Since 2017, Split Works had the honour of working with Cigarettes After Sex across Greater China. This is not just a story about one band’s journey from underground darling to arena-filling phenomenon — it’s also a case study in what’s possible when artists take the time to build, listen, and engage with Chinese audiences on their own terms.

When we first booked Cigarettes After Sex for a China tour back in 2017, they were early in their career but had a sound we believed would resonate here. We took a risk on a couple of small livehouse shows—sub-1,000 capacity—and the response was immediate. Both shows sold out fast, and we sensed the beginning of something with real longevity.

Over the following years, we worked to craft a strategy not just for short-term buzz but long-term presence. In 2018, we continued with small venue shows, this time partnering with Sounds of the Xity on local promotion. The appetite was growing, and so was our ambition.

China is a market that rewards patience, cultural fluency, and authentic connection

By 2019, we knew it was time to go beyond touring. We collaborated with the band’s label, Partisan Records, to launch a comprehensive campaign for their album Cry. The results were beyond even our expectations — 30 million new followers, front-page coverage across DSPs, and mainstream media love from Southern Metropolis Daily, Numero, Vogue Me China, and Q Magazine. The song Heavenly became a seasonal favourite on Mid-Autumn Festival playlists, reaching 870,000 plays alone. We closed it all with a beautiful, intimate listening party in Shanghai that sold out instantly. Then the world changed.

When COVID shut down live music, we shifted gears. In 2022, we brokered a livestream deal with China’s biggest streaming platform, NetEase, for a broadcast of the band’s performance in Los Angeles. With strong visuals, smart platform placement, and engaged fan management, it turned into a digital success story.

Cigarettes After Sex didn’t try to blow up fast. They just kept showing up. That’s the key

In 2024, as China cautiously reopened, we launched the campaign for their new album, X. The post-pandemic landscape was different, but the fan base had grown in their absence. We rolled out dedicated RED and Bilibili channels, generating strong traction, and re-engaged NetEase and QQ Music to spotlight Kiss It Off Me. Followers jumped by the hundreds of thousands. V Magazine featured them across print and digital, and we even held a vinyl release party at Mintone Record Store in Chengdu—a nod to their loyal fans in the southwest. And finally, in March 2025, it all came full circle.

In partnership with Digitune Entertainment and Showstart (a new local promoter and one of China’s largest ticketing companies, neither historically likely to partner with international agencies), we mounted a three-show arena tour. Across Shanghai and Beijing, it sold 24,000 tickets. The band closed their world tour in China, the same place in which we’d once quietly debuted them to a handful of dedicated fans. To me, this journey is not just about Cigarettes After Sex. It’s about a blueprint for international artists who want more than fleeting viral success in China. It’s a market that rewards patience, cultural fluency, and authentic connection.

China isn’t a checkbox on a world tour — it’s a living, evolving audience that deserves genuine effort and respect

We’ve seen this approach work with other artists too. Mono, for example, have spent years nurturing their following here while returning consistently to play major venues. Chris James’s fans have grown with him across multiple tours and releases. This indie artist from Germany now has 1.3m followers on Bilibili, 1m followers on Xiaohongshu and will return to China in July to tour 10 cities. We see firsthand the effect of consistency and care with regard to this market every single day. Cigarettes After Sex exemplify this mindset. They didn’t try to blow up fast. They just kept showing up. That’s the key.

At the same time, we are seeing a small renaissance for international artists visiting China. On top of the recent Cigs tour, Imagine Dragons are playing 6 nights in stadiums this month (April) and Travis Scott announced a stadium show on Hainan in November that sold out 45,000 tickets in minutes. Ed Sheeran also played 6 nights (sold out arenas) in Hangzhou in February of this year, while smaller promoters are also bringing in a raft of developing acts and festivals continue to grow in all corners of the Middle Kingdom.

At Split Works, we’ve been building bridges between international music and China since 2006. We believe in the slow build, in listening more than we talk, in understanding that China isn’t a checkbox on a world tour — it’s a living, evolving audience that deserves genuine effort and respect. Cigarettes After Sex have put in that effort. The result? A real relationship with their Chinese fans. Eight years strong, and we’re just getting started.

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Spilt Works managing director Archie Hamilton has spoken to IQ about the future of international acts performing in China.

Founded in 2006, Split Works has enjoyed a long-standing reputation as a pioneer in importing international performers to China, organising tours for Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie, Grimes and Ghostface Killah.

