Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME; ) is a company that develops

music streaming service A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to s ...

s for the Chinese market. Tencent Music's apps include

QQ Music QQ Music () is one of three Chinese freemium music streaming services owned by Tencent Music, a joint venture between Tencent and Spotify, now majority owned by Tencent. , the service is set to reach over 700 million users with an estimated 120 ...

KuGou KuGou (; ) is a Chinese music streaming and download service established in 2004 and owned by Tencent Music. It has more than 800 million users. A merger between China Music Corporation and Tencent's QQ Music QQ Music () is one of three Ch ...

, Kuwo, and WeSing; which have more than 800 million active users and 120 million paying

subscribers The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

. As of July 2016, Tencent Music's three services held an estimated 56% market share of music streaming services in China. In the first quarter of 2021, Tencent Music announced it had 60.9 million paying users, up 42.6% compared to the 42.7 million paying users in the first quarter of 2020. In addition, the total number of music streaming users was announced to be 615 million, a drop of 6.4% compared to the first quarter of 2020 (657 million).

History

Tencent Music was established in July 2016 with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

's purchase of China Music Corporation to strengthen its music offerings. On July 4, 2018,

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

acquired an equity stake in Tencent Music. In October 2018, the firm filed for IPOs of around $2 billion in the United States. In December 2018, the company announced an IPO with the total value of shares around $1.23 billion, which includes 82 million ADS and 164 million regular shares priced around $13 - $15. On January 30, 2019, SM Entertainment, the largest entertainment agency of South Korea entered into strategic partnership agreement with China's Tencent Music that included music distribution and marketing in the Chinese market. In June 2020, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

banned QQ Music with 58 other Chinese origin apps citing data and privacy issues. The border tensions in 2020 between India and China might have also played a role in the ban. As of 2023, 16.47% of Tencent Music class A ordinary shares are owned by

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. On May 27, 2025,

Hybe Corporation Hybe Co., Ltd. (; stylized as Hybe Corporation; commonly known as simply Hybe) is a South Korean multinational entertainment company established in 2005 by Bang Si-hyuk as Big Hit Entertainment Co., Ltd. The company operates as a record l ...

announced it would sell all of its shares in

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...

to the company.

Charts

Tencent Music currently has four charts: The TME UNI Chart, launched in 2018; the TME Wave Chart, launched in 2020; the TME Korean Chart, launched in 2024; and the TME Physical Album Sales Chart, launched in 2021. Tencent Music began releasing the first "Chinese Digital Music Annual Report" in 2019 and continues to do so every year. The annual report includes rankings of top songs, albums, and artists from all three charts and an overall Chinese Digital Music ranking based on the comprehensive results from TME UNI Chart and TME Wave Chart.

TME UNI Chart

The name, UNI, is a

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

for "up to you" (由你) in Chinese as this chart is determined by the listeners. The TME UNI Chart contains two lists: Real-time List and Past List. Real-time List shows the top 200 songs and updates every ten minutes. Past List shows the top 100 songs from each charting week, which runs from Monday to Sunday. In 2023, Tencent Music Entertainment Group announced a partnership with ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' to integrate the TME UNI Chart into ''Billboard''s official

Hits of the World The Hits of the World is a collection of weekly record charts published by ''Billboard'' magazine. It ranks the top 25 songs in more than 40 countries around the globe based on streaming and digital sales. These charts in 40+ countries joined exist ...

collection of global record charts. Eligible songs must be new songs within six weeks of their initial release on Tencent Music's platform and are not part of the following song types: *Songs without clear ownership and/or credit to the songwriters *

Cover songs In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released ...

without any adaptations *User-generated, demo, trial, and/or incomplete version of songs *Live versions of songs performed during commercial performances, concerts, or television programs *

Instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

and/or

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

*Songs with vulgar lyrics and/or content that do not comply with relevant national regulations *Songs released more than three months ago that are later added to Tencent Music's platform Songs are ranked based on streaming, social, and sales activity from registered accounts on

, KuGou Music, KuWo Music, WeSing,

Joox Joox (stylised in all caps) is a music streaming service owned by Tencent, launched in January 2015. Joox is the biggest music streaming app in Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and also in South Afri ...

, Weibo Music, and Weixin Video Account.

TME Wave Chart

The TME Wave Chart is a monthly ranking of the top songs in China compiled based on scores and recommendations from more than 250 music industry professionals.

TME Korean Chart

The TME Korean Chart ranks the top Korean songs within China based on streaming and sales activity from the platforms QQ Music, KuGou Music, KuWo Music, Polka Dot, and Joox as well as data from

Circle Chart The Circle Chart (), previously known as the Gaon Music Chart or the Gaon Chart (), tabulates the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in South Korea. Founded in 2010, it is produced by the Korea Music Content Association and sponsored ...

and Hanteo Chart. The TME Korean Chart contains two lists: Real-time List and Past List. Real-time List shows the top 200 songs and updates every ten minutes. Past List shows the top 100 songs from each charting week, which runs from Monday to Sunday. Songs are ranked based on streaming (50%), sales (30%), and social activities (20%). This chart follows a set of rules based on length of time since a song's release on Tencent Music platform: *Weeks 1-12: Songs are eligible to chart *Weeks 13-26: Songs that fall outside the Top 100 are removed from and cannot reenter the chart *Weeks 27-52: Songs that fall outside the Top 50 are removed from and cannot reenter the chart *Weeks 52 and beyond: Songs that fall outside the Top 25 are removed from and cannot reenter the chart

TME Physical Album Sales Chart

The TME Physical Album Sales Chart is a sales chart that ranks the physical

record sales Record sales or music sales are activities related to selling music recordings (albums, singles, or music videos) through physical record shops or digital music stores. Record sales reached their peak in 1999, when 600 million people spent an ...

based on data from

and

Music. It contains four lists: Weekly, Monthly, Annual, and Overall.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Tencent Music Tencent divisions and subsidiaries Chinese companies established in 2016 2018 initial public offerings Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Internet censorship in India