Sony and Tencent launch a record label together in Asia
Sony Music and Chinese giant Tencent are starting a label together. Liquid State has been launched in Hong Kong this week, with a core focus on EDM and electronic music across Asia. The label will also locally get involved in live touring and nightclub events. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) is majority-owned by Chinese media giant Tencent Holdings, which currently has a market cap value in excess of US $500bn on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. TME itself is believed to be worth in the region of $10bn. In December, TME closed a stock swap deal whereby it acquired a 10% stake in Spotify. As part of the deal, Daniel Ek’s company also took ownership of a tenth of equity in TME. In other words, Sony has just launched a label with a company part-owned by Spotify. And like Universal, Warner and Merlin, Sony is itself a minority stake holder in Spotify. Sony Music Australia CEO and Chairman Denis Handlin of Liquid State’s launch: “These are exci...