January 07, 2020

Tencent bought 10% of Universal, what does it mean for music community?

Headquarters under attack

Chinese web giant had finalised a deal to buy 10% of the Universal Music Group from French entertainment conglomerate Vivendi for about $3.3 billion. Tencent is already the leading player in digital music in China, and exclusively represents the catalogues of various global music companies within the Chinese market, including all three majors. Complete Music Update poses several questions after this merger - will it speed up sale of the rest of Universal?, will it impact the ongoing music licensing investigations by competition regulators in China?, how will it affect Tencent's relationship with Warner and Sony?, is the evaluation of Universal the real one?