Apple Music has struck a new deal with China Mobile, China’s dominant wireless carrier with more than 1 billion mobile customers.
Under the deal, China Mobile customers will have easier access to Apple Music. They will be able to subscribe to Apple Music via the China Mobile app or at the carrier’s retail outlets.
“Apple Music is all about the love of music, and we’re committed to bringing that love to as many people as possible,” said Wang Gang, General Manager of China Mobile’s digital content platform, Migu, in a statement issued on Friday (October 18).
“We’re excited to bring the world-class Apple Music experience to more people through China Mobile, so they can explore the world’s best music.”
He added that China Mobile is planning “a combination of Apple Music and China Mobile products in different scenarios.”
China Mobile, majority-owned by the Chinese government, is the world’s largest telco in terms of reported paying users.
Apple Music’s enhanced access to the Chinese market could benefit the music service, which has been a minor player in that market so far.
The largest music streaming player in China is Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), whose streaming platforms – which include QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo and the karaoke app WeSing – counted some 117 million paying users as of Q2 of this year, and 571 million overall monthly active users.
Another major player is NetEase Cloud Music, with 41.8 million paying subscribers as of last count.
China Mobile doesn’t break out its music subscriber numbers in its earnings reports, but has reportedly said its own Migu Music service has 130 million paying subscribers.
Apple Music rival Spotify has stayed out of China so far, apparently due to an agreement – either explicit or implicit – with Tencent Music Entertainment.
The Chinese streamer and Spotify own stakes in each other, and Spotify’s mainland China strategy “is our investment in Tencent Music,” Barry McCarthy, Spotify’s then-CFO, said in 2018.
Apple Music has so far struggled to rival the reach of domestic Chinese music streamers. According to Daxue Consulting, is partly due to the Apple service’s limited collection of songs in the market.
China is known to limit foreign music in the domestic market, particularly through censorship of lyrics.
Many of Apple Music’s features, such as podcasts and radio, aren’t available in China, though the service is “trying to close this gap,” for instance, by introducing Apple Music Classical to the Chinese market, Daxue noted.
The reluctance – or inability – of many music and entertainment companies to enter the Chinese market may have been recently summed up by Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who explained that his international expansion strategy excludes China because entering the market is “too hard.”
“They won’t let most artists in because they censor all the lyrics. Not a good business,” Rapino said.
That said, Apple Music does have the advantage of a partnership with Douyin, the Chinese sibling app of TikTok, including Douyin’s membership in the Apple Music Partner Program, Daxue said.
Apple is also an outlier in that it’s the only Western music streaming service operating in China.Music Business Worldwide