Little Antlers Think Tank
essentials:
1. Following the launch of the music streaming platform Resso for overseas, the "Soda Music" App officially debuted in the app store, marking ByteDance's official entry into the domestic music streaming market.
2. Relying on a large user base and powerful algorithm recommendations, "Soda Music" is different from the current mainstream music platform through niche music, algorithm push, social functions and other functions.
3. In the face of the mature music platform pattern in China, "soda music" wants to occupy a place in the digital music track, and it is far from enough to rely on hot songs.
4. After the launch of "Galaxy Ark" in China last year, ByteDance expanded its music distribution service overseas and launched soundOn, a music distribution and distribution platform.
5. At present, ByteDance has built a cultural and entertainment territory including film and television, games, music, comics, novels, etc.
On March 8, the "Soda Music" App, which has been in preparation for more than half a year, officially debuted in the app store, although it still needs an invitation code to enter, but this still marks ByteDance's official entry into the domestic music streaming market. The first reaction of many people in the industry is that the vibrato hot song finally has a home.
△ ByteDance launched the "Soda Music" App
Just on February 17 this year, Douyin just upgraded the musician service platform to "Hot Galaxy", providing musicians with one-stop services such as platform basic services, song promotion, songwriting matching, data analysis, etc., and also aggregating more original musicians for soda music.
Looking overseas, on March 9, TikTok officially launched The music marketing and distribution integration platform SoundOn, which has been launched in the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia. This also means that since the launch of the music distribution platform "Galaxy Ark" in China last year, ByteDance's layout in the field of copyright agency has entered a new stage.
With the rapid rise of short videos, the influence of Douyin and TikTok on the music industry has further deepened, and even dominated the current music trend for several years.
In the face of the increasingly complex domestic and foreign music market pattern, especially the two listed companies that have been deeply involved in the industry for nearly a decade, how will "soda music" and SoundOn, which are born out of the short video platform, highlight the siege? What problems will you face?
"Soda Music" continues the advantages of byte algorithm,
It coincides with the end of the era of exclusive copyright
As early as February this year, according to Tianyan, "Soda Music Android Software" has completed the registration of software copyrights, the registration number is 2022SR0248976, and the current version number is V1.0.0. The copyright owner is Beijing Microcast Vision Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of ByteDance and the operating entity behind Douyin.
At present, the application has been listed on the app store for iOS and Android systems, but it is only open beta version, and users need to register with the invitation code to use it.
Judging from the introduction of the internal beta version that has been opened, "Soda Music" mainly promotes the four major functions of classified radio stations, personality recommendations, synchronous vibrato music collection and tens of millions of music libraries, which on the surface looks no different from other music apps in China.
△ The "Soda Music" app is introduced in the app store
However, a closer look can be found that compared with QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, etc., "Soda Music" mainly presents four relatively large differences.
First of all, in terms of playback mode, the page switching method of Douyin is embedded in "soda music", and the music switching mode of the upper and lower slide is adopted, and the video dynamic is used as the playback background.
Secondly, in terms of market positioning, the current music library is dominated by niche music. Looking beyond the existing copyright market, we tend to purchase original songs and sign long-term cooperation with influencers.
Third, in the user's aggregation method, the UGC music video function is introduced, users can upload pictures, videos, etc. on the song playback interface, and other users can like and comment on it, strengthen social attributes, and increase user stickiness.
Fourth, the main advantage of ByteDance making music is the huge user base and strong algorithm recommendation. "Soda Music" relies on this and adopts the way of AI recommendation to intelligently push the song library to users, focusing on "full single recommendation", that is, only recommending singles, not song lists, albums, etc.
In fact, ByteDance's power in the music market has long been traced. The launch of "soda music" is also the same as the early vibrato start, using the strategy of overseas feeding back to China.
In March 2020, ByteDance launched Resso, a music streaming platform, for three countries: Brazil, Indonesia and India. According to Apptopia data, the platform reached 85 million downloads last year, ranking second in the "top 10 most downloaded music and audio apps in 2021" list.
△ ByteDance launched the music streaming platform Resso
From the perspective of the entire "history of the origins" of the application, there are many similarities between "soda music" and Pinduoduo in the e-commerce field - they are all "rookies" emerging in the stable market, and bringing variables to the existing pattern with new gameplay.
