Chinese Music Industry

I recently read an article about the lack of diversity in China’s Music Industry. It makes sense as China is a culture that has long valued conformity, through Confucianism and the Cultural Revolution. The article describes how record executives in China basically look at the numbers as to what is being listened to and downloaded, sign those artists, and market the heck out of them. Probably a lucrative way to do things, but the fear is that it is creating a fairly bland music scene in China.

The discussion revolves around the idea of the Long Tail. Chris Anderson of Wired coined the phrase back in 2004 and it refers to a downward sloping curve for most industries. For example, there are a few artists that sell ridiculous amounts of albums (high point of the long tail curve). In a retail setting with limited storage space, stores will pretty much only stock these popular items. However, in a situation where products can be stored in large warehouses or digitally, the cost of storing the not as popular products decreases exponentially, and it becomes very profitable for Amazon, iTunes, and Netflix to offer hard to find items (the long tail – see graph above).

So it does seem that the two influences of conformity and record label actions are affecting the market in China. Because when we compare China to other traditionally conformist cultures such as Japan & Korea, we don’t see the same homogenized music market. Take Japan for instance. They have a popular phrase “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” How’s that for individuality. Yet, a glimpse at their music scene shows a wide variety of music from traditional folk music, to jazz, to modern day Japanese hip hop. And Korea is known throughout the region for their vast cultural exports.

I think this is a very important topic to keep an eye on. As China gains economic might and defines their place in the world, we will really begin to see more cultural exports from their 1.3 billion population. Look at the countries with big money. They are the ones that not only export a number of products, but also export their culture. Yet, the music scene as it is right now in China doesn’t seem like it will produce the variety of music that others around the world will want to consume.

I’m convinced that Chinese musicians will soon find their place and will begin creating music that doesn’t necessarily fit the mold. But it will take courage for bands to go against the mainstream and it will take record label executives with a penchant to risk on the unknown. That will happen soon enough.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com