Although Xu and Song are longtime friends, they were also competitors in the music market. Now they are cooperating for the first time. Song is in charge of the award's business management while Xu takes care of the voting procedures.

"It was really a tough job because no one has ever done it before in China," says Xu, who invited Taiwan veteran songwriter and producer Jonathan Lee to be the chief consultant.

"What we needed was a music award that was fair and had authority."

The jury panel of the CMIC Music Awards consisted of 10 key members－each invited 10 people from the music industry to assist them to vote.

"The awards are a new chapter for China's music industry," says Shen Lihui, one of the jury members, who is the founder and CEO of Modernsky, China's biggest indie music label.

Although he had confidence in the CMIC Music Awards, Song also foresaw there would be doubts from the record companies, singers and sponsors as they were new.

Indeed at the ceremony for the CMIC Music Awards, few singers showed up and their awards were accepted by the record companies and their agents.

There was also no television broadcast, although the awards were streamed online by streaming site iQiyi, which attracted an audience of about 150,000.

Despite this, Song says the awards were a big success.

"It was beyond my expectations because the industry's elite showed up, which is a great sign. We've done the most challenging part, making the first CMIC Music Awards a reality," says Song.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn