State Champ Radio China
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“The past is a prologue, something to treasure on the long road of life.”
Although life slowed down for many people in China in 2022, the country witnessed many heartwarming stage performances, artist breakthroughs, an emerging new generation of young musicians and the growing role that technology is playing in music.
To bid farewell to 2022 and usher in 2023, Billboard China spent an evening with 12 musicians from different generations and musical styles. They shared their achievements in 2022, their thoughts on the past year, and expressed their expectations for the future.
Keep Singing and Exploring
Even though Zheng Jun, Zhang Yuan and Su Xing (Allen Su) are industry veterans, 2022 was a brand-new experience for them.
Zheng Jun, a Chinese rock legend, was among the cast of contestants when Call Me by Fire (Season 2) premiered in August. In an interview, he said that his friends were afraid that his participation in the show would “make him lose his integrity in his later years,” but he responded that, “In my later years, I intend to break new personal ground, not preserve the old.”
In trailers for the show, Zheng stunned audiences with his casual demeanor. Far from seeming “called by fire,” he instead practiced meditation, ate barbecue and applied facial masks. When it came time to hit the stage, he instantly took audiences back to the golden age of rock and roll with his floral shirts and classic swagger. Zheng has claimed that “all I’ve ever dreamed of is true love and freedom,” and this sentiment shines through in his stage performances.
People have commented how Zheng seems to have remained the same, something all-too-rare in these ever-changing times. For Zheng, his reverence for his songs, his passion for music and his dedication to creating the best art possible has never changed.
In other ways, however, Zheng has changed. He is now more relaxed, happier and more optimistic. For him, the show feels like an adventure with friends both old and new. Before the competition got underway, Zheng sent a message to his friend Faye Wong saying that his only goal was to “have fun.”
In contrast, Zhang Yuan and Su Xing (Allen Su) brought about an upswing for themselves in 2022. 0713, the down-and-out men’s team, finally saw things turn around after an unexpected resurgence in popularity after their appearance on Welcome to the Mushroom House.
Reflecting on 2022, Zhang Yuan says he is pleased that he participated in as many music variety shows as he did. He is also happy that he managed to secure many different stages to show what he was capable of, and that he got to participate in some original soundtracks. Su also joked about having such a heavy workload on the show that it was enough to make him “happy for more than half a year.”
From Super Boy (Happy Boy) to Welcome to the Mushroom House, and then onto even bigger and better stages down the line, 0713 owe their success to their persistence. Zhang Yuan continued to innovate with his music, and found that music and the stage still held the highest allure for him, even after having been in the industry for many years.
Su cast an even wider net. He participated in talk shows, tried his hand at being a sports blogger and dabbled in content planning for variety shows.
They may be pursuing different goals, but they are taking a similar path. Personal milestones and progress will come naturally when you love what you do and keep an open and inquisitive heart and mind.
Zheng Jun, the oldest member, along with Zhang Yuan and Su Xing (Allen Su), come from the first generation of talent shows. Throughout the years, their admiration and love for music has never faded, and they have ceaselessly explored the infinite possibilities that music affords them. Overcoming all obstacles that lay ahead of them, they always walk their own path.
New Styles and Tasks
Some musicians focus on their styles and areas of expertise, while others turn to new tasks and directions, enjoying the occasional detour in their musical journey.
From Morning Bound for Midnight to The Direction of Light, music fans have become familiar with Zhang Bichen’s work over the past few years. Somewhat unusually for someone with such a commanding stage presence, Zhang openly admits that she has maintained the habit of ”thinking and summarizing” ever since her debut. In her creative process both on and off the stage, she has carefully analyzed her own experiences, and jumps at any opportunity she gets to compare and contrast them with other musicians.
This constant loop of dissection and communication led her to make some interesting creative choices in 2022. Wearing a spunky ponytail and a light and comfortable denim jacket, Zhang walked out into the auditorium with a completely revamped image, jumping up and down as she sang “Select C.” This was the first time that Zhang, a singer with extensive stage experience, had participated in a show where she could interact with the audience more directly. This experience has made her look forward to dipping her toes into other music styles and discovering more aspects of herself in 2023 while she prepares her new album.
Both Pan Yunqi and Wang Yinuo started as trainees of the 2022 season of Sing! China, and they now have officially embarked on the road of becoming professional musicians. For these two fresh faces, the world is their oyster.
Although Pan is very young, she is often praised for her assertive stage presence. Possessing a maturity beyond her years, she excels at heartwarming narrative-based songs, but also tried her hand at “My Good Luck,” which is more of a traditional ballad. While she may be new, this college student is clearly not afraid of trying new things.
Wang’s timid outwardly appearance belies the robustness of his singing voice. A quote from one of his songs: “Just look forward, don’t look at money/ At least your heart will not loosen when you look forward.” Offstage, he is a down-to-earth and sensible person who stresses the importance of healthy eating and sleeping habits.
After singing a series of popular OSTs, Ye Xuanqing began to delve into more original works as well as production. She said that learning about different artistic processes could help improve her ability to appreciate art, facilitate her own ability to create, and further clarify where she stood amongst all of this.
Hu Shih, a Chinese litterateur once said, “Why be afraid of the infinity of truth? Joy resides in every step of growth.” Newcomers and veterans in the music industry always face new tasks. So long as they dare to think, do, and try, they can unlock the infinite potential that resides within them.
Find the Right Positioning and Expand the Boundaries
For the young musicians who are on the rise, 2022 was undoubtedly an important moment for them to mature as artists. Some of them released their first EPs, and some had their first concerts.
In an industry where newcomers are always emerging en masse, young musicians often regard finding where they fit in and answering the question of “Who am I?” as the most important task every new year.
Chen Zhuoxuan was nothing if not blunt. “The pressure of this competition is through the roof,” Chen Zhuoxuan says bluntly. Her solution to deal with the pressure? Determine the musical style and direction that best suits her and try her utmost to stand out as an artist. In her spare moments, she practices her songs and has been learning the cello, guitar, and ukulele. She has also been studying arrangement and other music-related skills.
For Wu Xuanyi, it’s all about passion. To be given an opportunity to stand in the spotlight and express herself is the greatest reward her musical journey has given her so far. She prefers using her passion in pursuit of personal satisfaction and growth. Wu firmly believes that the most basic elements are the most important ones, so she always trains her basic skills and vocalization to ensure that they can always be called upon when needed.
Relative newcomer He Luoluo says in the interview that making plans wasn’t his strong suit — he just wants to experience the here and now. But he remains remarkably serious when it comes to his music and performing on stage. After an initial period where he lacked direction, he eventually entered the entertainment industry when he was 18 years old. Now in his twenties, he has his feet firmly planted on the ground.
