The relatively peaceful day was broken by a Weibo posted by NetEase Cloud Music. Before I clicked on the text, I thought that NetEase Cloud Music and Kugou Music were going to shake hands and make peace. After clicking on it, I discovered that NetEase Cloud is a "real bamboo shoot".
In the long article "Recommendations on Applying for Year-end Rewards for Kugou? Copycat? Teams", NetEase Cloud Music made a well-founded and illustrated summary of the functions of Kugou Music's plagiarized products. Overtly satirizing "copycat", secretly ridiculing "pixel-level tribute".
The last sentence of the article? I wish Kugou Music a happy Year of the Dog? Let me reiterate the topic. It can be called a model of high-level rivalry and yin and yang. Onmyoji is worthy of being produced by NetEase. ? Fight! Fight! ?
The official end of the show always arouses the curiosity of the crowd to the greatest extent, with constant booing and more and more people taking sides.
People who defected to NetEase Cloud: NetEase Cloud is really not easy, and Kugou is also a real dog. ?
Some people who have been suffering from NetEase Cloud's copyright for a long time said, "Whenever NetEase Cloud owns Jay Chou, I will uninstall QQ Music. Remember to mark the cover songs on the platform as non-original songs and tear them up after they are done." Kugou, don’t be stingy about tearing yourself apart again. ?
#NetEase Cloud Claims Kugou Plagiarism# has been on the hot search list for a long time. #Kugou Music Executive Responds to Plagiarism NetEase Cloud# also continued to appear on the hot search list. Xie Huan, the suspected CEO of Kugou Music, posted a response in WeChat Moments. : It turns out that the QQ Listen Together function I built in 2006 actually had such far-reaching strategic significance. I found the requirements document from that year and thought about it, can I say goodbye to others copying me? ?
At 6:30 p.m. that night, fans finally received the official response from Kugou Music. Kugou stated that the platform’s “Listen Together” and “Music Promotion” applications have simultaneously applied for patents. It also comes with a link to the patented picture and Jay Chou's "Black Humor" music.
Whether it is a quarrel or a response, this war of words with guns and sticks was eventually used by Kugou officials to use a song by Jay Chou to lightly return to the dispute between online music copyright and users. .
As for who is cheating, everyone has their own conclusions.
01 Who is cheating?
This time NetEase Cloud Music’s accusation of plagiarism against Kugou Music focuses on two aspects: one is the function, and the other is the page interaction design.
The first is the function. NetEase Cloud Music praises Kugou Fang for its continuous efforts to transform NetEase Cloud’s new functions into Kugou. In July 2020, NetEase Cloud launched the "Listen Together" function, and Kugou also launched the "Listen Together" function recently; NetEase Cloud launched the "CloudBei Push Song" function in April 2020, and Kugou Music launched it three months later. Online music promotion function.
The second is the page design. The information, display form, avatar and headphone display form of the "Listen Together" function's page for inviting friends are very similar to "Listen Together"; the interaction form of "Music Recommended Songs" is very similar to that of "Listen Together". , design style, recommendation success page design style, and interaction form are also similar to "Yunbei Tuige".
Finally, NetEase Cloud Music said: We are not proud, proud, happy, showing off and moved by what Kugou Shanzhaiban has done. In a thousand words, we also fully affirm Kugou’s affirmation of NetEase Cloud Music. ?
NetEase Cloud Music, which occupies the moral high ground, put Kugou Music on the hot search list without using a single curse word. Kugou Music, which was already at the bottom of the music contempt chain, has once again lost its reputation. However, as Kugou came up with patent certificates, more and more voices began to question NetEase Cloud. Injure the enemy by one thousand, and injure yourself by eight hundred?
With the rising popularity, past plagiarism suspicions of the two platforms have been exposed. Some netizens said that the "Listen to songs together" function first appeared in QQ group chat, and was later adopted by NetEase Cloud, Ku Some people said that it was originally a plagiarism from Spotify, and the case of NetEase Cloud music infringement of Jay Chou was once again brought up to be whipped.
In terms of UI design, NetEase Cloud’s playback interface progress bar and pause control have also been questioned as being very similar to the design of Korean music software Bugs. The overall red and black-and-white UI style feels familiar.
Kugou’s UI design has been directly accused of plagiarism by NetEase Cloud Music. Judging from the comparison chart posted by NetEase Cloud and the product copywriting of both parties, there is indeed not much difference.
