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Some users voiced confusion: "My playlists are dominated by Mayday, yet the Annual Lyricist/Composer isn’t Ashin—it’s a pure music track I only streamed for a few days. How was this calculated?" Others pointed out discrepancies: "There are songs I’ve never heard, but the report says I’ve played them nearly 100 times."
Inquiries sent to NetEase Cloud Music’s official team remained unanswered as of press time. The platform’s customer service explained: "2025 Annual Report data covers January 1 to December 20, incorporating valid listening records from most devices. Final displayed figures should be considered authoritative."
When asked if accounts might have been hijacked for data manipulation,客服 firmly denied such scenarios: "That’s impossible." They added, "Once generated, report data cannot be altered."
User Doubts Over Inaccurate Annual Listening Report Data; Official Response
NetEase Cloud Music’s 2025 Annual Listening Report, released today, quickly became a hot topic—but not for positive reasons. Social media users openly questioned the report’s data authenticity.
One user fumed online: "This summary is worse than useless. Once again, my account seems to have been used for data padding. There are artists I’ve never heard of, and the second song in my annual list has way more plays than the first—so why isn’t it my top track? Because I never listened to the so-called ‘number one’!"
"Customer service is unhelpful," the user continued. "Their responses are robotic, and they said the generated summary can’t be changed. This isn’t new—loads of people complained about the same issue last year."
Despite repeated inquiries, NetEase Cloud Music had not responded by press time.客服 clarified the data rules: "The 2025 report counts data from January 1 to December 20, covering most devices’ valid plays. Note that some IoT devices may be excluded due to manufacturer reporting failures or network issues, and third-party game-integrated listening data isn’t included this year."
Reiterating their stance on account security,客服 stated: "Data tampering by others is impossible," and emphasized, "Report data is final once generated."
However,客服 highlighted a new feature: manual adjustments for "Artist of the Year," "Song of the Year," and "Album of the Year," limited to selections from each category’s TOP5. "Adjustments will reorder playlist songs, TOP5 Albums, and TOP10 Artists. To revert, simply re-enter the report and readjust."
Revenue Declines Year-over-Year for Four Consecutive Quarters
NetEase released its Q3 2025 earnings on November 20. The report showed quarterly net revenue of 28.4 billion yuan (+8.2% YoY), with net profit attributable to shareholders at 8.6 billion yuan and non-GAAP net profit at 9.5 billion yuan.
Notably, NetEase Cloud Music’s revenue has fallen YoY for four straight quarters since Q4 2024. Q3 2025 revenue reached 2 billion yuan (-1.8% YoY), following declines of 3.5%, 8.4%, and 5.3% in the prior three quarters.
In content expansion, NetEase Cloud Music has been boosting its copyright library through partnerships with RBW, StarShip Entertainment to enrich K-Pop offerings, plus adding works from Chinese stars like Li Jian and Zhang Yixing.
As of June 2025, the platform hosted over 819,000 registered independent musicians, launched AI musician and trainee musician programs, and produced over 120 tracks via creative camps—amassing 6 billion total plays.
Yet fierce competition persists. Tencent Music maintains a huge lead in revenue and user scale: its Q3 2025 revenue hit 8.46 billion yuan (+20.6% YoY), with adjusted net profit of 2.48 billion yuan (+27.7% YoY). Tencent Music’s online music MAUs stood at 551 million (-4.3% YoY), while paying users grew 5.6% YoY to 125.7 million.
Meanwhile, the market faces disruption from new entrants. QuestMobile data shows Qishui Music’s MAUs hit 120 million by September 2025 (+90% YoY), overtaking Kuwo Music (86 million MAUs) to rank 4th—and closing in on NetEase Cloud Music’s 147 million MAUs.
"Established platforms like Tencent and NetEase Cloud Music now face their biggest threat from free services," said analyst Zhang Shule. "They rely on top-tier copyrights for paid subscriptions, but free platforms like Qishui Music lack these premium tracks—though a critical mass of viral hits could flip the script."
Zhang added: "Music platforms have long been just copyright-dependent players. NetEase lost the copyright war to Tencent’s deep pockets years ago. To succeed, platforms must move beyond music—linking with short dramas, short videos, live streams, and games could be the breakthrough."