On November 25, Netease Cloud Music publicly called on QQ Music to stop its plagiaristic “innovation”, triggering a trending topic titled “Netease Cloud Music accuses QQ Music of plagiarism”.
In the afternoon of November 25, Netease Cloud Music issued a long article addressing QQ Music, urging them to “have less imitative ‘updates’ and more real innovation”.
The article began by directly stating: “The ongoing events have prompted us to appeal to you: please stop the plagiaristic ‘innovation’, imitative ‘creativity’, and imitative ‘updates’.”
Netease Cloud Music stated that their music player feature “DIY Function” was copied by QQ Music as “Player Customization Function”. It thoroughly reviewed instances where QQ Music was accused of “imitating” and plagiarizing Netease Cloud Music’s vinyl player page, Listening Together feature, and Forbidden City themed player, among others. They called on QQ Music to immediately cease plagiaristic “innovation”, imitative “creativity”, and imitative “updates”.
Netease Cloud Music pointed out that they fully launched the music player “DIY Function” on October 25 and introduced the first “Vinyl Style Creative Contest” on November 19. On November 23, QQ Music updated with “rich customization functions for the music player”, making it nearly indistinguishable from Netease Cloud Music’s player DIY function.
Netease Cloud Music sarcastically remarked that QQ Music also made some “considerate” “small innovations”, although the speedily launched “small innovations” need validation if they truly meet users’ needs, and their design aesthetics might need improvement. However, QQ Music’s imitative “updates” following Netease Cloud Music were consistent, swift, and persistent.
Netease Cloud Music also stated that this was not the first time QQ Music had “plagiarized” from them. For instance, since its launch in 2013, the unique vinyl player interface has been a core design element of Netease Cloud Music. In April 2022, QQ Music introduced a new version with a strikingly similar vinyl player interface.
In 2020, Netease Cloud Music launched the “Listening Together” feature, and in February 2021, QQ Music renamed “Music Room” to “Music Room·Listening Together”.
In the Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2024, Netease Cloud Music introduced the Forbidden City series “Palace Welcoming Good Luck” player. In October 2024, QQ Music also released a player interface that was almost identical and “a case of copying”.
Netease Cloud Music mentioned that QQ Music always promotes innovation and creativity with every update but everywhere one sees just two words: “plagiarism”.
Lastly, Netease Cloud Music mocked, saying: “Just as Mr. Pony Ma said at the Tencent annual meeting, ‘The key point is, we don’t follow others to do the same thing.'”
Currently, QQ Music has not responded, but Cool Dog Music, also under Tencent, replied, saying: “Well, isn’t this player background customization feature DIY something I did first? I also did the DIY player contest, what kind of ‘innovation’ is this?”