評(píng)論
打印
On a recent weeknight in Beijing, about 800 people gathered at a club in downtown Beijing to watch a performance by pop singer Li Quan and Li Daimo, a singer made popular by the 'Voice of China' TV show. At home, several hundred more participants were tuning into the concert live from their computers or smartphones.
最近某個(gè)周末的晚上，約800名觀眾齊聚北京市中心一家俱樂(lè)部，一同觀看了《中國(guó)好聲音》熱門歌手李泉和李代沫的演唱會(huì)。與此同時(shí)，還有數(shù)百名觀眾在家中用電腦和智能手機(jī)收看了演唱會(huì)的現(xiàn)場(chǎng)直播。
The concert was organized by Xiami, a Hangzhou-based online music portal owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in its first such initiative using crowd-sourced funding via Alibaba's Taobao online shopping platform.
這場(chǎng)演唱會(huì)的籌辦方是阿里巴巴集團(tuán)(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ,ALIBABA.YY)設(shè)在杭州的在線音樂(lè)網(wǎng)站蝦米(Xiami)。這是蝦米首次嘗試藉助阿里巴巴的淘寶(Taobao)在線購(gòu)物平臺(tái)以大眾籌資方式籌辦演唱會(huì)。
Xiami first proposed the concert on Taobao in late November, saying it would go forward if organizers could raise at least 100,000 yuan ($16,520) from online ticket sales in about a month. Tickets ranged from 1 yuan to watch the concert live online to 280 yuan to see it in person and 2,999 yuan to request a song in the show.
去年11月，蝦米首次發(fā)出號(hào)召，稱只要在一個(gè)月內(nèi)籌得人民幣10萬(wàn)元（約合16,520美元）預(yù)購(gòu)資金，就將展開演唱會(huì)舉辦工作。觀眾只需支付1元就可在線觀看演唱會(huì)，也可花280元購(gòu)買門票現(xiàn)場(chǎng)觀看，還可支付2,999元參與歌手點(diǎn)歌環(huán)節(jié)。
The company said the project reached its fund-raising goal in less than 15 days, with more than half of participants choosing to watch the show online.
蝦米說(shuō)，該項(xiàng)目不到15天便達(dá)到預(yù)購(gòu)資金目標(biāo)，超過(guò)半數(shù)參與者選擇在線觀看演唱會(huì)。
Crowd funding is a practice by which a project or venture is funded by small amounts of money from a large number of people. The idea for using it in the music industry isn't new: In the U.S. ArtistShare, which launched in 2003, so far has fan-funded recordings that have earned six Grammy awards and 21 nominations. Meanwhile, Kickstarter, the world's leading crowd-funding platform that launched in 2009, has so far received pledges from 5.4 million people worth $933 million to fund 54,000 creative projects in areas like music, film and technology.
大眾籌資是將許多人手中的小筆資金集中起來(lái)用于支持某個(gè)項(xiàng)目的活動(dòng)。此次演唱會(huì)并非將大眾籌資應(yīng)用于音樂(lè)產(chǎn)業(yè)的首次嘗試：2003年創(chuàng)辦的美國(guó)ArtistShare網(wǎng)站已經(jīng)有六首在粉絲資金支持下制作的歌曲贏得了格萊美獎(jiǎng)(Grammy)，還有21首歌曲獲得提名。而2009年創(chuàng)辦的世界領(lǐng)先大眾融資平臺(tái)Kickstarter迄今已從540萬(wàn)人手中募集到9.33億美元，用于音樂(lè)、電影、科技等領(lǐng)域共5.4萬(wàn)個(gè)項(xiàng)目。
In China, crowd funding for music and other creative projects is gradually catching on. The country's first crowd-funding website, DemoHour, was launched in 2011 and was followed by a dozen other similar sites, most of which fund creative projects. But the entrance of e-commerce giant Alibaba, with its massive audience, is expected to give a boost to such projects in the arts industry.
在中國(guó)，專注于音樂(lè)和其他創(chuàng)新項(xiàng)目的大眾融資正在逐漸趕上來(lái)。2011年，中國(guó)首家大眾籌資網(wǎng)站點(diǎn)名時(shí)間(DemoHour)宣告成立，隨后十幾家類似網(wǎng)站相繼注冊(cè)誕生，其中多數(shù)專注于創(chuàng)新項(xiàng)目的籌資。而擁有龐大客戶群的電商巨頭阿里巴巴的進(jìn)入料將使藝術(shù)領(lǐng)域的創(chuàng)新項(xiàng)目大大向前推進(jìn)。
'We are happy to see such a giant company start to get involved in crowd funding, as it may help to attract more capital to this market,' said Zhao Hongwei, CEO of musikid.com, a year-old crowd-funding website for music projects. The company has so far pledged about 1 million yuan, with 110 projects online.
