China’s independent musicians see hope of making more money

World
Europe

Every morning, 36-year-old Gary Chen goes through a crowded wholesale market to his furniture store in a warehouse building.

Chen is a designer and a furniture seller. He's also an independent musician whose studio is inside his store.

“It would cost too much to build or rent a studio. So I thought why not combine my job and my music in one place?” says Chen.

Ten years ago, Chen founded a band called Monster KaR, which he supported with money from design and furniture sales.

Felix is a social media editor and Monster KaR's third lead singer, whose predecessors quit the band for practical reasons like getting marriage.

She admits it requires more than passion to pursue one's music dreams in China.

“Everybody dreams of rock ’n’ roll, but it's very hard to realize that dream. Being in this band, we’re not asking for anything in return, it's just for our love of music.”

CGTN Photo

Gary believes that if one can't make money, they'd better enjoy what they're doing.

The average income in the city of Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, is around 1,200 US dollars per month.

Monster KaR has built up something of a reputation in southern China, but a successful live tour only brings a profit of 450 US dollars for each band member.

“In China, most of people think they don’t have to pay for music. Top stars can rely on the revenue of live concerts and advertisements,” Chen notes.

According to Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s biggest online music platform, more than 60 percent of the independent musicians earn less than 300 US dollars a month.

“Independent musicians or the people who are really making music in studios are not fairly paid. A lot of talents are buried,” Chen complains.

CGTN Photo

However, things may start to change.

Tencent recently launched a project aiming to increase the total income from original music to 750 million US dollars a month.

“We’re going to help on this by providing more opportunities on all six platforms, including revenue sharing on subscription, digital albums, karaoke platform and live-broadcasting platforms,” says Helen Lo, Strategic Development Manager of Tencent Music Entertainment.

Tencent is also going to invest more than 100 digital albums in the next three years and over 1000 offline performances.

Chen hopes this will work.

“I think this plan is great because it can help musicians get paid more fairly and keep the music ecosystem running. In the future generations, there could be more independent full-time musicians.”

And for Felix, making more money may give her more leverage to persuade her family to let her continue her rock ’n’ roll dream.