China's singer-songwriters make their names on the Internet

The Music Industry Forum is held in Beijing, where experts, including Wang Lei (left), Shen Lihui (center) and Yin Liang, discuss the influence of Internet on the industry. [Photo by Zhang Wei/China Daily]

"Being able to share music globally is a great development in the music industry," says Liu Jin, director of the music channel of Douban.com, one of the most popular Chinese social-networking services.

According to Liu, there are around 34,000 Chinese singer-songwriters who release their music via Douban.com, and around 300 to 400 new music works are offered to listeners every day on the website.

"Many people complain that there are fewer good songs than 10 years ago. Some charge that the Internet destroys creative content and the rampant piracy violation makes the industry decline irreversible. But the good side is obvious: For example, Chinese original singer-songwriters share the opportunity with worldwide musicians. For music lovers, they have a wide range of choices," Liu says.

"What we need to do is to regulate the market."

Song Dongye is one of those indie singer-songwriters who has stood out since he released his songs, such as Miss Dong and North of Anheqiao, on Douban.com in 2009. In 2012, the 28-year-old signed a contract with Modernsky and this summer, with nearly 700,000 followers on his Sina Weibo, he kicked off a national tour.

"During the past three years, the most popular hits were born on the Internet," says Modernsky's Shen, whose company is home to more than 100 indie singer-songwriters and bands. "We seek our next star online every day."

He also points out that though the Internet brings fame to those indie singer-songwriters, they don't get a financial return since most of the music downloaded online is free.

"It's live performances that pay the indie musicians," adds Shen, who founded the Strawberry and Modernsky music festivals in 2007. "The outdoor music festivals have brought around 1 billion yuan in income to indie musicians so far."

Shen's view was also demonstrated by the forum, which reported that the total size of China's music-performance market reached 14.3 billion yuan in 2014. There were over 20,000 live music performances in 2014 and the box-office revenue was 4.4 billion yuan.

"I think that's a much more direct way for an audience to pay for a band or a musician," agrees Yin Liang, the music department director of Chinese video and movie streaming site LeTV.com, which started a new business model for China's music industry by streaming the concert of Chinese rock singer-songwriter Wang Feng in Beijing in August. More than 75,000 users watched the concert online within two days, with each user paying 30 yuan.

"Record companies used to control. But now the business model, which sees the cooperation of record companies and Internet companies, is the new balance," he says.