From a radio station anchor to a broker for song and lyrics composers, and then jumping into internet community, subsequently moving into SP (self-propelled record) operator servicing, becoming a record company general manager, and now settling down in Baidu. It seems that the person has changed jobs numerous times, but has actually never left music in the 16 years of working and would presumably tango with music for the whole life.       

Whenever a conversation is held with friends from record companies on the development of music industry in China, the two words "pirate copy" are inseparable.

Every interview article or blog written on the music in China has always touched on "pirate copy".

Gradually, "pirate copy" becomes the standard answer to all problems of the music industry in China.

I do not intend to suggest how to solve the problems of pirate copy, because it is not "a" problem, but a syndrome caused by "a series" of problems. In order to find out how to cure this illness, one should perhaps understand what the music industry is like in China first.

Talking about "music industry", most people would treat it as the same as "record company", or even think that all record companies with performing artists and brokers added are "music industry". This kind of incomprehension or even misconception actually serves as a nursery for pirate copy.

The above diagram is a conservatory's advertisement for pupils that I found in a Japanese magazine, entitled "Music Industry Map and Position Descriptions". The purpose of the advertisement is to let readers know beforehand what the different units and positions are there in the music industry, before enrolling for the relevant courses according to their interest and specialties.

From this Music Industry Map, it can be clearly seen that record companies are only part of the whole music industry, and not the whole lot of it. What is more important is that the success of a singer or a performing artist is in fact dependent on the support and cooperation of many units and talented people. That means whether or not a local music market can be successfully developed depends on whether or not every link within the industry is doing its respective part as required. 

Artist Singers, Stars

The core of the whole music industry is of course singers and stars, because they themselves and the works of music they perform are the merchandise and assets of the whole industry.

If "singer" is a position, then what should be its position descriptions and entrance qualifications? Leaving aside shape, appearance, age and character, the following are considered as some minimum prerequisites?!

• Singing well = not out of tune or out of beat
• Pleasant voice with personality = one can tell who is singing only by listening
• Live performance can touch audience, generating the exchange of emotions

In fact, how many singers, who fill up the entertainment coverage everyday and flood the ranking list here and there, can meet the above conditions? Singers appearing on TV everyday can't even sing properly, how can the general public be expected to respect and cherish the "industry" and the merchandise （music) that the industry wants to market? At karaoke compartments, I often scorn the singing there with the feeling of “I can even sing better”.   

Is it that China doesn't have outstanding singing talents? Definitely not.

Furthermore, or perhaps China is really too big, and the "core of authority" of Chinese music industry intensely concentrates on Beijing, resulting in very demanding professional entrance requirements for many of those who have talents. One might manage to "drift" to Beijing with all conceivable hardships, but without any "connection" or "background" would still be very difficult to be appreciated by the record companies.

In the past few years, although a series of talent time shows that China was crazy about did relatively lower the professional entrance qualifications, but the first objective of TV stations was to push up their audience rating and ranking rate, and the second objective was to quickly produce popular idols, and not singers, therefore the effect of raising local pop music standards was still insignificant.

Baidu's entertainment spirit is to do away with hidden rules and regulations, and let the talented have the opportunity. We believe Chinese pop music industry can only be shaken up via high standards of the works of art and talents.

Swift horses are to be discovered by talent scouts like Bole（Translator notes: Bole from the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient China was well known for his expertise on horses), and uncut jades are to be polished by artisans. Relying only on the singer's own artistic talent and effort to become a real super star is inadequate. The recommendations on how the performing artists liaise with the internal and external main main camps are listed below:

Internally: the performing artist supports the team

Management Office: Broker Company

Commercial Affairs: Broker, fans administrator, assistants.

Record Company

A&R Music: Song writer, lyrics composer, song editor, producer.

Makeup: Character stylist, hair stylist, makeup artist, dance teacher, print media cameraman, MV director

Marketing & Promotion: Planning, media and communications.

Recording Studio: Bandsmen, recording director, audio mixer.

 It can be seen from the above list that even when a performing artist only wants to release a single, there must be at least 20 staff getting involved. In fact, every supporting staff is required to have a considerable amount of technical know-how and to be from a specialized field (otherwise Japan would not have schools specially providing courses on different professions in the music industry). So, don't ever think that it is easy to "muddle along" in the music industry. With passion it is perhaps okay just to get along with life, but to have success and achievement, it seems, real substance and luck are needed. 

Externally: the performing artist cooperates with all the units.

       1)   Public Relations

Music promotion has long been very dependent on media broadcasting the songs and providing singers exposure. 

Radio/Broadcasting company/Publishing company, Newspapers, Magazines.

Media and record companies are interdependent "like the lips and the teeth", and with entertainment media requiring subject matter and the singer's rallying power, while the record companies are in need of the media as an access to achieving their promotional outcome.

New Media: Internet, wireless network

The springing up of new media greatly enhances the promotional outcome of the record companies. On the one hand, internet substantially saves promotional communication costs for the record companies, and on the other hand, it strengthens the interaction between singers and audience, thus allowing the record companies to have the quicker and more direct ways of finding out how popular a song is, and then make appropriate marketing decisions.

Live House: Small-scale performing site

Small-scale performance is the best means of training singers on live performance, and boosting loyalty of fans.

2)   Producing Income

Record industry is not a charity, how can it survive with only promotions and no income? In the past, companies making money for record companies and singers in China were only Concert Making Company and CD Shop. An overview of the financial reports of record companies today shows that, the sale of CD is less than half of the total income, and the performance income is considerable only for singers already famous. Is music industry in China about to collapse?

In fact, the manner by which musicians produce income has always been following the evolution of " science and technology". As far back as the era of classical aulic music, musicians relied on live performance for a living. With the arrival of typography, music had another channel of spreading, and the publishing of music books heralded the music industry. Later on when Edison invented gramophone, recording technique enabled the spread of music, and the "unique" live performance changed to what could be listened to repeatedly; business model of music thus developed from the simple performance to the industry of performance hand in hand with merchandise sale. From black tape record to cassette tape, and then CD, although the recording carrier has experienced several generations of change in the past decades, but the business model of music industry basically has not changed much, still relying on the sale of "record merchandise".

After the popularization of internet, music becomes a line code, a file, and once again the storage medium and spreading pattern have changed, followed by the change in consumer end-users; laden with iPod, MP3 player and mobile phone...... people just have more than what they can handle. Internet allows music broadcasting with zero hindrance and zero cost, directly impacting the core of "record sale" business model which the music industry emphasizes. Comparatively, overseas countries have a well-developed music market, while the Chinese pop music industry is still at the starting stage. If record companies can grab the opportunity provided by the internet, they should be able to go with the tide and have another beautiful transformation.   

 At this juncture, we have to mention Baidu's proposal of business model that links music to advertisements. This way of getting extra earning overthrows the traditional concept of "merchandise sale" held by the music industry, and also derives a brand new business model combining the song promotion and income producing. To put it simply, traditional radio or TV stations only provide media promotion on the performing artists and their works of art, but will not let them share any advertisement income. On the contrary, performing artists cooperating with Baidu not only enjoy enormous opportunities of promotional exposure, but also can share advertisement income from Baidu. This is absolutely a great leap forward for the music industry.