Hi there everyone!
I guess the best people to clear the air here are us right?
1) "How much profit is Mediacorp getting out of this?"
Reply: Live 'n' Loaded, at the very moment as we speak, is NOT a sponsored programme at all. Meaning: ZERO revenue. Reason: It is THAT tough to get any corporate clients to invest their advertising budget into a show that is fully LOCAL music content. So, why are we STILL doing it? Because there is a bunch of people working within the company that REALLY supports local talents and it's a project that we have been fighting for years to get it produced.
2) "Without revenue, then you guys are doing this at a loss! So we won't see another season la!"
Reply: You never know. How we do it is, we need to calculate the weekly ratings of the live show and if the ratings prove that the show is being watched by a huge majority of youth and our target audience, we can bring the results and go knocking on the doors of potential sponsors once more, showing them that LOCAL music does draw a substantial amount of interest and audience. And hopefully, with that, we can cover our production costs and fund another season with proper sponsorship.
3) "What can we do to make sure this show sustains?"
Reply: You can REALLY just spread the word around to even people who are not aware of the sheer number of talented musicians we have here, and get them to tune in and watch the show. Let them decide if they wanna continue to watch & support, or they think world war 2 colonial mentality still rocks their socks. And what we need is SUPPORT and POSITIVE FEEDBACK that this is what you guys want. There can be 1 million ways to improve/change a show to suit the 1 million people watching TV, so we really would appreciate positive & constructive ideas rather than "Please la, you guys won't show Impiety on national TV what! How can you say you support local? I'm tuning out!". Perhaps you might not be aware that there is a governing body here in Singapore known as the Board of Censors that tells us which nasi lemak stall we can eat, and which colored fried chicken wing we should buy. So, as much as we love Children of Bodom and Napalm Death, our hands are tied. Hope you all understand.
4) "So my band is relatively new, how do i get myself featured?"
Reply: Which is why there is an official Live 'n' Loaded website at 5.mediacorptv.sg/livenloaded whereby we allow you to create your profile and upload your songs for the online music community to check out and rate. Within our weekly episode segment, we invite about 3 bands from our website to come perform. 1 band will be selected based on the online ratings, 1 band will be a music industry's selection and 1 band will be a producers' choice. Hopefully, this tackles the "quality control" problem that may arise. We know there's never a win-win situation, so this is a "as much as you and i can win" situation being created. And if you or your band choose to remain "indie" and "not sell out" and "not compromise on my artistic values" and decide that this isn't suitable for your directions, i'm sorry that we lost you and we weren't able to provide you a better pocketed spring mattress. Like the rest say, we're here to SUPPORT, and nothing else. If we wanted to create a profitable wagon, then trust me, doing another season of Singapore Idol is that doubletalking jive money making thing.
5) "The first season is only 10 episodes, there are thousands of local bands out there, so how can you ensure you feature the BEST??"
Reply: We cannot assure you that we'll have all the BEST local bands according to your own Top Favourites featured in our show. But by being followers of local scene ourselves, and gathering all the feedback from others, we try to cover as much genres and established acts as we can. We need to provide opportunities not only to bands, but even to a solo folk pop artist, a scratch DJ or an electronica outfit. So as much as some "rock elitist" might diss R&B rap music or electronica dance techno rave, the one who gets our objectives at the end of the day is the one who understands simply these two words: SUPPORT LOCAL.
Thanks for all your interest, thought provoking feedback and stuff, we are all working our asses to make this happen, and a big part of it will rely on you guys come 27 Jan and thereafter.
Cheers!
Live 'n' Loaded team