Yang Haoming hopes to pursue music and acting simultaneously, as he “can’t stand the idea of having any regrets.” Yang has been acting in film and television dramas since his debut as a music artist. He released a new EP immediately after having a difficult time with his acting agent. Yang felt that his heart was telling him to push himself to expand his boundaries.
New Technologies
On Dec. 12, TME announced the debut of Lucy, the company’s first hyper-realistic virtual idol, creating another hot topic for Chinese music circles in 2022.
After the release of her first single, “Superposition State Girl,” many music fans wondered if Lucy’s voice was real. In fact, her voice is generated by feeding her mass amounts of data pertaining to the singing and timbres of specific targets. Her proficient singing abilities allow her voice to span multiple octaves with ease as well as pull off transposition, trills and portamentos.
As an AI idol, Lucy also has her own independent personality and preferences. Being intensely curious about daily life, she likes to observe and collect the sounds and sights of the world around her. Subway announcements on a busy line in the early morning, the sound of coffee beans being ground in the afternoon, the ticking sound of the traffic lights counting down in the evening…they are all enough to light a creative spark within Lucy.
The virtual idol must face the challenge of breaking through walls between virtual and real world in order to truly communicate with audiences and other musicians. Wandering in different dimensions is also a constant source of inspiration for Lucy. Achieving cross-dimensional cooperation with human musicians is one of her goals in 2023.
Lucy is more than an AI idol who produces AI music. In the future, a new open-source sound based on Lucy’s voice will facilitate music creation in other application scenarios. Music creators will be able to make use of Lucy’s voice clips or open-source sounds to achieve technology-driven creative music co-creation.
Jam Hsiao Ching-Teng
Courtesy of Billboard China
“Today, I am a singer,” Alec Su You-peng says shortly after he sits down.
After nearly three decades, Su, formerly a member of one of the earliest Chinese boy bands, is ready to make a comeback as a singer in another band this year with new music.
Such is its power — music always has a way of making enthusiasts return to it no matter how long they have been away.
Music is as vital as water
Su learned to play the keyboard at a very young age. However, when he was in middle school, his parents wanted him to excel academically and therefore made him give up his music lessons. It was also then that Su became fascinated with pop music. He followed Billboard hits introduced by radio DJs. Music gradually became the most reassuring haven and source of companionship for teenage Su. He rattled off the names of some of his favorite superstars, such as George Michael, who had a glorious singing voice, and Mariah Carey, who can sing beautiful melodies with pearl-like clarity.
“It may sound like a bit of an exaggeration, but at that time, music was like water to me. I could not live without it,” Su says. Looking at the Billboard logo during his Billboard China cover interview, Su says, “This had been a window to my life.”
Growing up in Taipei, Su was a teenage singer in Taiwanese boy band Xiao Hu Dui (also known as Little Tigers). The record company provided the band members with basic performance training before their debut. Blessed with his previous theoretical foundation and musical knowledge, Su excelled in his musical studies and gradually enhanced his songwriting skills. By the time of his solo release, he had a better opportunity to gradually showcase his creative talent. He composed songs in a variety of styles, such as “Ca Jian Er Guo” (Like ships that pass in the night), “Xun Zhao” (Seeking) and “Da Bu Liao” (Big deal). However, Su rarely brings up his original works. In his opinion, creation is highly specialized. An abundance of creative energy, continuous inspiration, and a huge time investment are all essential. He believes if he cannot even satisfy himself with the music he creates, there is no need to describe himself as a composer to the public.
Over the past 30 years, Su has dabbled in several trends, including folk music, love songs, R&B, hip-hop and electronic music. He says he would always keep up with the latest trend even though he may not be able to pull off every style. This is something that singers must try to achieve.
Su also misses the older days of music where it was simpler. “Back then, to get your song on the music charts, you only had to ensure that it sold well and did well on radio and TV,” he says. “Now the evaluation is much more complicated. Streaming data is also taken in account. In short, I feel that the value of songs hitting music charts is not quite the same now.”
Customized playlists and smart music recommendations that are popular on the Internet do not seem to reflect Su’s preferences very well. However, making playlists used to be his favorite thing. When he was in middle school, he recorded songs from the radio onto cassette tapes and then transcribed them into his exclusive collection. Only his best friends could receive such a tape on their birthdays. Su admits that now he, like most people, does not have the time or energy to select songs and make his own playlist. He has gradually become used to being “fed” by streaming media. However, no matter what stage of his career he was at, his love for music has never strayed.
Keep going, there’s always a door open for you
In the late 1980s when they rose to fame in their native Taiwan and throughout Asia, Xiao Hu Dui had an unparalleled influence that was beyond the reach of the idol bands that followed. After the band split in 1995, its three members each started a new phase in their lives.
From singer to actor, Su was rejected many times because of his baby face and idol status. He left everything behind to travel overseas for leisure and further his studies in the United Kingdom. But after returning home, his will to achieve his goals still remained strong.
Su devoted his full attention to each of his records and eventually composed classic songs such as “Bei Bao” (Backpack), “Zhen Xi” (Cherish), “Deng Dao Na Yi Tian” (Waiting for That Day) and “Wo De Hao Xin Qing” (My Good Mood). In his acting career, he has portrayed different personalities in roles such as Yong Qi (My Fair Princess), Du Fei (Romance in the Rain), Zhang Wuji (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber) and Bai Xiaonian (The Message). His progress is evident with each passing role.
Later in his career, Su turned to directing. He does not see The Left Ear or The Devotion of Suspect X as perfect, but the rigor and meticulousness displayed in his work makes the detail of his films worthy of attention.
Su is now working on his third film. According to the initial plan, shooting will start in October. In March, he unexpectedly received an offer to star in the show Call Me By Fire. At first, he politely declined the offer because the show’s shooting schedule conflicted with his film production schedule. However, the show’s crew was unwilling to give up on him. His film partner later learned of this situation and was willing to set up a film crew for him in Changsha, allowing him to work on the film production between his show recordings. Su agreed to join the show two days before shooting began.
Su was told that the show’s audience would determine whether celebrity contestants would stay or leave. As most of the audience was between 20 and 30 years old, they would have been familiar with his film and TV hits. But Su felt that since he was returning to the music stage, there was no reason for him to sidestep Xiao Hu Dui’s songs. “Xiao Hu Dui has a lot of hits, but I am not a great dancer,” he says, “I had to prepare for more than three months before I performed ‘Qing Ping Guo Le Yuan (Green Apple Paradise)’ on my debut as a mentor on Produce Camp 2019. So I just avoided songs that would require dancing. I thought I would never ever forget the dance using sign language for the song “Ai” (Love), but to my surprise, I had trouble remembering the details. Later, I found a sign-language video from a young girl on the Internet to refresh my sign-language skills.”
