Chinese streaming service NetEase Cloud Music is increasingly positioning itself as the go-to destination for K-pop music in China.
Its latest move is to strike a deal with South Korea Kakao Entertainment This will give NetEase users exclusive access to Kakao-published music for 30 days after its global release.
Kakao’s music division has a library of tens of thousands of tracks from hundreds of artists, including IU, Park Jie, kiss of life, Lee Yong Ji, Beifei, stikeand BoyZ.
The new exclusivity period begins on Thursday (October 24). The companies didn’t say how long the exclusive features will last.
For Cloud Music, this represents a significant expansion of the licensing agreement it signed with Kakao last May. At the time, the streaming platform said it would “adopt multiple ways to provide Kakao Entertainment’s vast and influential works and its famous artists with more opportunities to effectively build influence among China’s younger generation of users.”
Prior to this, we had multiple licensing agreements with other K-pop companies, including SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment 2022, and JYP Entertainment earlier this year.
It was also after the two parties reached a new agreement apple music and China’s dominant wireless carrier, China Mobilewhich will give Apple more access to the Chinese market.
Cloud Music is a major player in China’s music streaming market, but subscription numbers lag Tencent Music Entertainmentgenerally considered the market leader and – according to some accounts – China Mobile’s in-house music streaming platform, Migu music.
In its latest second-quarter earnings, Cloud Music reported Annual growth of 26.6% Music services revenue surges 2.6 billion yuan ($359.0 million Based on the average exchange rate for the second quarter).
Unlike previous practices, the company did not reveal the number of paid subscriptions or monthly active users. Cloud Music stated in its 2023 annual report 44.1 million Paid music subscribers, increased Annual increase of 15.3%.
In comparison 106.7 million The number of paid subscribers to Tencent Music Entertainment’s music streaming service at the end of 2023.
For Kakao Entertainment, the deal with Cloud Music represents much-needed good news following the arrests and indictments. Kim Bum-soofounder of the parent company Kakao Company.
Prosecutors accuse Kim of conspiring with others at Kakao to drive up SM Entertainment’s stock price in a 2023 bidding war for the K-pop giant move Used to control SM.global music business
