Source title: Tencent Music Research Institute’s “2022 Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper” released, content creation improves quality and reduces music industry development returns to rationality
On June 13, Tencent Music Research Institute, a subsidiary of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (hereinafter referred to as “TME”), launched the “2022 Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper” (hereinafter referred to as “White Paper”). This year’s “White Paper” takes “Changes and Rebirth” as the theme, innovates the research method, introduces “track insight”, analyzes and studies from mainstream singers, independent music, new production, and IP songs, and at the same time analyzes old song consumption, In-depth discussions will be held on topics such as performance marketing, virtual idols, and music healing, to gain insight into the complex and diverse industry changes from different perspectives, and to deeply analyze the causes behind the changes, and discuss the future development trends of the music industry.
With the rapid expansion of the content library of the Chinese music scene in the past two years, music consumption has been more diluted. At the same time, the ecology of multiple music promotion platforms has changed, and the method of winning more traffic shares through the number of songs is becoming invalid. According to the data insight of the “White Paper”, the new songs in the Chinese digital music industry in 2022 will have an obvious “quality improvement and reduction” turn, and the production side is developing in a longer-term and stable direction. In response to the phenomenon that old songs will become popular in 2022, the “White Paper” set up a special discussion topic “New Situation of Old Song Consumption Behind ‘Nostalgia'” to see the essence of consumer demand through the phenomenon.
Changes in the industry model have driven production back to rationality, the total number of new songs has decreased, but the top new songs are more listenable
The “White Paper” data shows that the total number of new Chinese songs that have grown rapidly in recent years will usher in a decline in 2022. In 2019, the number of new Chinese songs released was 237,000, which increased to 748,000 in 2020, and soared to 1.145 million in 2021. However, in 2022, this number fell back to 1.019 million. Although the total number of new songs has ushered in a decline, it has gradually become the general consensus of the industry to accumulate high-quality copyright assets and adhere to long-termism.
The “White Paper” compared the 1,000 most popular Chinese new songs every year and found that the popularity cycle of the top new songs in 2022 is 57.3 days, an increase of 5.6 days from 2021, and there are more songs in the top new song pool.
The changes in the promotion of new songs are also very obvious. The “White Paper” pointed out that the peak time of new top songs (the number of days it takes for a song to play from its release to its peak) has been delayed. In this regard, the data of new production track labels that use short videos and other promotional methods to create popular works is very illustrative. The new production track label’s new song peak time is delayed from 41.2 days in 2021 to 2022 58.9 days. The data shows that fewer songs have been produced through extensive production, resource-heavy publicity, rapid peaks and rapid declines, and more songs have been spread in a relatively natural way.
Regarding the reasons for the development trend of “improving quality and reducing quantity”, the “White Paper” analyzes that new Chinese songs have experienced explosive production, intensified competition, and increased promotion costs in recent years, and new Chinese songs themselves are also undergoing a necessary process. Survival of the fittest and self-reform, the way of extensive mass production and promotion of songs in the past began to return to rationality.
The market has a strong demand for high-quality content, and old songs have become popular, showing amazing influence
The “White Paper” shows that the number of Chinese head song pools will show a steady growth trend in 2022, and the number of head songs with an annual playback volume of over 10 million or even over 100 million is also growing steadily. It is worth noting that the influence of old songs that have been released for more than two years has also increased significantly, reflecting the prevalence of nostalgia in 2022. Specifically, the “White Paper” data shows that in the pool of songs that will be played over 100 million in 2022, the proportion of new songs that year will drop by 6.3%, and the proportion of old songs that have been released for more than two years will increase by 9.8%.
In fact, there are countless examples of old songs becoming popular in 2022. In April, the TME live superstar re-screening series was launched, and special performances by Leslie Cheung, Jay Chou, and Andy Lau were successively launched; in April, the music variety show “Endless Sound·Hong Kong Music Season” was launched; in May, the music variety show “Riding the Wind and Waves Season 3” was launched, Wang Xinling’s “Love You” triggered collective nostalgia; in July, Jay Chou released his new album “The Greatest Work” after many years, driving the popularity of new and old songs…
The “White Paper” summarizes the main types of old song consumption into three categories, and points out the significance of different consumption types for the music market: the “nostalgic” type of consumption of old users listening to old content helps to make listeners re- Recognize the past; new users can find new users for good lyrics and music by listening to old content; while new users listen to new content by “reinterpreting” consumption, which plays a role in inheriting classics in a contemporary interpretation .
Through the popularity of old songs, the “White Paper” pointed out that the phenomenon that nostalgic old songs are more popular than new songs in 2022 reflects the desire of users and the industry for high-quality content, which has important directional significance for future market development, because nostalgia The upsurge will not be in a state of continuous upsurge. The popularity of old songs that have been washed out by time and the market reminds music industry producers: users have higher and higher requirements for music quality. For new songs, “improve quality and reduce quantity” “It is a way to take advantage of the new song and return to the long-term construction of the new song.
As a research platform under TME, Tencent Music Research Institute has continuously released the “Chinese Digital Music Annual White Paper” since 2020. Based on effective data results and case studies, it provides insights into annual music phenomena and conducts special discussions on industry hotspots. In the future, Tencent Music Research Institute will continue to persist in the in-depth mining of data, take stock of and gain insight into the current situation and future trends of the Chinese digital music industry from multiple perspectives, provide the industry with rich and cutting-edge industry insights and case references, and promote a healthier and benign development of the industry. develop.