Why record companies won't help your band here

Jerseystar

New member
and why the local scene sucks...

So this is the promised off shoot from that post 'Why the local scene sucks'

Here’s a lesson I learnt from then general manager of the KL branch of one of the big five recording companies, now he’s one of the vice presidents I hear but I won’t name names or else every one adds him on Facebook or something and he gets mad at me . Anyway, he taught me this course on Music Industry Operations so take my word for it as he likes to say, ‘there is no bigger fish’ in the region. So if what he says goes against your grain, these are not my words so…

Anyway, according to him no band will ever be exported by a major label to another country unless that band makes it in its own country first. For instance in Malaysia, if a band managed to sell say 10 000 copies of its album, do you think that’s a lot? (Its laughably small.)

So now do you think the GM of say this record label is willing to call his counterpart in Australia and say “Hey I have a band here that I think I should bring over there so that it can make you money’

‘Oh how many albums did they sell in Malaysia’ GM Australia

’10,000’ says GM Malaysia

Phone slams down and GM Australia will NEVER entertain another call from GM Malaysia ever again.

Now do you think GM Malaysia will risk his career/reputation with a band that sold only 10,000 copies? At the end of the day, it is a business and a business is about making profit, not making a loss.


Okay, now apply this to Singapore. When was the last time any band sold even 10 000 copies in Singapore? Maybe in the 90’s or 80’s and even then it is hard. The problem is that we are simply too small to sustain a reasonable sales figure. A country like Malaysia whose population is around 23 million has a buying public about 8 million people. Even if you manage to get only 1% of them to buy your album, that’s already 80,000 copies sold. If you manage to get 10% of them that’s a more respectable 800,000 copies. They can probably do that if the whole country spoke the same language in that case Malay and your released a hit album in Malay. Now look at how pathetic we are.

Considering how small we are as a country, we only have one city. Imagine you manage to sell say 2000 copies of your album in a year. Assuming you sell it at say SGD20, your total revenue is SGD40000. Now assuming you don’t have to recoup your costs, and you split that 40000 evenly between 5 members. We are talking SGD8000/- a person and most likely that’s all you can make in one year from CD sales… Which is pathetic. How many albums can you release in one year? After a while you will also run out of songs so lets face it, 2000 copies just ain’t big enough. Might as well work at Starbucks or MacDonalds and just jam on weekends and never release an album and you will still make more than SGD8000 a year.

Now… assuming we lived in a country that had at least 10 cities and in each city you manage to sell 2000 copies. Now we get a more respectable SGD80000 per person per album. You’d have to do your own indie tour of course to get to play in all 10 cities.

Back to reality, you wanna bring your band from Singapore to say Johor Baru or to Jakarta, firstly you are crossing international borders so are you really going to bring 2000 copies of your CD through customs? You’ll probably be taxed on entry or fined if you don’t have a business permit. So how? You’d probably have to get some way to print your CD’s domestically in each country.

I don’t wanna get too nitty gritty into all the details but moral of the story…. Do not rely on CD sales as a source of income anymore, even signed international acts are suffering from this, unless you belong to the upper echelons of the roster like Coldplay or Britney etc.

The good news is… the loss of the CD has leveled the playing field for all musicians now. It is just like 60’s and 70’s where musicians made their income from touring and playing not so much from the sale of their vinyl records or from radio airplay. Unless of course you still think a one city country can sustain a band financially....
 
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Yea, I do agree with you. Everything is about business. Everything in this world revolves around this monetary system. (There are even pple turning this environmental problem into business, do they really care about the problem or do they only care about money? You judge yourself.) Well, In fact, with piracy getting worse all over the world, alot of international acts are really facing a vast drop in record sales. Hence, many of them are switching to online distributions rather than CDs which is cheaper. So please do think a million times the next time you wanna illegally download or share files (including movies as well).

But another fact here is that, all this while, most pop/rock stars don't only rely on record sales to make their earnings, their biggest returns are usually from concerts and touring.
 
the point is. don't try to make it by going the album route. make it big by performing live and then when people actually ask you when your EP is coming out. start recording your EP. maybe give out a few singles at your concerts to promote your band.

solely relying on album sales to promote your band isn't gonna work. no one wants to buy a CD of a band they've never heard play before or don't like.
 
the point is. don't try to make it by going the album route. make it big by performing live and then when people actually ask you when your EP is coming out. start recording your EP. maybe give out a few singles at your concerts to promote your band.

solely relying on album sales to promote your band isn't gonna work. no one wants to buy a CD of a band they've never heard play before or don't like.

Actually, you can still do the album thing but just don't rely on wanting to sell it in the stores. As I mentioned earlier, the scene now has somewhat come full circle and its back to touring/gigging to make money. That was how it was before in the 60's and 70's. You make money from your gigs but nothing is stopping you from selling your album at these gigs. SO the people who would buy are those that see you live, like your music, and are willing to part with their money to buy a copy of your music.

Still the chunk of your income should come from your gigs be it, profit sharing, door sales etc. but think of your CD as bonus income just like merchandise T-shirts, mugs etc. Your product as a band now is NO LONGER your music but your LIVE SHOW. Just like say a broadway musical or what not.

SO IT IS SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS REASON MY FELLOW SINGAPOREANS NEVER EVER PAY TO PLAY A GIG. Such organizers might think they are helping out the scene, its spoiling your your chances for livelihood.

