Pop singer Cai Xukun receives backlash for withholding music access
Mi, Cai Xukun's latest album
Chinese pop singer Cai Xukun's studio yesterday apologized after a controversial tactic to boost sales of his latest album has sparked backlash.
Only five out of 11 songs on the album titled "Mi" have been released, now four months after it went on sale on China's music steaming sites. The album is priced at 26 yuan (US$4) each.
The studio apologized for not indicating the exact release time of all songs in advance on Weibo yesterday and published five of the remaining six songs.
More than 3.2 million copies of the album have been sold with a revenue of around 84 million yuan on Tencent Music, a major music streaming website, as of August 29.
Lawyers said that neither the studio nor the music platform have clearly informed or reminded consumers that the product was to be "charged initially and delivered later," which could be in violation of China's Consumer Rights Protection Law, news portal Jimu News reported yesterday.
"Please stop any forms of attack, argument, abuse, quarrel or harassment... Please respect the media and other netizen's rights regarding supervision," said the studio in a letter to Cai's fans yesterday.
It called on the fans to build a healthy online environment.
