:: music, which according to CNNIC has been the most widespread use of the Internet in China for several years running, immediately calls to mind the piracy issue, and indeed a fair proportion of local netizens’ interest in music is applied toward searching for free downloadable copies of copyrighted songs and albums. Netizens frequently use tools like Baidu MP3 search or , but they can also visit specialized music BBSs which, while ostensibly hosting conversations on a wide range of topics, get most of their traffic in the file-sharing sub-boards (i.e. users freely sharing and downloading copyrighted music). See ZASV (杂碎后院) for a BBS that gets nearly 20,000 comments a day, most of them in sub-boards devoted to various types of audio files.

But there’s a legitimate side to China’s online music as well. Sites are increasingly striking deals to stream major-label music and small-time musicians have an ever-widening array of opportunities to gain publicity for their own original compositions. There are opportunities for brands too: sponsoring widgets or having their name attached to a song competition gets them exposure in front of and helps them connect to creative types. Below is a snapshot of how this is playing out on the Chinese Internet.

music listening communities ::
Last.fm, the popular radio-style online music streaming service, offers an interface aimed at users in mainland China. Users can search for music in traditional and simplified characters to pull up bands or artists they want to listen to. A search for the Beijing punk band “Joyside” returns a page listing six tracks along with a radio stream that includes music automatically-selected to be similar to Joyside’s sound. Last.fm members can join discussion groups, such as Chinese Indie, and can consult schedules of live performances in venues across the country, although the Web site initially limits the list to the city where your IP address is located. My 911Pop (青檬网络电台) is a Facebook-like SNS community attached to the Beijing Radio’s 911Pop music streaming widget. The widget itself is embeddable in a wide variety of popular SNSs, but 911Pop’s own community puts music at the forefront: featured celebrities are music critics and radio hosts, featured articles involve music, and the front page features Top Music Lovers and Top Music Topics. Neocha.com, a social networking site for Chinese creative groups, has the largest online collection of original (原创) independent Chinese music. All of the music is uploaded by its users and in the genres of rock, folk, electronic, and hip-hop. Within the site, users can customize the music players on their personal page to play any mix of music selected from the site’s collection. Customizable players also act as widgets that can be embedded externally via basic copy-and-paste HTML code. Additionally, Neocha has developed NEXT, a downloadable / web pop-out player for anyone to use. The NEXT player plays music directly and only from the Neocha.com music database.

portal offerings ::
China’s major online portals provide streaming functionality as part of their community offerings as well. Sina’s Music Box (新浪乐库) aggregates music-related news and information about the latest albums, and in addition to streaming, the service can burn personalized mix CDs. Sina’s music widget can be seamlessly incorporated into its blog service, and it has an extended array of widgets and software on its Musina Labs. On QQ’s music channel, streaming of copyrighted music is available for all, but downloading is only allowed for paying VIP members.  In addition to being able to embed music in their QQ blogs, VIP users get a crown icon / badge displayed on their QQ instant messaging user profile. Sohu’s music channel updates with new music every day and follows domestic and international charts. Sohu hosts a competition for original music which is branded by Red Bull (红牛能量音乐新发现), and features a TV show-like video series called Sohu Concert (搜狐歌会) in which singers interact with fans. Sohu forum users can sign up for a chance at an invitation. The channel also has a sub-board hosting music reviews.

band homes ::
Bands congregate on a number of places in Chinese cyberspace. The music subsite of MySpace.cn (聚友音乐) hosts Chinese-language pages for world acts, local signed musicians, and amateur netizen musicians. Categories are relatively fluid; the current top “MySpace original music” is the girl duo BY2, signed to Singapore’s Ocean Butterflies Records (海蝶唱片). “World rankings” champ is the US hip-hop outfit The Black Eyed Peas, who have 600,898 friends. MySpace lists live performances for the city that you are in; many venues have their own MySpace pages. Under the MySpace Music umbrella is My Choice (听,你安排), a weekly competition to chose a song list to be broadcast on BTTV, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps’ satellite channel that recently retooled its focus for the youth market. According to the rules, a list of 50 songs is released along with a theme. Users pick ten songs and campaign for votes from their MySpace friends. Users whose choices match the list ultimately chosen by the station and who have garnered the most online support win a prize. The set is broadcast on Friday evenings from 6 – 7pm. Douban.com, a popular SNS known for its arts and culture focus, has a section devoted to music which allows users, and especially bands, to create pages for themselves, similar to MySpace. Albums, singles, and performance dates are linked to the band pages pages how well the performances go. Functionality is being constantly updated; the relatively-new Artists front page lists groups by name and features a tag cloud that illustrates the story of musician that inhabits Douban: Indie, Pop, Rock and Punk are currently the top tags. Fans who are Douban members can interact on these pages or “watch” them, which makes updates show up on their own home pages. Acts hosted include established groups like the popular Beijing rock band Sound Fragments (声音碎片) as well relative newcomers like the unsigned folk band Whistling Chambers (花哨密室), who have uploaded song lyrics as part of their Douban blog. Neocha.com is also home to nearly 2000 local, independent and signed Chinese bands and musicians who have profiles on the site.

original music communities ::
A number of communities are devoted to netizens sharing their own original compositions, usually categorized into “original songs” (原创), “covers” (翻唱), and “accompaniment” (伴奏). 5sing is a community of music creators who can upload their sound files to share with other users. The site features a music player that streams the latest or hottest tracks, blogs, and a variety of special interest community groups. Each month the site features a Covers Competition in which members try out their skills on a chosen song in the hopes of winning virtual cash. A8 (原创中国) is a similar community with original, cover, band, and corporate music sections. Ordinary members, expert judges, and DJs rate uploaded music and create their own ranking charts. The site recently announced that users could sign an electronic agreement to opt into a site-wide promotion deal to monetize original compositions (into ringtones and such). A8 is also part of a Pepsi-sponsored million-yuan grand prize music competition whose initial round is going on right now. And even governments are getting into the original composition SNS act: Sinomic (原创音乐地带), an online music-oriented community co-sponsored by the Communist Youth League of Jilin, aims to foster young musical talent in the province. Neocha.com’s music section is also an “original music only” community.

iKala ::
This unique Beijing-based social network system is aimed at Karaoke lovers (the Chinese name of the site, 爱卡拉, directly translates as “Love Karaoke”). The main draw of the site is the ability to upload videos of your own karaoke performances (which you record using your computer’s microphone and webcam), which the site’s video player then overlays with song lyrics. Members share their karaoke videos on “klogs” (as in karaoke blogs) which is what the site calls its blog function, and can pit their own performance against other members in a head-to-head “PK Show” that gets voted on by the site’s users. The site offers typical SNS functionality like friending and gifts as well as the ability to become someone’s “fan” (粉丝). iKala is still in its infancy, with plans to charge for future value-added services (such as accelerated access and specialty virtual items) using K-points, but it is already an intriguing illustration of the sort of niche / vertical SNS that can cater to Chinese netizens’ desire to express themselves.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

Tags: 2.0, china, digital, friday 5, internet, music

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