When rehearsing, Su realized he was out of practice; his moves and control over his expressions never seemed to be precise. “It was easy for me to tell the trainees how to perform while mentoring them,” he says. “But when it came to my turn to perform, I realized it was difficult to regain the skills I had back then.”
In the end, the performance of “Ai “(Love) went viral online.
When he returned to the stage, it was as if he was once again the young man who was not afraid of the arduous journey ahead. He fought hand-in-hand with his band and eventually won another opportunity to establish his boy band in a starring role. Su often considered himself a poor dancer. But with the help of his team, he started to enjoy dancing. It was more gratifying to Su than being the center of the boy band. “It was a miracle for me,” he says.
Su went from being an idol singer to a popular TV and movie actor, then a director, and now a singer again. “We should seize the present moment, and not worry about where it may lead,” he says. “You just keep moving forward, and sometimes you do not know which door will open for you.”
Catching up with everyone through new work
When Su first debuted, the route to becoming a star was monopolized by various companies. There was a high entry requirement to become a star. However, in the era of self-media, everyone has the opportunity to become famous. From his perspective, that is definitely a good thing, but it also means the superstar era is gradually fading away, as celebrities are slowly becoming less mysterious and less distant from the audience.
In the past, the young and famous Xiao Hu Dui members were adored by a large number of fans. This made the band members quite nervous, so they made a pact with their fans to place an emphasis on honor and order, hoping that everyone would focus more on their individual lives. Su, as a first-generation idol, is a bit puzzled by fandom behavior today. “As idols, we must understand our value and responsibility, then set examples for our fans, and continuously strengthen our performing skills,” he says. “The adoration of celebrities should never be quantified in monetary terms, nor should it be used as an excuse to interfere with other people’s lives. Celebrity fandom is supposed to be a positive thing. How does this become a shackle between celebrities and their fans these days?”
While the release schedule is still being finalized, fans should be able to hear two of Su’s new songs before the Lunar New Year (beginning Jan. 22).
Alec Su for Billboard China
Photo: Xiaoming; Editor: Mi; Stylist: Lindsay
HONG KONG — Zhang Haisheng feels like his business may never go back to normal under China’s strict and constantly changing pandemic policies. Zhang, who runs three live houses in Shanghai under the brand Yuyintang, struggled over the past three years to navigate China’s “zero-COVID” curbs, which shifted from blanket bans on live events in early 2020, to quarantines, to sudden city-wide lockdowns last spring when cases surged — bringing Yuyintang’s operations to a halt.
Since early 2020, Zhang has canceled close to 1,000 shows. Even during some windows when performances resumed, to meet the country’s strict testing rules he had to hire extra workers to check customers’ nucleic acid test records — and ended up operating at a loss. “In the first two years of the pandemic, sometimes performances could be held normally,” Zhang tells Billboard. “But [2022] was bad, the loss has been relatively huge.”
Now, after a series of street protests, the Chinese government appears to be abandoning its zero-COVID strategy. On Dec. 7, it began easing mass testing requirements and allowing people who have mild symptoms to quarantine at home instead of at government-managed facilities.
More than a year after most of the world resumed concerts and festivals, China’s live industry is finally looking at a rebound. That recovery is likely to focus mostly on domestic acts, live executives tell Billboard, in part because Western artists were already electing to skip China on their Asian tour swings because of stricter Chinese permitting rules — a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
While other parts of the world were lifting travel restrictions and bracing for a reopening early last year, the fast-spreading Omicron variant spurred dozens of cities across China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou, to lock down. During one virus surge, more than 4,000 performances were canceled or postponed throughout China from mid-February to mid-March of 2022, the China Association of Performing Arts estimates.
Citizens reacted angrily to the measures, triggering some of the most widespread anti-government protests in years. On Nov. 25, a fire killed 10 residents of Ürümqi in northwest China, which many suspected was linked to strict COVID policies that have trapped people in their homes. Workers, students, and residents in a dozen cities across China took to the streets, demanding changes to the Chinese government’s harsh COVID rules. Some protesters even called for China’s leader Xi Jinping to step down.
With the lockdowns lifted, musicians, live music venues and concert bookers are bracing for a surge of infections, while at the same time looking for ways to recover their previous losses.
Zhu Ning, founder of VOX Livehouse, one of the best-known live venues in Wuhan, has been finding ways to leverage his empty venues throughout the pandemic. He ventured into the world of music training, turning his three live venues into rehearsal rooms with recording studios. Zhu also operates his own music label, which has signed bands such as Chinese Football, a four-piece indie rock group. “Since it’s impossible to perform during the pandemic, we did more work on the songwriting and recording side,” he says.
As the founding drummer of SMZB, one of China’s early punk bands, Zhu supports and promotes new indie acts in Wuhan. “Since China’s borders were closed and foreign bands were not able to come in, there has been more space for local acts to perform, and I guess that’s one of the silver linings coming out from this pandemic,” he says.
Starting in early December, Chinese authorities have begun to review show permits again, and he expects local performances to go back to normal levels in 2023, which for VOX would mean around 230 shows per year. “It was quite frustrating in the past three years,” Zhu says. “It affected us too much, and we are almost unable to bear the consequences.”
Protesters march along a street during a rally for the victims of a deadly fire as well as a protest against China’s harsh Covid-19 restriction s in Beijing on November 28, 2022.
NOEL CELIS/AFP via GI
While some have high hopes for the future, Ai Jing, who runs the concert booking agency Haze Sounds, is still struggling to resume operations. Touring musicians from outside of China — who have not been allowed to perform in the country for three years — are still unable to obtain a visa and show permit, since China’s borders are still closed to outside performers.
Acts booked through Haze Sounds, such as Novo Amar, who were scheduled to perform in March of 2020, have been postponed multiple times, currently to November 2023. “I have fans who bought tickets for this performance when they were freshmen in college, and now they have all graduated,” Ai says.
Western Artists Eschewing China For Other Asian Cities
Even with a reversal of zero-COVID policies, the reemergence of China’s live music market is likely to be almost entirely domestic for at least the first half of 2023, as global touring artists decide to skip China and perform elsewhere in Asia, one live music industry executive tells Billboard. International acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Aurora and Kings of Convenience have announced their Asia tour dates for 2023, but China is not on their schedules.
Even before the pandemic started, Western artists were already doing fewer shows in China, often because of permitting and other challenges. Chinese officials “made it harder and harder to get permits for quite a long time, so a lot of artists just stopped going there,” the industry source says. “Everything started to somehow potentially step into the world of politics.” (Promoters typically need permits from China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Public Security.)
A Billboard review of eight major venues — including Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai and Wukesong/Cadillac Arena in Beijing — shows that the number of major Western artists performing in China has been falling since 2013. In that year, 21 artists visited China, including Justin Bieber, Alicia Keys and OneRepublic, compared to only five in 2019, when The Chainsmokers and Shawn Mendes played Mercedes-Benz and Westlife visited Cadillac Arena.
