China to Order Tencent Music to Give up Music Label Exclusivity

SAMR began investigating Tencent Music in 2018 but stopped in 2019 after the company agreed to stop renewing some of its exclusive rights. (Reuters)
SAMR began investigating Tencent Music in 2018 but stopped in 2019 after the company agreed to stop renewing some of its exclusive rights. (Reuters)
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China to Order Tencent Music to Give up Music Label Exclusivity

SAMR began investigating Tencent Music in 2018 but stopped in 2019 after the company agreed to stop renewing some of its exclusive rights. (Reuters)
SAMR began investigating Tencent Music in 2018 but stopped in 2019 after the company agreed to stop renewing some of its exclusive rights. (Reuters)

China's antitrust regulator is poised to order the music streaming arm of Tencent Holdings to give up exclusive rights to music labels, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday (Jul 12).

The penalty, plus a 500,000 yuan (US$77,150) fine for misreporting the acquisition of two apps, is the culmination of an investigation by the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) into Tencent Music Entertainment Group, China's dominant music streaming company, the people told Reuters.

In April, Reuters reported that the regulator was preparing to fine Tencent Holdings as part of a sweeping antitrust clamp-down on the country's internet giants, with two people saying the company should expect a penalty of at least 10 billion yuan.

The people said at the time that the gaming and social media leader was lobbying for a more lenient penalty.

Reuters could not immediately determine whether Tencent Holdings faces further antitrust penalties beyond the expected ruling on Tencent Music.

SAMR, Tencent Holdings and Tencent Music did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on Monday.

Under the terms of the penalty, SAMR will fine Tencent Music for not properly reporting the 2016 acquisitions of competing apps Kugou and Kuwo for antitrust review, an offence capped at 500,000 yuan, the people said.

In April, Reuters reported that SAMR had told Tencent Music it may have to sell Kuwo and Kugou, but the people on Monday said it no longer faces that outcome.

Still, SAMR on Saturday said it would block Tencent Holding's plan to merge China's two biggest videogame streaming site operators - Huya and DouYu International Holdings Ltd - on antitrust grounds, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Exclusivity
SAMR began investigating Tencent Music in 2018 but stopped in 2019 after the company agreed to stop renewing some of its exclusive rights, which normally expire after three years, two people with knowledge of the matter previously told Reuters.

Tencent Music, China's equivalent to Spotify Technology, had been pursuing exclusive streaming rights with record labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group.

However, it kept exclusive rights to music from Jay Chou - one of the Chinese-speaking world's most influential artists - which it used, along with some others, as a competitive edge against smaller rivals.

China has since late last year sought to curb the economic and social power of its once loosely regulated internet giants, in a clamp-down backed by President Xi Jinping.

In April, SAMR imposed a record 18 billion yuan fine on Alibaba Group Holding, ruling the e-commerce leader had abused its dominant market position for several years.



George Lucas Brings the Force to Comic-Con in Historic First Visit 

US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
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George Lucas Brings the Force to Comic-Con in Historic First Visit 

US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)

Comic-Con fans pulled out their lightsabers Sunday to welcome "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to the prominent pop culture convention for the very first time.

Attendees lined up for hours to grab a seat inside the 6,500-person capacity venue in San Diego, California to see the legendary filmmaker behind the "Indiana Jones" franchise speak at the event on its final day.

Comic-Con, which draws some 130,000 attendees, has become an important platform for movie studios and their stars to showcase the latest film and television offerings, especially those with a genre fan base.

"We've been waiting five decades for this!" said panel moderator Queen Latifah, who oversaw the discussion by Lucas and other filmmakers.

Instead of discussing his film works, however, Lucas graced the convention to preview the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art -- opening in Los Angeles in 2026 -- which the director co-founded with his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson.

"I've been collecting art since I was in college," Lucas, 81, told the crowd, adding that he has amassed tens of thousands of pieces in his collection.

"I've been doing this for 50 years now, and then it occurred to me that what am I going to do with it all because I, I refuse to sell it.

"I could never do that, it's just, it's not what I think art is -- I think it's more about an emotional connection," the director said.

In his description of the museum, Lucas said the institution will feature a blend of works.

They include illustrations by Normal Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith and N.C. Wyeth; artworks by Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Robert Colescott; and pieces by cartoonists and artists like Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta and Jack Kirby.

The museum, housed in a sleek, curved building, will also feature items from Lucas's films and other exclusive pieces.

For the "Star Wars" mastermind, the museum aims to be a tribute to the importance of narrative art.

"When you're born, the baseline is fear. And as you go through life, you're curious about things, but you're especially curious about things you don't understand, and therefore that's a threat to you.

"And as a result, you make up stories to make it feel good," he continued.

"Science fiction is a myth... but we've made it real because of science fiction books and art."

- 'A critical moment' -

Among the other members of the panel were Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, who shaped the aesthetic of the "Star Wars" universe for decades.

"What's remarkable about George is that he leads from the heart, and this museum is him," Chiang said.

Del Toro, who will release his latest film "Frankenstein" in November, said many of the museum's pieces will celebrate freedom of speech.

"We are in a critical moment in which one of the things they like to disappear is the past, you know, and this is memorializing a popular, vociferous, expressive and eloquent moment in our visual past that belongs to all of us," Del Toro said.

The fantasy filmmaker also described comics as a medium with "a lot of social conscience" and joked that comic artists "were the first one to punch a Nazi" in their works.

"What a panel!" said attendee Jesse Goldwater, who traveled to San Diego from Los Angeles.

"They are the embodiment of Comic-Con itself, without them Comic-Con wouldn't exist."