“A change is gonna come” said Siva Chandran, echoing the song by Sam Cooke and Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign theme.
The Managing Editor of Voize.my, an Asian lifestyle and entertainment site, believes that independent music (“indie” for short) is the future of music and will be become a global brand catalyst. He also states that the independent music scene will be a marketing haven for companies who want to reach out to the most lucrative target market in the world – the urban affluent 18-30 age group.
“Some of the best music being churned out in the world today comes from
bedrooms, garages and colleges. More and more people are moving away from mainstream music and are heading towards digital download sites to get their fix of music. Chart figures seem artificial to them, and the Britney’s and the Beyonce’s now have to churn out an album every year and sometimes resorting to releasing several singles in a shorter time frame to grab the attention of an ever-growing fickle but smarter generation of music lovers.
THE DEATH OF MAINSTREAM MUSIC
The bigger music labels are in dire straits. In fact today there are only 3 standing (wobbling is a better word) – Warner-EMI, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group. Bigger labels have become more prudent in their promotion of albums and music videos for their artistes and some even resorting to buying over Independent labels to sway global audiences their way.
“Within 2 years we will see the death of albums in Asia, and more and more music releases will be in the form of digital singles and ep’s. Songs will even be directly downloaded to one’s handphone and that will act as our own version of an ipod. The technology is already in Malaysia.”
“That is why indie music will prevail. I call it the evolution-revolution of music. Let me explain from an Asian perspective. The urban-affluent 18-30 year olds group in Asian countries are getting weary of the same forms of music being generated by mainstream artistes in their respective countries, and from that same monotony, more and more independent acts have risen – bolder, more ambitious and certainly more creative. It is the evolution of bands wanting to do something better than the rest within their eco-system that causes a music revolution to surface, supercharging everything from fashion sense, lyrical expressions and song producing to enhanced concert performances, social standing and music marketing. The catalyst to this evolution-revolution of music is technology.
MUSIC, MARKETING AND TECHNOLOGY
Today there are more than 50,000 indie bands in Asia, of which 5,000 come from Malaysia. The explosion of Independent bands have been due to the popularity of social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook and Youtube, where anyone is able to create, upload and share content with their own online community and beyond. All it takes is a mobile phone, a laptop, a music software, a mic and anyone could record a song anywhere, anytime. There are no rules, and the material coming out of nooks and corners of communities have taken the world by storm. More musicians today want to manage their own content, distribute and market it the way they want. More bands and acts out there want more creative control over their music and are now managing themselves. Radiohead, Lily Allen and Sandi Thom are some of the most successful acts that have gone down the Independent road, and closer home, Melissa Indot, Ning Baizura, Malique, Love Me Butch, Estrella and Pop Shuvit have done the same.
“The independent music scene is a marketing goldmine. Imagine if a brand was to be associated with the indie community? Lets do the math – if each indie act today has at least 1000 friends in their Myspace or Facebook community and a brand is associated with say 3,000 acts in a country, imagine how powerful the marketing of a product or message can be communicated or disseminated? Best of all it will zero in on a community which is perceived to be “cool” and “hip” and certainly a community that is capable of influencing millions of other young people as a product or brand extension. The explosion has already happened everywhere else in the world and its slowly creeping into Malaysia, with Nokia and Denim playing key roles in Malaysia. Unfortunately companies and brands have been slow in capitalising on this lucrative market. Most Malaysian companies prefer to have the “wait and see” attitude.
The key to harnessing the marketing potential of the indie community is to play a support role rather than puppet master. Throw the business model out and allow the indie community to be the business model. If you guide them, support them and gain their trust, then its this same community that will champion a brand or a community unconditionally through blogs, social networking sites, chat rooms, forums or even plain old’ word of mouth.
END-TO-END INDIE PLATFORM
”That’s why at Voize.my, we intend to build an end to end platform for the independent music scene across Asia. We are not looking at the monetary gains but rather taking on the role of spearheading initiatives to support the music industry. We are helping independent acts to market and distribute their music on new platforms such as digital downloads and mobile phone downloads, street and college marketing, as well as exploring digital kiosks with partners. Voize.my has also created 2 exciting music awards, the VIMA (Malaysia’s first indie music awards) and AVIMA (Asia’s First Indie Music Awards). Eventually, Voize.my intends to go down the road of Starbucks, where retail outlets become a music store front. We are also currently in talks with interested partners to build such a platform where indie music is only available at these outlets which may not necessarily be music based but more of a lifestyle hub. Besides that, Voize is working with partners in other countries to build Asia’s biggest online music community platform to manage and coordinate all indie acts. It will be a place to converge, share, market, trade collaborate and disseminate everything indie including concerts and merchandising.We are in the midst of seeking out potential investors from across Asia to make this platform a reality.”
BIG AMBITIONS FOR A SMALL COMPANY?
“ I just need to look around here in Malaysia, and Im already inspired by two people who followed their big dreams and didn’t know the word “impossible” – Tony Fernandez and Ahmad Izham Omar. People laugh when I tell them that I dream of building the world’s biggest music community and that same music community will help eradicate poverty, war and suffering. It sounds absurd and in a way clichéd. But Albert Einstein once said
“If at first an idea is not absurd enough, then there is no hope for it.”