By Casey Hall\ Peijin Chen

For some of China's grassroots music entrepreneurs, getting rich quick isn't at the top of their set list. The desire to create a vibrant Chinese indie scene drives these businesses forward

Ren Yuqing 
Founder, JZ Club, JZ School and JZ Festival

Ren found fame in the 1990s as the bass player of Cui Jian's band. It was a fortuitous position in more ways than one: While playing with the "Father of Chinese rock," Ren met a saxophone player who awakened his love of jazz, jumpstarting the beginnings of the JZ music empire.

"I think the Chinese music business is quite a big business, but my position is really small. Jazz is growing smoothly, but not too fast – it's still trying to develop here step-by-step. In Shanghai, only 3,000 people attended the JZ Festival in its first year, and now, it's 10 times as big. At least 30,000 people come every year. I personally felt I could do more than just play bass, and I wanted to make a home for musicians [with JZ Club]. When I came to Shanghai to play jazz in 2000, the music was performed only in hotels and Cotton Club. But Shanghai has a history with jazz from the 1930s. Ask some old people, 'do you know jazz?' and they will tell you about how they used to dance to that music in The Paramount every night. If you ask an old guy in Beijing about jazz, though, he won't know so much. Even though jazz started in the US, it's now an international language – perfect for a cosmopolitan city like Shanghai."

Archie Hamilton
Managing director, Split Works

After starting his music career by promoting DJs as a 19-year-old university student, Hamilton went to France and launched a music festival. French authorities ended up shutting down the event - an experience that cost him dearly financially - but provided a good training ground for launching his concert promotion agency, Split Works, in China.

"Personally, I love music festivals and developing bands. I feel that in a very underexposed and underrepresented scene like China's, music needs to build from a grassroots level. We need to build a generation of music lovers who love to go to gigs and experience live music. I see the risks that big promoters are taking and the amount of money that's being lost; it's really hard to get established artists to tour China. It's not very often you see established musicians wanting to come to places like this, unless it's to get a lot of money and that's why the ticket prices are so obscene. At the same time, there's a big growth in smaller venues and promoters, as well as the domestic music scene. Young bands are beginning to understand they can have a future. We need to create a path for emerging, talented artists to see that they can devote their lives to music. I'd love to have a label, start a radio station, have a live house and maybe, sometime in the future [that will happen]. We are already very stretched, however, since the whole industry is just beginning to develop. There is a lack of talent in terms of people's experience."

Li Dalong
Manager, Mao Livehouse and co-founder, Soma Records

As the lead singer of Crystal Butterfly, one of Shanghai's most respected indie rock bands, Li has been at the forefront of the city's independent music scene for almost a decade. Now he juggles his on-stage music career with behind-the-scene roles at Shanghai's premier live music venue and independent record label.

"After finishing university, I worked as an interior designer for two years but I got bored. My friends and I started a band, and eventually we were able to make a career out of our music. In 2006 I returned to Shanghai from Beijing and there was a kind of vacuum in the city. There wasn't an independent record label. We had a recording studio where we made our own music, so we thought that was a good place to start. Shanghai's music scene has never been as good as Beijing's, which is a cultural center and has a lot of government support. Originally, we were more about making records, but now our focus has shifted to organizing live shows and performances. Mao Livehouse was started in conjunction with a Japanese company called Bad News. We want to help develop the local industry so that bands, agents and companies like ours have a functioning music marketplace in which people can actually make money."

Charles Saliba  
Co-founder, Maybe Mars Records and D-22

After arriving in Beijing in 2004, Saliba soon realized that the city was bursting with talent, but they didn't have a quality venue to play in. By 2006, his club D-22 was up and running and its sister record label, Maybe Mars, was launched to promote the innovative sounds of young China.

"After one year of running the club, it became apparent that we needed to start the label. The young musicians we took under our wings would ask for help on how to release their music. There's been an explosion in the quality and quantity of music being made in China in the last few years. A number of great bands are developing – young, good bands are getting more sophisticated with their sounds. Six or seven years ago, Beijing wasn't that important in terms of the world scene, but now I would say it's the most exciting place in the world for this growth. We just keep plodding along and identifying these amazing musicians – helping people discover that this country is making great music. We often hear bands say that the source of their inspiration is changing from foreign influences, to a couple of domestic bands that are from the Maybe Mars label. College bands are increasingly saying that local bands are the reason why they're getting into the music industry. I think that's quite inspiring."