👸 China Loves Taylor Swift!?

This is The Level Ups. Modern business news for the future business leader (in plain-Jane English).

T-Swift is on fire.

• Chinese platforms are doing big numbers with Taylor’s latest album.

• How the Chinese platforms are the next big opportunity for Western artists.

• What happens when you get greedy vs someone with an insane fandom?

Let’s get into it.

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes & 10 seconds. 

Taylor Swift & China: 

Turns out that people in China love buying her music, which is interesting because China had only pirated music until 2015. Every song from the west was free. More on this later.

Taylor Swift’s latest release, Midnights, has the highest price point of any album on the platform. It’s going for 35 yuan (~$4.83). She sold 200,000 copies on Tencent’s QQ music in one day.

It’s not the first time. Fearless did even better, selling ~200,000 copies in 5 minutes.

Considering there are billions of people in China, it doesn’t sound like much. 

If you consider the Chinese population, it’s not.

But it’s a sign that the Chinese market is willing to start paying for music. At least her music.

Looks like China loves Taylor Swift.

Why Don’t People in China Pay for Music Though?

Before 2015, Chinese consumers didn’t have to pay for online music. It was almost all pirated.

All Chinese music streaming platforms, including QQ Music, were full of music that nobody paid for. While giving away the music, the platforms still made money on ads.

But things changed dramatically (with big benefits for artists).

In 2015, under heavy international pressure and lawsuits, the Chinese government started to crack down on illegally streamed music. They removed 2.2 million songs unlicensed songs from the internet.

Since then, Chinese consumers have adjusted by paying tiny amounts for online music. It’s hard to get people to pay for something that was free for so long. But it’s happening.

QQ Music’s paid users are signed up for bundle deals that allow them access to other Tencent products, such as video streaming, manga, or membership to its online mall.

This record price is a positive sign for music streaming companies and foreign labels.

In the same way that K-Pop and bands like BTS swept through the west, now is the time for western artists to do the same.

Ticketmaster Plays Dirty:

The way Ticketmaster plays the game, maybe looking overseas is not such a bad idea.

The company’s site crashed when selling tickets for her Eras tour. This created a ripple effect that pissed off Taylor and her horde of fans.

The thing about Taylor Swift fans: they’re extremely aggressive. Ticketmaster is feeling it now.

It's why they've since apologized, but the damage is done. Check out the comments.

Taylor’s response held nothing back, either. She cites how she takes so much of her music and fan experience in-house to avoid situations like this.

It’s never fun when your fans have to fight through the Hunger Games to get tickets. Ticketmaster messed up big time.

Fans Are One Issue: The Department of Justice Is Next:

Ticketmater’s parent company Live Nation is in deep trouble.

The Department of Justice is “intensifying” its investigation of the events and promotions company.

Why?

Because when Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, they represented about 70% of the total market for ticketing and live event venues.

Foul play followed.

It’s alleged that the company would tell people if they didn’t use one company (Ticketmaster), they would lose access to the other (Live Nation).

This would kill a tour by robbing it of venues and create an environment where the company charged extremely high fees. Borderline extortion.

This violates anti-trust laws, and they’ve been sued for it before.

The lesson is obvious. If you take care of who artists care about (the fans), things will be okay.

The next lesson is even more obvious. Don’t actively piss off people with mobs of angry fans ready to fight for them if you don’t have to. Greed is not good in this situation.

In a way, the near-monopoly they have on this market is smart. But not when it violates laws in place that protect artists and fans.

The laws may change, but it’s unlikely to happen in this climate. It would take some serious lobbying. Either way, it seems like the U.S government isn’t looking to make it harder on consumers (inflation’s done that for them).

Personally, I don’t know what’s worse, dealing the the Department of Justice or an angry mob of Taylor Swift fans.

Sucks for Ticketmaster.

Excited to see how this plays out.

Thanks for reading!

Darwin