Introduction
Created in 2006 to encourage innovation, collaboration and transparency within the music industry, Music Matters is Asia's pioneer music business conference. Established in its own right, the event has distinctively succeeded in creating a global platform for the gathering of key players in the music industry. Music Matters has hosted some of the biggest names in the entertainment business such as Paul McGuinness (U2 Manager), Producer, Steve Lillywhite, President of Sony Network Entertainment's Tim Schaff, Spotify CEO and visionary Daniel Ek and music A-listers and Grammy Award-winning artists such as Jason Mraz, Imogen Heap and Jamie Cullum.
After five years in Hong Kong, Singapore's outstanding infrastructure for international events and flourishing entertainment scene was an attractive opportunity to take Music Matters to the next level. 2011 is a hallmark year for the music event with a new look, new location and new programme. The week-long event kicked off with the introduction of Digital Matters in Singapore, the first regional forum in Asia focusing on the future of the digital music industry, followed by the main Music Matters forum. The most exciting component however, was the grand finale of Music Matters- a series of live entertainment for the people. Music Matters Live with HP featured over 40 great bands and artists from 18 countries in several bars, clubs and Fountain Square all over Singapore’s bustling nightspot, Clarke Quay from May 26th to 28th.
As the Music Matters and Digital Matters forums were only open to invited industry participants, the report will cover the public Music Matters Live with HP event, the exciting concluding festival of Music Matters which I had the privilege to be a part of.
Concept of Music Matters 2011
While not the entire city had been aware of its debut arrival in Singapore, Music Matters Live with HP could be categorised as a major event that successfully attracted significant visitor numbers, media coverage and economic benefits for Singapore.
Music Matters Live with HP (a collaboration with Hewlett-Packard) was a public, short term, regional and entertainment and arts event. The music festival’s primary target audience is young music aficionados in Asia but not specific to the group, as the ultimate aim is to reach out to all who are passionate about discovering fresh music and sounds. Sticking by that goal, its series of live shows were held at Singapore’s riverside festival village dedicated to good times, Clarke Quay, with different acts playing simultaneously at seven different locations so music fans could hop from one sound to another. The festival is free-of-charge to promote Music Matters’ self-titled message and expose new bands to the diverse audience here. Clarke Quay was just the ideal choice for that concept owing to the perfect mixture of expatriates, tourists and locals who have become an essential constituent of the bustling riverside nightlife. The event can be considered culturally educational since it advocates the importance of music of all genres and musical discovery through showcases of over 40 up-and-coming bands from as far and wide as Mongolia, China, South Korea, Australia, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Germany, France, Ireland and Denmark. What makes this little night music festival quite different and unique from other music events held here is that its concept utilises several bars and clubs as well as a central stage in Clarke Quay to deliver shows in a much more intimate and rewarding context. As the lineup consists of relatively prevailing bands which may not be well-known here, an aim was to create an amiable atmosphere with audiences without cordons so at the end of the day, they had the chance to meet their new favourite bands and the bands could meet their new fans. A significant success factor of the event was that many influential partners were involved including 35 sponsors like Converse and 20 official media partners such as MTV Asia and IndoChine.
Music Matters Live with HP had brought about impacts of tourism revenue from the bands and participants, created a positive image of Singapore as a culturally unique and vibrant city, business opportunities which exhibited our hosting expertise, broadened the people’s cultural horizon, exposing them to new and challenging people, and showcased Singapore's environment to our global guests.
The Environment and Venue
Strengths
Although at first glance Clarke Quay might not seem like the most ideal place to stage a music festival, Music Matters Live with HP’s site plan had innovatively transformed it into the opposite by maximising the use of the different themed bars and smaller gig spaces. The small festival took place in most of the bars in Clarke Quay: Arena, FC IndoChine, Luna, Se7en 1nch, Yello Jello, Beer Market and The Main Stage in Fountain Square.