In terms of commonalities, neither app had a high platform tone in its infancy. The most prominent label of Pinduoduo is low-priced goods, and most of the users are from fourth- and fifth-tier small towns. ByteDance, where "soda music" is located, also started with the help of short videos, and various hot songs resounded throughout the streets.
Another common denominator is that the offensive is fierce. Relying on social fission, Pinduoduo successfully reached 380 million WeChat user groups, and it took only two years to complete the target of 100 billion GMV on other e-commerce platforms in five or six years.
Coincidentally, the traffic pool on which "soda music" relies has become a short video. According to the "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network" released by CNNIC, as of December 2021, the number of mainland Internet users was 1.032 billion. Among them, the use rate of short video exceeds 90%, and the scale of users reaches 934 million.
Under the influence of such a trend, musicians on the supply side are also turning more attention to short videos. Surrounded by traffic, the number of short video hit songs has exceeded 100 million. According to the standard of 2 yuan per 1000 plays, 200,000 yuan can be generated for every 100 million plays. Some practitioners have said that compared with the copyright sharing of traditional platforms, the temptation of short video hot songs is greater.
However, although the vibrato hot songs are frequent, but because the vibrato is not the music copyright party, this part of the traffic is difficult to generate direct value on the vibrato, and the royalty income is almost all into the pocket of the online music platform, making a wedding dress for others. For example, among the singers of the "Top Ten Hot Songs of the Year" launched by the Tencent Music Entertainment Festival, nine of them are officially certified "Tencent Musicians".
Previously, the copyright problem of songs has always been a major problem on ByteDance, but the era of exclusive copyright of "the copyright owner wins the world" has ended.
This is good news for all music platforms in the follow-up position. ByteDance chose to enter online music at this node, reducing the resistance of "soda music" to open up the market.
However, the reconstruction of the industry order is by no means easy. Since Ali's Shrimp Mi Music withdrew from the domestic music streaming media market, a pattern dominated by Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music has been formed in China, and new players Kuaishou and Station B have also competed to enter the game.
According to the analysis of the Little Antlers think tank, with the advent of the "post-copyright" era, the capital of online music platform competition is no longer exclusive copyright, but the innovation of content distribution efficiency and product experience.
TME's way of going deep into the music industry is to bind the head copyright and musicians, and rely on copyright advantages to circle a large number of music users to achieve leapfrog development. The early strategy of NetEase Cloud Music was to seize the fun of music lovers, start with niche music and song lists, and harvest a group of sticky young users by creating a unique community culture.
Moreover, in the face of the slowdown in user growth due to the impact of platforms such as short videos, mainstream music APPS have also begun to lay out "short videos + music", continue to increase short videos, and try to integrate the two media forms of music and short videos.
In addition, Kuaishou, which is also a short video platform, has also laid out its music business since 2018, successively dividing music into independent departments, introducing Tencent music libraries, and last year launched the main voice bullet screen function "Huisen" and the main music playback, music intelligent creation function of the original music community "Komori Singing".
△ Kuaishou's music applications "Huisen" and "Komori Singing"
In addition to the pressure brought by peers, the influence of the hot song itself is also worth scrutinizing. In addition to the "Top Ten Hot Songs of the Year", the Tencent Music Entertainment Festival also released the "Top Ten Golden Songs of the Year" list, and NetEase Cloud Music also released the "NetEase Cloud Music 2021 Annual Music Awards List". In the two charts, many powerful musicians are listed.
Compared with hot songs, the recognition of golden songs inside and outside the industry is obviously higher. Therefore, if "soda music" wants to have a place in the digital music track, it is not enough to rely on hot songs alone.
Launched an overseas music distribution platform,
Improve the layout of the large cultural and entertainment territory
In addition to launching "soda music" in China, ByteDance has also expanded its music distribution services overseas. On March 9, the company officially launched SoundOn, a music distribution and distribution platform, which is now available in the Uk, US, Brazil and Indonesia.
△ Music distribution and distribution platform SoundOn
The new platform has been described as an "all-in-one platform for music marketing and distribution," allowing musicians to upload their music productions directly to TikTok and its music streaming outlet Resso. It can also be distributed to other streaming platforms around the world, including Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, and Tencent's Joox.
In fact, SoundOn isn't Tik's first attempt at music distribution in overseas markets. Back in August 2020, TikTok struck a deal with UnidedMasters, an independent musician distribution platform that allows users to distribute music directly to other music streaming platforms via TikTok. The latter also became the first music distribution company to partner with TikTok.
