Indie bands gain traction

Shen Lihui, founder of indie label, Modernsky, home to more than 100 indie acts, such as New Pants and Queen Sea Big Shark, remembers the early days of the label, when indie bands were a tough sell.

"It was a very lonely and disordered world for the first few years," he said at a conference titled Facts and Future of China's Music Market, at the Dongdong Music Festival and Convention last weekend.

"There was no format to follow. I just followed my intuition to sign artists. I insisted on the music that I like, rather than counting on data collection or market research."