Keith Li

Dr. Jason Peters

English 133

19 February 2018

More Than an App, More Than Music

It is easy for one to get into the tunnel vision of either using Apple music or Spotify to

stream music. However, there are more out in the market, and Netease music is one of them. Do

you use Apple music or Spotify? People ask me this question all the time, as if there is no other

options. However, I use Netease Music, just like the other 299 million users. As a music appt

first glance, Netease music seems just like another music streaming service, but it is a music Commented [MOU1]: Good exposition here to provide
some background information about Netease
community that strives for the impact of music on individuals and society while providing a

platform for music lovers to discuss and explore music, fresh and classic. This music streaming

community is growing at a fast pace thanks to the user-friendly interface and the business model

the developer company created for this community. Much like the idea of a “free-to-play” game

on Steam, “Freemium” is a business model employed by Netease Music where users have access

to the app and all the content available without any charge, and Netease Music gained 300

million users in only four years of operation. Beside a variety of music presented to the users,

there are also podcasts and my favorite section called the “Netease Exclusive”, which is an

online publishing platform for music related essays and blogs. Unlike the news section of the

app, “Netease Exclusive” is curated by both the company and the users. These Netease Music
articles intrigue me the most because of the approach of introducing new music with writings

truly engages those who are and not familiar with a specific genre of music.

In the “Exclusive” section of the app, Netease music,An example of the article in Netease Commented [MOU2]: Offer a transition sentence
explaining the purpose of the next part of this discussion?
It’s not clear why you shift to discussing this article
Excusive is this an article written by “Universal Music Group International (China)” (UMGI)

caught my eyes. UMGI is a recognized collective who publishes weekly and are mainly focusing

on analyzing current trend for a wide range of audience. The title is: “A Must | Globally

Renowned Project, Kendrick Lamar Forges ‘Black Panther’ Album”. The article starts off by Commented [MOU3]: Lol I’m listening to Kendrick right
now while grading this paper 
introducing the much anticipated Marvel movie “Black Panther”, which is “rated 8.4/10 and 99%

on the Tomatometer by Rotten Tomato”, a popular rating website.

Interestingly, this article was published this year on February 12th, four days before the

screening of the movie.

Why? The answer is thatThe reason for the earlier release is because Kendrick Lamar, the

Grammy-Winning Hip-hop artist, released an album of the same name; according to this article,

it has already becoame a well-received phenomenon focus point of attention before the screening

of the movie. With an album cover representing the suit worn

by the comic character, songs like “All the Stars” and “Pray for

Me” have four million listens daily on Spotify and ranked No.2

and No.3 on the Spotify Global- Commented [MOU4]: Word wrap formatting is messed
up here
Ranking. The editor also puts the songs in the article so the

readers can listen to the album while reading this passagethey

Cover of the album

read.

In order to invite the audience into the world of Hip-hop pro-

duction a little more, the author of UMGI explores the creat-

Cover of the album: Black Panther

ing process of the album. According to UMGI, the album is

inspired by the marvel movie, and Kendrick Lamar , and the director of the movie, Ryan

Coogler, specifically asked for a collaboration with Kendrick for his appreciation toward the

Compton rapper/artist. Furthermore, being a member of Top Dawg Entertainment, K.Dot is able Commented [MOU5]: New paragraph here

to gather collaborate artists like Schoolboy Q, Future, Travis Scott, and rising artists like SZA

and Khalid. As said by UMGI, the collaborations in the album are created in a way that sets an

example of Kendrick’s experimental approach, and as the numbers have shown, Kendrick’s way

of Hip-hop is a success. Furthermore, the author of UMGI discusses how K.Dot has redefined his

album and the genre of the movie by tying back to the topic of “Black Panther”. The author

believes that the collaboration between Marvel and Kendrick marks a significant era of fusion

between art and culture where the album is not only a hit on the music chart, but also a cultural

statement from in Kendrick’s heart, and the movie is not only classified as a superhero movie,

but also tagged as a “Hip-hop” movie. The ability to redefine genres is fascinating to me and it is

presented to the audience through the article.

With a short but rich article, UMGI provided an intriguing introduction of Hip-hop to

those who are not familiar with, and an insightful, cross-disciplinary analysis to those who are, Commented [MOU6]: How does this connect back to the
identity and goals of the community itself?
all through the phenomenon of “Black Panther”. UMGI hits two birds with one stone, all thanks

to the creative approach embodied in every “Netease Exclusive” articles.

In order to better introduce the discourse community of Netease music, I interviewed my
roommate Harry Yan. He used Netease music since the launch of the app. He listens to music
everyday and enjoys discovering new music. Instead of using a student subscription on Spotify,
Commented [MOU7]: The last three paragraphs are
arranged in an odd manner. This is a really long paragraph,
and maybe needs to be broken somewhere after Harry
mentions Twitter. But then the next paragraph seems like it
should be connected instead of being a separate paragprah.
Commented [MOU8]: I know Harry!

Among all the available music apps, Harry chooses to use Netease music not just for the

clean user interface, but also the way Netease music presents its variety of music. In the
interview, Harry explains the user-friendliness of the app and how those features attract him to

choose Netease music among other music apps. Holding up his large, black “iphone 7 plus” in

front of my face, he says, “They have very clear headers, several headers, like music, video, fm,

the ‘Netease exclusive’.” He thinks these headers help him navigate through the app even

without the tutorial that popped out when he first downloaded the app.

