why I’m into his music. When the music goes on, you feel like you’re floating in the air. When you close your eyes and imagine, you almost can see yourself in a dream from the 1980s, swirling on the dance floor of 2050s.

“Pieces of Memory”

 

His personal favorite is this one called “Curing Method.” More experimental than most of his other stuff. It’s like a poetry which blends time together. Or rather, it’s time traveling with the sound of music. It’s quite magical.

Funny enough, he calls himself “Space Man,” and isn’t there a recent movie, in which time traveling is one of those things they do with the space women and men?

“Curing Method”

 

My personal favorite from Eddie’s SoundCloud page is this track named “All-night Spirits.” Maybe the translation isn’t exact for this one, because there is no corresponding English word to express the true meaning of Chinese Spirits. This one reminds me of home and childhood. It reminds me of the traditional Chinese house I used to live in when I was a child. The night, clear dark blue sky, moonlight falls down on the courtyard. Wind blows by, gently brushing through my hair. All I can see is the memory of a long gone era. All I can hear is this music playing in my head.

“All-night Spirits”

 

You’ll be doing yourself a favor by checking out Eddie’s music. People who know me know that I’m quite picky about music, but I can see him becoming great with this amazing talent. Eddie is very active on Douban, a Chinese user-based website. But he’s also on SoundCloud with a selected few tracks.

 

Eddie’s SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/eddie-beatz      Douban Site: http://site.douban.com/eddie/                                            Weibo (Chinese Twitter): http://weibo.com/eddiebeatz