NetEase Cloud Music inks strategic deal with China’s RYCE Entertainment – including a 30-day exclusive window for new releases
China-based music streaming service NetEase Cloud Music signed a strategic agreement with RYCE Entertainment, described by NCM as “one of China’s leading music and entertainment companies”.
Formed in 2021, the lineup of RYCE Entertainment includes stars such as Jackson Wang (member of K-Pop group Got7), Amber Liu (former member of K-Pop group f(x)), Tablo, PSY.P, Caelan Moriaty, etc.
As part of the deal, NCM, run by the Chinese tech giant NetEasesubsidiary of Cloud Village, which has an exclusive 30-day window on new releases from RYCE Entertainment (including music by superstar Jackson Wang).
Streaming service deals with copyright holders that include similar 30-day exclusivity periods are not uncommon in China.
For example, last year, Chinese music company TF Entertainment (Time Fengjun Entertainment) agreement reached with Tencent Music Entertainment and NetEase Cloud Music, but TME has been granted 30-day exclusive rights to TF Entertainment’s releases on its platform.
TME, which operates China’s QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo streaming platforms, is NetEase Cloud Music’s biggest competitor in the Chinese music market.
The 30-day exclusivity window for TF Entertainment’s releases on Tencent Music’s platform has come almost a year after TME and its majority owner Tencent Holdings were ordered to give up exclusive trading held with global brands in China.
TME is investigation, 2019, for having reached exclusive licensing agreements with the three major record companies in the territory.
As part of the ban, the company was allowed to maintain exclusive agreements with independent artists, with a three-year term for those agreements and, according to a statement released at the time, the new songs, as long as the exclusivity period is maintained. no more than 30 days.
According to Tencent’s Notification from August 2021, the company waives the right to make an exclusive agreement with the relevant music copyright owner “except where the term of the exclusive partnership with an independent musician does not exceed three years and the playing time exclusive rights to new songs for no more than 30 days”.
In TME’s press documents announcing the agreement with TF Entertainment, the company claims to have “become an audio streaming platform where many of the world’s top record labels release their new music for the first time in China”.
Tencent Music Entertainment previously signed transaction with Popular music, Music Sony And Warner musicand these agreements allow it to license music from the majors to its own platforms, in addition to sub-licensing these categories exclusively to local competitors.
TME has signed the latest licensing agreement with Universal And Warner over the past two years without exclusive sublicensing rights, allowing these companies to enter into separate direct agreements with rival companies in China, including TME’s main competitor, NetEase Cloud Music.
Other recent transactions conducted by NetEase Cloud Music include innovation existing partnership with independent record label based in Taiwan Rock music profile to distribute the following company’s music catalog in China.
Cloud Music also recently signed deals with Modern Sky, Emperor Entertainment Group, China Record Group, Feng Hua Qiu Shi, Yuehua Entertainment, Linfair Records, SM EntertainmentTF Entertainment, YG EntertainmentKAO!INC, Avex, pony gorge and B’in Music.
At the end of 2022, Cloud Music had 189.4 million monthly active users on its online music services, up from 182.6 million at the end of 2021.Global Music Business
