Southeast Asia’s music industry needs coordinated government support, stronger intellectual property protections and specialist investment if it is to build a global presence, entertainment executives have said.
The issue was discussed at the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Vietnam on November 3, where industry figures also pointed to the region’s fragmented markets and shortage of suitable venues as barriers to growth.
Esther Nguyen, chief executive of Vietnam-based entertainment firm POPS Worldwide, said social media had widened access to music by making it easier for artists to release and promote their work internationally.
“Social networks have really democratized music, in terms of release, promotion and marketing so that anyone anywhere in the world can consume it,” she said.
But Ms Nguyen said Southeast Asia would need a concerted effort to replicate the international success achieved by South Korea’s entertainment industry. That would include “government regulations and policies supporting IPs, legal infrastructure and frameworks, international export support, and investments and financial incentives”.
She also called for a deeper pool of investors with expertise in music and entertainment, pointing to Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo as examples of markets where financiers understand the sector.
“There needs to be a more robust investment community that are experts in entertainment and music,” Ms Nguyen said. “An understanding of the industry really helps it to grow as well.”
Fragmented markets and investment challenges
Sujey Subramanian, Asia-Pacific head of asset manager ICG, said the region’s markets were difficult to consolidate into investments large enough to attract major institutional capital.
“While I have personally invested in certain entertainment assets, including large theme parks and music streaming platforms, I think the biggest challenge is the fragmentation in Southeast Asia,” she said.
Ms Subramanian said ICG’s typical minimum equity investment was 50 million dollars, adding: “It’s just hard to find assets of scale in the region.”
Kenny Ong, Sony Music’s managing director for Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, said Southeast Asian countries could also learn from the way South Korea built demand for its wider culture before K-pop became a global force.
“The first thing that was exported from Korea was K-culture. We’re talking about K-dramas and food, and then K-pop came up on the back of that,” he said.
“For Vietnam and any other Southeast Asian countries, we can’t just push content, but [also] have to create demand for the culture.”
Music-related merchandise and live events were identified as additional sources of income for artists. Mr Ong said sales of CDs, vinyl records and box sets had grown by double digits over the past couple of years.
He also said the region needed more venues of varying sizes, including spaces for 2,000 people, mid-sized venues accommodating 4,000 to 5,000 and larger sites for major tours.
Ms Nguyen said progress was already being made in Vietnam, where the government had been targeting pirated websites and other bad actors. She also pointed to an eight-year intellectual property case that had finally been heard and produced a positive result.
“That being said, the enforcement and interpretation of IP laws still needs some work, but at least it’s going in the right direction,” she said.
