We’re back. Sort of. We are still traveling so posting will be sparse, but it’s the Year of the Rabbit. We feel this is going to be another big step forward for China’s Music Industry.
To start with, we have a battle of two big ticket events, just 3 days apart, in Shanghai in March. Back at the beginning of our existence, we blogged about the proliferation of big bands coming to China. March 2008 saw Bjork, Maroon 5, Harry Connick Jr, Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys come to play. Bjork obviously queered the pitch, and the Great Financial Crisis put paid to big Western companies throwing money at the China market. The last couple of years has been relatively quiet for big international artists.
However, with AEG’s investment and participation in Wukesong (Mastercard) in Beijing and the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, there is both pressure and incentive to bring big shows to the major cities here. And so it is that Usher and the Eagles come to Shanghai within 3 days of each other.
That’s a lot of very expensive expensive tickets that have to be sold in a very short window. It’s also a signal of intent from the two new biggest players on the block, the AEG and Livenation teams. Oh, and Usher seems to be selling more at the moment, which makes sense really. OMG is most certainly more relevant to a young Chinese ticket buying public than Hotel California.