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Business News Deals Digital
Baidu Music mergers with Chinese record company
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 4 December 2015
Chinese online service Baidu Music, the legitimate music set-up from search engine Baidu – which was a foe of the music industry for many years before doing its licensing deals – has announced plans to merge with the Beijing-based record company Taihe Entertainment Group.
The web firm says that the deal constitutes “the first-ever full integration of a leading internet platform and a traditional music company”. Which is probably true, though Vevo is a digital music service owned by traditional music firms – albeit one that operates pretty autonomously from its parent companies – and the majors are partners in Japan-based Line Music too. Meanwhile, in China, a number of labels have formed partnerships with Baidu rival Tencent that go beyond traditional licensing deals.
Still, it’s an interesting alliance in an interesting market. “The two partners each contribute strategically valuable and complementary resources and expertise to the new company”, a statement about the merger claimed.
“With over 150 million monthly active users, Baidu Music is the first stop for Chinese music fans looking for the music they want online, and brings the power of search technology, big data, and massive online infrastructure to the new company. Taihe Entertainment Group has deep experience in music operations and licensing, and holds the rights to over 700,000 recordings with tremendous commercial value, along with long-term co-operation agreements with hundreds of international and domestic music institutions”.
The two companies reckon that, with the copyright regime being ramped up in China, many opportunities lie ahead in the digital music space in the market, and that the Baidu/Taihe alliance puts them in a good position to capitalise on all that. We’ll see, I guess.
