LETTERS: Malaysia is God's country. We have been abundantly blessed with tin, gold, rubber, palm oil; petroleum and a rapidly growing, multicultural and multitalented musical population.
As a bonafide music enthusiast, my somewhat unexpected endeavour into the inner workings of the music industry has found me listening to a vast array of music. However, this has not lessened my wholehearted admiration and pride for Malaysia's music scene.
I have the utmost respect for Datuk Sudirman, who I believe is a legend. He made Malaysia proud when he performed "A Thousand Million Smiles" at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1989.
He was a God-given talent taken from us too soon. In my teen years, I had Paperplane Pursuit's "Higher" on repeat. That band has since disbanded, but they had a number that found itself on a chart in the US - the US Billboard Mainstream Top 40.
More recently, I've been revisiting Faith Ling's "Letters From The Garden", especially the single "You Say The Victory's Mine," which was featured on Spotify's "Indie-Spirit." Her song "I Don't Know How to Tell You This" was also mentioned in a Teen Vogue article.
Their artistry means a lot to me and is a testament to the prodigious musical talent that is present in our country. We have the potential to leave a profound footprint on the global music scene.
Yuna did it, the artists aforementioned did it and I firmly believe many more can do the same. From a business standpoint, I also believe that Malaysia has the potential to become a music hub in Southeast Asia.
However, I feel we've become rather complacent as if we've been slapped in the face so many times that it no longer stings. Even though our homegrown music industry has seen tremendous growth - bringing in RM303.89 million in revenue last year, contributing RM8.6 billion to Malaysia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), supporting 111,000 job opportunities, and generating RM210 million in taxes - we still don't see entrepreneurs and capitalists investing significantly in this field, despite there being a plethora of reasons to do so.
Despite a potential looming ban in the US, TikTok will continue to influence global music charts - Billboard even has a chart dedicated to viral songs on TikTok. It is a platform with a stratospheric number of users in Southeast Asia, totalling 325 million.
Earlier this year, Universal Music removed its entire catalogue of songs from the platform due to concerns over unfair remuneration for artists and songwriters, as well as various AI issues.
However, they rectified the issue because they recognised the importance of the social media platform, which has a music streaming service in Indonesia. Asia currently contributes 14.9pct of recorded music revenues to the music industry. It is the third largest market globally.
Southeast Asia's ties to the music industry are strengthening and the investment and business potential in this field is gradually becoming appealing and sensible.
In 2018, music industry professional Hazel Savage founded Musiio - a Music AI startup that began its operations in Singapore. In 2022, the company was acquired by Soundcloud. Meng Ru Kuok founded and currently heads the Caldecott Music Group, which operates BandLab (an online music production platform), NME (a music media company) and a few other ventures; I can't leave out Swee Lee; I enjoy frequenting their store in Bangsar with an eclectic mix of guitars.
We must realise and harness the latent potential that Malaysia harbours within its music industry. It is only through such recognition that we can truly flourish.
LUC PEREIRA
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
