Apple Music isn’t available in China, but why?

Now a week old, Apple Music is available in 100 territories and its global radio station Beats 1 has already played Australian artists Sia, Courtney Barnett, Jarryd James, Royal Headache and George Maple, but fans in China have missed out.

The Chinese mainland was not included in Apple Music’s launch, however it was made available in Chinese territories Hong Kong and Taiwan for HK$48 (around AUD$8) a month. While its price in those territories is less than the $11.99 a month Australians pay, or the $9.99 Americans pay, it’s still more than music fans on the Chinese mainland are paying for local services from e-commerce giant Alibaba, internet giant Tencent, and search provider Baidu.

Tencent’s QQ Music, which allows users to stream and download music for free, secured deals with Sony, Warner and South Korea’s YG Entertainment last year to become their exclusive online distributor in China. It had 829 million active accounts as of January this year, 80 million monthly active users and at one point had a total of 176.4 million simultaneous users online.

QQ Music’s subscription service, Green Diamond, costs only 10 yuan (AU$2.14) a month and offers FLAC sound quality songs. Taylor Swift’s catalogue is available on Green Diamond yet it only has around 3 million subscribers and contributes for only a single-digit percentage of all QQ Music users.

In March this year Alibaba inked a distribution deal with BMG to promote BMG artists through its streaming apps Xiami and TTPod. In 2011, Baidu lead the way toward legitimate streaming in China with a landmark licensing deal with the three majors. The deal saw it pay royalties and a cut of its streaming revenue to each of the labels.

Andrew Chan, ‎SVP, digital & strategic planning, Universal Music Chinatold the IFPI recently: “The Baidu deal was the milestone that changed the whole ecosystem. Since then the government has said that it is stepping up its commitment to protecting intellectual property rights and that the development of the music industry is a major priority.”

Music fans in China have been infamously reluctant to pay for downloaded music. There are more than 100 pirated music sites in the territory and according to government statistics published by the Wall Street Journal, 478 million people listen to music online, yet revenue from generated from online music is miniscule.

According to the IFPI’s Recorded Industry In Numbers 2015 report, 87% of music sales in China are from digital.While streaming revenue helped overall revenue increase by 5.6% in 2014, there are still hopes for the country to adopt paid streaming. China is still yet to join 147 other countries, including Australia, andoffer full performance rights. The IFPI had said a proposal in its final draft for the amendment of the law by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC). The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council is currently considering the proposal and it is hoped it will be put into place in 2016.

Image Credit: Tencent's QQ Music from the Google Play store