Looking for listeners

EVEN as blockbuster music acts make headlines for sold-out stadium shows, local Singapore artistes find it hard to get listeners.

“People are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on these imported acts, but they are not even willing to spend S$20 to S$50 on a local act,” said Dominic Yuan, founder of local record label Parka, citing the examples of pop superstars Taylor Swift and Blackpink.

Both anecdotes and data agree: Singaporeans are simply not as willing to give local music a chance.

The National Arts Council’s (NAC) National Music Consumption Survey 2022 found that while 55 per cent of Singaporean listeners agreed that music by Singaporeans has international appeal and can be marketable overseas, only 37 per cent of them were interested in such music and actively seek it out.

Finding success overseas

Some Singaporean artistes have indeed found success elsewhere. Singer-songwriter Sezairi’s song It’s You has been certified six times platinum – meaning over six million copies have been sold – in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and gold in Taiwan. He was the first Singapore artiste to hit 100 million streams on Spotify.

“Singaporeans may know Sezairi from Singapore Idol but don’t know that he has a six-times platinum song,” said Tan Peng Sing, founder of local independent record label Where Are The Fruits (WATF). “It’s because his success is mainly in Indonesia.”

After releasing their own singles under WATF last October, local indie band Motifs went on to be signed by labels in North America, France and Japan.

Singaporeans may tend to recognise homegrown musicians only after they have achieved overseas success, with the 2021 version of the NAC study finding that “most people could only recall JJ Lin and Stefanie Sun as local acts”.

One issue is that Singaporeans have already been deeply acculturated to listening to foreign music, said Tan. “For the longest time, any English pop culture we consume is from the UK or US, so we end up having our preferences cultivated to be very used to certain kinds of stories and music.”

Assumptions about demand also drive supply. Programmers and event organisers tend to choose foreign music acts over local ones, as they worry about the reception they would receive.

“For example, F1 has all the budget in the world – they can actually support a lot of local artistes – but they also worry about their crowd pull and brand,” said Tan. “They want the event to be affiliated with the big rock stars.”

Businesses are not keen on taking the risk of playing local music which has not been “tested and proven”, he added.

Marketing might also be constrained by a lack of funding. “If you are local and making original music, you are fighting a pretty uphill battle. Even if you have a good product, you are up against the major labels who have very deep pockets when it comes to marketing,” said Tan.

Support and challenges

The NAC provides financial support to arts companies via grants. Its Major Company Scheme, for instance, can cover a percentage of a registered arts organisation’s total expenses.

However, such organisations are not-for-profit; commercial organisations and local record labels do not qualify for this scheme.

Instead, they are only eligible for NAC’s general grant schemes, which subsidise individual projects such as recording an album or putting up performances, said Serene Lim, director for performing arts at NAC.

NAC is currently working on a review on the funding framework and approach for arts organisations and arts practitioners, including emerging companies and independent artists.”

On behalf of artistes under his label, Tan has applied for and received NAC grants such as the Presentation and Participation Grant and the Market and Audience Development (MAD) Grant.

For an overseas tour, say, the MAD grant can cover up to 100 per cent of airfare and freight costs, and up to 50 per cent of associated travel costs, with a cap of S$70,000 per financial year for each applicant.

Tan’s own band M1LDL1FE performed in Thailand in 2014, and Malaysia and China in 2015, with the MAD Grant covering around half their total cost. But he cautioned: “It’s not a free trip.” Even with grant support, such a tour is unlikely to turn much profit, due to the high costs. 

Artistes run the risk of losing money even with grant funding, due to the multitude of expenses, said Tan. Besides airfare and freight, other costs include hiring sound technicians, accommodation for the artistes and crew, paying for promoters, and booking venues.

“Nobody makes money, (we) always barely break even,” said Tan.

Nor is it easy to get such grants in the first place. Applicants must provide a detailed report of their estimated expenses and make a persuasive proposal – and not every musician may be able to do so, said Tan. “For this reason, also, some artists just don’t apply for any scheme.”

Beyond providing grants, NAC funds Hear65, an initiative to celebrate and promote local music. Hear65 sets up interactive offline campaigns and live performances in partnership with companies and venues.

The Hear65 website also provides updates on the local music scene, with record labels – including those of Tan and Yuan – promoting new releases there.

Getting heard

While only about a third of respondents in NAC’s 2022 study were interested in local music, seven in 10 had nonetheless listened to music by Singaporean artistes in the past year.

Tan believes that an artiste’s success depends on the effort they put in to publicise themselves, especially with the accessibility of social media. Tan’s own band was started independently, and managed to garner an audience without a label. “We figured out everything on our own.”

“It’s not difficult to just cold-call somebody, DM (direct message) them, e-mail them, get their attention and get your foot in the door. And then eventually it becomes that you work together, and they bring you in for a show,” he said.

While Tan’s label WATF helped with the distribution of Motifs’ music, the band managed to make it overseas via its own efforts, said lead guitarist JJ Tan. When their two debut singles were released last year, Motif members posted the news on online platform Reddit and sent releases to international music publications such as NME.

These efforts led to their songs getting more opportunities for exposure, being featured on more platforms and at more events. Eventually, they were discovered and signed by three foreign labels.

Social media also provides opportunities for artistes to go viral. Regina Song, an artiste under Parka, regularly engages her social media audience on TikTok with video uploads and livestreams. This contributed to the success of her song High School Boy, which has over 200,000 streams on Spotify, said Yuan.

“What we did for Regina was almost the same as for other artistes – production, an Instagram campaign, press release, social media. Those got her only so far. But once her TikToks trended, we started to see a lot of streams come in for her single,” said Yuan.

Social media statistics also help artistes figure out what appeals to listeners.

While artistes in the past needed to do this by “guesswork” – observing the turnout for their events, or paying for surveys to be conducted – platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music let artistes gain insights that can guide their song-writing process, said Warner Music Singapore’s artists and repertoire manager Evan Low.

“It’s easy to gauge and tell engagement at this point” and to tell “what works and what doesn’t”, he added.

Nonetheless, record labels are still valuable to an artiste’s career in improving the quality of their compositions, with expertise in areas that the artiste may not have, said Low.

Labour of love

Ultimately, for many artistes, making music is more an extension of their identities than a major source of income.

Paul Yuen, drummer of Motifs, said the band just aims to enjoy what it does. The members, who all have day jobs, are free to create in their own time; being with a major record label would subject them to targets and deadlines, he added.

Being a musician in Singapore is an identity more than a job, said Tan. “They are doing it because they are building and curating their identity. If you’re a musician, you are also tapping into this other subculture of ideas, values, stories and histories that you want to participate in and become a member of.”

“It doesn’t depend on profit margins. People do it because it’s a labour of love. It’s an important part of their identity and their community.”