MUMBAI: Music label Warner Music Group (WMG) has signed an agreement with internet provider Tencent Holdings Limited in Mainland China. The good news for WMG does not end there, as it also announced the completion of the company's acquisition of Gold Typhoon's recorded music catalogue and artist roster in the Greater China Region.

Meanwhile, the agreement with Tencent is considered as the industry's “first-ever master distribution partnership between a music company and an Internet provider in Mainland China.”

The deal will allow Tencent to distribute WMG's repertoire and manage new releases to all legitimate local Chinese audio services, with the exception of Mainland China mobile carriers, with which Warner Music China will continue to develop partnerships. It will allow WMG to reach-out to the Tencent's users through Tencent's video and music streaming services, mobile and PC games, and social media capabilities.

The deal also covers China's version of Spotify, QQ Music streaming service which has a huge user base in China. The internet provider will also provide all WMG artistes a promotional platform as part of the deal.

Warner Recorded Music international president Stu Bergen said “Since expanding our presence in China with the acquisition of Gold Typhoon, we have focused on establishing market-moving partnerships with innovative players such as Tencent that are successfully harnessing the incredible demand for music in one of the world's most rapidly changing territories."

Tencent senior executive vice president Dowson Tong said “Leveraging WMG's rich portfolio of artists, this strategic partnership will offer fans in China an extensive stream of entertaining and high-quality music content that is well-managed and protected under the license agreement.”

All this shows the growing hold of the label in the "music industry's highest-potential growth market China." It is already leading in China with a roster of current Chinese artistes like Jolin Tsai, JJ Lin, Jam Hsiao, Kenji Wu, Tiger Huang, Grady Guan and Li Ronghao.