So now the issue is simply whether or not your music and your playing is good. Believe me, if people do not want to buy your album it is usually because it is not good enough to entice them to. I have played shows in the KL circuit and people come up to me asking to buy a copy of my album. But sad to say we didn't record anything as yet which was also a mistake. What I'm saying is never as a musician blame your audience if they don't support you, because most likely, they are just not moved enough, tickled enough or down right blown away by what you play.

And er, the highlighted bold lines are not a personal attack on evident, just wanted to bring up these points in general
 
But another fact here is that, all this while, most pop/rock stars don't only rely on record sales to make their earnings, their biggest returns are usually from concerts and touring.

And that shampoo endorsement... and their own line of cosmetics, and theor own line of perfumes... clothing brand...
 
Play play play

Digital Distribution is cheap, what are you waiting for?

Exactly.

But even then, still do not rely solely on just this because there are shitloads of bands than release records but don't tour/gig. You only see them on myspace or youtube but when you see them live, they can't replicate what was on their mp3.

One thing I think we really need to inculcate in our younger musicians, is that the more you play, the better you gel as a band, and the better you get individually as a player. The more seasoned musicians actually only go into the studio after a tour because by that time, they've already 'absorbed' the songs into their entire being that they can actually record in one take and live rather than multitracking (one by one).

Anyway sorry to diverge but I think playing is related to the point in anycase.
 
ive been saying this, but everyone ignores me. hehe. well not in a constructive way like what TS did.lol
 
They're not bands per se, but Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin all got exported :) Taiwanese mkt is huge! Gotta love 360 deals and the marketing people.
 
Don't forget to write excellent radio-friendly music and singable tunes so that you can earn royalties from radio play and your karaoke MTVs.

Doesn't apply to metal bands though, sadly.

:mrgreen:
 
Exactly.

But even then, still do not rely solely on just this because there are shitloads of bands than release records but don't tour/gig. You only see them on myspace or youtube but when you see them live, they can't replicate what was on their mp3.

One thing I think we really need to inculcate in our younger musicians, is that the more you play, the better you gel as a band, and the better you get individually as a player. The more seasoned musicians actually only go into the studio after a tour because by that time, they've already 'absorbed' the songs into their entire being that they can actually record in one take and live rather than multitracking (one by one).

Anyway sorry to diverge but I think playing is related to the point in anycase.
i like multitracking, its a good way to experiment and record and re-record compare and tweaks, punch, etc..etc.. make it more polish. as a musician not a super good one but i've been around. records a few times with multiple bands.

as for CD distributions and metal scene in general. my main band has been around like what 16yrs? and personally there is only 4 occasions since i started playing when i was that i actually got paid in a gig. 1 instance pony canyon paid the band $1k for a show at fire disco!!! \m/

ad sadly majority of our sales is all international. another way for the band to survive is basically trade our CD with other bands and record labels internationally and than re-sell that band/label cd locally and recover cost. and we trade hundreds sometime thousands of copies of our releases all the time and we can charge a premium for those CDs, compare to selling our CD locally dirt cheap like $10? $8 $12? $5 we change pricing for every releases but never ever hit the sweet spot. We even pair up with international kick ass bands in a split cd or compilation cd to spur sales but still no go!!! while if we trade we can charge $20? $25? for those CDs see the difference? and its guaranteed sold out all the time as we got a network of homegrown distributors and record labels distribute those cd's regionally.

but the band can never get the traction or CD sales locally. Infact i met an italian guy in KL that told me he got a cardiac necropsy CD at home in italy and dig the stickers i pass him *grinz*

google it, very interesting results.
 
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I think the best way is go sign to the international record company , like Geffen or EMI something like that
 
I think the best way is go sign to the international record company , like Geffen or EMI something like that

Then you gotta move to a foreign country, get big in that country by yourself and then hopefully you attract their attention. And in order to do that is to go sell your albums by yourself. If you manage to sell 100,000 copies without major label support... then they might want to sign you...
 
What about Hong Kong? A island that is only two million more people than us. By singing cantonese, they can support a number of full-time artist and band. Why Singapore can't?
 
Well for Singapore...hmm...to be honest myself for instance have never bought a local band CD except in the early 80's to 90's where we have what we call Cassettes which is much cheaper and affordable. During that time, an original cassette cost about $6 and the pirated ones cost $2. Now how much is a CD? Not many can afford. And priorities are often better off for foreign bands. Now a days, many downloaded free music. How can the artists survive?

We are all to blame for this including myself. The sad truth, nothing but the truth! Hehehehe!!


Saluti!
Tetragrammaton
 
What about Hong Kong? A island that is only two million more people than us. By singing cantonese, they can support a number of full-time artist and band. Why Singapore can't?

That's why.

Even if you are indie, by singing in a local language you open up doors to other neighbouring/nearby countries Taiwan, China etc. Singapore can I suppose if you sing in Bahasa or in Malay and export to Malaysia and Indonesia, there are bands doing that already.

But to simply rely on a single domestic market seriously limits your earning capacity unless you tailor down who your consumer base might be. In Singapore I suppose it might be more profitable to form a band for Chinese opera I see quite a lot of those in the housing estates these days. In which case then your target demographic could be the middle age group. I don't mean that sarcastically just all business.

But I don't think that's what the younger musicians wanna do...
 
What about Hong Kong? A island that is only two million more people than us. By singing cantonese, they can support a number of full-time artist and band. Why Singapore can't?

Simple. How many other cantonese musicians or bands do they compete with? They compete with themselves, as they are practically one of the few places that uses Cantonese as a FIRST LANGUAGE.

Singapore uses English as the first language. Imagine how many other bands from America, England, and all other parts of the world use English? We got more competition than that of Cantonese bands.

Wrong analogy dude
 
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