Too little, too late?

"You can see, after the release of the notice, there is not much excited reaction in the music industry. On the contrary, the online music delivery companies kind of fidget because the government has started to regulate their business behavior," he says.

Wang says the lack of excitement is because the move may be too late: Music companies have declined, and most musicians have quit the industry since they cannot live on music.

"Even for authorized music, most of the income made out it has nothing to do with creators, which is disheartening for them," Wang says. "This is not only a problem in China, but in the whole world."

Wang is therefore pessimistic. "Very unfortunately, China has very weak music resources basis and lacks loyal audiences, so compared with many places in the world, the decline of our music industry is among the fastest," he says.

"The expectation of listening to free music has been formed, so even new generations will hold the same belief," he says.

There is some good news for the industry, however.

According to an investigation by Zhang Fengyan, associate professor at Communication University of China, although 74 percent of the interviewees were unwilling to pay a cent for music, when they were told that if they pay 10 yuan each month for music it will help to stimulate China's original music, boost the music industry and improve China's soft power, 62 percent said they were willing to pay for music.

"I think the new regulation is good news for China's music industry. I would like to pay for music because it's natural that music creators should get rewarded from their work," says Huang Xianpei, 29, an employee in the IT industry in Beijing, although currently he almost pays nothing for the music he listens to online.