From Luc Pereira
Like God’s own country, Malaysia is blessed with abundant resources such as tin, gold, rubber, palm oil and petroleum.
It also has a rapidly growing multicultural and multi-talented musical population to boot.
As a bonafide music enthusiast who has had a deep insight into the music industry, I have come to enjoy a vast array of music genre.
However, this has not diminished my admiration and pride for Malaysia’s music scene.
I have the utmost respect for Sudirman Arshad, who I believe to be 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 teens, I had Paperplane Pursuit’s “Higher” on repeat. The group, which has since disbanded, had a number that hit the US Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart.
More recently, I have been revisiting Faith Ling’s “Letters From The Garden”, especially the single “You Say The Victory’s Mine”, which was featured in 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 is testament to the prodigious musical talent that is present in our country, giving us the potential to leave a profound footprint on the global music scene.
Yuna did it. The artistes I have mentioned did it. I firmly believe many more can do the same.
From a business standpoint, I also believe Malaysia has the potential to become a music hub in Southeast Asia.
Unfortunately, we have become rather complacent, as if we have 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 and contributing RM8.6 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product, supporting 111,000 jobs and generating RM210 million in taxes — we still do not see significant investments in this field.
This is in spite of a plethora of reasons to do so.
Despite the looming potential that it will be banned in the US, TikTok will continue to influence global music charts.
Billboard even has a chart dedicated to songs that have gone viral on TikTok.
Its popularity has reached the stratosphere. In Southeast Asia alone, it has 325 million followers.
Universal Music removed its entire catalogue of songs from the platform earlier this year due to concerns over unfair remuneration for artistes and songwriters as well as various AI issues only to rectify the error later.
The music company recognises the importance of the social media platform that has a music streaming service in Indonesia.
Asia currently accounts for 14.9% of revenue from recorded music, making it the third largest market globally.
The region’s ties to the music industry are strengthening and the investment and business potential is becoming appealing and sensible.
In 2018, music industry professional Hazel Savage founded Musiio, a music AI start-up that began 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 its 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. - FMT
Luc Pereira is an FMT reader and a music enthusiast.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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