Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) is getting into the music-for-business market in China.
The company has completed an undisclosed equity investment in Radio Music Warehouse, a company that provides music streaming solutions for business use in China.
TME, which runs music services QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo in China, ended 2019 with 39.9m paying music users worldwide.
The company told investors in a full-year update on March 16 that its online music subscribers paid $160m to the firm during the course of Q4 2019.
As part of the investment deal with Radio Music Warehouse, TME has also obtained a right to further increase its share to a “controlling stake in the company,” according to a press release.
Upon completion of the transaction, TME will provide Radio Music with access to its music library.
At the same time, TME will promote and distribute its music content via “the hundreds of thousand[s]” of offline locations in China that are using Radio Music’s in-store music solutions.
“Through this investment, we will jointly explore music-for-business market to add value to our music ecosystem.”
Tony Yip, TME
Tony Yip, Chief Strategy Officer of TME, said: “Radio Music has a professional music-for-business service system and comprehensive offline coverage resources.
“Through this investment, we will jointly explore music-for-business market to add value to our music ecosystem.
“TME will offer more diversified music content to resolve the challenge of a shortage of content for music solutions to business, and develop brand-new content promotion and distribution models in to provide a stage for artists and high-quality work everywhere.
“We also look forward to a strong synergy between music-for-business service and our existing online music and social entertainment services, to bring users a more professional, immersive music experience that drives the healthy development of the music-for-business industry and the music industry as a whole. ”
Tencent started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TME on December 12, 2018.Music Business Worldwide
