As the most successful commercial label in the Chinese rap circle – even without adding "one" – modern Sky's MDSK label has always been able to gather the top popularity and low-key strength in the circle. Count the full staff of Modern Sky/MDSK, TT, Manshuk, Huang Xu, Wanida, Saber Liang Weijia, Li Daben, OB03, Kafe.Hu... Whether on the stage of rap variety shows or music festivals, they are often the focus of the whole audience.
But rap variety shows and festival stages are not the whole of rap music distribution channels. Compared with the "watching the performance" of instant consumption, the "listening work" that can be chewed and appreciated repeatedly is the preferred channel for many listeners with limited economic ability.
In this regard, MDSK is in a slightly awkward position. Their copyright is exclusive to QQ Music, and in the main position of rap music, NetEase Cloud Music, MDSK members have only a few works, often leaving only some immature demos or choruses in the early years.
This has been going on for almost 3 years. Since September 2018, Modern Sky has reached a strategic cooperation with Tencent Music, and since then, almost all of the music works of MDSK members have been published only on Tencent Music. Rap listeners who only use NetEase Cloud Music cannot hear the new works of MDSK members, thus forming a sense of separation. Some people may even think, "Why hasn't he released a work for so long, is he not playing rap?" ”
The most obvious sense of separation is the problem of the source of "China New Rap 2019". NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music both have the sound source of this show, but the song lists on both sides are incomplete, because some of the contestants have the copyright of NetEase Cloud exclusive, and some people have the copyright of QQ Music exclusive.
"China New Rap 2019 Issue 9" is a typical example, "Change", "Loneliness", "Ten" did not appear in NetEase Cloud Music, "All Gone", "More Up", "Big People in Small Cities", "24/7", "I'm out ya" did not appear in QQ Music. This experience is extremely inconvenient for viewers (listeners) who want to listen to the excellent works in the program after watching the show.
It's not that no one has noticed the bad effects of the copyright war. In 2018, the National Copyright Administration coordinated the promotion of copyright cooperation between NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music, when the two sides claimed to have mutually authorized music works to reach 99% of the total number of music libraries.
However, these 99% of the songs are usually unheard and innocuous, but the 1% has become a "place where soldiers must fight". Even to put it more extremely, QQ Music can hear Jay Chou, while NetEase Cloud can't. For most audiences, Jay Chou's music is just needed. As long as this situation continues, the so-called copyright cooperation is a joke.
Of course, the relevant departments are not fools. In July, the State Administration for Market Regulation asked Tencent to remove the "exclusive music copyright" within a month, and the antitrust measures were escalated again. It is difficult to know exactly what Tencent has done, but since October, netizens have been pleasantly surprised to find that NetEase Cloud can listen to the works of MDSK members. Not only were netizens rejoicing, but members of MDSK themselves were widely publicizing the incident on Weibo.
Whether a comprehensive and thorough copyright cooperation can eventually be achieved is still an unknown, but for rap listeners, it is undoubtedly a joy to hear more works of head rappers on the platforms they are most familiar with...