Haute 100 SF: Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Announces a Music Division

Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group is launching a music division to join its already established entertainment unit that consists of films and videos.

According to the Alizila, the company’s news site, the company hired two veterans from China’s music industry to head the new division.

“It is hoped that the two will creatively disrupt and catalyze the music industry (by) combining their cumulative experience … with Alibaba’s capabilities in the Internet space and Big Data,” Alibaba said in a statement.

The company quietly rolled out Ali Music Group with the hopes of the unit becoming “a crucial pillar of Alibaba Group’s digital entertainment strategy” that will “help forward our vision of becoming central to the everyday lives of our customers.”

The Ali Music Group consists of the integration of two Alibaba-owned music-streaming apps, Xiami and Tiantian. Gao Xiaosong, who is a popular singer-songwriter, film director and talk show host in China, will serve as chairman and named Song Ke, an influential music executive who once served with Warner Music as well as co-founded Chin’a poplabel Taihe Rye Music, will serve as the chief executive officer.

According to the company’s news site, the Alibaba Group has been expanding its digital entertainment capabilities, anticipating that the sale of music, film and television content will become a major revenue driver in China in the future.

In addition to this new venture, it is reported the Alibaba Group has rights agreements with Germany’s BMG Records, Rock Records and HIM Records to use the labels’ products on its platform. The deal with the German company was announced earlier this year. It brings more than 2.5 million copyrights to Alibaba, whose music platforms already include chart-topping songs from the likes of Kylie Minogue, the Rolling Stones and Jean-Michael Jarre, an Alibaba spokeswoman said. In the deal, Alibaba Group’s digital entertainment sector will promote BMG writers and artists through its music-streaming platforms.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)