Songs at your fingertips

FOR YEARS, people have been listening to their favourite music in various ways, from vinyl records that dominated most of the 20th century, to other formats such as cartridges (8-track), compact cassettes, and finally compact discs (CDs).
However, in the 1980s and 90s, the music industry faced its biggest problem – piracy – when cassettes and CDs were easily copied, and bootleg copies were preferred by the masses as originals were too expensive.
However, all that changed with the emergence of music download services, which offered customers unlimited music access.
It began with Napster (which operated from 1999-2002) which the Recording Industry Association of America sued for encouraging an unrestrained, illegal online bazaar where music piracy ran rampant.
All this was before music streaming became legal, allowing people to listen to a large number of songs from artistes around the world – all for an affordable subscription.
While that might work great for established international artistes such as Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, one wonders how our local artistes fare in this climate.
We asked Darren Choy (right), Warner Music Malaysia's managing director, for his insight into the changing landscape of the local music industry.
How have music streaming services such as Spotify affected the local music business?
"It has affected the music industry very positively, and it has paved the way for a new way of music consumption.
"As we move rapidly into the digital world, the decline of music consumption [through] physical format is rapidly at its tail end – compounded by the closure of many music retailers, plus the ease of accessing music on [consumers'] phones [or] any digital device.

"The streaming service is relatively new to us here locally – around three years – and it's still in its infancy stage.

"Much has to be done to also encourage such a method of music enjoyment. Consumers are even given the option of getting 'freemium' services versus a 'premium' subscription.
"As smartphone and broadband penetration increase, it will also catapult the habit of music streaming consumption.
"Additionally, the affordability of phone data will also help increase the consumption/streaming.
"A streaming service subscription is only [around] RM14.90 per month – even cheaper than one's lunch. Hopefully, consumers and fans alike will find RM14.90 affordable."
What are album (CD) sales like now? We see fewer and fewer stores selling them.
"CD sales [only make up] about 10% to 15% of total sales.
"The closure of retail shops due to high operational costs, changes in music consumption habits, ease of access to music [online] and its affordability, and the current trend of music releases being singles, have all compounded this issue of declining CD sales.
"Soon, cars will not even have CD players built-in, and when that happens with most car manufacturers, the demise of CDs will be inevitable."
How will the move to streaming services affect the local music industry as a whole?
"As I mentioned earlier – positively. Consumers are given many choices of streaming services, it's cheap, and consumers have access to millions of songs.
"It's now up to the consumers to embrace this new format of 'music rental' model.
"A great example on how well streaming services have been accepted is in Sweden, where 60% of its population are paid subscribers of Spotify.
"In Malaysia, we are only at around 300,000 [of paid subscribers] compared to close to 850,000 of streaming users."
People talk about the return of vinyl, but is that just a passing trend?
"It is a niche and 'hipster' format – it will never be a significant format that will turn around the music business.
"Look at the penetration of record players: it is not mass marketed, and many LP purchasers don't even own a vinyl player."
What are the sales figures like for local artistes now?
"It depends … it's very subjective. Nowadays, artistes make their money from streaming, downloads, ringback tones, social media exploitation, and artiste management (shows, concerts, endorsements, brand partnerships).
"Some sell a lot and some very little, some have massive hits, while others don't sell at all."