Beijing, China. Photo Credit: zhang kaiyv
Live Nation Electronic Asia, the namesake promoter’s EDM division for the continent of over 4.5 billion residents, has unveiled a licensing deal between its Fabled Records label and Universal Music Group (UMG).
Beverly Hills-based Live Nation announced the “multi-year global licensing and distribution agreement” today. For reference, Live Nation operates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea, and Live Nation Electronic Asia aims to support “the next generation of Chinese electronic music and artists,” per the business’s formal release.
The aforementioned Fabled Records – not to be confused with Austin’s Fable Records indie label – “recently launched” and evidently factors prominently into the Ticketmaster parent company’s regional plans. Specifically, Fabled “will break Chinese-influenced music content globally…setting the trends with music that will push Chinese music to the global stage,” Live Nation has claimed.
(Live Nation rolled out an artist-discovery platform in mainland China last year, and Universal Music Group hasn’t hesitated to foster close ties with Chinese Communist Party officials in pursuit of its goals in the country’s fast-growing music market.)
Bearing in mind this background information, the just-detailed licensing and distribution tie-up will see UMG’s Capitol Records China and EDM-focused Astralwerks coordinate with Fabled on the “global release” of both “artists and projects.”
Additionally, Beijing-headquartered Capitol Records China, which itself arrived on the scene in March, is poised to spearhead domestic marketing undertakings for Fabled Records, with LA’s Astralwerks handling the same duties internationally.
Further demonstrating its commitment to establishing a broader presence in China, Live Nation Electronic Asia also operates a management company, Dancing Dragon, whereas Fabled Records is preparing to release songs from Chace, Yåko, Beauz (the duo has 1.15 million monthly listeners on Spotify), and Carta.
Regarding the growth trajectory of China’s music industry, evidence suggests that the nation of about 1.4 billion residents will continue to develop in terms of streaming’s prevalence and straight revenue alike in the approaching years.
Consequently, different players yet – such as Sony Music, which has taken a stake in NetEase Cloud Music and last week debuted RCA Records in mainland China – are moving to expand their market share in the region.
And on the potential for Chinese EDM releases and artists to catch on internationally, it’s worth acknowledging the possible impact of the genre’s often-nonexistent language barrier. Shanghai-based Carta’s aptly named (and vocal-free) “Shanghai” effort, for instance, has drawn encouraging feedback in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Polish, a quick examination of the appropriate YouTube comments section shows.
Inversely, Mandarin looks to be the dominant comments-section language for many non-EDM tracks released by Chinese artists – including songs penned and recorded in English.