At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping creative industries worldwide, one question looms especially large for music: if anyone can make a song, what gives a song value?
That question was central to a recent session at Harvard Business School’s China Classroom in Chengdu, where Snow Jiang (Snow.J), Founder and CEO of Cheerful Music, appeared as a featured case-study guest. An alumna of HBS herself, Snow returned to explore the future of music in an era defined by automation and excess.
Her answer was strikingly human.
“When music becomes infinite,” she explained, “the real scarcity is attention — and emotional connection.”
Cheerful Music, now the first Chinese music company to be developed into an official Harvard teaching case, has built its reputation on understanding how songs move through modern digital culture. Hits like Xiang Si Yao and Luo Le Bai didn’t just succeed on streaming platforms; they became participatory moments across short-form video, dance, and visual storytelling.
Students pressed Snow on the cost of visibility in such a crowded environment. Her response was direct: marketing investment has increased four- to five-fold over the past five years. Yet she framed this not as a warning, but as a reality check — one that rewards strategic clarity over sheer output.
That clarity is evident in Cheerful Music’s approach to AI. Instead of relying on external tools with ambiguous rights structures, the company is developing its own proprietary AI music ecosystem, ensuring full ownership and legal security across all generated content.
The company’s virtual artists form another part of this vision. Positioned as visual carriers rather than performers, they help bind sound and image together, improving recall and discovery without displacing human creativity.
Cheerful Music’s ambitions extend well beyond China. With a strategic partnership with Sony Music, appearances at The Great Escape and Amsterdam Dance Event, and plans to showcase at SXSW 2026, the company is positioning itself as a global connector — bridging cultures through shared emotional language.
In a rapidly changing industry, Snow’s message resonated clearly: technology may change how music is made, but meaning still depends on how it’s felt.
