Why is the new song starting window period, why is it important for Tencent Music and Netease Cloud?

Author | Peng Peng Editor | Fan Zhihui

Recently, the "non -exclusive" of domestic music copyright is accelerating landing.

On June 20, Netease Cloud Music and Tencent Music Entertainment Group (hereinafter referred to as TME) successively announced the copyright cooperation with the Times Feng Jun. In early June, SM Entertainment also reached copyright cooperation with the two major music platforms.

However, it is interesting that whether it is the Times Feng Jun or SM Entertainment, TME has mentioned that he has a 30 -day new song exclusive starting right. In other words, the new songs of the artists of the two companies in the future will be the first 30 days to launch TME's QQ music, cool dog music, cool my music, and the national K song. Then it will flow to other platforms such as Netease Cloud Music.

So why can TME get the exclusive start of 30 days? What does this month's "window period" mean for the music industry?

Anti -monopoly and window period

In the context of "non -exclusive", TME can get a 30 -day exclusive start, and its legitimacy is traced back to the copyright antitrust case in July 2021.

On July 24 last year, the official website of the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration ordered Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd. to terminate the administrative penalty decision of the exclusive copyright of online music, and the domestic music copyright market officially entered the "non -exclusive" era. However, in the cooperation of exclusive musicians and content, the General Administration of Market Supervision has a certain space for the platform: the exclusive cooperation period with independent musicians must not exceed three years, and the exclusive cooperation period for the first -time exclusive cooperation with the new song must not exceed 30 days.

It can be seen that while the General Administration of Market Supervision resumed market competition, it has maintained the enthusiasm of platform competition in 3 years and 30 days of "window period". This is also the policy basis for TME to get the 30 -day startup of Times Feng Jun and SM Entertainment.

It is reported that the "window period" strategy (Exclusive Window) is more well -known in the film field. It was first established by the Hollywood film industry in the 1940s. The film publisher is used.

During the release, the same movie will be released in different screening channels in the order of time. Under normal circumstances, the theater line will be released first. After a period of time, it will be launched to other platforms, and the time cut between different release channels is called "window period". In the film industry, the theater line has been used as the first window of the film. It has become a convention in the industry in the industry between the theater line and the TV and streaming media platforms.

In essence, the window period is based on the "maximum limit of consumers" as the core, and the interest distribution system is distributed between the window. Various types of entities in the industry can realize the exclusive revenue return in the form of window periods in the form of window periods in a certain period of time.

Recently, TME's copyright cooperation with Times Peak and SM is a very typical window period mode. In simple terms, it is the first window of the music platform of TME's music platform, and then went online to other streaming platforms to objectively create a short -term exclusive period of 30 days.

In this process, TME has obtained a 30 -day difference, and to leverage the potential user group to form a competitive advantage in the industry; SM and Times Feng Jun also obtain higher copyright authorization premiums, and are musicians and music content. Strive for more resources.

Let some fans "pay" first

Although the window period of the music industry is not like the conventions of the film industry, there are also many related attempts at home and abroad.

On the junction of the record era and streaming media era, the window period strategy has been used to resist the free consumption model of the music streaming platform.

Beginning in 2011, the Cool Play Band's album "MyLo Xyloto" was the first to launch a paid platform represented by iTunes. It will not be launched in a few months later. Subsequently, the 2014 album "Ghost Stories" and the 2015 album "A Head Full of Dreams" continued the same distribution strategy, but the window period was significantly shortened. By the time of "A Head Full of Dreams", the window period has been shortened from several months to 7 days.

In recent years, it is not common to use paid or not as the first window selection standard. The more common model is to replace the traffic advantage through the window period, but sometimes the traffic flows to the artist and sometimes flows to the streaming platform.

In 2013, Beyonce announced its exclusive release of the new album "Beyonce" in iTunes, with a window period of 7 days. In return, iTunes promised to give Beyon's larger propaganda resource tilt. On the day of the release, the promotion of the album occupies the homepage of iTunes. This is a typical use of the exclusive release period to replace the platform's high -quality declaration resources.

And Kane West chose to use the window period to drive the development of the platform. In 2016, his album "The Life of Pablo" was exclusively launched on his own music streaming platform Tidal. After the album was launched, Kan Ye also released two tweets to call on fans to use Tidal. "My album will never appear on Apple Music ... You can only buy on Tidal", "All my fans and music lovers, please register Tidal immediately." Although the development of later things proves that Kan Ye said: The album went online 6 weeks after 6 weeks of streaming platforms including Apple Music, but after obtaining the exclusive to get the new album of Kanye, Tidal's download was once in the App Store bit. Column first.

