Hong Kong, Taiwan stars axed from China music portals
BEIJING: If you’re in mainland China and have been trying to stream music by Taiwanese singer Vivian Hsu, or Hong Kong singer Anthony Wong, forget it.
Both have been unplugged from music platforms in mainland China for supposedly backing pro- democracy movements.
Also “censored” were singers like Hong Kong’s Bobby Chen.
Their songs have been yanked off portals like NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, Kugou Music and Baidu Music.
Although many shocked listeners have surmised that the disappearances were the result of a government- sanctioned ban on these singers, their sudden omission could also be connected with music licensing agreements.
This appears to be the plausible reason. A visit to Alibaba- owned Xiami Music shows that the platform was still streaming music from Taiwan and Hong Kong artistes.
According to The Beijing News, Xiami holds the streaming rights to Bobby Chen’s catalogue.
Pointing to the recent pull down of online content such the streaming show Evil Minds 2, some outlets surmise that the disappearance of these artistes’ music is the result of tightening government regulation.
A likely scenario is that these other music streaming services have lost or did not have the rights to these artistes’ music and were forced to remove content by related authorities who are now doing more to enforce copyright protections.
While the takedowns may not be connected to politics, the disappearance of Taiwan and Hong Kong musicians from platforms quickly sparked
I think it is right to remove some singers although I appreciate their talents. After all, supporting ‘Taiwan and Hong Kong independence’ is not right. Zhang Haihuai, online blogger
discussions about the role artistes’ past political opinions should play when it comes to their work.
“I think it is right to remove some singers although I appreciate their talents.
“After all, supporting ‘ Taiwan and Hong Kong independence’ is not right,” Zhang Haihuai wrote on Wechat blog Rockerfm.
Regardless of the reasons for the takedowns, music fans were still disappointed to find a number of their favourite artistes missing from their playlists.
“As I woke up to thick smog, I found that they had erased not only the names and songs on the platform, but also those I downloaded to my phone’s memory,” NetEase user Wang Meijun complained.