Nowadays, Hamilton’s focus is on artist development in order to “build bridges between Asia and the West” via his booking agency Scorched – no easy task given China’s strict policies for international artists.

Chinese authorities will often require foreign artists to submit set lists and song lyrics before getting approval to tour – and even then acts are often unsuccessful.

However, this looked set to change last month when infamous rapper Kanye West was granted rare approval for two “listening parties” at the Wuyuanhe Stadium in Haikou.

The sold-out stadium gigs, which drew 70,000 people, marked Ye’s first performances in the East Asian country in 16 years – in which time the government’s tolerance for Western artists less divisive than him rapidly diminished.

“China likes stable, bankable stuff that’s not going to upset the apple cart and Kanye is about as firebrand as you could be”

In 2017, Justin Bieber was barred from China because of his reputation as a “badly behaved entertainer” while, in 2016, Lady Gaga’s entire repertoire was reportedly forbidden after she met the Dalai Lama.

More recently, Chinese authorities clamped down on hip-hop, blacklisting songs and dropping rappers from shows. Its media regulator banned Chinese television from featuring “actors with tattoos or depictions of hip-hop culture, subculture and immoral culture”.

“China likes stable, bankable stuff that’s not going to upset the apple cart and Kanye is about as firebrand as you could be,” Hamilton tells IQ.

“There was some excitement about the concert happening because it’s the first time in a while there’s been a big international stadium show – one of the last [successful] ones I can remember is Linkin Park in 2016. Plus there wasn’t a lot of preamble [ahead of the concert]. It just sort of happened. And no one knows who promoted the show. It was just really obscure.”

The show reportedly took in 51 million yuan ($7.3 million) in ticket sales and generated close to 373 million yuan (€47.2m) in total tourism revenue for the city. But its success doesn’t necessarily mean all Chinese cities will follow in the footsteps of Haikou.

As Hamilton points out, Haikou, the capital of the island province of Hainan, is somewhat of an outlier in China.

The island is one of seven Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the country, which benefits from a separate administration, liberal economic laws and enhanced infrastructure support among other things.

“Kanye’s show was a bit of a shot in the arm after a pretty bleak year for the Chinese live market”

“The local government seems to be willing to support [concerts] from a financial standpoint and also from a permitting standpoint,” he explains. “Permits are obviously difficult to obtain in China and always have been. Given Hainan’s status as a SEZ, I think it wants to try and flex a bit of muscle and show that it can be different to the rest of the mainland.”

With its tropical climate, beach resorts and five-star hotels, Hainan also benefits from a reputation as the ‘Hawaii of China’ and a healthy influx of tourists.

“Given the challenges of travel for a lot of Chinese people who don’t necessarily have passports and money, it’s a huge destination,” Hamilton adds.

The downside of Hainan is the absence of a local audience, continues Hamilton, which perhaps explains why 95% of attendees at Ye’s show travelled from outside the island.

“It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any kind of follow-through,” he muses. “Often in China, when there’s a big moment, everyone jumps in and gets excited. But after that, people will get hopelessly over-invested and then kind of implode or explode, or just wither on the vine.”

Though Hamilton is doubtful that Ye’s concert in Hainan will kickstart a trend with international artists flocking to China, there’s no denying it’s piqued interest.

“I’ve already had three or four requests from Hainan since the concert – there is definitely more attention,” he reveals. “Kanye’s show was a bit of a shot in the arm after a pretty bleak year for the Chinese live market.

“As with any market, if artists are willing and available to put the time in, they’ll reap what they sow”

“There was a push for international artists in early ’24 but it was all really disappointing because the internet just isn’t set up for those artists,” he explains.

Indeed, the Communist Party is known to control the flow of art and content from foreign producers, and strictly censor domestic publications, performances and social media postings.

“There’s been a requirement for TV and platforms and stuff to focus on promoting and investing in domestic talent predominantly so the international stuff just gets marginalised,” Hamilton adds.

“An artist that can sell 500 tickets in China can probably sell 1,500 tickets in the West or anywhere else,” the Split Works co-founder adds. “Artists that can sell 5,000 tickets in China could probably sell 20,000 tickets anywhere else.”

However, international artists who have consistently invested in the market have reaped the rewards.

“We’ve got three arena shows with Cigarettes After Sex in March of next year that are just about to go on sale,” he continues. “That’s a band that we built from 500 capacity to arena level right in seven years – though it would have been shorter without Covid. They worked hard on coming early and coming regularly.

