As the mainland music industry languishes on life support, two 16-year industry veterans are attempting to resuscitate it through revamping its concert sector.

They're Song Ke, founder and former CEO of Taihe Rye Music - a top-performing company with such pop stars as Li Yuchun and Lao Lang - and songwriter and music producer Gao Xiaosong, who ushered in the campus folk music genre in 1994.

The duo has taken the helm of the new label Evergrande Music. The label was founded on June 18 in Beijing by Evergrande Real Estate Group, one of the country's 10 largest real estate developers.

"It's another year of plummeting music sales, and many Chinese record company executives are contemplating other methods or are simply giving up," says Song, who has become Evergrande's managing director.

"We've been taking risks and survived in this industry for the past 16 years. Everything was new for us back then, so we're confident we can make it in this new era."

The company was registered in October 2010 with a 850 million yuan ($134 million) investment. Song and Gao are also shareholders.

"We invested in this company out of our own pockets," says Gao, managing director for the company's music department.