I am amazed and pleased that Sony is going to release Trespassing in China. It is much edgier than their other Chinese releases.
But the music biz in China is not very attractive (here are 2011 annual numbers)....
China's music industry accrued $82.8 million in total sales last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. But 76 percent of that total revenue came from digital sales. Sales of media, which include compact discs, records and cassettes, totaled $19.9 million across the country.
Although China is the world's second-largest economy and has a population of more than 1.3 billion, its music sales ranked 22nd in the world last year.
The main reason? Piracy. In the age of the Internet, technological advance and the rise of new media, record sales are dropping globally. In China, record sales reached $55.5 million in 2006, but dropped to $19.9 million last year, according to the IFPI.
In 2010, more than 70 percent of the revenue from China's music companies came from digital music sales, although the IFPI said that 99 percent of the music in China was pirated.
And although China has twice as many netizens as the United States, per capita digital music sales in China are just 1 percent of those in the US.
In addition to piracy, there is another factor harming China's music industry - revenue distribution.
If a song generates 100 yuan ($15.7) in revenue, only 2 yuan goes to music producers in the form of royalties, according to industry insiders. The remainder goes to telecom operators such as China Mobile as well as Internet service providers such as the search engine company Baidu and Web portals Sina and Tencent.
Link:
www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-06/30/content_15538349.htm
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