Does "Fans Economy" Work for Chinese Pop Music Industry?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether the 'Fans Economy' model is effective in China's pop music industry by analyzing social networks and market segmentation.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of artist-fan networks and challenges the effectiveness of 'Fans Economy' in the Chinese context.

Findings

Limited market diversity reduces 'Fans Economy' effectiveness.

Market segmentation shows lack of consumer diversity.

Matthew Effect influences artist popularity dynamics.

Abstract

China has become one of the largest entertainment markets in the world in recent years. Due to the success of Xiaomi, many Chinese pop music industry entrepreneurs believe "Fans Economy" works in the pop music industry. "Fans Economy" is based on the assumption that pop music consumer market could be segmented based on artists. Each music artist has its own exclusive loyal fans. In this paper, we provide an insightful study of the pop music artists and fans social network. Particularly, we segment the pop music consumer market and pop music artists respectively. Our results show that due to the Matthew Effect and limited diversity of consumer market, "Fans Economy" does not work for the Chinese pop music industry.