Spanish singer rosalia will perform for the first time in tiktok 14 songs of the new album | picture source: meiqu app store Recently, byte launched the music streaming app soda music in China, which is currently being tested in a small scale. In late February, byte's music open platform brand was also upgraded to "hot star river". Byte's two actions in China released a clear signal for the layout of the music industry. At the same time, byte also has actions in overseas markets. In March, soundon launched a music marketing and distribution platform overseas, further extending to the upstream of the music industry. This is also the "consistent action" taken by byte at home and abroad after raising the priority of music business. Today, when I opened the app store in meiqu, the first thing I saw was the latest cooperation between byte and Grammy winning singer rosalia. What's more interesting is that Amazon also made some moves in music in March, and even launched a music social product amp. Byte and Amazon (the third largest market share in the world) have made moves in music at the same time, which reflects several interesting small problems. For example, does the short video platform not only affect the distribution of domestic music, but also release magic abroad? From Joox music and wesing launched by Tencent to resso launched by byte, whose dream of music going to sea can be reflected into reality earlier? And how do giants such as Amazon view the changes in the music industry and byte's competitiveness in the music industry? Byte works at home and abroad at the same time Let's briefly talk about the trend of bytes. Byte launched soda music in February. Because it still needs an invitation code for internal testing, we can only get a glimpse of its products from the introduction page of the app store. From the perspective of several key words disclosed, it can be generally recognized that soda music and resso, which went online as early as two years ago, follow the logic of short video platform and mainly make personalized recommendations. In addition to tiktok, synchronous jitter is an important function. Source: Huawei app Gallery The hot star river, the music open platform upgraded in 2022, mainly provides two services: music promotion and matching of lyrics and songs. The former is similar to the "Music Advertising variant", which allows musicians to promote music as advertisers, while the latter connects the original lyrics and music KOL and brings the song to fire through KOL's interpretation. It is not clear whether the platform side will charge from it. Background page of "music promotion" service | picture source: guangming.com Overseas, correspondingly, resso was launched as early as 2020, while soundon, which was launched in March, assumed the role of a hot star. However, it is estimated that it is due to the difference between the development stage of the platform and the overseas music industry. Soundon is relatively clear that the promotion at this stage is free for musicians, and the platform is obviously trading its marketing ability for copyright fees, It is unclear whether the KOL end that uses music to create content will be subsidized. Soundon official website Soundon, which doesn't make money, and Amazon, which does social networking Overseas, soundon, like domestic music distribution, carries the "tool attribute" function and allows music creators to upload their music directly to tiktok and byte music streaming platform resso, which does not conflict with other platforms, that is, music creators can hand over their music to Apple Music, spotify, Pandora, etc. In terms of charging mode, soundon's current music distribution is a "sub system". In the byte system, 100% of the copyright royalties generated by the creators uploading music will be given to the creators. Accordingly, the platforms under byte can use music copyright indefinitely. Now, it will be used on three platforms, tiktok, resso in Brazil, Indonesia and India, and cut and reflect overseas versions. Outside the system, the creator takes 100% of the royalty in the first year, which has changed to 90% from the second year. Soundon charges an administrative fee similar to 10%. This is similar to the global music distribution model. For example, distrokid charges according to the form of subscription, and the management fee is charged according to the musician / record. For example, a musician charges $19.99 per year, but the musician can also get all the income. Tunecore charges according to songs or albums, which is similar. The marketing support on tiktok, including exposure location and KOL joint marketing, is completely free according to the information on soundon's official website. Overseas, byte's fight for independent musicians is more urgent. Source: soundon official website For byte incoming music distribution, we can see that first, we need to do everything to save copyright costs through distribution business, but it is obviously better to save costs. Increasing revenue and reducing expenditure has obviously become the top priority of major enterprises in 2022. Second, in fact, I also want to have a closer connection with musicians to balance the relationship between all parties in the music industry. For byte, independent musicians naturally