Global acts have adjusted to the challenges of touring in China by finding other cities in Asia to fill out their Asian tour schedules, which typically total between eight and 12 shows. The absence of Shanghai and Beijing, the Chinese cities with the most viable venues, is not affecting the profit and loss picture for most Western acts, the source says.
Ai, the concert booker, is worried about the long-term effects a border shutdown would have on China’s culture sector and global reputation. “I hope we can open to the world again,” he says. “It would be better if we could be more inclusive and accept more diversity and different voices, but I dare not expect too much.”
In Shanghai, Zhang says that if pandemic measures don’t ease soon, to cut costs he’s considering closing one of his three venues, which host mostly indie rock, folk and jazz acts and have a capacity of about 300 people each. “I hope the policy will relax gradually, because people’s demand for performances has not decreased, and their expectations for overseas bands still exist,” says Zhang. But, he adds, “it will take time for us to get back on our feet.”
–Additional reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
TAIPEI — Back in the early 2000s, Taiwanese artists such as Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai dominated Chinese-speaking markets throughout Asia, creating a golden era for Taiwanese pop music. While some, like Chou, continued to be influential, other music stars from the island disappeared from the public eye amid increasingly fierce competition from Japan, South Korea and mainland China.
Two decades years later, Taiwanese artists are making a comeback, as TV variety shows and music platforms in mainland China, in a wave of nostalgia rife with political undertones, have pushed their re-emergence. In May, over 100 million people watched re-screenings of Chou concerts from his 2013 and 2019 world tours as part of Tencent Music Entertainment’s Live Concert Series — a record for online concerts that emerged during the pandemic.
That same month, Cyndi Wang — the now 40-year-old Taiwanese singer dubbed the “Sweetheart Goddess” for her sugary pop songs — topped a Chinese music chart after her appearance on the variety show Sisters Who Make Waves. Nine of her songs from the early 2000s took over Chinese streaming site QQ Music’s “rising hits” chart for about a week. Wang’s fans called to buy shares of Mango TV, the station broadcasting the show, and threatened to dump shares if she was eliminated from the show, according to Weibo posts.
“Her appearance on the variety show and the need for entertainment during pandemic lockdowns created the hit,” says Shao I-Te, former China representative of Channel V and general manager at EMI Music China. “It’s a sense of nostalgia. Her fans who have the most purchasing power are now in their 30s, and artists like Cyndi Wang are like a symbol of their youth. With her, everyone starts to miss the good old days of the millennium era.”
Yet with tensions between Taiwan and Beijing’s communist government mounting once again, Wang’s sudden return to fame has also drawn online criticism in mainland China. After former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s visit to Taiwan in August, netizens accused Wang of not supporting the “one China” principle after she initially failed to share a propaganda post from CCTV (Chinese state television) on social media site Weibo which declared “there is only one China in the world.”
Wang was among about 30 Taiwanese artists, including Chou and Tsai, that people online called out for not supporting the statement without hesitation. (She later reposted the CCTV message on Weibo and expressed support for the “one China” principle, which then generated criticism from Taiwanese citizens.)
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, while Taiwan has its own constitution and democratically elected leaders. China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control and has held military drills in the air and seas around Taiwan, including the firing of ballistic missiles after Pelosi’s visit.
The Rise and Fall of Taiwanese Music in Mainland China
Taiwan’s pop music export wave started in the 1980s when Teresa Teng swept mainland China by storm. Then Jacky Cheung‘s 1993 album The Kiss Goodbye sold 1.36 million copies in Taiwan and over 4 million copies in greater China — sales that surpassed U.S. album sales for Madonna and Bruce Springsteen around that time, which helped entice global record companies to enter the Asian market.
Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI and BMG established their Asian hubs in Hong Kong, bringing capital and production technology and further spreading the influence of Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop music across Asia.
After the financial crisis in 1997, Hong Kong’s economy struggled, and a group of newcomers appeared in Taiwan. In 2001, Shao’s Channel V named Chou best male singer; it was the first time someone replaced Hong Kong’s Four Heavenly Kings in this award category. Since then, artists such as F4, Mayday, Tsai and Singaporean artists Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin — who went to Taiwan to jumpstart their careers — started to influence the next decade’s music.
“People born from 1980 to 1995, this entire generation has become an important generation supporting these singers, who have purchasing power and great acceptance of pop music, and with their help, these artists created the music taste of a generation,” Shao says.
In 2004, during the Taiwanese golden age, Wang performed her hit “Love You” on the Sisters Who Make Waves variety show. But after the global financial downturn of 2008, and the rise of China’s economy that followed, the fortunes of Taiwanese artists began to change.
Cyndi Wang attends a press conference to promote her new album on December 16, 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan of China.
Visual China Group via GI
Around 2010, Chinese internet giants Tencent, Netease, Alibaba and Baidu kicked off an era of online music streaming that created a more distinct mainland Chinese market, which made it tougher for Taiwanese and Hong Kong pop music to break into China.
By 2018, despite a history of rampant piracy, China had grown into the seventh-largest music market in the world with $531.3 million in total revenues that year, according to IFPI. (Taiwan, which has 23.5 million people — a small fraction of China’s 1.4 billion — has held around No. 25 the past few years.)
“Taiwan continues to breed contemporary pop acts but with reduced probability of success in the mainland market,” says Xing Xiaole, French music distributor Believe’s Beijing-based head of artist services for China. He says that’s because Taiwanese artists have struggled to adapt to the distinct ecosystem of Chinese social and advertising platforms, and had to endure travel and group gathering restrictions during the pandemic.
Xing, who also deals with Taiwanese clients, says the biggest Taiwanese music influence in mainland China today comes from indie bands such as the jazz-influenced synth-pop group Sunset Rollercoaster and The Chairs, which releases songs written in English, Mandarin, Japanese and the Taiwanese dialect.
But the rise of mainland China’s market means that Chinese-speaking musicians can no longer rely on Taiwan as a starting point to become as influential as before. Some of them choose to head west to China. And when tensions flare between China and its island neighbor, they often get tangled up in the political wrestling across the Taiwan Strait.
In the 1980s, the Taiwanese government used Teresa Teng’s love ballads, which were popular across China and then banned by communist Beijing, in anti-communist propaganda broadcasts.
The Chinese government, for its part, often requires artists to toe the party line, including referring to Taiwan as being part of China. Taiwanese singers whose careers are based in China have been invited to attend CCTV’s New Year’s Gala to spread pro-unification thoughts.
“There’s always been a red line for Taiwanese artists in mainland China, ever since the 1980s,” Shao says. “What the new generation of artists can do is draw from their everyday experiences and create music that can connect with the world.”
