keeps unveiling new master plans, each time with more in-house platforms and business approaches involved., the Tencent Music Entertainment Group held a summit meeting proposing discussions around joining the forces of the film and music industries. Over three panels, twelve film and music industry insiders discussed future plans in this space, and where Tencent could fit in.
The first panel topic was how to break down walls between film and music, and to maximize Tencent’s built-in platform advantages. Hu Chen, GM of Tencent music streaming platform, said: “On our platform, film and TV soundtrack hits total 260 million daily plays.” With an astronomical number like that, Tencent makes the best of every bit of data. “Since the launch of our ‘Video & Audio+’ alliance in 2018, more and more productions come to us in the early stage.
The second panel addressed the topic of how music empowers publicity and distribution. “ ’Us and Them’ was no doubt the most successful case,” said Zhang Wenbo, founder of film marketing service company Bravo Entertainment. “I clearly remember, the day after the MV ‘Houlai 2018’ was released, the daily growth of users who click ‘I want to see this movie’ on the Maoyan app exceeded 30,000. It broke records. Music is extremely powerful in converting audience interest towards films.
“The next step will be committing to international standards,” said Tsai Chun Pan, VP of TME Group, during the third panel on the same topic. “We can learn from the foreign production model of spending 10-12% of the production budget on music. If there’s any production company here today that doesn’t see how a limited budget could work with that, rest assured, TME is willing to contribute our resources in order to get good content. TME will also offer traffic support.
Pan concluded the event with great optimism. “We’re coming up to the end of the process of pay-to-listen music acceptance. When it takes its course, and the cake gets bigger and bigger, eventually the return goes back to the music creators.” Creators that are filtered through Tencent’s data analysis and run by Tencent’s management system, perhaps.