Folk singer Sainkho Namtchylak (left) from Tuva, Russian Federation, and reggae musician Papa U-Gee (right) from Japan perform in Beijing.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Currently, Starsing Music has international artists, such as Irish folk songbird Cara Dillon and Sainkho Namtchylak from Tuva, on its roster. And Modernsky has evolved into one of the largest indie record companies in China with Chinese and international indie musicians, especially indie rock musicians.

Modernsky is also the organizer of the outdoor music event, the Strawberry Music Festival.

In 2007, Modernsky launched its office in New York, and in 2017, it opened its office in Liverpool.

In an earlier interview, Shen said that his company tried to set up a world music label in 2006 and released two albums, The Roots of China-Tibet 1 and 2, which included songs about the Tibet autonomous region. And it was about four years ago that Shen started working on world music again.

In January 2018, Modernsky released an album, titled Air Walk, performed by Beilkhan Haliakbar, a Kazakh musician from Urumqi, the capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, playing the sybyzgy (a sideblown flute).

Speaking about the prospects of the new label, Shen says: "It (world music) has the potential to be the next big thing in the music industry, but it's not going to be the next big thing to happen overnight. Audiences are open to various music types now, and we want to offer them different things."

Zhou Yunyi, the CEO of Pollux says that the music label will seek new music talents, and that improvisation is vital for different music elements to merge and coexist.