FBI Director Chris Wray is raising national security concerns about TikTok, warning Friday that control of the popular video sharing app is in the hands of a Chinese government “that doesn’t share our values.”
Wray said the FBI was concerned that the Chinese had the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.” He also asserted that China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray told an audience at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Those concerns are similar to ones he raised during congressional appearances last month when the issue came up. And they’re being voiced during ongoing dialogue in Washington about the app.
Concerned about China’s influence over TikTok, the Trump administration in 2020 threatened to ban the app within the U.S. and pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company. U.S. officials and the company are now in talks over a possible agreement that would resolve American security concerns, a process that Wray said was taking place across U.S. government agencies.
“As Director Wray has previously said, the FBI’s input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in an emailed statement. “While we can’t comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns and have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions.”
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. The TikTok statement Friday noted that ByteDance is a private company and that “TikTok Inc., which offers the TikTok service in the United States, is a U.S. company bound by U.S. laws.”
At a Senate hearing in September, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas responded to questions from members of both parties by saying that the company protects all data from American users and that Chinese government officials have no access to it.
“We will never share data, period,” Pappas said.
HONG KONG — Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was sentenced to 13 years in prison for rape and other sexual offenses, a Chinese court said on its official Weibo account on Friday (Nov. 25).
The Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing said that from November to December 2020, Wu, also known as Wu Yifan, raped three women at his home when they were under the effect of alcohol.
Wu was sentenced to 11.5 years for rape and 22 months for “assembling a crowd to engage in promiscuous activities” in July 2018, according to the Weibo post. Wu, who is a Canadian citizen, will serve a 13-year term in China before being deported.
“Justice was delayed, but now it’s here,” Du Meizhu, the Chinese influencer who blew the whistle on Wu, wrote on Weibo after the announcement.
Born in China and raised in Canada, Wu was a former member of the popular K-pop group EXO before returning to China to pursue his solo career in 2014.
Wu was detained in Beijing in July last year and was formally arrested on suspicion of rape in August, after the then-18-year-old Du accused him of luring her and other underaged girls into having sex under the pretense that they would be promised an acting career. The closed-door trial began in Beijing in June.
The sexual assault allegations against Wu prompted widespread criticism and became one of the most high-profile #MeToo cases in China.
Wu was also ordered to pay a 600 million yuan ($83.5 million) fine for hiding personal income through domestic and foreign affiliated enterprises, local taxation authorities said on their website.
Wu’s scandal came at a time when Chinese internet and media regulators have pledged to silence “unhealthy” online fan groups and crack down on “tainted artists” who have used drugs, visited prostitutes or broken the law, from all forms of broadcast.
Artists in China have been under great pressure to refrain from “immoral conduct,” which includes acts as minor as smoking or having tattoos.
Under public pressure from the sex-crimes allegations, some 20 brands — including Lancôme, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Porsche — cut ties with Wu last year. Chinese music streaming platforms, including Tencent’s QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music, pulled his songs, and his Weibo social media account, where he had over 51 million followers, was taken down shortly after his detention.
Wu’s former group, EXO, became one of the most successful boy bands of South Korea, selling over 1.4 million albums in their first year, according to its label, SM Entertainment, and performed sold-out gigs around the world.
He has also starred in films and appeared as a judge on The Rap of China, a popular reality television program. By 2017, Wu was named Forbes’ 10th most influential Chinese celebrity of the year, with an annual income of 150 million yuan ($23 million).
In 2018, Wu signed with Universal Music to distribute his music in global territories besides Japan and South Korea. His debut studio album, Antares (2018), knocked Ariana Grande off the U.S. iTunes music charts and was platinum-certified in China. It peaked at No. 100 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, while the single “Like That” rose to No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Each lasted one week on the charts.)
Wu’s contract with Universal expired in March 2021 and the label has not renewed it.
While some of history’s greatest artists have a distinct look for fans to recall instantly, many musical greats are shape-shifting chameleons, finding different looks, styles and eras throughout their careers.
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See latest videos, charts and news
TEN falls strictly in the latter category, with the Thailand-born K-pop star using his songs and music videos to express the different creative concepts, characters, and, at times, confusion inside his mind.
After trying out shouty punk-pop with “Paint Me Naked,” festival-ready EDM on “New Heroes,” and the hypnotic “Dream in a Dream” with fusions of traditional East-Asian instruments, TEN has paired sultry R&B sound with vigorous group choreography. His new single “Birthday” dropped as part of the NCT LAB project under K-pop super-label SM Entertainment to spotlight the different members in its ever-expanding NCT boy-band project that currently boasts 23 members.
While TEN has already proven his superstar status as a part of groups like WayV and NCT U, as well as one of seven members in SM’s K-pop supergroup SuperM that hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, TEN refuses to sit comfortably as an artist.
“I get bored easily and the audience will get bored of me doing the same thing,” the singer says during a Zoom call from Seoul. “So I keep finding what kind of stuff I haven’t done yet.”
Wrapped in a flannel shirt for this giggly Billboard interview, TEN’s bubbly warmness strays far from the seductive, slithering soloist rocking chains and veils throughout the “Birthday” video. Even as TEN speaks with a lightness, there is compelling duality in his seriousness in accepting who he is while simultaneously wanting to level up in his work. Even when the star admits he’s lost inspiration, there’s still a guiding force pushing TEN into new, creative areas.
Read more from TEN on all the vocal, thematic and dance elements behind “Birthday” and what else is on the way.
Billboard: Congratulations on the new song. “Birthday” is your fourth solo single, what’s the difference this time compared to past releases?
TEN: This song has no connection with my past singles or whatever you see in “Paint Me Naked” or “New Hero.” They’re different in genre, style, makeup, and choreography. Even the use of my vocals changed. I’m not really interested in doing the same thing over again, like this deep and strong vocal that’s at the same time very soft. If you listen to the verses, I’m using a lower register and then a high falsetto on the chorus. I want to show the contrast between strong and soft.
I’m glad you brought that up because it was a great vocal performance and something we haven’t heard from you before. Was it a challenge or did you know how to approach it?
I did find recording the vocals very challenging because R&B is different, you know? “Paint Me Naked” is a pop song so you just hit the melody, which is simpler than R&B because when you sing R&B you need to have that delay and draw things out. At first, I was singing it similar to “Birthday,” but I thought, “This is not how I want it to sound.” So, we re-recorded after I listened to more R&B songs to see how they ride the rhythm. And I was trying too hard at first, but the next session was just chill; I just felt the lyrics, listened, and laid back.
There are many NCT members and a lot of SM Entertainment artists, but it seems like we can always look forward to a TEN single each year. Do these opportunities come because you always try to show something new?
