The Rise of the Chinese Music Streaming Market: Implications for Enhanced Intellectual Property Protection in China

Funding Scheme : General Research Fund

Project Number : 17613223

Project Title (in English and Chinese) :

The Rise of the Chinese Music Streaming Market: Implications for Enhanced Intellectual Property Protection in China

中国在线音乐市场的崛起：对中国加强知识产权保护的影响

Principal Investigator (English) : Haochen Sun

Exercise Year : 2023 / 24

Fund Approved : HK$ 608,400

Completion Date : 30-6-2026

Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese):

China has long had a reputation for blatantly infringing intellectual property (IP) rights. Despite its waves of IP law reform, the country still attracts vehement criticism for its failures to curb IP piracy and counterfeiting. The conventional wisdom prevails that IP infringement is still rampant in China. Overlooked are China’s substantial improvements in the copyright protection of digital music. Over the past decade, China has developed one of the world’s most robust music streaming markets, reducing the rate of illegal music downloads from approximately 99% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2020. By offering Chinese Internet users paid access to licensed content, major music streaming platforms such as Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music have effectively contained copyright piracy. China’s National Copyright Administration and courts have also made significant contributions to this remarkable improvement. In this proposed project, I aim to conduct the first comprehensive and systematic study of the contributions made by China’s recent copyright reforms to the rise of its music streaming market. It examines the difficulties China faced in weeding out digital music piracy before the administrative enforcement measures adopted by the National Copyright Administration in 2015. I also seek to explore how the Chinese government, courts, and market have worked together since 2015 to transform China from a music piracy safe haven into a dynamic streaming market that respects copyright and creativity. Theoretically, I will develop a model to explain why Chinese music consumers’ compliance with copyright law has increased so dramatically by drawing on an in-depth analysis of the relevant legal rules and judicial decisions, empirical studies of the Chinese music streaming market, and interview results. Policy wise, I will further examine how such improved legal compliance behaviour and the rise of the Chinese music streaming market could provide dynamic, forward-looking lessons for strengthening IP enforcement in other areas and thereby significantly reducing IP piracy and counterfeiting in China.

China has long had a reputation for blatantly infringing intellectual property (IP) rights. Despite its waves of IP law reform, the country still attracts vehement criticism for its failures to curb IP piracy and counterfeiting. The conventional wisdom prevails that IP infringement is rampant in China. Overlooked are China’s substantial improvements in the copyright protection of digital music. Over the past decade, China has developed one of the world’s most robust music streaming markets, reducing the rate of illegal music downloads from approximately 99% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2020. By offering Chinese Internet users paid access to licensed content, major music streaming platforms such as Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music have effectively contained copyright piracy. China’s National Copyright Administration and courts have also made significant contributions to this remarkable improvement. In this proposed project, I aim to conduct the first comprehensive and systematic study of the contributions made by China’s recent copyright reforms to the rise of its music streaming market. It examines the difficulties China faced in weeding out digital music piracy before the administrative enforcement measures adopted by the National Copyright Administration in 2015. I also seek to explore how the Chinese government, courts, and market have worked together since 2015 to transform China from a music piracy safe haven into a dynamic streaming market that respects copyright and creativity. Theoretically, I will develop a model to explain why Chinese music consumers’ compliance with copyright law has increased so dramatically by drawing on an in-depth analysis of the relevant legal rules and judicial decisions, empirical studies of the Chinese music streaming market, and interview results. Policy wise, I will further examine how such improved legal compliance behaviour and the rise of the Chinese music streaming market could provide dynamic, forward-looking lessons for strengthening IP enforcement in other areas and thereby significantly reducing IP piracy and counterfeiting in China.

中國長期以來一直因各種侵犯知識產權（IP）而聲名狼藉。儘管中國經歷了一波又一波的知識產權法改革，但在遏制知識產權盜版和仿冒方面的失敗仍然受到嚴厲指責。傳統觀念認為，中國的知識產權侵權行為猖獗。 然而，人們忽略了中國在數字音樂版權保護方面的實質性改進。在過去的十年裡，中國已經發展成為全球最強大的在線音樂市場之一，非法音樂下載的比例從2011年的約99%降至2020年的不到4%。通過為中國互聯網用戶提供付費許可內容，騰訊音樂和網易雲音樂等主要音樂流媒體平台有效地遏制了版權盜版。中國國家版權局和法院也為這一顯著改善作出了重要貢獻。 為執行本項目的研究，我希望對中國近期版權改革對其在線音樂市場崛起所作的貢獻進行第一次全面和系統的研究。我將考察中國在國家版權局2015年採取行政執法措施之前，消除數字音樂盜版方面所面臨的困難。我還將探討自2015年以來，中國政府、法院和市場如何共同努力，將中國從一個音樂盜版的安全港變成一個尊重版權和創意的充滿活力的流媒體市場。 在理論上，我將通過對相關法律規定和司法裁決的深入分析、對中國音樂流媒體市場的實證研究以及訪談結果，來發展一個分析模型以此來解釋為什麼中國音樂消費者遵守版權法的程度大幅提高。在政策方面，我將進一步研究這種改善的法律合規行為和中國在線音樂市場的崛起如何為加強其他領域的知識產權執法提供動態、前瞻性的經驗，從而大幅減少在中國的知識產權盜版和仿冒行為。