Business | A pirate’s life no more

Thanks to streaming services, China’s consumers have begun paying for music

The market is dominated by one company: Tencent, the biggest of the country’s online giants

|BEIJING

HONEST souls intent on paying full whack for the music they listen to used to have a hard time in China. In the era of compact discs, rare was the shop which did not sell counterfeits. The same held true when discs turned into downloads and online streams of songs: hardly any service charged money.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A pirate’s life no more”

How to deal with Venezuela

From the July 29th 2017 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Food packaging with "Notpla Coating" is pictured at Notpla.

Could seaweed replace plastic packaging?

Companies are experimenting with new ways to reduce plastic waste

A sequoiq tree with a metal detector scanning around the Silicon valley and California.

Has Sequoia Capital outgrown its business model?

Venture capital’s hardiest perennial gets back to its roots


A man cutting the red tape that tiies him.

On stupid rules and quick wins

Why every boss can benefit from asking employees what most infuriates them


TikTok wants Western consumers to shop like the Chinese

It still has some convincing to do

Will the trouble ever end for Volkswagen and its rivals?

From strikes to Trump tariffs, calamities abound

After Northvolt’s failure, who will make Europe’s EV batteries?

The continent looks ever more reliant on Asian producers