Sichuan Province Reinforces China’s NFT Love With Music

As Sichuan Province’s digital music industry surges, so has its interest in using modern technology like non-fungible technologies (NFTs) to improve music creation, distribution and other related activities and channels to grow the sector, the provincial government has said.

The music industry in Sichuan saw a 14.09% increase year-on-year last year, according to its Department of Culture and Tourism, and it raked in about CNY87 billion (~US$13.6 billion) over the period.  The province says it is encouraging music enterprises to use modern technology including for rights ownership which NFTs are known for and to build a trading platform for the purpose. 

China’s love for NFTs 

NFTs have been taking off well in China although with a clear cut message on how the relationship develops. The industry had to somewhat rename NFTs as digital collectibles in China – or Decentralized Digital Certificate (DDC) as it is the case with the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) – so as to keep the interest growing. This is for the Chinese market to express their recognition and to set a clear line between the technology and its link with cryptocurrencies which are banned in the country.

Unlike public blockchains being used elsewhere, the Chinese NFT market is being developed on top of consortium chains like AntChain (by AliBaba) whose technologies are backed by existing large companies and conduct transactions using fiat currency (yuan or digital yuan). Hence no speculation in China’s NFT market and the collectibles have no access to the secondary market. 

The development has created two parallel ownership regimes for NFTs – the Chinese model with no secondary market as digital collectibles bought in China aren’t sellable except in China and the global versions which are available in decentralized markets where there is no form of control or government oversight. 

Meanwhile, from NFT collaborations across China’s fashion industry like ANNAKIKI becoming the first Chinese independent fashion brand to feature NFTs in its collection, to BSN launching an  infrastructure for deployment, the NFT adoption is on the rise in China. 

Like elsewhere, NFTs reward creativity 

As reported in Sichuan, NFTs open up new creative possibilities for artists and increase their engagement level with other stakeholders. With digital music becoming a growth point for the industry, the province generated about CNY26.736 billion – an increase of 32.62% year-on-year – in 2021with an increased number of digital music enterprises to 351. 

With regards to copyright, the province notes that it is working to protect originality with a revenue value of about CNY318 million generated from related brokerage and management in 2021. It adds that the number of music copyright enterprises in Sichuan reached 189 to be the fourth in China behind Guangdong, Beijing and Zhejiang. 

Among other things, some of these enterprises increased the layout and use of blockchain technology to strengthen the construction of intellectual property financing service platforms and other projects. The statement also pointed out that major copyright trading projects like Alibaba’s “blockchain digital copyright and asset trading” distributed ledger technology platform have already been implemented in Sichuan.

China mainland’s NFT market is projected to grow by 150% to reach US$4.64 billion by 2026.