Over the past two years, mergers and fierce competition have slowly whittled down the number of Chinese online music platforms. The two that have pulled ahead of the pack are Alibaba Group’s Ali Music and Tencent Holdings Limited’s QQMusic. Ali Music’s focus has been on gathering user-generated content, while QQ’s has been on stockpiling the rights to an ever-growing library of content. But while the approaches of the companies may differ, they both share a common goal: monetizing the digital music industry.

But this won’t be an easy task, as businesses in China have previously struggled to sell music to consumers. Chinese music consumers clearly remain unimpressed by current “freemium” models. According to the Wall Street Journal, paid accounts in 2015 made up less than 10 percent of QQMusic users. To exacerbate matters, music companies are worried they’ll lose customers if they include advertisements on their streaming websites. The main reason for this is that people simply aren’t willing to pay for content or watch advertisements when the readily accessible market for pirated content offers so many free alternatives. To date neither freemium nor ad-based models have been profitable.

And yet while the Internet may have helped usher in an era of piracy, dealing a severe blow to the music industry, it has also helped increase the exposure of up-and-coming musicians and producers. Computers offer people the ability to upload content, digitally alter it with sound effects, and stream it online.

The industry needs to try something new to increase profits. Music sales have always hinged on the constant creation of new content, but this is apparently overlooked by China’s music platforms, which continue to remain focused on connecting with consumers over artists and producers. The music industry cannot survive if it prioritizes consumption over production of professional content.

Song Ke, the CEO of Ali Music, said at the FTChinese Annual Forum, held by the Financial Times in October 2015: “Users aren’t always just satisfied with listening to music; they may also want to make a song for someone they love. It may only make a hundred yuan, but they just want a chance to create something for their kids.”

Song’s remarks were an early indicator of Ali Music’s future plans, and in March the company announced that a new service named “Alibaba Planet” was undergoing internal testing. The platform was formally launched on May 18.

The multitude of services available on Alibaba Planet’s app speaks to Ali Music’s ambition. It will be aimed at all levels of the music industry and will combine into one integrated platform the ability to record, edit, buy and sell music, advertise, sell concert tickets, rent venues, and more. It will also provide a channel for artists to upload and stream their own music, thus linking producer, artist, and consumer.

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Previously, to purchase a song or find a performer for an event, the consumer would have to go through an intermediary organization, in the form of an online store, a management service, or a private individual. In return, the intermediary would receive a fee for providing the service.

Alibaba Planet is attempting to create a different kind of music platform — one which eliminates the need for middlemen, and one that allows both amateur musicians and industry professionals to connect directly with consumers. Of course, the company will impose its own fees, but it has promised that they will be minimal and completely transparent.

If done well, Alibaba Planet could disrupt the music industry the same way that Taobao, another Alibaba Group subsidiary, revolutionized e-commerce in China. But platforms like Alibaba Planet and Taobao rely on large user bases to effectively match businesses with consumers.

Promoting the new service will be the responsibility of Ali Music’s triumvirate of leaders: Song Ke, He Jiong, and Gao Xiaosong — three leading figures in China’s entertainment industry.  It is a task they are well suited for, and the Alibaba Group, which already owns a host of online streaming and commerce platforms, has both the resources and experience to lay the groundwork for success.

Of course, for Alibaba Planet unifying and consolidating all of the planned services into one platform will take time. There currently isn’t a single company in the entire world that has managed to successfully merge video, music, and social networking into a single service. Google has only just begun to unify YouTube and Google Play Music through a new subscription service, but even this lacks the sleek social networking tools Alibaba hopes to incorporate in its new platform.

The ultimate goal of Ali Music is to re-emphasize the role of producers in the online music industry. The company is hoping its users will be able not only to enjoy new music, but also to participate in the exciting creation process, giving everyone a chance to experience feelings of fame. The underlying idea is that people will happily pay for such a personal experience, and that this will steer the digital music industry onto a new path of profitability.

Ali Music has said it plans to launch an English version of its Alibaba Planet later this year. At this point, it seems that 2016 may see a complete overhaul of the Chinese music industry, and, if successful, it probably won’t be long before Western companies begin emulating Alibaba’s model.

(Header image: Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, gestures during a speech at the WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, California, USA, Oct. 27, 2014. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/VCG)