Xiami brings MQA HiRes streaming to China making it the first music streaming service in China to adopt MQA studio quality audio. Xiami Music, a wholly-owned entity of the Alibaba Group, will become the audio quality leader in China, sending a clear signal to artists and creators that Xiami’s service is the best way to connect with their fans.
MQA technology which delivers master-quality music in a file small enough to stream, will be introduced into the SVIP tier of Xiami Music iOS and Android apps. All users will be offered a free trial for a limited period and can then subscribe to the SVIP tier to continue to access all MQA music. China is already the fourth largest market for sales of MQA devices, even before the existence of a domestic MQA-enabled music service, so this partnership is set to further boost sales of MQA enabled products.
Xiami Music has maintained a culture of innovation and creativity, with a reputation for supporting independent artists and respecting sound quality. The streaming service has an intelligent AI recommendation tool which encourages music discovery, and this has helped the platform attract over 40,000 independent musicians, and a library containing over 500 million playlists and 20 million songs.
Long Yang, Director of Xiami Music said, “We are very proud to be the first music service in China to offer MQA, as we continue to push the technological boundaries in pursuit of improved sound quality to benefit our music fans and all musicians on our platform.”
Mike Jbara, MQA’s CEO, added, “MQA is a consumer-centric technology company, driven by a commitment to deliver the master recording all the way through to the music fan, wherever and however they choose to listen – and it was clear from our first meeting that the Xiami team shared our vision. Many of MQA’s current device partners have successful and growing relationships within Alibaba’s e-commerce businesses, so this collaboration is the perfect platform on which to create a complete MQA ecosystem for the Chinese consumer market.”
Xiami Music was founded in 2008 and acquired by the Alibaba Group in 2013. Alibaba Group owns market-leading e-commerce platforms in China, which attract 654 million annual active consumers including a growing entertainment business.
Licensed music streaming services such as Xiami Music have revitalised the Chinese recorded music market, which now ranks seventh in revenue terms internationally. In terms of music streaming income, China is the fourth largest global market, behind only the US, UK and Germany according to figures in the IFPI Global Music Report 2019.
