NetEase have a LOT of listeners streaming music on their services and they’ve just gained a LOT of funding to help to expand and grow their user-base.

NetEase Cloud Music is the Chinese music streaming service of NetEase, a publishing and games mega company. That status has just gotten even more ‘mega’ with a whopping $600 million of investment from investors like Baidu, Boyu Capital and General Atlantic but NetEase remain the controlling shareholder.

It comes at a great time as digital music in China sees some of the most considerable growth in the world, and considering their population of 1.4 billion there is a large audience. That is evidenced already by NetEase Cloud Music who claim that more than 600 million users are now registered with them. With just 400 million users last November, 200 million new users in a year shows that digital music is being adopted at a wild rate in China. What makes this statistic even more incredible is the fact that NetEase Cloud Music has only been operating for 5 years.

NetEase’s chief executive officer and director, William Ding said: “Content creation and user experience differentiation is embedded in our corporate DNA. A focus on quality and craftmanship is prevalent in all our product offerings, including online games and e-commerce, among others. NetEase Cloud Music is no different. Music is particularly region-specific and we strive to create the largest interactive community for music lovers in China by providing users with convenient access to both mainstream and independent artists. We remain relentlessly focused on continuous improvement, and we are confident we can further unlock the value of this important asset in China’s thriving online music services market.”

Eric Zhang, the managing director and head of China for General Atlantic, said: “Pay-for-content is a growing trend, especially among Generation Z users, driven by increasing affordability and improving protection of intellectual property. We are deeply impressed with the NetEase Cloud Music team’s understanding of the music industry and their commitment to the user experience. We are excited to partner with NetEase Cloud Music and its strategic partners as the platform delivers one of the best online music streaming services and supports independent artists for content creation in the China online music market.”

Boyu Capital’s managing director, Joey Chen said: “China’s online music market is attractive with huge growth potential. We believe that NetEase Cloud Music commands unique value in the market as a clear leader in incubating independent musicians and enjoys proven popularity among a young generation of users in China who have formed an active community on the platform. We are confident that NetEase Cloud Music is well-positioned to capture the rising opportunities and achieve sustained high growth.”

Finally, speaking for Baidu their vice president Wang Lu said: “Baidu has always been committed to creating the most powerful content ecosystem. We have found that Chinese users still have a lot of room for online music. NetEase Cloud Music has made a name for itself in terms of its differentiated user offering, together with Baidu’s leadership in feed business, search content distribution capabilities in China, we look forward to working together to provide users with enhanced service through the strongest content distribution, and the highest quality content ecosystem.”

As an artist you can take advantage of NetEase’s massive number of listeners. We partnered with Kanjian to get your music on the biggest music services around Asia – including NetEase Cloud Music. Sign up for free at RouteNote and put your music in front of 600 million listeners, and all the rest.