How to define plagiarism and imitation of Internet product ideas has caused controversy amid the fermentation of the incident.
In the eyes of many people, similar product functions may be a major trend influenced by technology, but page design tends to be more subjective and creative. Whether Kugou has copied NetEase Cloud or not, perhaps its product R&D and technology R&D departments know best.
What cannot be ignored is that whether it is the current or early Internet, whether it is music software or other Internet products, homogenization and plagiarism are chronic diseases of the industry.
Taobao refers to eBay, Tencent QQ benchmarks against ICQ, Alipay refers to paypal, Baidu Search learns from Google, Didi imitates Uber, QQ Music follows Spotify, and the business model, functional concept, and UI design can all be copied.
Plagiarism is common among peers, new players copy old players, small businesses copy Internet giants, and foreign countries copy domestic products. Plagiarism is common, and the relationship between infringement is always difficult to clarify.
NetEase Cloud Music dissed Kugou Music, which is nothing more than adding some new material to the already shameful history of Internet plagiarism.
02? Fake battle, real marketing
In 2013, NetEase Technology published "NetEase Cloud Music's letter to Baidu Music: Your admiration, my helplessness!" ”, the open letter claimed that Baidu Music had plagiarized the interface design of NetEase Music, and complained that Baidu should change designers.
At that time, NetEase Cloud Music was in its infancy, and Baidu Music, which had been in the limelight as its backer, had gone through several years. NetEase's high-profile propaganda was somewhat over the top, but Baidu did not seem to respond in a high-profile way.
Some legal practitioners said that it is difficult to define plagiarism in software and hardware. As far as Internet products are concerned, they have to prove that their page layout design is original and is a work under copyright law. Most apps may not One hundred percent original.
It is precisely for this reason that wars of words over plagiarism are common, but each time they end in vain. In 2012, NetEase claimed that "Tencent has crossed the bottom line of the Internet." Dianping publicly accused NetEase's "Fanfan" of plagiarizing content on its platform, saying that it should set an example when condemning Tencent. In 2016, Motorola officially tweeted, pointing out that Samsung mobile phones copied its own screen-off reminder function. In 2018, Zhang Yiming said that "WeChat's excuse for blocking, and Weishi's plagiarism and transfer cannot stop Douyin's pace." Ma Huateng responded: "It can be called slander." ? In 2020, Musk publicly accused Xiaopeng Motors of plagiarism, and He Xiaopeng responded remotely: ?You will not be able to find anything next year. In 2021, NetEase Cloud Music wishes Kugou Music a happy Year of the Dog. Kugou Music threw out patent certificates and counterattacked with a song "Black Humor".
This time, after Kugou Music responded to plagiarism, NetEase Cloud Music officially stopped making any comments. However, the popularity and number of likes and comments for more than ten songs continuously promoted on Weibo far exceeded those of the previous few days.
In the era of fragmentation, user attention has become the most intense battlefield for Internet marketing. Once the effect of a hot event is matched with the brand's special effects, it will generate a strong strong association and form fission communication power. .
The difference between NetEase Cloud Music’s two open letters is that they both emphasize that the interface design is closely combined with the content characteristics of the platform. This kind of interface is not necessarily suitable for Baidu and Kugou platforms.
While lowering the reputation of the opponent, it emphasizes its own community atmosphere and platform genes, pushes the product to a higher level, and then uses the traffic exposure brought by event marketing to achieve the final conversion.
This battle is hard to come by, but the winner is undoubtedly NetEase Cloud Music, which has top-notch marketing. From music reviews on subways to brand videos, NetEase Cloud Music, which has a deep understanding of user psychology, has captured loyal fans with screen-swiping marketing and emotional marketing.
The article "Suggestions on Applying for Year-end Rewards for Kugou Shanzhai Office Team" received 100,00 reads on its official public account, nearly 10,000 "likes" and "currently viewed" on WeChat. The blog post received 550,000 likes, and the topic #NetEase Cloud Music Calls Kugou Plagiarism# was read 310 million times. It not only gave TME a blow, but also promoted product features. It can be said to be a double gain in traffic, fame and fortune.
03? NetEase Cloud wins the turnaround?
