China’s music market is vibrant and ever-changing. With hundreds of millions of music listeners and all sorts of local Chinese and International artists trying to get a piece of the cake, China’s music market is one of the most challenging in the world. But if you know where to look, there are many ways to promote your music. Here are some of them.

Getting your music out to the Chinese market can be a little tricky. First things first, you’ll want to make sure your potential Chinese fans can actually hear your product. Check with your distributor to see if they can deliver your music to Chinese streaming platforms.

If you’re not able to find a distributor that can get your music onto Chinese streaming sites, we recommend going with our own Kanjian’s Distribution service instead. We can deliver your music to more than 150 stores in China and over 300 stores globally.

Pitching your music in China is not as crucial as pitching it in the West, but it still matters.

Here again, we’d need to ask for help from your distributor to submit your music for pitching to a DSP (Digital Service Provider). Among the most popular music streaming among Chinese music fans are QQ Music, NetEase, Kugo, and Kuwo.

It’s important to notice that besides music platforms, there are short video apps, fitness apps, and other music-centered services. Since this is still relatively new territory for many artists here in China, it’s hard to say exactly what kinds of pitches will be successful here—but it never hurts to try! 

Kanjian can help you with that part of things if you need any assistance with submitting your own tracks for pitching on these other platforms!

Let’s be honest: Instagram and Facebook are huge all around the world. Can you imagine your artist career without those platforms to grow your following? Same here. However, the landscape is different – Weibo, NetEase, QQ, Douyin, and Bilibili – are the key platforms to grow your Chinese following. 

If you’re a musician who wants to break into the Chinese market, you have to understand how to use these platforms. You need to connect with fans and build a community around your art. Here are a few tips from Kanjian Creative Team:

It’s like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all rolled into one — and it’s essential for an artist to have one ready and set.

Simply go to the Weibo registration page and create a profile. You can start posting right away! We recommend having your posts bilingual—in English and Chinese—so that it sounds natural to you (meaning English) and with the respect towards the local fans (meaning Chinese).

Imagine a merge of Spotify and Instagram—that’s NetEase and QQ Music in a nutshell. Both platforms allows fans to listen to your music, comment on it, and follow your profile. You’ll be able to interact with fans directly through the platform. It also features an artist profile system that allows listeners access to artists’ contact information and other details about them and their work. 

To claim your artist profile, you need to create a user account first on both platforms: NetEase & QQ . Next, ask your distributor to reach to a platform directly to help claim your profile and you are good to start posting content and interacting with your fans! Same as on Weibo, we recommend posting content in two languages – English and Chinese.

Bilibili is a YouTube-like website that’s popular in China. It’s a great place to get your video content out there, and the audience is growing all the time!

To get started, go to the website and register a profile with your mobile phone number. Then voila — you can start posting your video content right away. Make sure you add Chinese subtitles to your videos, it’s crucial there.

You’ve probably already heard of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. It’s the fastest-growing social media platform in China, and if you want to start a career as an artist, it’s one of the first places you should consider.

Registering on Douyin is super easy: just go to their desktop version, register your account with a mobile phone number and start posting your videos! Same as with Bilibili, don’t forget to add Chinese subtitles to your video content!

You’ve heard it right – digital space! Besides the traditional sync deals for local TV shows, movies and events, China has a great deal of music-centered mobile apps wanting your music.  

Chinese companies are always looking for new music to use in their apps and games. This means that if you have an original song that would work well as background or theme music for one of these applications or games, you could find yourself making some serious money from royalties based on how popular your song becomes once people start using it in apps or games!

There are many companies who pay for sync deals for their mobile apps because they know how important music is for keeping users engaged with their app – especially when those users are often young adults looking for something fun to listen to while they’re on the go! To learn more about how this process works and how much money can be made from it, check out Kanjian’s Sync opportunities!

Collaborations are one of the best ways for new artists and brands to enter the market. In terms of musical collaborations, the results from working with well-known Chinese artists are almost unparalleled compared to other advertising methods. That being said it is notoriously difficult to collaborate with popular artists unless an artist already has at minimum a significant presence outside of China. Chinese artists are very much focused on achievements and numbers. They are very interested in the acts that the potential artist has worked with and all their bragging rights.

Chinese artists are attracted to stats. This is something to pay close attention to when looking for collaborations. If the brand/artist is relatively unpopular compared to the potential Chinese collaborator it will be almost impossible to work together. Instead, international artists should look for artists at a similar that hit the target market for said artist. The international client will likely have significantly less presence in China compared to the local artist. Therefore all the local artist wants is exposure outside of China. That is paramount for the domestic artist.

Explore available music promotion packages and custom campaigns with Kanjian Creative services team.

China’s music market offers both challenges and opportunities for international artists looking to expand their fan base. It is important to ensure that your music is available on Chinese streaming platforms and to pitch it to local platforms such as QQ Music, NetEase, Kugo and Kuwo. In addition, having a solid social media presence on Weibo, NetEase, QQ, Douyin and Bilibili is essential for engaging with Chinese fans and building a community around your art. Collaborating with a Chinese artist and syncing your music with Chinese digital space are also effective ways to increase your exposure and make a name for yourself in this vibrant market. With the right strategy and assistance from distributors such as Kanjian, promoting your music in China can be both feasible and lucrative.

With China’s online users having limited access to the global media (Google, Facebook, and YouTube to name a few or the multiple news and media outlets such as the BBC or The New York Times), many businesses, music artists and labels included discover that in China they need to invest heavily or in some cases even start from scratch regarding their brand and following.

The government’s role has been also significant in educating people in China about copyrights and fighting illegal use of content through the National Intellectual Property Strategy Outline promulgated in 2008. And as intellectual property protection in China is often questioned, some of the recent developments and reforms demonstrate a strong resolve to enforce the copyright doctrine. The authorities’ effort and commitment became quite clear as it began shutting down major online services utilizing unlicensed content – books in 2008, videos in 2012 and music in 2015.

Many artists use platform placements to expand their fanbase and to promote key releases. It should be said this is typically only available for artists who have achieved moderate success within the market already or who are collaborating with artists of note.

Authenticity is one of the centrepieces of present-day marketing practices and with the rapid advance of social media and marketing tactics, brands now talk directly to their followers and music artists are embracing the opportunity to nurture and retain their own fan base.