Tencent Music continues to expand copyright: will invest US$200 million in Warner Music

As China's No. 1 music-listening software, Tencent Music's advantage cannot be shaken. In the final analysis, the copyright is strong enough.

According to foreign media reports, Chinese Internet giant Tencent plans to invest US$200 million in Warner Music Group, and the deal is under negotiation. Previously, Warner Music planned to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) next week.

People familiar with the matter revealed that in addition to Tencent, Warner Music is also working hard to contact other institutions, which will serve as major investors and contribute a total of more than US$1 billion to Warner Music's fundraising goal of US$1.8 billion. Warner Music is the third largest record company in the world and owns well-known artists such as Cardi B, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. Warner Music's listing could become New York's largest IPO so far in 2020.

Warner Music announced in March this year that it was postponing its IPO because the global pandemic of the new coronavirus had impacted the capital market and many companies preparing to go public had paused.

In addition to consolidating its position as the domestic music hegemon, Tencent Music is also continuing to expand itself, that is, investing more money to purchase copyrights. For example, they will acquire 10% of the equity of Universal Music Group (UMG). The copyrights of many songs currently belong to Tencent Music. This is not particularly good news for users...