With a clear interface, Harry is able to search the music he wants to listen to at the

moment, and he can easily comment on that piece of music just by tapping the speech bubble

icon. “I don’t comment that much”, while he swipes up and down the screen, he confesses, “it’s

kind of awkward for me, but the comments are pretty funny.” Harry said once he was listening to

Denzel Curry’s “Ultimate”, several users wrote in the comment section, referencing a Vine video

that went viral on the Internet, he said, “I laughed so hard when I saw those comments, and

actually reopened my Twitter account because it reminded me of how fun Twitter was.” At this

point, I was thinking how interesting the comments on Netease Music “manifested” into a

bridge, connecting it is to see music is able to connect different communities and how music is

penetrating our lives in this “electronic” society. Additionally,Another thing Harry mentioned

anotheris the feature called“rewarding”. While users are commenting on the song, they can even

You can reward the any user who uploaded the music and the lyrics to show appreciation,

thus encouraging more involvement in the Netease community. I think the idea of comment and

reward is aare brilliant ways to initiate conversation in the community since it is purely driven by

the community members and without any direct involvement from the company. However, those

who comment with offensive language and negative political influence can be reported by other

users from the Netease music community, so there are certain rules that the users needs to abide

to in order to maintain a healthy music community.

 “Everybody is using it, because it [is] a music app, teenager will listen to hip hop and all

the crazy stuff, but the elder community will listen to music that are slow and relaxed, [bringing]

peace to their life.” Since it is so easy to use, Harry believes that there is a great range of

demographics who uses Netease music, and I asked him if his grandma uses it, he says with a big

smile, “Yes my grandparents listen to music, my grandma uses this app on her iPad, but she

mainly listen to Peking opera and Sichuan opera. So the app has all kinds of music and its

diversified.”

With the development of modern society, it is rare to live without music. We need music

when we party; we need music go to church; and we need music when we drive. This musical

phenomenon is ubiquitous because of the emotional impact that they have on our lives.

Intuitively, music can be enjoyed personally or with a group, and Netease Music provides a

platform that engages interaction among those who are empowered by music. The motto, “Music

is Power” shows up every time you open the app, and yes, music is powerful; the various degrees

of influence provided by any genre of music can be found in every corner of our lives, but I think

this app has formed a community that is greater than itself by incorporating ideas from all

aspects of life, and truly explains why “Music is Power”: it is powerful because it comes from

our daily lives. Next time you are looking for something fresh or trying to retrieve that feeling

you had when you were riding that bus, make sure to take your time at Netease Music, because it

is more than an app, and it is more than just music.

Keith,
This is a good discussion of Netease and how it functions as a source of information for music

fans. At times, I think you lose focus of the idea of “community” as you tend to emphasize the

functions of the app itself (its popularity, user-friendliness, examples of the content available on

it, etc.). How do the functions of the app enable a community of music fans not just to consume

information but to connect to each other through that information, and to help each other pursue

their shared interests and goals?

GRADE: B+

Work Cited

环球菌 . “必听|全球口碑力作, Kendrick Lamar打造《黑豹》新专.” 网易云音乐, 环球音乐国

际部, 12 Feb. 2018, 00:13, music.163.com/#/topic?id=18807054.
 Transcript

Everyday, because music make me relieved and feels less stressed, and I like to listen to music
before bed to go to bed?
What music do you listen before you go to bed?
I guess, piano
Interesting
who’s you favorite pianist, Chopin
how do you encounter net ease
All my friends are using it, so I got pulled into the pool, the app is easy to use,
What part of the app that makes it user-friendly
Because you can search for music and there are different topic that you
If you want to do aerobics, there are…
When you are outside doing picnic, you can pick picnic music, and a lot of country will come up.
They have very clear headers, several headers, music, video, fm, the “netease exclusive”.
So now Im looking at what is the sound of winter, so click on that, it take you on another page,
and It has a description of what the winter is like, which will fit the descriptions, and as you are
are reading the description, the music is playing, and there is not only one song in each essay, so
it will continue playing after a song is over.
Yes there are comments below the article, and reward people who upload stuff and it shows you
who wrote this at the end of the essay, and you can subscribe the author, the person, and people
can reply. There are comment about the music and the article, for example, whats the winter like,
they are talking about what the winter is like in specific location, like in southern china, northern
china, and even the states, so it connects people from all over the world, for example, I have
never been to northern china, so after reading the article, I have a clear image of what winter in
northern china is like.
Everybody is using it, because it a musics app, teenager will listen to hip hop and all the crazy
shit, but the elder community will listen to music that are slow and relaxed, bring peace to their
life.
Yes my grandparents listen to music, my grandma uses this app on her iPad, but she mainly
listen to peking opera and sichuan opera. So the app has all kinds of music and its diversified.
I barely comment, because it is hard to, because I just use it to listen to the music.
Ive been using this for seven years, I started using it as a middelschooler, when I had my first
smartphone, I used this app to listen to music. But now I use Spotify, because a lot of songs are
blocked in the us, it is sad, so it is more beneficial to use this app in china than in the states.