Warner Music has signed a deal with Chinese company Tencent to help it break into the fast-growing Asian market.
The US record label says its partnership with the Chinese tech giant will help make its artists like Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran “impossible to ignore” in the Asian market while the two companies have also launched a record label to develop artists together.
While China boasts nearly a fifth of the world’s population, it accounted for less than 3% of the $20bn in revenue made last year by record companies worldwide.
Nevertheless, it is also the world’s fast-growing market thanks to the rise of streaming services such as those owned by Tencent and fellow tech giant Alibaba.
Rivals Universal Music and Sony Music have also struck similar deals with Tencent as they look to crack the lucrative Chinese marketplace.
Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) is the largest music company in China and owns the country’s top-three streaming platforms QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo.
