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Business News Deals Digital
Instrumental confirms Tencent partnership
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 29 October 2020
UK-based data-driven talent scouting set-up Instrumental has confirmed that Chinese web giant Tencent, and its Tencent Music Entertainment business, have taken a minority stake in the company. The investment will be accompanied by one of those “strategic partnerships” you all love.
As well as helping labels and promoters to identify and develop new music talent by crunching lots of streaming and social data, Instrumental says that it also wants to increasingly take insights, services and partnerships directly to new artists who are busy building an audience online DIY, and part of the Tencent tie-up is about expanding that activity.
Instrumental CEO Conrad Withey says of the deal: “We are incredibly excited about our new strategic investors, Tencent and TME, and the opportunity we now have to achieve great things together. Like us, Tencent have identified the power and potential of data science in the discovery and development of high potential new artists. I am looking forward greatly to collaborating with Tencent and TME, including the opportunity to expand our business into China”.
“This deal will allow Instrumental to accelerate our commitment to becoming an ‘artist first’ business”, he goes on, “delivering insights and partnerships directly to the great talent discovered by our app. That includes expanding our label and publishing services, but also launching new products that meet the needs of high growth artists at the earliest stages of building a career in the music business, including merchandise, digital live events and brand partnerships”.
Confirming the deal on Tencent’s side, the Group VP of Tencent Music Entertainment, Dennis Hau, adds: “As the leading online music entertainment platform in China, TME has always been committed to capitalising on cutting-edge and emerging technologies to transform its services, [and] amplify social functionalities to encourage user engagement”.
“With years of advanced research and application of AI technologies, we have improved the efficiency in selecting, discovering and distributing quality content and promoting the growth of artists, which allowed our hundreds of millions of users to enjoy more diversified content with high quality”, he then says. “The cooperation with Instrumental will certainly bring greater impetus to the innovation of TME in AI technology application, as a win-win combination of better service for our users, good promotion for the growing artists, and the sound development of the entire online music industry”.
