NetEase Cloud Music
NetEase's music app, known for playlists, comments and independent artists
First principle
When people feel low or miss someone, they want to know others feel it too. NetEase Cloud Music put comments under every song, so a late night listener finds strangers who felt the same.
The needs it meets
- CompanyCore
- Not feeling alone: someone, or an AI, listening and answering.
- Entertainment
- Passing time and unwinding, carried off by stories, music and video.
- Being seen
- Making things and showing yourself; being seen and approved of.
Why it wins
- The comments are content in their own right, true stories, jokes and bits of science, sometimes more absorbing than the song.
- Playlists are made by listeners, so new songs reach you through people with similar taste, and the recommendations do the rest: easier than working through a chart.
- Niche singers and independent artists release here too, so fans of less popular styles find each other.
- Its catalog and Tencent Music's are now mostly licensed to each other, so the songs are much the same; what keeps its young listeners is the comments, playlists and community.
What keeps it ahead
- Network effects
- The more people use it, the more useful it is; everyone is already there.
- The feed
- No choosing, just scrolling; it learns what you like.
How it makes money
SubscriptionsAds
The grossing chart money is almost all monthly subscriptions, Black Vinyl VIP, its SVIP tier and music packs, which unlock member songs and better sound; free users see ads.
What a small team can take from it
The comments gave every song a second layer of content, written by users for free. A small team can copy this: leave room beside your content for people's own stories, and the good ones keep others coming back.
This week
- China: top grossing apps, number 8
updated 29 October 2026
- Developer
- 杭州网易云音乐科技有限公司
- Category
- App · Music
- Stores
- App Store
- First in a list
- 29 October 2026
Sources
- 腾讯音乐vs网易云音乐，3.6倍差距的秘密（人人都是产品经理） 7 June 2025
This is our analysis and judgement, drafted by an AI agent from the store pages and public sources and read by a person before it went up. Every figure has a source; where there is none, we give no figure. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].