want to strive for the growth of the global music streaming media market. Independent musicians are the main driving force, but the three major records are still important basic discs. In February 2021, tiktok reached a long-term agreement with Sony Music. In 2020, tiktok reached a long-term cooperation with universal and Warner, and even Merlin, which has a large number of independent musicians, which solved a very important problem of byte's global expansion. Tiktok's strength as a music publicity machine has been recognized by record companies, which is the cornerstone of tiktok's smooth cooperation with it. The popularity of music on tiktok depends not only on the platform originated from lip synching video, but also on tiktok's "broker operation" (interested readers can read the previous article "how does tiktok make hot money?"). But after independent musicians are brought on fire, they are usually absorbed by major record companies. For example, after the fire of "Old Town Road" on tiktok last year, Sony's Columbia record signed lil. If tiktok continues to send music talents to the three major records, the balance will tilt again later. For incoming distribution, at least byte can have a real cooperative relationship with independent musicians, or independent musicians who are likely to explode, rather than a simple relationship between "advertisers and marketing platform". Musicians will rely more on tiktok's fan portraits and data. Although it is difficult to solve the core problems, it can become a temporary buffer. In the future, if resso can further help musicians realize, tiktok's cycle will be healthier. Among the three main markets, resso ranked first Brazil annual download TOP10 | image source: data ai Therefore, even if the streaming media business is still mainly in three emerging markets, tiktok has a global impact. Amazon, which does copyright purchase + streaming media distribution, also began to have a "stress response". In March, Amazon tested the music social product AMP in the United States. From the introduction video of AMP, there are two ways to describe this product. You can say that it is a clubhouse that can play music in various backgrounds. You can also say that it is a community that makes content through track in the early days of tiktok, but the content is not recorded video, but real-time audio. But whatever it is, Amazon clearly believes that concerts help such a community product. Conversely, from the perspective of amp's early operation, it invited a large number of musicians to do programs, which has the nature of broadcasting. The direction of efforts shows that Amazon hopes to first build amp into a channel for musicians to communicate with the fan community and expand their influence, so as to strengthen the stickiness between Amazon and musicians. The goal is the same as tiktok, but the efficiency will be much lower. From Amazon's perspective, the essence of Internet products is to win users' time. Tiktok will affect not only video but also audio market. Under the influence of TEKK's strategy of building a giant, it will also be influenced by TEKK's strategy. epilogue In 2019, when I wrote the article "why did Tencent and headlines catch up with music apps overseas when national karaoke entered the top 10 of the Philippine download list", Tencent and byte jumped, one extending downward from the upstream of the industrial chain and the other vice versa; One holds a large number of copyrights, and the copyright agreement with the three major record companies is still under negotiation; One focuses on Southeast Asia and the other on the Indian market; There is a precedent for one realization and great uncertainty for another. In contrast, the music road of byte is much bumpy. But three years later, bytes that have experienced various crises have changed their positions. Compared with Joox music, which is still "staying in Southeast Asia", resso may be to undertake traffic in the future. It will not only launch more aggressively in 2021, but also enter more markets. On October 26 last year, resso updated its version on Google play, and the market involved has changed from only Brazil, India and Indonesia to dozens, but it has not been vigorously launched yet. Data source: app growing global Source: beluga whale Institute Joox, boomlay and resso are the main distribution markets of Android Wesing's revenue from the Middle East market is also stable No. 8 in non Game App revenue list | image source: data ai Tencent has put more resources on the karaoke app, which has a more direct commercialization path. But for a company like Tencent, what is needed is not such a story. How to link products and form a smoother chain has become a difficult problem that must be solved. Previously, when communicating with Starmaker CEO Xia fan, we found that karaoke products have also established a division of labor structure similar to the virtual brand internally, and incubated stars. But it faces the same problem of inefficiency as Amazon. But in any case, Tencent music ranks fourth in the global market share, and byte is still in the "other" section. I don't know if there will be any changes in another three years. Source: midia research Q2 global music streaming subscription market share in 2021 (Xinhua News Agency)