In addition to the window period between the artist and the platform, many copyright owners are also seeking opportunities to reach cooperation with the platform.

For example, in 2015, Universal Music Group signed an agreement with the online video platform Vessel. The agreement shows that the selected video content has a 72 -hour exclusive premiere on Vessel on other video platforms, and users on Vessel need to pay $ 2.99/month to visit these exclusive contents. It is reported that the move brought more than 20 times income from VESSEL that higher than advertising support.

As the formats of paid albums and paid singles have gradually matured, many streaming platforms have also begun to use window period strategies to eliminate conflicts between digital albums and paid members. The most common way is to first pay the digital album to pay for the purchase. After experiencing a certain window period, it will be gradually opened to platform members or free users.

Take QQ Music for example, between May and November 2016, Li Yuchun released four digital albums, "Wild", "Bar", "Sheng", and "Long" through QQ Music. Now these albums have been opened to the platform Members listen.

Different from the exclusive permissions of TME for 30 days, fans did not know the empty window period of the digital album before, depending on the negotiation of the copyright party and the platform. Never let go of listening permissions. Coupled with the value -added gameplay such as fans nameplate and specific purchases, many fans choose to pay in the window period.

Compared with the "one -size -fits -all" -style cancellation of the exclusive copyright, this time the 30 -day window period determined by the policy will undoubtedly be more conducive to industry competition. Through the 30 -day window period, it not only guarantees a certain competitive advantage of the market subject, but also does not have the exclusive copyright "you die and live", which drives the music industry to restore a healthy and orderly competitive environment.

Through the window, see the future of the music industry

In 2021, scholar Hinda summarized the logic between different windows into promise logic and convenient logic in the thesis "Making Hollywood Movies in the Internet Flying Age: Two Logic".

As far as the film industry is concerned, as the first window, the theater watching is the first window, and a "commitment" relationship is formed between consumers and theater. The behavior of consumers' purchase of movie tickets is equivalent to buying the "content commitment" of the theater line. Based on this heavy logic, for the sake of consumer trust to see more and more extent, it will be released to release movies with strong reputation such as "famous directors" and "famous actors".

As the second window, the online theater line is dominated by convenience logic. Consumers no longer buy the "commitment" of the platform for content, but pay for the "convenience" service provided by the platform. Therefore, the online theater line no longer pursues commercial and large -scale attributes, but pursues the diversity and richness of the content. In terms of business models, the platform revenue is continuously optimized.

No accident, the 30 -day exclusive first -issued copyright authorization model may become a long -term copyright competition strategy for the music industry in the future, so these two sets of logic are also applicable.

For the music platform, if you want to be the first window, you must pay more attention to the content of the content of attractive and market content. It is expected that competition for leading artists and the starting time will be inevitable.

For platforms that lose their starting opportunities, more need to rely on "convenient logic" to find breakthrough points. Compared with head content resources, the platform's overall effect to consumers will be more important. This is bound to improve the use experience by winning the content of incubation differentiation, and to enhance user stickiness by optimizing services.

For the copyright owner, the "window period" strategy has virtually increased the bargaining power of good content. Once the window period becomes the practice of the domestic music industry, the production of good content will become the top priority of the copyright party. As an artist, the window period can also effectively balance loyalty fans and ordinary fans. It not only ensures the propagation dividends after the work is launched, and fully mobilize the most loyal group of consumers' purchase willingness. More listeners.

There is no doubt that the window period also brings a more flexible consumer choice to the user group. You can choose to pay higher costs (including migration costs and money costs) to get music works at the window period. Enjoy the content after the end.

In other words, the window period strategy can be regarded as a iteration in the copyright competition of the domestic music platform. In the future, more players will be in the battle for the exclusive start of the game.

However, in terms of the current situation, the 30 -day new song exclusive period and 3 years of the exclusive period of the musicians complement each other. The former will affect the cooperation model between the platform and the head artist and copyright company to advance to a mutually beneficial situation;The latter will drive the platform to dig more creative talents and works, and step up the layout of the content production side.To some extent, the formation of the current domestic music copyright window is the product of the market logic and policy supervision game.

No matter what level of window, in fact, the platform is required to clarify its own advantages and improve content and service quality during the competition.From the perspective of the entire industry, this is also conducive to promoting the iterative development of the industry. It is necessary to pay attention to the quality of the content, but also take into account the product and services, and maximize the development potential of the music industry.

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