For the post-70s and post-80s generations who are accustomed to using online music platforms such as Qianqian Quiet Listening, Daily Beautiful, Domi Music, Arrest Net, Xiami Music, etc., their stereotype of digital music platforms is “free”, if you want them to pay to listen to songs, it is “impossible”, anyway, free songs on the Internet are everywhere, there is no need to “waste money”.
But for the post-00s and post-10s, spending money to listen to songs online does not seem to be so unacceptable, listening to songs, reading novels, watching videos, playing games on the Internet is already a normal thing, QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Soda Music and Apple’s Apple Music all need to pay to listen to songs.
According to the Q1 2025 quarter financial report released by Tencent Music Entertainment Group, Tencent Music’s online music service revenue increased by 15.9% year-on-year to 5.8 billion yuan in the quarter, the number of online music paying users increased by 8.3% year-on-year to 122.9 million, and the average monthly revenue of a single paying user increased from 10.6 yuan in the same period in 2024 to 11.4 yuan.
NetEase Cloud Music’s revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was 1.858 billion yuan, down 8.4% from 2.029 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Although pirated music content is relatively rare after the digital music industry has been governed, free songs can still be found everywhere on the Internet, but why are there still more than 100 million members who pay for digital music? Don’t they want to save money?
1. User habits have changed. The user habit of the post-70s and post-80s generation of netizens is free, and the free model has allowed the user scale of netizens to grow rapidly, and Internet applications have also sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. However, the generation of netizens born in the 00s and 10s is obviously different, and they no longer discriminate against online payments.
On the one hand, their economic pressure is relatively small, and their living habits since childhood are what should be satisfied; On the other hand, it is the universal charging of the Internet industry, so that they can gradually cultivate the habit of paying, such as video websites, online disks, reading novels, etc., in this universal payment model, it is difficult for users to say, “I just listen to songs without spending money”.
In the past, user habits were based on free, but now user habits are based on payment, but the generation of users born in the 70s and 80s who do not spend money is more “non-mainstream”.
2. Find the cost of resources. For the post-70s and post-80s, finding free resources on the Internet is a joy, but the post-00s and post-10s don’t think so. Yes, resources can be easily found on the Internet, but finding resources itself also requires time and cost, if you don’t find it right, there may be computer poisoning, plus, the resources in the computer need to continue to be guided to the mobile phone, the whole process is very cumbersome.
In addition, not all songs can find free resources, some songs may just have no resources, in this case, if the user himself wants to listen to this song, then he can only spend money to buy a membership, instead of this, it is better to spend money to buy a membership directly.
3. Information asymmetry. Many people may feel that they can find various free resources on the Internet, but not everyone knows this. According to CNNIC data, as of December 2024, the number of netizens in our country has reached 1.108 billion, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 78.6%. In the face of such a huge user scale and completely different user levels, “XXX doesn’t know” is very common, and the user size is not small.
Some users may be used to how to find free resources from the Internet, but there is still a large group of users who do not know how to find free songs from the Internet, this kind of information asymmetry is very common, since they don’t know how to find free resources, then, when they need to listen to songs, they will naturally pay to buy memberships.
4. Large platform mode on the mobile phone. Smartphones are the main Internet terminals for users at present, and it may be more convenient to find resources on computers, but many people now rely on mobile phones to surf the Internet, and mobile phones are not so convenient to find resources, plus they are now platform modes, users are directly downloading QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Soda Music App, or the app that comes with the mobile phone, such as Apple Music, this large platform model will make users “lazy”, have time to find resources, it is not as convenient as spending money directly.
If you don’t look at it from the perspective of free, the membership price of QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and Soda Music is not expensive, the annual price may be tens of yuan, and you may be able to buy a one-year membership for 69 yuan when discounted.
After purchasing a membership, you can directly open QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and Soda Music to listen, and the vast majority of songs have no restrictions.
Users who are accustomed to free Internet applications may feel that users who spend money to buy memberships are “more money”, but for the latter, listening to songs, reading novels, watching videos, and playing games on the Internet is just a way of life, and spending this “little money” is nothing at all.
From the perspective of the digital music industry, it is obviously a good thing for users to pay, on the one hand, it can promote the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to have benefits; On the other hand, singers no longer feel “prostituted for free”. However, the problem here is that after the platform charges, how much income will be distributed to musicians, and if the share is too small, its attractiveness to singers will be limited.
From the perspective of user data, the number of paying users of Tencent Music Entertainment Group + NetEase Cloud Music is still lower than the number of paying users of iQiyi + Tencent Video + Youku, but the scale of paying users has obviously caught up, especially the number of paying users of Tencent Music has reached 122.9 million, which shows that users are not so resistant to Internet payment now, and users are not unwilling to pay, but their own content is good enough.
The experience of iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku to the digital music industry is that the scale of paying users of the former is more driven by “explosive” content, such as “Hurricane”, “Tomb Robbery Notes” and other works, while the latter has a more obvious platform effect, that is, who can cover more user groups, who can attract more users to pay, perhaps, the digital music industry also lacks a tipping point like “Tomb Robbery Notes”.
Many times we can’t just say that the platform is ugly to increase the user’s payment rate, but the times have changed, and the platform also needs to make money, and sometimes, paying can give birth to good things.