“We also brought Honne through twice in the last two years. They played nine cities, three festivals, six hard ticket shows and the money is pretty good, I would argue. But again, Honne started working in the market in 2017. So it’s been an eight-year cycle of investment in platforms and channels, and speaking to fans and doing collaborations and coming to the market regularly.”

Other Western stars that have recently visited the market – or are planning to visit soon – include Mariah Carey, John Legend and Charlie Puth.

Hamilton concludes: “As with any market, if artists are willing and available to put the time in, they’ll reap what they sow.”

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As some residents in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the disease now known as Covid-19 originated in November, leave their houses for the first time in months, IQ turns to promoters in China and the wider Asia-Pacific region to find out if this means a return to business as usual any time soon.

“People are cautiously optimistic,” Archie Hamilton, managing director of Shanghai-based promoter Split Works tells IQ, noting that some clubs – but no live venues – in Shanghai opened their doors for the first time in months last weekend. “We have a while longer until things open up properly.”

Although Split Works has projects ongoing in its brand business, which has been active in China for around 15 years, and is looking into moving into the livestreaming sector, Hamilton states that the core part of his business – live events – “is not coming back any time soon”.

Zhang Ran, director of international business at Modern Sky, echoes this sentiment, saying that “nothing has changed here yet for the music industry” and adding that “some venues likely won’t survive”.

Although the situation “is getting better” with regards to the virus, Zhang believes it will be a month or two until Modern Sky will be able to hold shows again and “probably longer for [shows by] international bands, given the virus situation elsewhere.”

Zhang says that Modern Sky is currently looking to book shows for November.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tommy Jinho Yoon, president of Korea’s International Creative Agency (ICA), says that everything “is calming down” in comparison to a lot of places around the world.

“We just need to band together as an industry and try to make things work, and be good humans at the same time”

Yesterday (23 March), South Korea reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases since infection rates hit their peak four weeks ago. Although the virus has led to the shuttering of many events and venues in Korea, some popular musical theatre productions have continued to enjoy successful runs over the past few months.

“The Covid-19 madness is not completely over yet, but we are anticipating and hoping that the majority of this gets settled down by May or June,” Jinho Yoon tells IQ.

Matthew Lazarus-Hall, senior vice-president for AEG Presents’ Asia-Pacific division, states that, although China and other countries in Asia appear to be over the curve of the pandemic, the situation in many other parts of the world continues to put the brakes on international touring.

“The challenge is that a lot of artists can’t tour due to quarantine measures,” says Lazarus-Hall. “I anticipate that this situation will continue for many months, with everyone rescheduling tours until the back half of the year, and then maybe longer.”

With government restrictions on events and other public gatherings still in place across much of Asia, domestic touring remains difficult too.

China still has a complete event ban in place, whereas a surge in new cases of the virus led to a ban on gatherings of more than 250 people over the weekend in Singapore and a resumption of social distancing measures in Hong Kong.

“At AEG Presents, the plan is evolving every day based on government regulations, the industry and doing the right thing by our artists and staff, and we are reacting, and modifying our plans in real time,” says Lazarus-Hall.

“There’s no rulebook here, we just need to band together as an industry and try to make things work, and be good humans at the same time.”

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A number of live shows in China, Hong Kong and Singapore have been called off or postponed in recent weeks over fears related to the spread of the coronavirus.

Over 7,700 cases of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been confirmed in China, with the death toll now standing at 170. The virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is believed to have spread to 22 countries, including Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, France and the United States.

“There have been a couple of cancellations already, and I’m sure there will be more to come,” Archie Hamilton of Shanghai-based promoter Split Works tells IQ, explaining that mass gatherings were cancelled over the Chinese New Year and schools and businesses closed in an attempt to contain the virus.

“I imagine this will continue into March,” says Hamilton, who notes that Split Works is “monitoring the situation closely” due to upcoming tour dates by Stereolab and Mika in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

Zhang Ran, director of international business at Modern Sky, tells IQ that the promoter cancelled a number of shows in February “to avoid both artists and audiences getting affected by this virus”, adding that all fans received full refunds.

“We have updated artists that are coming for tours in March with the virus situation,” continues Zhang. “We will see how it goes for the next few weeks and see if we still can do these shows.

“From the artists’ side, most totally understand the situation – some of them agree to postpone the tour and for those who find it difficult to postpone, they are willing to refund the show fee.”

“From the artists’ side, most totally understand the situation”

Shows by US rock band X Ambassadors in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as concerts by Japanese rock group Suchmos, are among those to have fallen foul to the virus.

