As the marginal cost of music creation approaches zero, what becomes the next true scarcity in the music industry?
Following her first appearance at Harvard Business School in Boston earlier this year, Snow Jiang (Snow.J), Founder and CEO of Cheerful Music and Harvard Business School alumna, was once again invited to the Harvard Business School China Classroom, held this time in Chengdu. She joined the programme as a featured case-study guest, delivering an in-depth session on the future of the music industry in the age of artificial intelligence.
As the first music company from China to be selected as an official Harvard Business School teaching case, Cheerful Music’s discussion centred on “The AI Future of the Music Industry.” Snow shared the company’s underlying strategic logic, long-term vision, and structural approach to navigating technological change.
Rethinking Scarcity in the AI Era: From Infinite Output to Being Heard
With AI tools such as Suno, more than seven million new songs are being generated worldwide every single day. Against this backdrop of exponential growth, Snow offered a clear and sobering perspective to the classroom:
“When music can be generated infinitely, music itself is no longer scarce. What becomes truly scarce is the ability to ensure a song is actually heard.”
She emphasised that AI cannot replace insight into audience emotion, strategic understanding of short-form video ecosystems, nor the creative intuition and aesthetic judgment required to consistently break through noise. These human-led capabilities remain the foundation of Cheerful Music’s continued ability to produce culturally resonant hits year after year.
From “Xiang Si Yao,” which sparked a global wave of interest in classical-inspired aesthetics on short-form platforms and accumulated over 50 billion views, to “Luo Le Bai,” a recent chart-topping track that inspired large-scale user participation through a viral dance challenge, Cheerful Music’s competitive edge has not been diminished by AI. Instead, it has become increasingly critical in an environment of content oversupply.
During the case discussion, a student raised a pointed question regarding Cheerful Music’s expertise in short-video promotion, "As competition for attention intensifies, are marketing costs rising significantly?”
Snow responded candidly, “To achieve the same level of impact today, promotion costs are roughly four to five times higher than they were five years ago.”
Another student offered a particularly perceptive observation, “The transferable value of this business model isn’t music itself. Music is simply the surface. At its core, the model brings together people who share similar lifestyles or emotional resonance through a powerful distribution medium.”
This insight is closely aligned with Cheerful Music’s long-held philosophy: AI can generate sound, but lasting value is built through human connection.
Embracing Technology: Building a Fully Owned AI Music Ecosystem
Unlike many AI music tools currently on the market - where licensing structures and master rights remain unclear - Cheerful Music is developing a fully proprietary, rights-secure AI music vertical model.
This system enables modular decomposition and recombination of melody, arrangement, and vocals, ensuring that all generated content is legally clean, fully owned, and commercially viable. By addressing copyright risk at a structural level, the model creates a viable path for AI music to scale sustainably.
Snow also shared Cheerful Music’s evolving virtual artist strategy. Rather than positioning virtual artists as replacements for human performers, the company views them as visual carriers of music - a structured visual system that amplifies audio content.
By allowing visuals to drive discovery and deepen recall, this approach binds auditory and visual experiences together, enhancing both memorability and emotional impact. In this context, virtual artists become long-term creative assets within an AI-enabled ecosystem.
Global Soundwaves: From ADE to SXSW 2026
Discussions around Cheerful Music’s global expansion generated strong engagement, particularly around one question:
Why was London chosen as the company’s first overseas market?
Drawing on the CAGE framework (Cultural, Administrative, Geographic, and Economic distance), Snow analysed the realities of entering the UK market as a globally oriented music company navigating cross-market differences.
She highlighted the UK’s deep musical heritage, global language reach, and cultural openness as factors that make it an effective bridge market - one that connects local creativity with international audiences and enables long-term cross-cultural collaboration.
“Compared with increasingly saturated markets, entering newer territories through information asymmetry can reduce trial-and-error costs, while providing sufficient time to build competitive strength,” Snow noted.
This market-specific, adaptive approach received strong recognition from students in attendance.
While investing heavily in technology, Cheerful Music’s international momentum has continued to accelerate. In 2025, the company delivered a robust global track record:
Entered a strategic partnership with Sony Music, collaborating on both distribution and content development;
Successfully hosted its first international songwriting camps in Chengdu and Shenzhen;
Appeared at The Great Escape (UK) and Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), where Cheerful Music became the only Chinese music company to host an independent stage.
Rather than framing the ADE showcase around geography, the stage was designed as a creative intersection - bringing together artists, producers, and audiences from different backgrounds through a shared musical language.
Looking ahead, Cheerful Music is set to appear at SXSW 2026, widely regarded as a leading indicator of future trends in creative industries. The company plans to facilitate cross-market collaborations between artists from different regions while engaging in dialogue with global industry leaders around emerging models of creativity, technology, and distribution.
From traditional copyright operations to AI-driven ecosystem models, and from local hit-making to global collaboration, this Harvard session was not only a reflection on Cheerful Music’s strategic evolution, but also a broader exploration of how music companies can operate as connectors in the AI era.
In a world of infinite content, relevance is no longer defined by origin, but by the ability to create meaningful connections, shared resonance, and sustainable creative value.
