獨(dú)立音樂(lè)代理商與中國(guó)流媒體平臺(tái)簽約

The body acting for some of the leading independent record labels has struck licensing deals with five of China’s biggest streaming services, the latest sign that the country is becoming increasingly important for western artists.

代理一些主要獨(dú)立唱片公司的機(jī)構(gòu)與中國(guó)最大五個(gè)流媒體服務(wù)達(dá)成許可協(xié)議，這是中國(guó)對(duì)西方藝術(shù)家日益重要的最新跡象。

Merlin, the London-based agency that represents 20,000 independent labels and makes up 12 per cent of the world’s digital music catalogue, signed deals with streaming services owned by Tencent, Alibaba and NetEase.

總部位于倫敦的Merlin代表2萬(wàn)家獨(dú)立唱片公司，占全球數(shù)字音樂(lè)目錄的12%。這家代理商已經(jīng)與騰訊(Tencent)、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和網(wǎng)易(NetEase)旗下的流媒體服務(wù)簽署了協(xié)議。

The company expects the deals will give its acts, such as Vampire Weekend, access to 500m consumers, or 90 per cent of digital music listeners in China.

該公司預(yù)計(jì)，這些交易將使它代理的樂(lè)團(tuán)——如吸血鬼周末(Vampire Weekend)——能夠接觸到5億消費(fèi)者，即中國(guó)90%的數(shù)字音樂(lè)聽(tīng)眾。

Charles Caldas, Merlin’s chief executive, said digital streaming has given independent record labels a new-found global reach, after distribution in the CD era favoured the few record label behemoths with the cash to press, promote and ship them abroad.

Merlin首席執(zhí)行官查爾斯•卡爾達(dá)斯(Charles Caldas)表示，數(shù)字流媒體給獨(dú)立唱片公司帶來(lái)了新的全球觸角范圍，不同于之前有利于寥寥幾家唱片巨擘的CD時(shí)代，那時(shí)只有大公司才有財(cái)力制作和推廣CD，并將其銷(xiāo)往海外。

“Music is moving around the world in ways we’ve never experienced before,” he said. “A lot more value is going to come from markets that we were never really extracting value from in the physical [CD] world.”

“音樂(lè)正以我們從未體驗(yàn)過(guò)的方式在世界各地流行，”他表示。“更多的價(jià)值將來(lái)自那些我們?cè)趯?shí)體(CD)時(shí)代從未真正挖掘價(jià)值的市場(chǎng)。”

The deals come after the other three big suppliers of the world’s music, Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music, signed exclusive pacts with Tencent, which then sub-licensed the catalogues to other platforms in China.

達(dá)成這些交易之前，世界音樂(lè)的另外三大供應(yīng)商——環(huán)球音樂(lè)(Universal Music)、索尼音樂(lè)(Sony Music)和華納音樂(lè)(Warner Music)——與騰訊簽署了獨(dú)家協(xié)議，由騰訊向中國(guó)其他平臺(tái)分銷(xiāo)內(nèi)容使用許可。

Merlin instead signed separate deals with Alibaba’s Xiami, Tencent’s QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo, and NetEase’s Cloud Music.

而Merlin則與阿里巴巴的蝦米(Xiami)、騰訊的QQ音樂(lè)、酷狗音樂(lè)(KuGou)、酷我音樂(lè)(Kuwo)以及網(wǎng)易云音樂(lè)(NetEase Cloud Music)分別簽署了協(xié)議。

Tencent had a 78 per cent share of China’s streaming market revenues last year, and has used its clout and cash to outbid rivals for distribution agreements with western labels. The internet group, which is reportedly looking to take its music arm public this year, has looked to capture content rights to bolster its prospects with investors.

騰訊去年在中國(guó)流媒體市場(chǎng)營(yíng)收中的占比達(dá)到78%，并已利用其影響力和現(xiàn)金壓倒競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，搶先與西方唱片公司達(dá)成分銷(xiāo)協(xié)議。據(jù)報(bào)道今年可能將其音樂(lè)部門(mén)上市的這家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)集團(tuán)，希望獲取內(nèi)容權(quán)利以便向投資者展示更加光明的前景。

China’s National Copyright Administration called for an end to exclusive deals in September, aiming to encourage more competition in the market.

中國(guó)國(guó)家版權(quán)局(National Copyright Administration)去年9月曾呼吁結(jié)束獨(dú)家交易，目的是鼓勵(lì)更多的市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

Mathew Daniel, vice-president at NetEase Cloud Music, called the deal “a significant step forward for music licensing in China”.

網(wǎng)易云音樂(lè)副總裁馬修•丹尼爾(Mathew Daniel)稱，這一交易“對(duì)中國(guó)的音樂(lè)許可來(lái)說(shuō)是向前邁出的一大步”。

Merlin yesterday revealed that its Latin American earnings have grown fivefold from 2015 to 2017, as streaming on YouTube and Spotify boomed in countries such as Brazil. The region’s biggest economy is now the sixth largest moneymaker for independent record labels — ahead of France and Australia.

Merlin昨日透露，從2015年至2017年，其拉丁美洲盈利增長(zhǎng)了五倍，得益于YouTube和Spotify上的流播放在巴西等國(guó)蓬勃發(fā)展。拉美最大經(jīng)濟(jì)體巴西現(xiàn)在是獨(dú)立唱片公司的第六大市場(chǎng)，超過(guò)法國(guó)和澳大利亞。

Independent labels are now hoping for similar luck in China, where paid digital music sales were projected to rise 59 per cent last year to $455m.

獨(dú)立唱片公司現(xiàn)在希望在中國(guó)也會(huì)有類(lèi)似的運(yùn)氣，根據(jù)估測(cè)，中國(guó)去年付費(fèi)數(shù)字音樂(lè)銷(xiāo)售增長(zhǎng)59%，達(dá)到4.55億美元。

China presents a compelling opportunity, said Mr Caldas, as electronic dance music festivals have popped up, which “would not have been happening five years ago, before streaming”.

Merlin的卡爾達(dá)斯表示，中國(guó)提供了一個(gè)令人心動(dòng)的機(jī)會(huì)，因?yàn)殡娮游璧敢魳?lè)節(jié)已在中國(guó)出現(xiàn)，“這在五年前，即流媒體盛行之前，是不會(huì)發(fā)生的”。