Founded in 2019, China's Cheerful Music focuses on discovering emerging local talent and promoting original music. Leveraging sharp market intuition, the company has produced a string of viral singles. Here, we report on Cheerful Music's global growth and founder & CEO Snow Jiang's creative vision for the label...
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When it comes to Cheerful Music, not everyone will immediately recognise the name.
However, mention the viral hit Yi Xiao Jiang Hu (Ke Mu San), and many short-form video users will be able to instantly hum its familiar melody.
As of October 2024, Yi Xiao Jiang Hu (featured in online dance phenomenom Ke Mu San) has gone viral globally, amassing over 50 billion views on TikTok alone.
Other breakout hits such as Xiao Cheng Xia Tian and Xiang Si Yao also originate from this young, innovative music company headquartered in Shenzhen.
Recently, Snow Jiang, founder and CEO of Cheerful Music, was invited to speak at Harvard Business School, where she shared her entrepreneurial journey and industry insights with an audience eager to explore digital music business models and management.
Founded in 2019, Cheerful Music focuses on discovering emerging local talent and promoting original music. Leveraging sharp market intuition, the company has produced a string of viral singles including widely circulated tracks such as Yi Xiao Jiang Hu (Ke Mu San), Ta Shan He and Xiang Si Yao. These songs have sparked nationwide cover challenges and collectively amassed hundreds of billions of streams across short-form video platforms.
With the explosive growth of mobile internet, social media and short-form video platforms, Cheerful Music has rapidly risen to become one of China's leading music copyright enterprises within just a few years.
In 2023, the company established a London office, marking a critical step in its international expansion strategy. This move not only facilitates direct collaboration with global artists but also lays a solid foundation for entry into European and North American markets.
However, international growth presents challenges such as adapting business models and bridging cultural differences.
Snow Jiang explained the company’s approach: “Melody transcends borders, while lyrics tend to be more limiting.”
This philosophy underpins Cheerful Music’s collaboration between its Chinese and English teams – each retaining local market expertise while jointly creating bilingual songs and international music camps designed to produce globally resonant hits.
In October 2024, Cheerful Music was officially selected as a Harvard Business School case study for its unique business model and growth trajectory.
Snow Jiang, Founder and CEO of Cheerful Music, giving a speech at Tata Hall, Harvard Business School
As the featured live guest, Snow Jiang, founder and CEO of Cheerful Music, took part in the session to share her experience and insights with two cohorts totaling 137 business leaders from more than 80 countries. Snow engaged with professor ShunYuan Zhang and students to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the digital music industry.
AI music tools emerged as a key topic during the session. Since the impressive debut of MuseNet in 2019, a surge of AI-driven music tools like Jukebox, MusicLM, MusicGen, Suno AI and Udio have rapidly evolved.
Nevertheless, Snow emphasized that Cheerful Music does not fully rely on AI tools at this stage for three main reasons: First, AI-generated music is still less mature than works produced by professional musicians. Second, streaming platforms currently do not pay royalties for AI-created tracks, limiting revenue potential. Third, unresolved copyright issues pose significant legal risks.
"This reality requires us to proceed with particular caution,” she emphasised, stating that Cheerful Music will remain attentive to developments in AI music and adjust its strategy accordingly.
Our research shows that instrumental genres, particularly sleep music, are rapidly gaining popularity, reflecting the high stress levels people face today
Snow Jiang
Beyond technological trends, Snow outlined several key business expansions over the past year. One focus is the instrumental music market.
“Our research shows that instrumental genres, particularly sleep music, are rapidly gaining popularity, reflecting the high stress levels people face today,” said Snow.
Accordingly, Cheerful Music is expanding its instrumental library with an emphasis on sleep music, alongside diverse genres including lo-fi, jazz, and dance. Over time, its catalogue has become increasingly comprehensive and varied, covering styles from gufeng and pop to electronic dance, lo-fi, minority-language music, and classical. This diversity provides a significant advantage in the music licensing market, which contributed to Cheerful Music becoming one of the first Chinese labels invited to join Apple Music’s official Curator program.
