Taylor Swift will headline Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Singles’ Day event on November 11, 2019 to be held in Shanghai, China.
Swift will join other celebrities like Hua Chenyu, Kana Hanazawa, Ju Jingyi, Li Ronghao, Luo Yunxi, Jackson Yee, Zhang Jie and Zhang Yixing in the Countdown Gala for the world’s biggest shopping spree. This will be livestreamed and televised by Youku, Shanghai Dragon TV and Zhejiang TV.
According to a statement from Alibaba, the retail extravaganza will feature more than 200,000 brands with a million new products. The event expects more than 500 million shoppers, an increase from last year’s record of 100 million.
Swift’s latest album, “Lover”, reached one million in sales in China, beating the record she set in the US. The album is now regarded as the most-consumed international album ever in China both in sales and streaming.
Music piracy in China
Piracy was prevalent in China during the 2000s. Pirated files were also present all over China's internet. “Respect for intellectual property hasn’t historically been a priority for China’s government,” wrote Bloomberg analyst Adam Minter.
“Between 2014 and 2017, Chinese streaming music revenue grew from $97 million to $292 million,” said Minter. “Tencent Music, China's biggest online music service, had 650 million monthly active users for its free but licensed advertising-based streaming service during its last reported quarter, and 31 million paying subscribers. By 2023, the industry is expected to be worth $30 billion in China.”
Minter adds that Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group Corp. have sealed digital licensing deals in China, and Swift, who is now under Universal, may benefit from these changes.
Swift will be the newest addition to the list of celebrities who have shown up for the Alibaba event. Other celebrities included in the list were Nicole Kidman, Scarlett Johansson, Mariah Carey and athletes like Kobe Bryant, David Beckham, and Maria Sharapova.
