On April 27, in response to Netease cloud music’s lawsuit against Tencent Music Entertainment Group (hereinafter referred to as Tencent music entertainment, TME) for unfair competition, Chen Mo, general manager of brand and public relations of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, responded in the wechat circle of friends that he would not join the ranks of bickering, ignoring the facts and touching porcelain would not help the development of the music industry. At the same time, he said that the relevant evidence has long been retained, and the lawsuits initiated by the have long been launched one after another.

Netease cloud music insiders told shell finance reporters that their lawsuit had been accepted by the court, but did not tell which court to sue in.

In fact, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Netease and other Internet companies have made layout in the field of music streaming media, forming a whole industry chain layout of online music, online karaoke, offline performance, digital album and artist incubation. However, as Baidu music is managed by Taihe music, shrimp music is shut down, cool dog music, QQ music and KuWo music under Tencent music entertainment, and Netease cloud music under NetEase have become one of the few players in the online field. The competition between the two seems to have never stopped, but the valuation logic of music streaming media is quietly changing.

Statement of Netease cloud music suing Tencent Music Entertainment Group for unfair competition

Cloud music and Tencent music “pull heads” with each other

On April 27, Netease cloud music issued a statement to sue Tencent music entertainment for unfair competition on its official microblog and wechat official account. The statement said that Netease cloud music has officially filed a lawsuit against some unfair competition behaviors of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (including QQ music, KuWo music, kugou music and other products). The statement also listed a number of unfair competition behaviors of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, mainly including malicious infringement of song copyright and plagiarism of product design, product function and innovation mechanism.

Tencent music entertainment responded one by one to the accusations of malicious infringement of copyright, plagiarism of product design, product function and innovation mechanism through the circle of friends of Chen Mo, general manager of brand and public relations of the group.

In response to malicious copyright infringement, Netease cloud music said in a statement that QQ music maliciously evades Netease cloud music rights protection through sub regional bootlegging, and puts infringing songs on shelves in areas where Netease cloud music rights protection ability is weak; QQ music stealthily broadcasts Netease cloud music related songs by importing external song lists; Tencent music and entertainment group’s assembly line batch washed the songs under the false name of Netease cloud music fire songs and intercepted them maliciously.

After Zhou Yiyun and his friends in the entertainment circle were sentenced to 850000 yuan in compensation for their illegal music sales, he said he was still fined by Zhou Yiyun and his friends in the entertainment circle for one and a half years; At the same time, Netease cloud music platform can still search different forms of Shanzhai popular songs. Take the recent popular song “flowers all the way” as an example. This song is sung by musician Wen Yixin. At present, the number of listeners on the platform has exceeded 100 million, while Netease cloud music platform can search multiple song washing versions, which is suspected of serious infringement.

For copying product design, product function and innovation mechanism, Netease cloud music said in the statement that QQ music, cool dog music and KuWo music copied the design of Netease cloud music black glue turntable; Cool dog music and QQ music copy the “listen together” function of Netease cloud music; Cool dog music copied Netease cloud music “yunbei push song” function setting and interface design.

In February 2021, Xie Huan, vice president of cool dog music under Tencent music entertainment, sent a document in the circle of friends to satirize Netease cloud music plagiarism. Xie Huan wrote: “the QQ listening function I did in 2006 has such far-reaching strategic significance. After finding the demand documents of that year, can I tell others to copy me?” In the article, Xie Huan also posted screenshots of product requirements documents written from 2006 to 2007. The “listen together” function of Netease cloud music was launched in July 2020.

In addition, Chen Mo’s circle of friends also showed that new functions such as “seamless playback” developed by QQ music on February 11 this year were followed up by Netease cloud music on February 17.

Screenshot of Chen Mo’s circle of friends, general manager of Tencent music entertainment brand and public relations

Having experienced the fierce battle of copyright, it is turning to fine operation

The last round of “offensive and defensive war” in the music streaming media industry originated from copyright.

Due to the historical “free download” and other reasons, baidu music did not buy more music copyrights. QQ music, shrimp music and cool dog music took the opportunity to rise. Although they did not form an absolute advantage in the market at that time, the copyright in their hands was enough to gather a group of audiences.

The advantage of copyright has also become a key turning point in the history of Tencent music entertainment. In 2016, Tencent merged its QQ music business with China Music Group. Tencent replaced its equity with resources and became the largest shareholder of the newly established Tencent music and entertainment group. It includes three online music platforms: QQ music, KuWo music and kugou music, two live broadcast platforms: kugou live broadcast and KuWo live broadcast, and the national karaoke platform.

The data showed that at that time, the market share of kugou was 28%, the market share of QQ music was 15%, and the market share of KuWo was 13%. The three accounted for 56% of the market share.

Since then, most of the domestic online music platforms have a certain amount of exclusive copyright, forming a situation of “one super and many strong”. There are also attacks and defenses on copyright resale, among which Tencent music entertainment and “upstart” cloud music, which have the most exclusive copyright, compete the most fiercely. Tencent music entertainment has asked Netease cloud music to remove songs from the shelves on the grounds of copyright for three times. In 2017, when the copyright problem was the most serious, Ding Lei, CEO and director of Netease, also shouted.

Finally, under the “mediation” of the national copyright administration, Tencent music entertainment and Netease cloud music reached an agreement on the cooperation of online music copyright. The two sides will mutually authorize more than 99% of their exclusive music works, and agree on the long-term cooperation of music copyright. Earlier, Tencent music entertainment had reached a copyright sublicense cooperation with Alibaba music. In other words, with the “entry” of the national copyright administration, domestic mainstream music platforms have carried out multiple rounds of mutual authorization, and finally the copyright library is basically similar.

At the end of August 2021, Tencent music entertainment announced that it would give up the exclusive right to license music copyright.

In recent years, Netease cloud music is also actively reaching direct authorization with record companies. In May 2021,