The Jezabels at Se7en 1nch
Noughts and Exes at Se7en 1nch (Credits to Noughts and Exes)
Most bars were free of an age-limit and for all without a charge during the event. Bars were an advantageous choice as they naturally allowed for intimate settings to enjoy live entertainment. At the same time, performers were not restricted to enjoy food and beverages at venues while interacting with fans in a laid-back atmosphere. As one strolls through Clarke Quay, you could spot recognisable artists hanging out by bars and generally having a good time. The bands and crew moved from venue to venue with their equipment with much ease. There was no problem of over-crowding as bands played at different bars and timings. The central main stage was suitably sized for both an intimate and louder setting from the bars and every bar or restaurant surrounding it were subjected to exciting performances all night.
My favourite band of the night, Evaline from the USA at The Main Stage
Weaknesses
Some bars had started to chase spectators away if they did not buy a drink while other bars were fine with people standing around without a drink since after all, they were putting on free admission shows. To a certain extent, this problem is out of the hands of the event’s management but it is a potential problem that could be looked into for future events.
Programming
Programming
Strengths
The programming of the festival excellently complemented the venues. Acts were playing 30 minute to one hour shows simultaneously at the different locations around Central Fountain Square from 7 PM to as late as 1 AM. A band would play a 30/40/60 minute set at a venue and move on to play at another venue afterwards and this continued through the night. As they were working with smaller gig venues and not big arenas, it was important that the shows were not too long to keep the excitement flowing. This gave each act equal and ample opportunity to play in different environments, bars and on the big main stage to a variety of audiences on all three days. Also, acts of a similar genre were refrained from being listed on the same day or together and were evenly spread out, e.g. an electro band followed by a rock band followed by an R&B soul band. Each performer was given adequate time for sound checks and the schedule was followed quite promptly.
The full programme is still available here:
Weaknesses
Having said that, I did not get enough of the short sets from certain bands and felt like they were over in a flash. The set times for all the bands were unequally distributed, some of them played as short as 20 minute sets while most would get a longer 45 minute to 1 hour sets and the band themselves felt that this had limited their performance. The genre of bands were evenly spread out but the number of bands allocated to each bar were not quite i.e. certain bars had only two to three bands playing in their venue on some nights while some had up to seven performances, thereby having the ability to attract more customers.
Manpower and Logistics
Strengths
All venues were well managed and there were no risks of overcrowding. Since it was a free roaming event, ushers were not required. The stage and technical crews were sufficiently supplied for the bands and displayed much helpfulness in their aid. Two to three cameramen were employed in each venue for the press and media.
Weaknesses
There were no apparent manpower hindrances but a handful of technical crises. Sound checks in between sets were fairly messy and took some time despite the short set times. In addition, the sound equipment was far from top notch and visibly frustrated some musicians, a common sight I have observed at concerts here. To cite a specific example, during one band’s sound check, the electrical transformer device the venue provided kept shorting out. While tuning guitars, getting the in-ear monitors and guitar pedal boards set up, the power kept dropping out and making a screeching noise. Their computer was having an issue connecting to the keyboard and it took about twelve restarts before they could synch up. The band was noticeably displeased after they finally managed to get everything working. I managed to speak to the band after the show and they lightheartedly commented that the drums the venue supplied had amounted to a toy kit but it was fine as everyone working there was really helpful. Apparently, the drummer had to play the whole show holding the drums up with his knees and the drum seat would not stay locked at its top position so as each song progressed, he would be dipping lower and lower behind the kit. Logistically wise, the quality of equipment provided was the biggest hindrance and that is the most critical aspect of a music festival.
Products and Services
Strengths
To accompany its events, Music Matters cleverly created a well-designed Apple iPhone application that was made available free to all. It included the full programme schedule of the festival, biographies of all the bands on the line-up, free streaming of music from the bands, a wall for users to interact, up-to-date news, fan uploaded and official photos, videos, locations, synched ‘tweets’ from Twitter about Music Matters and so on.
It was of great use when I was wandering around the festival site deciding on which bands to check out at the different venues. The app which was made in time specially for the event was more well-designed than most apps I have seen and covered every element of Music Matters. It was extremely interactive for users and my favourite part of it was that I could stream songs from all performers with much ease.
