NetEase Cloud Music: contributing to the prosperous development of music and helping to nurture original content

Launched in 2013, NetEase Cloud Music has become the largest UGC (User Generated Content) music platform and most active platform in mainland China. The digital platform boasts great experiences such as song list, music review, personalised song recommendation, and music videos that help users discover and share good music. Besides that, the platform has initiated the Stone Project and Cloud Ladder Project to provide full support for original artists, utilising the Internet to improve the environment in the music industry. Up till September this year, there are over 70,000 independent music artists on the platform.

Internal operation with detailed functions

NetEase Cloud Music’s users are mainly from first and second-tier cities in mainland China. Most of these users are millennials. The platform’s user base determines that the platform should be able to cover diverse music genres such as pop, country, electronic, classical, hip-hop, etc. NetEase Cloud Music’s detailed internal operation helps to provide such quality service. “Our digital publishing team covers functions like acquiring copyrights, uploading the songs, online operation, new media promotion, content marketing and promotion, editing, etc.,” the representative from NetEase Cloud Music said. “At present, the copyrights owners only need to give us authorisation and the information on the songs then they can get their songs published on the platform. The artists themselves can also create their own account and publish the songs themselves.”

The representative introduced to us the process of digital publishing: “First you need to have the authorisation contract signed. Then you import the songs to the platform. After verifying the information of the songs, you set the songs ready for release. You also need to design the promotional materials for the release. At the same time, you need to make a thorough plan for promoting the songs.” Every song on the platform has gone through a long process before they got heard by the users. The music platform works like a constantly-operating factory line.

Constructing an online and offline music distribution ecosystem

NetEase Cloud Music’s team believes that there are multiple approaches to constructing a new ecosystem for distributing music in the digital era. “We have diverse channels for promotion. We promote the songs in the forms of audio, video, live streaming, text, picture and even live performance. For instance, Soler, a local band here in Macao, has already garnered 70,000 followers on our platform. They can interact with their fans in the comment section. The platform also allows them to share their new songs and daily feeds.”

NetEase Cloud Music has rolled out short video and live streaming function to keep up the recent Internet trend and boost music promotion capacity. The platform also produces its own video shows. “Cloud Music Lounge and Face to Face are channels that help us promote new songs,” the representative explained, saying that events like Yundou Live and Music Festivals Above the Clouds will be a priority for the brand’s offline operation. “By September this year, over 200 artists have participated in Yundou Live and provided the audience with over 600 performances.”

Immense social-networking value from music platforms

In recent years, the song list feature has gradually become a trend for users to discover and share good music. NetEase Cloud Music innovatively set song lists as the platform’s foundation instead of song library. “Under the song library framework, users tend to download the songs to their device to listen to them. So the app works more like a music playing device that allows you to download songs. This doesn’t help to make users more active. Apart from that, only popular artists can receive decent exposure under this framework, which is not good for promoting music as a whole,” the representative said.

On NetEase Cloud Music, users can create their own song lists that can be shared, collected, and commented by other users. The framework is based on social networking, making it convenient for users to discover good music and share them. That said, the framework holds great value in distributing music and facilitating interaction between users. NetEase Cloud Music has built itself the most active music community through its song lists, music reviews, UGC, personalised recommendations, etc.

Supporting the development of independent and original music

To help drive the development of independent and original music forward, NetEase Cloud Music has launched the Stone Project and Cloud Ladder Project to help independent artists. The Stone Project provides support such as the promotion of original music, collecting quality original music, arranging gig opportunities, cashing in through fan base and views, music training, developing fan merchandise, formulating index information on artists through big data analysis, etc. “In late May this year, Mu Xiaoya’s new song Can It Be was selected for the second season. By late October, Can It Be has received over 250,000 comments. Mu Xiaoya also garnered over 190,000 followers.”

The Cloud Ladder Project supports original content creators such as music artists and video creators. The platform draws profits from advertising and offers incentives for original content. It also helps artists sell digital albums and promote their music. The project essentially helps to push the development of the digital music industry forward.