Since September last year, SoundOn has officially entered the test and is currently used by many music creators.
Speaking about the collaborations with TikTok and SoundOn, British musician Abby Roberts said: "I've been working with the TikTok team throughout my career. They were very supportive of me, so I really value the extra support and help that SoundOn provides. ”
TikTok said soundOn will pay 100 percent royalties to music creators indefinitely on distributions on the company's own platform, which includes TikTok, Resso in Brazil, Indonesia and India, and ByteDance's video editing app CapCut.
In terms of other streaming distributions around the world, musicians also returned 100% in the first year, but will drop to 90% in the second year and beyond. According to SoundOn's official materials, artists will retain all rights and royalties, which means they will have their own master in addition to receiving 100% royalties (or 90% later).
In addition, ByteDance claims that in addition to the mechanism for handling music distribution, SoundOn will provide other promotional tools and support for musicians who sign up for the platform, including audience insights and outreach, suggestions from the SoundOn marketing team, song tags to enter TikTok, and promotional support through TikTok platform creator marketing.
Ole Obermann, global head of music at TikTok, said in a statement about the release: "The music creator community is a vibrant community within TikTok and SoundOn aims to support them in taking the first steps in their careers. The SoundOn team will guide creators to the big stage and bring TikTok expertise and power to musicians. We are incredibly excited about how new talent can emerge and drive, and how we can contribute to an increasingly diverse and growing global music industry. ”
OleObermann, global head of music at TikTok
In fact, as early as last July, ByteDance launched an independent music distribution platform "Galaxy Ark" in China. The platform opens the entrance for labels and musicians, mainly uploading songs and videos at one station, and distributing channels such as QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Migu Music, Spotify, YouTube, Douyin, TikTok, etc.
With the strengthening of supervision of domestic music copyright, the exclusive era of music copyright is ushering in the collapse. According to MIDiA's research, the revenue of streaming media platforms has maintained a high speed, mainly driven by independent music labels and independent musicians.
ByteDance has set its sights on the music distribution market, and at the same time launched music marketing and distribution platforms at home and abroad. Instead of spending huge sums of money to buy copyrights, it is better to become the administrator and distributor of copyrights and enjoy the share brought by music agency distribution.
On February 17 this year, ByteDance also upgraded the Douyin musician service platform to "Hot Galaxy" and increased support for platform musicians. It is understood that this is a new and upgraded musician service platform, the industry chain involves songwriters, singer-songwriters with original ability, singer-songwriters, copyright institutions and publicity MCN.
△ ByteDance overseas social platform TikTok
And in terms of the international market, TikTok has made a huge impact in today's music industry and pushed the popular songs found on the app to the top of the Billboard charts. In 2020, more than 70 musicians who became popular on TikTok successfully signed a big record label.
At the same time, TikTok is also competing with long-form video platforms for the market. On Feb. 28, the platform officially announced an increase in the maximum length of its videos to 10 minutes, which also signals that the competition between it and YouTube will be even more intense.
In addition, its expansion in live music broadcasting continues. According to market research, TikTok's per-user viewing time can now be compared to YouTube and even surpass it in some statistics.
In April last year, ByteDance officially established the Music Division, whose music business territory includes Douyin Music, which is responsible for the domestic music business, the Chinese music business development department, and the overseas music department responsible for foreign countries. In July of the same year, the company internally upgraded its music business to P1 priority, on a par with the games and education businesses.
At present, ByteDance has built a cultural and entertainment territory including film and television, games, music, comics, novels, etc. Whether it is the music streaming platform "Soda Music" and Resso, or the distribution and distribution platforms "Galaxy Ark" and SoundOn, it will further fill its music section and become an important part of the big entertainment landscape.
According to a report released by iResearch, the size of China's online music pan-entertainment market is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2023. Especially affected by the epidemic, the offline development of the music industry has been blocked, record companies and musicians have expanded their online business, and tried to carry out emerging formats such as cloud live, which has created opportunities for short video platforms.
In this context, the short video platform led by Douyin is inevitable to exert its strength in the music business. Byte promotes music streaming and copyright agency distribution at both ends to create a full-link music solution and music business model. However, in the past, there are Tencent Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and then there are Kuaishou and B Station, which still faces many challenges to break through and sweep the music entertainment market, and the Little Deer Antlers Think Tank will continue to pay attention to the operation and development of this product.