What Radar is Reading – February 2016

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The second in a series of link-gathering expeditions to bring you quality content from around the web on Chinese music industry movements. The first in the Year of the Monkey!

We also made a resolution not to overuse the word ‘content’ to refer to..er,  ‘stuff we find online’ but we’ll start keeping that promise from next month. Onwards!

For February, we have stories on The Voice of China and casual racism, a flawed Nielsen survey of Chinese listening habits, hypothetical temples dedicated to Chinese rock gods, and a new experimental music space in Shanghai.

China’s music listening habits revealed
BBC (and Billboard, and a whole bunch of other places)

This story really did the rounds.

A new Nielsen survey reportedly revealed that more than 977 million people in China – 72% of the population – listen to music every week.

“The average Chinese consumer enjoys 16 hours of music per week, with 66% of listeners using a streaming service…China has a healthy live scene, with 57% of affluent fans attending concerts, compared to 51% in the US. “

Now that all sounds like good news, but the premise of the survey may have some serious flaws. Those who say they’re “willing” to pay a particular price for services do not, in practice, end up doing so despite price wars in streaming service costs. Piracy is much more widespread (including by music services themselves with respect to the catalogues they offer) and the spread of “western” music much less pervasive than the survey seems to suggest.

It also offers an incomplete picture of what’s interesting within the scene. It is, for instance, thin on details of how the music services themselves are going to reconfigure their services, and how newer trends like live streaming are shifting the landscape.

Beijing artist paints colossal temples devoted to Chinese rock gods
Shanghaiist

Speaking of landscapes…

“Beijing artist and musician Du Kun has created a series of massive paintings portraying similarly massive temples built in the likenesses of Chinese rock stars.” These are mighty impressive. Head on over to the full gallery and let us know how many you can recognize. We got 5/7.

DU_kun_rockstar_temples

Please Don’t Stop the Music: Discord at ‘Voice of China’ over ‘Sky High’ Fees
Wall Street Journal

A bizarre dispute at China’s biggest music reality show, with its Chinese production house Canxing accusing its Dutch partner Talpa Media of “trying to extract hundreds of millions of yuan in licensing fees.”

“The accusation, which Talpa has denied, comes after the Dutch company last week sought an injunction in Hong Kong to ban Star China Media Limited, Canxing’s parent company, from producing and broadcasting the next season of “The Voice of China,” which is expected to debut this summer.”

It also accused Talpa of seeking to ignite “a bidding war among Chinese companies in order to secure a monstrously high license fee.” The situation devolved rapidly, with netizens and music industry folks weighing in on Canxing’s side – accusing the Dutch company (and indeed, Holland itself) of “bullying” the Chinese.

A drama-filled reality show just got real meta. Given The Voice’s status in the Chinese market, expect this situation to get uglier.

BN-MI658_voice1_G_20160129052056

Exciting news in the world of Shanghai basements
Smart Shanghai

A new experimental music space called Space-631 has opened in Shanghai. “This basement photo studio in Zhabei has been converted to host a variety of experimental and indie rock shows, along with plans for alternative cinema events,” writes Sacco in Smartshanghai.

“There has been a large modular shaped hole in Shanghai since the closing of 696 Space over a year ago. 696 was one of Shanghai’s longest running experimental venues, and was home to the NoiseShanghai crew. For the past year, Basement6 has been hosting the bulk of Noise Shanghai gigs along with a few Inferno and Yuyintang showcases to help out. But experimental music doesn’t pay the bills so a regular venue for these misfits of Shanghai’s bland rock scene will be a welcomed addition.”

…and finally:

This awesome comment from a Radar reader on Modern Sky is intriguing, detailed and offers as much analysis as any of our think pieces!

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