I keep finding new concepts by watching movies, looking at tattoo pictures from Instagram, other artists’ photoshoots, fashion shows. If you see luxury brands’ fashion shows, they have their own concept and each year it changes. I’m into that. I’ll say, “Okay, I like this kind of stuff so let me keep it to myself, look at other stuff and mix it together.”
Do you save a lot of things on Instagram?
I take a lot of screenshots on my phone! I was even watching an animation recently and was like, “Okay, I like this concept, let me do it like this guy here, then let me use this color as an outfit…”
How much of your inspirations came out in “Birthday”?
I was very lucky at this time with all the people that help me make “Birthday.” They really asked for my opinions, “What kind of stuff do you want to represent? How do you want to express yourself?” I chose all four outfits. There’s the suit because I want to show a mature side of me. Another one had the chain on my chest, an essential look; I need one look that is very sexy. The other one is an outfit where I wear a hat and there’s a black sheet covering my face. It’s a traditional, flowy kind of outfit because I don’t want to only show mature sides.
I wanted to show the fluid side of me too. It was very hard to find a lot of references at that time, it took me a week to find everything that I wanted, but I sent it to my stylist and video directing team. They just say, “Okay, let us figure everything out for you.” We had a lot of talking going on during the making.
Tell me about the choreography.
This one is mainly by my friends Bada Lee and Jrick [Baek]. They really helped make my vision come to life. I told them how there are a lot of K-pop groups out there with choreography that has a signature move. But for this one, I didn’t want it to be like that, I wanted it to be like artwork. I want fans to see little sparkles in the choreography and say, “Oh, I like that moment.”
Do you have a favorite moment throughout the whole video?
Well, the first verse is very challenging for me. You can see the full choreography in the dance video and in the first verse there are so many B-boy-like moves. I got bruises all over my body, it’s very hard. But what was best about that is that I was working with my dancer friends on moves I can’t do alone. We’re all in contact as they pull me up, I kick out, there’s like a wave—it’s not just me doing the work but we are all connected as a team.
Like “Birthday” or “Paint Me Naked,” your songs are confident in their elements of sexuality. It’s not raunchy but very free and open. How do you prepare your mindset in these kinds of performances?
Wow, well, I don’t really think about that much. It’s like, “Okay, I want to wear these clothes.” It’s just me. This is my body and this is how I want to express it. Wearing too many clothes sometimes in dancing can block your body line. I don’t want to feel like I’m not confident with my body so I was like, “Let’s just do it.” That’s why I don’t really do fitness or try to build muscle for certain clothes. I’m skinny so that’s just me. I don’t need to build it up to impress someone else.
You want to show your natural self.
Yes, but maybe a little exercise for my belly fat. [Laughs] Just a little!
Oh, come on! Don’t worry about that. It sounds that you’ve found confidence in your own body which is great because many struggle with that.
It’s like, everyone has a charm, but I’m still trying to learn how to use mine. I also think about being seductive, right? In music videos, you can try everything—you can’t really do that in real life but there’s no right and wrong in the music video. It’s just, “Let’s try.”
It’s your opportunity to try things because everyone knows TEN’s personality as very bubbly. But on stage, you become very different.
Thank you. It just speaks to a different character of myself and the right time for me to express myself. I can’t do it at any time.
You mentioned you don’t want to be too covered up when dancing. I was wondering about the hat and veil look. Was it difficult to master that look?
The veil was not the problem, but the hat kept falling off while dancing. I had to fix my hat all the time, but it’s fun to dance with a hat like that. I felt like I’m a mystery guy and no one knows me.
Outfits can help people to feel more confident. A different outfit helps you represent yourself and your personality differently. It helped me become that character. Every outfit has its own reason that I choose it, and I like every outfit, but this time the hat outfit is what I really enjoyed wearing. It really helped me embrace the concept. “Birthday” has a very strong drum and bass sound, but that outfit kind of helped to soften it down and become a bit more mysterious.
After “Birthday,” fans were saying they want a full album from you. Would that be something you’d be interested in?
Yes, I would. I love working as a team, but I also want to do my solo stuff because you can put in your thoughts and personality. Even though I sometimes didn’t write my song, I can check out the demos and say, “Okay. I want to try this or try that.” And when you read the lyrics, it’s like acting. You’re trying to change yourself for that song as you work on it. It’s like, a song can be very groovy or hip-hop or—can I say swag?—swag.
I can simply work on the song process and it’s going to be a lot of fun. As a group it’s also fun, but it’s different. As a team, you put in the element of yourself but you’re still trying to be in motion with your team. Both are fun for me to work so I have to do both.
Speaking of your teams, do you have any teasers about what’s coming with WayV and NCT?
Right now, WayV is preparing for their new comeback. And I can’t spoil anything about NCT yet. If I spoiled it, Mark will send me a text, “Hyung! Bro. What did you just say?!”
We can’t have Mark upset with us. But as we look to the end of the year, are there any ways you want people to remember you in 2022?
Right now, I’m just focusing on myself. To be honest, I don’t know what happened to me but I need more motivation right now. I need to inspire myself. After I filmed “Birthday,” I lost track of something that I don’t even know so I’m kind of figuring that out. I want to improve myself in singing and dancing so I can get to do more unique concepts and better songs in terms of a different genre.
If I don’t practice for that, it’s going to be harder for me to do different kinds of stuff. So, that’s my goal for this year to improve myself and figure out stuff that I’d been thinking about lately. The process for “Birthday” helped me to focus again and be more creative with my work. It was like a fuel that helped keep my engine moving.
That’s very honest. Many struggled with motivation during the pandemic, for example. Do you know what happened? Or do you have advice on how to get over the hump?
I think everyone has that moment in life. So, I don’t really think about it that much, I just need to figure it out. I don’t know what it is and I don’t know if I’d be able to give helpful advice to those who might be feeling down because realistically everyone has their own problems or confusion that only they can relate to.
But for me, I sit down, breathe slowly and talk to myself by asking myself questions in order to break down the situation into small fractions and better understand. That does help me figure things out most of the time! Sometimes I have these moments but it’s happening to me, like, now. So, let me figure it out and then I can tell you next time.
In its third-quarter earnings report Tuesday (Nov. 15), China’s leading music streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) said quarterly net profits soared 39% to RMB 1.09 billion ($154 million USD) from last year as the number of online music subscribers reached a record 85.3 million.
TME, which owns streaming platforms QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo, plus karaoke app WeSing, reported that music subscriptions rose 18.3% to RMB 2.25 billion (USD $316 million) for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 compared to the same period in 2021. The number of subscribers rose by nearly 20%, up from 71.2 million in the third quarter 2021.