Acts playing outside of China have also called off shows. Canto-pop star Andy Lau recently pulled 12 concerts at the 12,500-capacity Hong Kong Coliseum, with organisers citing health and safety concerns. Lau is currently scheduled to perform in the city of Wuhan in April. It is unclear if the show will go ahead as planned.

Upcoming shows by K-pop acts Taeyon and NCT Dream have also been postponed due to “coronavirus proliferation concerns”. Promoter One Production, which was last year acquired by Live Nation, states that it “will continue to act on advice from the authorities on the coronavirus and take precautionary measures in line with prevention efforts.”

Live Nation have also cancelled a show in Singapore, by singer Miriam Yeung, “due to the current freight and travel conditions in China”.

Although the virus was discovered at an early stage and could be “fully under control very soon”, Modern Sky’s Zhang predicts it may take “at least six months to get the whole industry back on track,” adding that some artists that have shows scheduled for as far ahead as April are looking to postpone the whole Asian leg of their tour.

“This is a fight between humans and a virus,” says Zhang, “and I don’t think we have any other option.”

Photo: Huandy618/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) (cropped)

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There’s an old joke amongst local music fans that Asia must be an “extra-terrestrial.” Because until very recently, every time a band announced a “world tour,” they’d orbit around the Asian continent like it was an alien moon.

Thankfully, the 2010s have seen the business of live music expand to all corners of the globe. Where once, festivals and touring were limited to the core markets of North America, Europe and Australia (with a little Japan and South America thrown in the mix), the last decade has seen dramatic growth in the newly developing markets of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It was estimated that there were nearly 300 music festivals in China alone in 2018, up from a mere three in 2007.

An ever-growing number of Western artists come through the region with increasing regularity at all levels of the live spectrum. New venues and festivals have sprung up from Jaipur to Hanoi, Chongqing to Ulaanbaatar, and ticket prices have increased many-fold as disposable income and willingness to spend goes up in all markets. Asian talent is now heading west, with Korean, Chinese and Japanese music touring the US, appearing in showcase festivals in the UK, testing radio waves on and offline, and fans buying billboards for their idols in Times Square. It’s an exciting time to be Asian (or an Asian economic migrant).

This region seems like a no-brainer. A huge population with the classic bulge around the younger end of the age range, young people that have both time and money and an awareness of global and local trends, and media and social media that is increasingly receptive to high-quality content from wherever.

But like any good opportunity, developing markets require investment, time and patience. The globalisation trend of the last two decades is in reverse as countries become increasingly protectionist, and we are seeing signs that the uplift of the last decade is slowing. The greed and short- sightedness of the global EDM industry has contributed to a four-year Asian boom-and-bust, as overly high talent and licensing fees have all but killed a platinum goose.

“Asia demands local know-how and grounded expertise. Diversity is its feature, not a ‘potential roadblock’ to skirt”

Internationally, the pressure on individuals in the newly consolidated agency giants have led to increased demands for worldwide rights from their artists and less urgency on territories that are not immediately profitable. Asia demands local know-how and grounded expertise. Diversity is its feature, not a “potential roadblock” to skirt. But the continuing consolidation of the world’s promoters under the dual aegis of Live Nation and AEG, and the aforementioned roll up of the world’s biggest agencies to create a “big four” have created an increased focus on profits and bottom line, and as such, less focus on building these locally grounded competencies. The focus on global markets and lack of focus on local expertise is creating a contradiction. With consolidation, we’re seeing a race to sign-up “buzzy” artists for “global” rights, for “worldwide” distribution. But many of these words carry the baggage of the past, when much of Asia was indeed extra-terrestrial territory.

It seems to us that there are two options – invest real time and resource in the region, or cede worldwide rights to regional specialists.

Perhaps it’s time to truly go global by ditching the word “global.” Let local differences shine, and recognise local and regional players for what they are: tireless champions of what makes their part of the world special.

If our industry’s superstructure is going to be giant monoliths, we can deflect some of the fragility that comes with it by diffusing responsibilities and opportunities down the line. Regional and local specialisation grows the pie for everyone and shows that we’ve learnt our lesson from the Napster days.

The best music in the world has always come out of hyper-local specificity. We can make sure that the best shows, the best tours, and the greatest experiences in the world do, too.

Of course, we write from from a position of self-interest. We are proud of an artist roster we have built over the last decade for our Asian booking agency. Forward-thinking artists, managers and indeed agents have enabled us to grow some of the world’s most exciting artists in one of the world’s most exciting regions.

You can see more at www.scorched.asia.

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