TENCENT MUSIC BUYS STAKE IN L.A-BASED VIRTUAL CONCERTS COMPANY WAVE
The global pandemic hasn’t slowed down Tencent Music Entertainment’s acquisition strategy in music. Earlier this year, the company, which is majority-owned by China’s Tencent Holdings, acquired a minority slice of Universal Music Group via a Tencent-led consortium’s $3.4bn buyout of a 10% stake in UMG. In June, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) also acquired its own sliver of Warner Music Group, paying around $100m for a stake worth around 0.8% of WMG. (Tencent Holdings acquired a further 0.8%.) Last month, revealed that both Tencent Holdings and TME had acquired a minority stake in the fast-growing, AI-driven A&R platform Instrumental. And today (November 19), Tencent Music has announced an additional acquisition of a minority stake in an intriguing music company – Los Angeles-based virtual concerts platform Wave. Wave blends broadcast technology and real-time gaming graphics to transform artists into digital avatars in a virtual world, through which they can play livestream...