“As we are employing a balanced approach to grow paying users…revenues from online music services increased at a healthy pace in the third quarter, driven by year-over-year gains in subscriptions,” Cussion Pang, TME’s executive chairman, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, effective cost optimization measures and improved operating efficiency led to increased profitability amid challenging macro conditions this quarter.”
Overall, online music services revenues rose by 18.8% to RMB 3.43 billion (USD $482 million), but that wasn’t enough to offset a 20% decline in revenues from social entertainment and services, the company’s other main business unit. TME’s total revenues fell by 5.6% to RMB 7.37 billion (USD $1.04 billion).
Media companies have reported widespread declines in mobile revenues for the third quarter, as increased prices for many and the worsening economic outlook globally has caused consumers to rethink everyday expenses. TME was not spared from the trend. The number of monthly active mobile music users fell by 7.7% to 587 million in the quarter, compared to 636 million in the third quarter last year — a decline the company attributed to casual listeners dropping off the platform.
Monthly average revenue per paying user of TME’s online music edged 1% lower, to RMB 8.8 million (USD $1.24 million) compared to RMB 8.9 million (USD $1.25 million) during the year-ago period.
The company bought back $800 million of its own stock in the third quarter, part of a $1-billion stock buyback program it announced last spring.
In September, TME launched a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; it was already publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States. Its move to issue secondary shares in Hong Kong followed similar moves by other big Chinese companies seeking to safeguard themselves against potential ramifications of the geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S.
Editor’s Note: This story was first published and translated into English by Billboard China. It was condensed and edited for style by Billboard editors in the U.S.
BEIJING — Li Ronghao has recently taken up painting. So dedicated is he to this new artistic pursuit that he once sat in front of the canvas for 11 hours without realizing. This intense concentration brought on by the learning process gives him a sense of great joy.
“I never thought that I would find joy in the pursuit of knowledge, as I never excelled in school,” he tells Billboard China for their latest cover story.
Despite having six studio albums under his belt and a label deal with Warner Music Group — not to mention being one of the wealthiest 100 celebrities in China, according to Forbes China — Li nevertheless does not feel it’s necessary to set ambitious goals for every endeavor one takes on. “No one can predict the outcome, so just seize the creative impulse as it comes, let it express itself naturally, and leave the rest to time.”
Li, a singer/songwriter, actor and producer, has been a coach on Sing! China, the popular Chinese singing competition television series, since 2019. He does not find the idea of having the contestants’ “entire fate in your hands” to be appealing. Instead, he simply hopes to find another outlet, in addition to his own musical works, through which he can realize his self-worth. In the process, he has found a group of like-minded young people who are willing to take in what he has learned in his years with the program.
He could have simply played the role of a coach on the show. Instead, in light of contestants referring to him as a mentor, he felt he had to go the extra mile by checking and modifying the demos created by contestants in private. “When I was a child, I always wanted to have a big brother who could help me, like what I am doing now,” he says.
Looking back at the journey that he walked alone, Li says he never expected to live the life of a so-called celebrity. He first picked up a guitar when he was 9 years old, with his knowledge of music theory being virtually nonexistent. Entering adolescence, he became acquainted with a renowned instructor and began to study how to play double bass. He ended up falling in love with heavy metal music and felt he would become a rock musician. With this goal in mind, he learned any and all musical skills he could, oblivious to the fact that he would eventually end up becoming a one-man band.
After choosing to settle down in Beijing, his life was far from easy. It was not until he sold his first song that he chose to devote himself to the creation and production of pop music. For three or four years, Li hardly went out, devoting every waking moment to his work. Half of all the singers in the Mando-pop scene ended up asking him to write or orchestrate songs for them.
Some fans dug into his past and found that even when working behind the scenes, Li’s style jelled with theirs. This resulted in seemingly improbably collaborations such as making a record with Long Piao-piao, the “Singer Queen of Southeast Asia” in the 1980s.
Although many attribute his first studio album, Model, for turning him into an “overnight success” in 2013, this success was in fact rooted in “years upon years of preparation, and a long period of hardship.” Li “took the plunge” and released his first album after one of his friends in a production company offhandedly asked Li if he had a demo during a casual conversation.
At the 25th Golden Melody Awards, the project was nominated for best album while Li himself was nominated for best male singer, best lyricist, best newcomer and best producer. He eventually went home with the best new singer award.
Despite Li going on to release five more albums, he still believed that his musical potential remained largely unexplored. The more he dived into the creative process, the more aspects of himself he found that could be improved. In this respect, he says he is no different from his “students.”
The public might believe that it’s becoming more and more difficult for young musicians to become famous. Thousands of them enter this circle every year, but only a few gain a firm foothold. Li said that opportunities and risks have coexisted in each era.
“People may regard the past as this kind of golden age, but you don’t realize how difficult it was for us to record a song back then. I was so excited after entering the recording studio for the first time that I couldn’t sleep that night. When I finally did fall asleep, I dreamed about the recording studio. Now, facilities like that are ubiquitous. You can even record a song in your own home if you like. If you wanted to be seen then, you had to wait for the record companies. Now, there are tons of different channels that you can use to reach your audience directly. As long as your music is creative and has meaning, being discovered in this day and age is much easier than it used to be.”
After a pause, Li suddenly adds, “The most important thing is to start the journey as early as you can and never falter. Once you stop, you will find it is incredibly difficult to be ‘seen’ again.”
“Intentionally trying to create something in a certain style is a useless endeavour”
Professionals are able to perceive the inner musical workings present in his style, but even ordinary listeners can point out a composition by Li, even those where he is not the singer. However, such a prominent and distinctive style has led to some people criticizing his work as lacking variety.
“Having a highly distinctive style is precisely what I’m after,” he says. “Intentionally crafting a personal style is next to impossible. It can only be formed naturally as you gradually progress though the highs and lows of your creative journey as an artist. As a musician, I feel I’m very lucky, as the public happens to like what I enjoy creating.”
He has dabbled in R&B, soft rock, disco, chill-out, synth-pop, and other musical styles in his hits and less popular singles.
Li is very much a musician who rewards repeat listens. His talents take on new life on the second or third listen, more so than in the initial play-through.
Several songs in his new album are in the Hong Kong style. His cover of Beyond’s “Lover” along with “Free Soul, ” which pays tribute to classic Hong Kong cinema, ooze with nostalgia. The energetic synthesizer provides a fitting bed for Li’s warm vocals. “You just need to nail down the right feel,” he says.
Where does this “right feel” come from? It is the end product of years of contact with the culture. Li is a huge fan of Hong Kong pop culture. He watched endless Hong Kong movies in his childhood. To this day, he still loves listening to old Cantonese songs. He even watches clips from old TBV dramas when he is waiting in the makeup chair. Though the Guangdong music scene is no longer in its golden age, Li is still very familiar with Terence Lam and other emerging musicians whom he has a great fondness for.
