MUMBAI: Alibaba Group Holding, a Chinese e-commerce company, has announced a music unit called Ali Music Group. According to a statement released the company, Ali Music Group will be a “crucial pillar of Alibaba Group’s digital entertainment strategy” that will “help forward our vision of becoming central to the everyday lives of our customers.” The announcement was made on 15th July, 2015.

The formation of Alibaba Music Group has taken place with the integration of music streaming apps like Xiami and Tiantian. Both apps are owned by Alibaba Group.

“It is hoped that the two will creatively disrupt and catalyze the music industry (by) combining their cumulative experience with Alibaba's capabilities in the Internet space and Big Data," the company said in a statement.

Singer songwriter and internet personality, Gao Xiao will serve as chairman of the company, and Song Ke will be CEO. Ke has previously worked with Warner Music and co-founded China’s pop-music label Taihe Rye Music.

Post the announcement, Xiao took to social media and wrote, Ali Music Group “will become a world-class music business operation.”

Alibaba is said to have rights agreements with several record labels including BMG Records, Rock Records and HIM Records, which will enable the company to use content from these labels on its platform.