On the simple matter of Kugou plagiarism, NetEase Cloud Music has indeed taken the lead in terms of public opinion and justice, but online music will always return At the level of copyright and users, TME is behind Kugou, and the war of words is also the game between NetEase Cloud Music and the entire Tencent Music Group.
According to third-party data, nearly 60% of my country’s online music users come from third-tier cities and below, with users in first-tier cities accounting for the smallest proportion, only 7.3%.
Tencent Music has more than 70% of users in second-tier and lower cities, while NetEase Cloud Music users account for less than 60% in second-tier and lower cities. The platforms that have truly gained the mainstream market are Tencent-based QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music and other platforms at the lower end of the music contempt chain. Xiami Music, which occupies the top of the contempt chain, has now been squeezed out.
The logic behind this is that the demand for high-quality content is still the core competitiveness. NetEase Cloud Music without copyright, even if there is a community atmosphere, is like running naked.
NetEase Cloud, which was at a disadvantage in the copyright war, started to buy copyrights crazily after experiencing user losses. Last year, it reached a multi-year strategic cooperation with Rolling Stone Records, Warner Copyright, Universal Music, etc., and obtained music library authorization. .
At the same time, NetEase Cloud has also increased its support for original musicians. In December last year, NetEase Cloud Music released its music talent strategy, which aims to promote the growth of 100,000 musicians in the future and plans to incubate 100 music talent with an annual income of 1 million.
The difficulty is that even if NetEase Cloud spends crazy money to buy copyright, it is difficult to buy the copyright it wants.
The 1% exclusiveness of TME’s copyright library is often the high-quality content that can attract users the most. The cultivation of original musicians not only requires long-term financial and traffic support, but it is also difficult to catch up with leading singers. Traffic value and business value.
In addition to copyright purchase and musician support, NetEase Cloud Music has gradually begun to explore a diversified content ecology, introducing functions such as social networking, short videos, live broadcasts, and podcasts. After all, it relies solely on membership payments and digital album revenue. Far from being able to support the high cost of copyright purchase.
TME, the world’s only profitable online music platform, accounts for 2/3 of social entertainment, with social, live broadcast, and karaoke businesses accounting for a large share. NetEase Cloud Music also clarified its profit path in 2019: membership, advertising, live broadcast and social networking.
Social entertainment has become a trend. Following functions such as karaoke and Yuncun community, NetEase Cloud has launched multiple functional sections such as "AI Free Writing", "Music Help Chat", and "Sound Theater". Two new functions have been added to the bottom navigation bar, the categories in podcasts have become more complicated, and NetEase Cloud Music, which was originally a smooth and tidy page, has begun to become heavier.
There are increasing discussions about why NetEase Cloud Music is becoming more and more bloated, either to make up for the lack of copyright resources by adding live audio content, to catch up with the short video trend, or for advertising monetization and business. After all, the platform must be suitable for monetization.
In the past, NetEase Cloud Music relied on the special community atmosphere in the comment area to gather a large number of niche culture enthusiasts and original musicians, and fought its way through TME's copyright monopoly.
However, I don’t know since when, copy-pasted comments began to flood the message area. Pretentious emotional stories and sentences drowned out the real comments, and "sadness", "depression", and "pretentiousness" became NetEase Cloud Music's new label, "Net Yiyun", has also become a shackle that NetEase Cloud Music cannot break.
The copy of this open letter really made many people laugh. We fully affirm Kugou Music’s affirmation of NetEase Cloud Music. NetEase Cloud Music then got its name, NetEase Onmyoji. .
It’s a laugh, but NetEase Cloud Music, which does not have Jay Chou’s copyright, is still disliked. In response to the ridicule of netizens, NetEase Cloud has covers of all versions in addition to the original songs.
A netizen who claimed to be a Xiami user said, "In the past, NetEase Cloud had songs with tones and a bowl of fragrant rice." Now with all the messy functions added, it’s just a bowl of shit. Just sue for infringement and get compensation and buy some music. ?
As Xiami exits, Kuaishou and Douyin have entered the music platform one after another. Byte has internally tested "Feile", Kuaishou has launched "Komori Records", and the entry of short video traffic giants has made NetEase Cloud Music even more precarious. .
TME dominates the music market and is coming fiercely. NetEase Cloud Music, which is in trouble, has won the war of words rather than winning a turnaround.
After all, after "Net Suppression of Clouds", "Onmyoji" became famous in another battle.