Li never sets limits for himself when it comes to creation. Whether it’s the keyboard or the guitar, he will use whichever is nearer to him when inspiration strikes, and he will push everything aside until he is satisfied with what he has created. This mind-set has provided him with many standout moments. For example, the lyrics and music of “Li Bai” burst into his mind almost simultaneously. He finished “Growing Fond of You” and “If I Were Young,” two hit singles, while on a five-hour high-speed train journey.
Of course, some songs with which Li himself is extremely satisfied have not taken off immediately. “I composed ‘Mom and Dad’ in 2015, and it only became popular last year. ‘Quit Smoking’ is a song from my fourth album, yet it wasn’t until I released my sixth album that many people even heard it. I don’t mind if a song isn’t an immediate hit, as sometimes they simply need time to find their audience.”
When it comes to writing lyrics, Li does not deliberately try to elicit emotional reactions or write about situations outside of his own experience. He only embraces inspirations that come naturally. People often think that his lyrics are about himself, but Li says, “People are touched because the feelings expressed in these songs are universal.”
“Streamlined, optimistic, and passionate about learning”
In addition to the eight songs that have been released, Li has also prepared a faster-paced song and an R&B tune. The most invigorating experience this time around was his collaboration with Kulilay Amit (who goes by the stage name A-Mei) on “Equivalence Relation.”
He says he wrote the song, sent it to A-Mei, and asked if she was interested in lending her vocals to the track. Without hesitation, A-Mei replied, “Sure.”
The only unfortunate aspect for Li was that everything had to be recorded online due to the great distance between them.
The thing that Li has struggled most with over the past few years has been the inability to hold live concerts. Nowadays, artists all over the globe are holding online concerts, including many of Li’s friends in the musical world. Li has watched many of these concerts and found them to be a great deal of fun but has not held any online shows of his own.
“I attach a great deal of importance to the idea of interaction,” he says. “Watching a performance at home on your TV or phone cannot reproduce the power of attending a concert in-person. With a concert, you’re getting top-level equipment, lighting effects, and tens of thousands of people enjoying the same song all at once. Having said that, there’s no denying that online concerts are far more convenient. For example, the traffic jam after a live concert can be rather headache-inducing.”
Short videos are now a global trend, and platform algorithms automatically recommend snippets of songs directly to users. This has changed the music industry both at home and abroad dramatically and put pressure on conventional record musicians such as Li.
Li, however, isn’t feeling the pressure. “It’s not as if there are fewer quality songs than before,” he says. “The songs that we enjoyed in the past haven’t gone anywhere. We just have more choices now. Whether or not you feel this so-called pressure all boils down to your mind-set.”
He considers it “mandatory” for musicians in the industry to read up on popular music on the Billboard charts, as it allows them to get a better sense of what’s going on in the music world, and continually provides new sources of inspiration.
“It’s the quality, not the language or anything else, that will decide if we can truly break into the international market,” he says.
Does Li want to remain famous for decades to come, or would he be satisfied with making a short, but lasting, impression? He smiles slyly. “I wouldn’t mind having both,” he says. “But for now, I prefer to just live my life.”
Li Ronghao on the cover of Billboard China.
XiaoGang@curvart
Universal Music Publishing China (UMP China) has signed a global publishing agreement with RYCE Publishing, a music and entertainment company with an over 700-song catalog. RYCE will use UMP China as its publishing administrator for some of China’s biggest C-pop songs from chart-topping artists like Jackson Wang.
Through the deal, UMP China will provide global infrastructure and opportunities for RYCE’s roster as well as handle the Greater China rights for hundreds of major K-Pop hits that are under RYCE’s control including from Korean acts GOT7 and TWICE.
“We saw the rise of J-pop three decades ago and its massive influence on audiences across Asia. Now K-pop is a global phenomenon as we all know, and there has been a very key bridging force between these genres in the last two decades,” says Joe Fang, managing director of UMP China. “With China rising to become the sixth biggest music market of the world, I believe the time of C-pop is here. RYCE Publishing, with its hybrid talents and border-crossing catalogs, is a central piece of that next bridging force and I’m thrilled that UMPG will play an instrumental role in supporting these future chapters of music history.”
Joe Fang
Courtesy Photo
UMP China will now administer top tier C-Pop songs in the RYCE catalog, including “Manual to Youth” and “Adore” performed by TFBOYS; “100 Ways,” “I Love You 3000,” co-written and performed by Jackson Wang （王嘉尔）; “Jiao Huan” performed by Zhou Shen（周深), “EASIER,” performed by Amber Liu （刘逸云） featuring Jackson Wang and “Xiao Juan,” performed by Sitar Tan（谭维维）.
On the K-Pop side, UMP China will now help RYCE Publishing with the promotion of Korean hits for acts like Super Junior, EXO-CBX, GOT7, TWICE, and more in the Greater China region.
RYCE Publishing, is a division of RYCE Entertainment, an entertainment giant based in Beijing. With music publishing, agency, marketing, investing, and brand operating divisions, it specializes in managing music catalog and media resources.
UMP China’s partnership with the local company highlights Universal’s continued efforts to push deeper into China’s music business. Last year, UMP China expanded from its original Beijing headquarters to add a second office and studio space in Shanghai and has also focused on creating songwriting camps to foster the careers of local signees, including one all-female camp with She Is The Music.
China’s music market has grown in size by more than 30% in each of the past two years, according to IFPI, which said total revenues for 2020 were $791.9 million (the total for 2021 was not available). Meanwhile, royalties paid to songwriters and composers rebounded with 8.48 billion euros ($8.49 million) in 2021, a rise of 7.2% from 2020 — but still down 52% from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, according to CISAC, the global rights management organization.
All three major labels continue to explore opportunities in China, even with the uncertainties surrounding government regulation of music and tech companies like Tencent Music Entertainment (which publishes Billboard China), which have been forced to end exclusive arrangements with the majors for their repertoire in the past two years. Those exclusive deals followed years in which China’s music industry was known for rampant piracy that made it tough to make money in the country.
“We hope that everyone respects music copyright,” says Yunyun Wang, managing director of RYCE Publishing. “If we could all do that, every artist in China music market will be motivated to work harder to make decent products, creating a healthy environment for us all.”
Daryl K, founder and CEO of RYCE Entertainment, says in a statement: “We protect and promote our writers with a vengeance and we’re excited to continue doing so with UMP China. We’re looking forward to the fruits of our partnership.”
Andrew Jenkins, president of Asia Pacific, UMPG, says that RYCE Publishing’s “remarkable creative drive has led to a huge number of hits and great commercial success for RYCE Publishing so far. I look forward to an even more successful future as both companies work together to further build on the global impact of RYCE Publishing in the coming years through this new agreement.”
