A mid-year inventory list, open Jay Chou to the five-person multi-listening universe

Author | Ding Qianwen Edit | Fan Zhihui

The current Chinese music scene is experiencing a collision of new and old singers and listeners' aesthetics. 

On the one hand, veteran singers can still play, especially the concert market is in water, Jay Chou, Mayday, Liu Ruoying, Huang Qishan and other concerts are difficult to find; On the other side, a new generation of musicians such as Jiu Wu, Rejuvenation Dan, Capper, Nachivov, and Shuangsheng have risen rapidly, promoting the diversified development of the market from online to offline.

In the collision of new and old musicians, there are not only the mainstream strength of popular music, but also the accumulation of different music genres such as rock, rap, and national style, which is enough to see that the aesthetics of current music fans have become more diverse and personalized. 

This trend also appeared in the 2023 mid-year inventory recently released by Huawei Music. For example, the five not only won the best group, but their new album "Take Me Fly" also successfully topped the top 3 of the hit new album list; Among the veteran singers, Jay Chou successfully won the best male artist, and "Sea of Flowers" also won the TOP1 hit single of the car machine. 

This is inseparable from the change of audience aesthetics, and is also affected by different media attributes. We are also more curious about how the music needs of users have changed in the era of listening to songs in all scenes.

A music list to read the popular trends of the times

Looking at this mid-year inventory of Huawei Music in 2023, it is not difficult to find that there are many "Huadian points". 

From the perspective of overseas markets, the mainland market's attention to musicians has changed, and both the new generation and established singers have a traffic effect that cannot be underestimated. For example, among the hottest new songs in the first half of 2023 according to Huawei Music statistics, New Jeans, who debuted less than a year, occupied the first place in Korean new songs with the single "Ditto" released earlier this year; Pop diva Miley Cyrus won the first place in English New Song with the single "Flowers" released in January; Taylor Swift's album "Midnights" released in May was the hottest new album in the English category.

In Chinese-speaking areas, the list shows a bright new generation color. For example, in addition to the above-mentioned five people, "Snow Distance", which was cooperated by Capper and Luo Yan RollFlash as a representative of post-00s rap, won the first place in the hottest Chinese new song listened to by users of Huawei Music in the first half of the year, and the top 1 of the hit new song list; The new album "Uniconfication" including this work also became the second place on Huawei's music hit new album list in the first half of the year, second only to Yi Yangqianxi's "Liu Yanfen". 

However, this phenomenon of the new generation of singers on the list of new generation hegemony is also lacking in the existence of relying on the superposition effect to gain attention. For example, Zhang Zining, who sang the theme song of the popular game "Egg Boy Party" "Egg Star Party", Ke Keke who became popular as a short video social platform BGM "Girl is Far Away", and Xilinnayi Gao, who collaborated with Huang Qishan on "It's a Mother and a Daughter" with the help of the Spring Festival Gala, and these related works of them were also promoted by media channels of different attributes, and they were listed in the top 3 best interactive singles in Huawei Music's mid-year inventory.

Of course, even if the new generation is menacing, veteran singers such as Lin Junjie, Jay Chou, and Jacky Cheung are not to be outdone. As mentioned earlier, Jay Chou unsurprisingly won the best male artist and continued to "monopolize" the ears of three generations of listeners; In March this year, Lin Junjie's "Darwin" and Jacky Cheung's "Another Decade" also ranked at the top of the hit new song list in the first half of the year. 

It is not difficult to see that in the first half of this year, users' preferences for music are more intertwined with the new generation and veteran powerful singers, and take into account the characteristics of popular and small and beautiful listening. 

On the other hand, the soundtracks of popular movies have also become a new growth point, and at the same time brought new competition points to music platforms. For example, Zhou Shen's Chinese theme song "Journey to the Ringbud" for the film of the same name ranked fourth on the hit new song list, while the soundtrack album of the same name from the movie "The Wandering Earth" and the TV series "Long Moon Ember Ming" entered the top of the hit album list. 

Obviously, popular film and drama works have driven the hot soundtrack market, which has also made music platforms invisibly participate in film and television publicity, expanding the boundaries of cooperation between music platforms, singers and record companies, and further tapping users' music demand for soundtracks.

The reason for the above phenomenon is also based on the acceleration of the trend of user differentiation, the continuous growth of personalized demand, no longer satisfied with listening to a specific period, a certain musician or a certain genre of music works, the public's demand for music and aesthetics have presented a more diversified look. 

Relying on Huawei Music's tens of millions of genuine lossless song libraries, well-known singers at home and abroad, such as Jay Chou, Lin Junjie, Taylor Swift, Deng Ziqi, and IVE, are all included, giving users the exclusive experience of listening to global hot songs at the first time and easily controlling the pop vane. At the same time, due to the elastic change of users' preferences for music, it is also a test for the content power of music platforms, and the richness, professionalism and restorability of the music library are crucial. In turn, the music platform list can also reflect the trend of different dimensions of popularity, accurately conveying the current public's listening preferences.

It can be said that the ever-changing thousand-faced aesthetics of listeners entering the streaming media era are also promoting the music scene towards a vigorous posture of diversified aesthetic coexistence through music platforms.

In the era of all scenes, how to achieve high-quality immersive listening?

It is worth noting that the featured lists opened in this list show a more differentiated fashion trend. 

