Photo: VCG

China's Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) entered in a partnership with South Korea's JYP Entertainment on Wednesday. The agreement will give TME the distribution rights to JYP's song catalogue including artists such as Twice and 2PM. 

While many applauded what the cooperation would bring, some Chinese music industry insiders stated that they felt it wasn't enough and called for cooperation between the entertainment industries of the two countries to expand beyond the sharing of distribution rights.

TME's network of music streaming platforms includes QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music. According to South Korean media, the two companies are expected to maximize their synergy by establishing various music entertainment services, such as joint marketing, live-streaming events and other promotional activities.

 "We will sign a partnership contract with TME, China's leading online music platform. We plan to secure a way to distribute various contents from our artists, including music, and develop various business models," JYP Entertainment had said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

The company also said that it aims to contribute to the development of K-Pop by providing not only its artists' music, but also other quality content to music fans around the world.

"I look forward to the cooperation between China and South Korea at the industrial level. After all, K-pop culture has a deeper foundation, and there are many experience lessons that can to be learned from it at both the industrialization level and how to the market strategy to the outside world," Fan Zhihui, a music industry analyst based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Fan noted that the new deal between the two companies mainly focuses on advertising and copyrights, but he hopes they two companies can explore more new ways areas to cooperate on. 

"TME's QQ Music gathers many types of popular culture and is targeted at young people, so there is a lot of room to expand into fan economics and artist creation," he added.

TME also entered into a partnership with South Korean entertainment company YG in 2014, earning it the rights to distribute music by South Korean girl band Black Pink - a move that was hailed by the band's Chinese fans.

The Chinese music industry has been strengthening cooperation with overseas music companies to further develop itself and to increase its international influence.

US company Warner Music has also established a strategic licensing agreement with TME. Two companies have agreed to launch a new joint venture record label leveraging Warner Music's global resources and experience in supporting artists' careers, according to a press release TME sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.