“In May 2024, Cheerful Music’s London office finalised a three-year global licensing agreement with Mood Media, a top-three global provider of in-store background music," said Snow. "This partnership ensures our music will be widely distributed across retail outlets worldwide, reaching a broader audience."
From right to left: Harvard Business School Professor Shunyuan Zhang, Cheerful Music Founder & CEO Snow Jiang, Harvard Business School Professor Feng Zhu, Cheerful Music CEO Assistant Sofia Ye
To expand its influence, Cheerful Music has begun showcasing at international music festivals.
“Last month, we were invited to participate in The Great Escape (TGE), one of the UK’s three major music festivals," said Snow. "This October, we will become the first Chinese music label to host an official venue at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), Europe’s largest electronic music festival. These opportunities allow us to engage directly with musicians and label executives from around the world”.
Regarding international collaboration, Snow emphasised that to promote musical exchange between East and West, the company plans to host writing camps in China and the Netherlands within this year.
“We aim to invite Western songwriters to China to experience Chinese music and culture firsthand, while also bringing Chinese musicians to the Netherlands to immerse themselves in Western musical culture," she said. "This initiative will help make our music creation more international and fusion-oriented.”
During the session, Snow also showcased bilingual music videos created with international artists. She shared some recent hits, including Xiang Si Yao, which dominated over 600 global music charts earlier this year. On TikTok, more than 10 million users have incorporated the track into their short videos, with over 10 million participating in national-style dance challenges featuring the song’s soundtrack. The total TikTok views have exceeded five billion.
Melody transcends borders, while lyrics tend to be more limiting
Snow Jiang
Another well-known track, Yi Xiao Jiang Hu (Ke Mu San), gained renewed popularity in Japan following a 100-day Naruto dance challenge, swiftly rising to No.2 on Spotify’s Japan Top 50 chart.
The following Q&A session sparked lively engagement from the audience. One attendee asked why Cheerful Music had not chosen to open offices in Southeast Asian markets such as Vietnam or Malaysia, which share cultural similarities with China and might seem easier to expand into.
Snow explained that while these markets are geographically and culturally close, they are also classified as minor languages markets. Music limited to such regions would have a narrower reach and smaller audience scale, which is why she initially chose to focus on English and global markets as the company’s strategic entry point.
Another question came from a male student from the Middle East, who inquired about the personal sacrifices made during the entrepreneurial journey. He asked how Snow felt when she sold her only house to ease the company’s financial pressure. Snow responded candidly, saying she had always had strong faith in Cheerful Music’s future and was fully prepared to accept both success and failure. Even under immense pressure, she never wavered in her commitment.
When asked whether she would make the same choice again if given the chance, she replied without hesitation, “I absolutely would.”
Snow Jiang, Founder and CEO of Cheerful Music, giving a speech at Tata Hall, Harvard Business School
When asked about the challenges of managing a UK-based team, Snow cited language barriers, cultural differences, and varying communication styles as the most significant obstacles – challenges that are inherent to any cross-border expansion and require thoughtful navigation as part of the company’s internationalisation process.
Following the session, discussions continued with enthusiasm. A French student was inspired to write an article about Snow’s entrepreneurial story for French readers. Another student admired the dandelion design in the Cheerful Music logo, seeing it as a perfect representation of the brand’s mission to “Fill The World With Music.”
A student from the Middle East said she felt encouraged to see a young female entrepreneur represented on such a global academic stage. Meanwhile, an Indian student enthusiastically invited Cheerful Music to consider entering the Bollywood market.
Snow responded positively, acknowledging India’s vast musical landscape and expressing interest in visiting, learning, and exploring future collaborations. Such exchanges underscored Cheerful Music’s growing global influence and the universal power of music as a language that bridges cultures and unlocks limitless possibilities.
Looking ahead, Snow articulated a clear strategic vision: to sustain Cheerful Music’s core strengths in original content and viral hits, while investing in the development of musical talent across both Eastern and Western markets. She emphasised the importance of adopting emerging technologies such as AI-generated music in a flexible, considered way – balancing innovation with a long-term view on business sustainability.
From a “viral hit maker” to a featured Harvard Business School case study, Cheerful Music exemplifies how a new generation of Chinese music label is navigating the digital music era and globalising through the lens of internet-native entrepreneurship.