At a macro level, as a content service provider, music platforms must not only undertake the output of music content, but also need to use technology to empower music and strengthen user experience. With the difficulty of finding a ticket in the offline performance market, the immersive listening and high-quality listening experience brought by the music platform is also regarded as a "meal replacement" to have a concert experience anytime, anywhere, and has gradually become a rigid need of users. 

According to the 2022 State of Audio Product Usage Research Report, 73% of consumers surveyed are aware of spatial audio and 41% are willing to pay extra for spatial audio, indicating that consumers are gradually recognizing the positive impact of spatial audio on their overall music listening experience. 

This is a major focus of user attention, which can also be seen in Huawei Music's special spatial audio hit singles list. From Lu Han's "Road to Glory" to Ma Siwei and Luo Yan's "Champion Love Song", it can be seen that the music provided by Huawei's Music Space Audio Zone has covered pop, rap, soundtrack and other music categories, meeting the pursuit of high-quality music for all kinds of listeners.

Huawei Music Space Audio Zone has launched spatial audio versions of popular singles by popular singers such as Deng Ziqi, Zhou Shen, and Mao Buyi, as well as classical music space audio works from the world's top labels such as National Centre for the Performing Arts, Sony Select, and 2L. These works are based on Audio Vivid technology to achieve the effect of omnidirectional surround sound, bringing users a new immersive listening experience. At the same time, Huawei's Music Space Audio has been adapted to some models such as Huawei mobile phones, tablets, and smart screens, as well as the M5 series intelligent driving version, which has further refined different scenarios, allowing listeners to "sound" anytime, anywhere. 

Not only spatial audio, but also users' pursuit of high-quality listening has never stopped. Huawei's mid-year inventory also focused on users' diverse high-quality listening preferences, presenting Huawei's music featured operation content, including Hi-Res hit albums, Hi-Classic hit playlists, and HiMix hit playlists. 

For example, Hi-Classical Zone, as a high-quality classical music operation IP, cooperates with the National Centre for the Performing Arts, many conservatories and classical music artists, and song lists such as "Hi-Classical X Gina Alice|Classical Sleep Aid" and "Hi-Classical X Langlang Lang|New Year Song List Recommendation" start from specific life scenes to help users turn listening to classical music into a habit.

It is worth mentioning that Huawei Music Industry has the industry's top high-resolution streaming music library with the highest 192kHz/24bit quality, and has the "Hi-Res" gold standard certification, providing top content in classical, pop, jazz and other categories. This is also the innovative embodiment of technology-enabled music, which is placed into daily consumption scenarios with high-quality sound quality with a more detailed sense of detail, realizing that users break the circle and attract non-vertical users to accept niche music. Relatively speaking, this is also the growing pursuit of audio quality by users, driving the platform to carry out music consumption reform. 

Interestingly, the high demand for high-quality listening and immersive listening is also based on the trial and choice of multiple devices. According to the "Survey Report on the Status of the Use of Audio Products 2022", consumers tend to listen to audio on multiple devices, and the frequency of use of mobile phones, TVs and other devices is more than 40%. To a certain extent, this is also the user's hope that the performance of the device can provide high-quality, immersive listening effects in all scenarios.

As an all-scenario music service provider, Huawei Music not only realizes this high demand, but also enables a large number of music works to obtain a unique interpretation of "seeing the light of day". According to Huawei's official data, as of last year, the number of active music users in cars increased by 70%, while the large screen increased by 50%. This remarkable activity is also reflected in the mid-year stocktaking. 

For example, on the car hit singles list, Jay Chou's rarely mentioned past works "Sea of Flowers", Cai Jianya's "Letting Go" and the five-person hit song "Take Me to Find the Nightlife" ranked in the top three. From nostalgic classics to popular new songs, users across multiple fields and ages can also see that the popularity of all scenes is radiating to multi-circle users.

As one of the few music services in China that covers all terminals and scenarios, HUAWEI Music has been connected to Huawei mobile phones, smart wearables and other terminal products, truly realizing a silky listening experience from port to port. 

In the all-scenario era, Huawei Music is able to play different cards than other music platforms because it relies on its excellent technical support to provide audiovisual enjoyment and provide users with personalized and exclusive services more accurately. This also makes its high-quality and immersive listening experience to the extreme, meeting the musical emotions and resonance required by users, so as to truly capture the user's voice and become the listening habit of consumers.

epilogue

Looking back, offline performances are ushering in the outbreak window, and if music platforms want to get a piece of the pie, the most important thing is to implement the characteristics of user groups that value the listening experience. Whether it is the basic requirements for high quality and immersion, or the desire to achieve the opening of multiple consumption scenarios, this is the competitive advantage of attracting music consumers in the intelligent era. 

After all, whether it is content layout or technological innovation, the final music platform gives users real music consumption content, which also means that giving full play to the advantages of the platform and providing audiences with full-scene, full-terminal music services and experiences is the most important thing. 

From Huawei Music's mid-year list, it can be seen that users are pursuing music quality and service more and more refined, no longer simply listening to a sound, but also requiring a high-fidelity of real listening and personalized listening experience. The listening experience that opens up different circles actually allows users to get rid of the era of small-screen music consumption centered on mobile phones and enter service-oriented music consumption with user experience as the core. 

It is foreseeable that as Huawei Music continues to develop innovative high-definition listening feasts based on user needs, the development of the full-scene ecosystem will also usher in a new spring, which will feed back to musicians and even the entire music market.

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