ENTERTAINMENT / INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

Digital music to help save local industry

KRISSANA PARNSOONTHORN

Music never dies. While sales of CDs and cassette tapes are declining, the Thai music industry's future still looks promising, with new opportunities arising from digital music, show business, and artist and copyright management. Industry veterans have agreed that along with the global music industry, the local music business is reaching a turning point, with drastic changes seen over the past couple of years.

Marcel Fenez, an entertainment and media specialist from PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that while physical music distribution was falling, digital music, especially for mobile phones, was a big opportunity in Asia.

Unlike in the western world, online music will come next due to lower broadband penetration in the region and rampant piracy.

Sharing this view was Ardkit Suntornwat, director and general manager of True Corporation Plc, who said digital music had a lot of potential in Thailand as only 20-30% of the 35 million mobile-phone users here have downloaded music as ringtones or calling melodies.

''Let's think about revenue from music downloads. If each mobile-phone user downloads only one song for three baht a year, it will be worth about one billion baht. And if they download more, how much will entertainment firms earn from this business in one year?'' he asked.

Mr Ardkit said the music downloading business in Thailand had faced many obstacles including bandwidth congestion, which made it slow and inconvenient to download music.

As well, he said 70-80% of computer users locally were using pirated operating software (Microsoft Windows), which blocked them from downloading files.

Saithip Montrikul na Ayudhya of GMM Media Plc also said that show business, including concerts, was another channel to help generate income for entertainment companies.

''We earn from concert ticket sales and sponsorships. Some people still prefer live concerts to watching them on TV or videos. But one problem is that there are not that many quality concert venues around,'' she said.

Kitikorn Penrote, managing director of UBC Fantasia, which pioneered the popular Academy Fantasia (AF) reality show, said artist management was a new way to build a strong relations between artists and consumers and make money.

Although AF artists represent a small group when compared to the number of performers Grammy or RS have, they have been able to create a new wave in the local music industry.

Once AF artists become popular, they go on tours and appear on TV commercials and soap operas.

''Sometimes, we have to produce music albums for an AF artist even though we know he will be voted out. We have to invest and make consumers remember him. This is a form of artist management _ using marketing activities to make someone more attractive,'' Mr Kitikorn said.

Surachai Sensri, managing director of GMM Grammy Plc, said Thai music had been popular in many Asian countries and copyright violations were rising as well. In fact, copyright fees will generate a steady revenue stream for Grammy in the long run.

''Grammy is trying to collect copyright fees from the use of its music in commercials aboard. If anyone wants to use the melody of our songs, he or she has to pay us for the rights and when the songs are covered in other languages, we will have publishing rights over them also,'' Mr Surachai said.

General News
Bangkok Post
Thursday January 25, 2007