Iconic record label group Beggars (home to XL, Matador, 4AD, Rough Trade) has today formally begun operations in China. We knew about this a while back and we have also spotted a lot of activity on the social networks here (artist pages being set up, content being written), but the press release was issued today. Beggars will be advised by Beijing based consultancy Outdustry. Physical releases will be through local label Jingwen and Taiwanese label Hi-Note, online and mobile distribution through the online store Wawawa.
This is an interesting move for the biggest of the indies. Of course, the majors have been in China for quite some time, mostly working with Chinese popstars. They have failed miserably with developing international artists here in China (a notable exception being Linkin Park), and run almost virtual offices here. It is fairly typical that an indie is taking the initiative with a new market that all other labels have practically given up on. Facilitating making their artists big in China would be beneficial for the label in many ways, not least if they can get some of their songs into catalogue for the relatively lucrative CRBT (caller ring back tone) market.
One of our only concerns is regarding evaluating ROI . When we spoke to Simon Wheeler (Beggars head of digital and the man responsible for the initiative), he replied that it would be “a feeling thing – instinct” – as to whether or not they were winning. This will always be a major problem when doing business in a country where you cannot read/ write/ speak the language, and is particularly acute when there may not be significant direct sales, at least not in the short term.
We hope that it is a raging success as this will benefit the entire music market here in China. Good luck to all involved.
