華納與騰訊達成分銷協議

Warner Music Group has signed a distribution agreement with Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent, as the world’s third-biggest record company experiments with new ways to expand in China.

華納音樂集團(Warner Music Group)和中國互聯網集團騰訊(Tencent)簽署了一份分銷協議。全球第三大唱片公司正在探索向中國擴張的新途徑。

The partnership comes as Warner and the two other major record companies – Universal and Sony – become increasingly optimistic about the potential to make money in the country, thanks to the rise of streaming services such as those owned by local internet groups Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.

就在雙方達成這一合作關係之際，隨着騰訊、百度(Baidu)和阿里巴巴(Alibaba)等中國國內互聯網集團提供的流媒體服務的崛起，華納與另外兩家主要唱片公司——環球唱片(Universal)和索尼唱片(Sony)——正對在華盈利潛力日益樂觀。

Under the terms of the deal, Tencent will distribute Warner’s repertoire and new releases to all local Chinese audio services. That means it will negotiate on Warner’s behalf to strike licensing deals with companies including Baidu and Alibaba.

根據協議條款，騰訊將向國內所有音頻服務商分銷華納所有曲目及新發布歌曲。這意味着該公司將代表華納，與包括百度和阿里巴巴在內的企業達成許可協議。

But Warner has retained control of licensing relationships with global operators such as Spotify and YouTube, as well as with Chinese mobile carriers. China Mobile, which is by far the country’s biggest, has more than 700m customers and owns streaming services Kugou and Migu Music.

不過，華納保留了對Spotify和YouTube等全球運營商的許可關係的控制權，也依然控制着與中國移動運營商的許可關係。中國遙遙領先的最大移動運營商中國移動(China Mobile)擁有逾7億客戶，旗下擁有酷狗(Kugou)和咪咕音樂(Migu Music)兩大流媒體服務。

Until now, Warner has licensed its music directly to Chinese audio services, as is standard practice around the world.

此前華納直接向中國音頻服務商發放其音樂的授權許可，這是該公司在世界各地的標準操作方式。