In numbers, the dedicated event app attracted a total of 4,400 downloads and 100,000 hits.
Maximising Strengths and Minimising Weaknesses
First and foremost, the Music Matters team selected and transformed the perfect location to present their debut festival here, making it a major aspect of the entire event’s success. It did not yield to renting typical concert venues like the Esplanade or Fort Canning Park but has instead provided concert organisers with a new idea to stage live entertainment in an unlikely location like Clarke Quay. They had done a great job and the festival could not have been carried out better.
Secondly, the scheduling of performances had effortlessly worked with the allocation of performances at the various venues even though there were so many performers travelling from place to place. However, this could be easily improved by setting a standard 45-50 minutes
set time for each band because they felt that the short 20 minute set was one of the few factors limiting an otherwise ideal festival. The bands could also be more evenly distributed for each venue on each night to bring equal entertainment and crowd to every venue.
Thirdly, Music Matters Live with HP’s primary drawback was its technical difficulties. This is a frequently occurring problem for live concerts I have observed here and there needs to be more effort put into eliminating this crisis which is negatively affecting artists’ attitudes towards Singapore as well as their delivery of their performance. The equipment provided was of moderate quality and had caused apparent glitches. This was the weakness that was limiting an albeit small but flawless music festival from happening.
set time for each band because they felt that the short 20 minute set was one of the few factors limiting an otherwise ideal festival. The bands could also be more evenly distributed for each venue on each night to bring equal entertainment and crowd to every venue.
Thirdly, Music Matters Live with HP’s primary drawback was its technical difficulties. This is a frequently occurring problem for live concerts I have observed here and there needs to be more effort put into eliminating this crisis which is negatively affecting artists’ attitudes towards Singapore as well as their delivery of their performance. The equipment provided was of moderate quality and had caused apparent glitches. This was the weakness that was limiting an albeit small but flawless music festival from happening.
Another major weakness of the event is its lack of marketing to the masses. A Facebook and Twitter page were created to raise awareness but it was a relatively ‘hush hush’ event that many were not aware of. The iPhone application was a fantastic online marketing tool but it did not act as a channel of informing people about Music Matters. Since the Singapore Tourism Board was one of its partners, the board should have done more advertising and publicity on its part. Other partners like the bars involved could have also helped out with marketing at the festival’s venues. With Music Matters and its range of partners increasing marketing efforts and focusing them on the Internet and social networking sites, the event could have potentially been a bigger hit than it already was.
Future Challenges and Conclusion
First and foremost, as an avid concert-goer, I felt that all at Music Matters Live with HP had executed a wonderful job in spreading the message of reminding one and all that good music matters in all our lives. I am hoping that this awesome little festival will return to our shores next year and that it might become a customary festival here in time to come. If that does happen, it will have to compete against the likes of popular free music fests like Baybeats but I feel that Music Matters offers a far wider and remarkable plethora of genres. When such a music festival has the capability to introduce to music fans here promising new bands who are a showcase of their country’s latest treasures, there is definitely a place and sustainability for it to be staged in the long run here. Opportunities to expand it look bright; the possibility of bringing in bigger bands and charging an admission fee would be a feasible idea. On its debut arrival in Singapore, minor mistakes were inevitably made but they can easily be rectified in future. In immeasurable terms, homegrown bands and aspiring artists had benefited from the rare experience of meeting successful counterparts from literally all over the world. Such festivals like these are examples that will help Singapore move one step closer to attaining the status as the event and entertainment capital of Asia.
The people of Singapore had a terrific time, I discovered the best new rock band I had heard all year and the bands made it clear they had a uniquely rocking time. Music Matters 2011 had provided the proper impetus for the Singapore music scene to move on to the next level.
With FranKo, UK
With Evaline
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
Wonderful information. Thank you soooo much!
ReplyDeleteEvent Management Company In Singapore
The event management companies in bangalore
ReplyDelete