樂(lè)童音樂(lè)(musikid.com)是一家專注于音樂(lè)項(xiàng)目的眾籌網(wǎng)站，創(chuàng)辦至今已有一年時(shí)間。樂(lè)童音樂(lè)首席執(zhí)行長(zhǎng)趙宏偉說(shuō)：我們很高興看到這樣一家巨頭公司加入到眾籌行業(yè)中來(lái)，因?yàn)檫@將吸引更多資金進(jìn)入這一市場(chǎng)。該公司目前已籌得約100萬(wàn)元人民幣，擁有110個(gè)線上音樂(lè)項(xiàng)目。
Xiami's founder said he was inspired to start the venture because problems plaguing China's music industry, including notorious piracy, have made it difficult for local musicians to make a living.
蝦米創(chuàng)始人說(shuō)，他之所以啟動(dòng)這個(gè)項(xiàng)目，是因?yàn)橐恍├_中國(guó)音樂(lè)產(chǎn)業(yè)的問(wèn)題令本土音樂(lè)人難以維持生計(jì)，例如臭名昭著的盜版現(xiàn)象。
'When I talked to local musicians, I found they couldn't even earn enough money to cover their transport fee for tours, let alone compensation for their shows,' said Xiami CEO Wang Hao. 'I felt like we needed to do something to help musicians feel less lonely.'
蝦米CEO王皓說(shuō)：我和本土音樂(lè)人聊天后發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們甚至都賺不夠巡演的車旅費(fèi)，更別提舉辦演出的費(fèi)用了。我覺得我們需要做些什么，讓音樂(lè)人不那么孤獨(dú)。
Mr. Wang, a 36-year-old Hangzhou native who himself played in a band during college, said he hopes Xiami can boost singers just starting out as well as help established musicians do something cool and innovative.
現(xiàn)年36歲、上大學(xué)時(shí)玩過(guò)樂(lè)隊(duì)的杭州人王皓說(shuō)，他希望蝦米既能幫助那些剛起步的歌手，也能幫助那些有成就的音樂(lè)人做一些炫酷和原創(chuàng)的事情。
Encouraged by the success of their initial project, Mr. Wang said Xiami plans to regularly crowd-fund shows via Taobao, including small-scale shows with fewer than 100 attendees.
受首個(gè)項(xiàng)目順利完成的鼓舞，王浩說(shuō)，蝦米計(jì)劃通過(guò)淘寶定期舉行大眾籌資形式的演出活動(dòng)，包括不足100人參加的小型演出。
But while most are positive about the prospects for crowd-funding in China, policy uncertainty concerns some pioneers in the field.
雖然多數(shù)人對(duì)中國(guó)大眾籌資的前景充滿信心，但政策上的不確定性還是讓一些行業(yè)先行者感到不安。
'One can hardly draw a line between illegal fund-raising and crowd-funding now due to the absence of related regulation,' Mr. Wang said. 'I feel like it is a sword hanging above my head with the potential of dropping at any minute.'
王皓說(shuō)，因?yàn)槿狈ο嚓P(guān)的法律法規(guī)，很難將非法集資與大眾集資區(qū)分開來(lái)。他說(shuō)：我感覺好像有把劍懸在我頭上，隨時(shí)都可能掉下來(lái)。
Illegal fund raising in China is a vaguely defined term that includes everything from running pyramid and Ponzi schemes to operating an underground bank that falls afoul of local officials. The offense can be punishable with the death penalty if the amounts involved are large enough. Small-scale loan sharking and other informal lending activity are tacitly permitted in China, as long as they are relatively small and low-key.
在中國(guó)，非法集資是個(gè)模糊的概念，它包括非法傳銷、龐氏騙局，也包括與地方政府官員勾結(jié)經(jīng)營(yíng)地下錢莊的行為。如果涉事數(shù)額巨大，違法者將被處以死刑。至于小規(guī)模高利貸以及其它非正式的借貸活動(dòng)，只要數(shù)額較小且不張揚(yáng)，中國(guó)官方就會(huì)采取默許的態(tài)度。
Social mentality is another headache. 'The atmosphere in China that encourages innovation and integrity is not as strong as that in the U.S., 'said Mr. Zhao of musikid.com, adding that investment capital may be less enthusiastic about pouring money into the China crowd-funding market than in other fields like group-buying websites.
社會(huì)心理則是另一個(gè)難題。樂(lè)童音樂(lè)CEO趙宏偉說(shuō)，中國(guó)的大環(huán)境不像美國(guó)那么鼓勵(lì)創(chuàng)新和誠(chéng)信。大眾籌資市場(chǎng)可能不會(huì)像團(tuán)購(gòu)網(wǎng)站和其他一些領(lǐng)域那樣吸引那么大的投資熱情。
'The general consumption mentality of Chinese people is more about how to save money instead of giving money to support others,' Mr. Wang said. 'It will take time for people to get used to this new method and for the market to grow.'
王皓說(shuō)，大多數(shù)中國(guó)人在消費(fèi)心理上更傾向于思考如何省錢，而不是花錢支持別人。要讓人們習(xí)慣這種新的方式，要讓這個(gè)市場(chǎng)成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)，這需要時(shí)間。
