Chinese Blogger Con 2007

Music 2.0: The Conflicts and Value of Social Music Sharing
Terry (Moderator)
Yang Bo
Allen Guo
David Ding
Zhang Youwei
and special guests

Re: Music sharing overseas portrayed as a revolutionary sort of phenomenon

Yang Bo, from Douban.com
-many on stage work in the music industry
-half the music discussed on Douban is Chinese-language music, the other half non-Chinese
-Douban/web 2.0 brings those with obscure interests together (ie. Tibetan music groups more dynamic than Jay Chou groups)
——
Allen Guo
Talking about different ways to bring songs to users
Baidu Search
Digg model
the need for something that takes the work away from users to search songs down, and put what they want where they want it
——
(David Ding?)
There are users for every kind of music taste there is no matter how obscure
Key is how to allow these users to find each other
Experience tells us that ‘European’ and independent music is the….panacea for music sharing sites
Popular music is too easy to find
Sharing, finding and recommending of music
-Like when you find a song you like, how best to introduce that to a friend?
-And how to find it in the first place?
-Users need to be able to find the kind of music they like
——-
Zhang Youwei:
-Music recommendation software have the best prospects
-Users might not have a clear goal on what songs they want to find, just know that the kind of music they like can be found there
-The value is in this recommendation function
-Re: User activity, search histories are easy to analyze
-ie) Fans of Jay Chou also tend to like Jolin(?) Tsai, and power is in being able to make this connection
——
“Lucy”
Centre of Excellence for…Creation? Australia?
Researches the connectio/mutual influence between music and interactive internet
Particulary China
Which has developed a commercial music industry at a time when technology is forcing music companies from around the world to reconsider the impact of internet on content, but developed late, and copyright enforcement not strict, China has possibilities for experimentation that might not exist in somewhere like the US.
The global music industry being forced to reconsider their business models…with internet, mobiles
These companies stand to benefit to learn from China, for the above reasons
With all copyright debates, it’s in the interest of businesses to minimize risk for themselves (they need to make money, and copyright has traditionally been the key tool to that end)….business will always tend to stick with copyright, to control markets and keep making money
The tendency for users is to maximize cost
Look at how Chinese companies trying to make money are operating in China’s copyright environment…
Which is hard to accomplish if music/content is seen as a product
COmpared to thinking in terms of services, music services, and how those…generate wealth
As opposed to selling copyright on individual songs
-With web 2.0, this is the future (services)
———
Should record companies give money to 2.0 companies in exchange for promotion services?

Bo Yang: Conflicted…copyright needs to be protected, but…
-some record companies offer Douban free copyright to promote their artists
-record companies are getting clearer on the way things on the internet are going, but Chinese companies are not so clear
——-
(David Ding?)
Users expecting music for free is a reality that music companies cannot avoid…
That said, music companies need to think up new business models
The future will bring ‘artist development companies’, different modes of revenue
China still lacks a clear solution to the conflict btwn record companies and users/listeners (and artists)
——–
Zhang Youwei
“recommenders” of music very important
music sharing websites in China at present, in several aspects, are not that strong
———
David Ding
What’s most important is not developing a new business model (for record companies) so much as focussing on improving services to users
———-
…talking about independent/underground (internet?) musicians, and how they can expect to make money in this digital music file age…nothing new being said
———
Questions from the floor:
Q: How can music be better used in an educational context?
Lucy: What’s made commercial players so important in other markets, is their ability to maintain control over copyright, who pays for what….what will have to happen in China eventually is a transparent method of tracking what users are listening to, what they’re paying for….for artists associations or independent monitoring groups….and until then artists will remain disconnected from the profit system
———-
[time's up]

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.