Announced to us yesterday, the Asian music conference Music Matters is moving, rebranding, expanding all at once.
Key points:
- after 5 years in HK, the conference will move to Singapore
- the program will expand from 2-4 days, and into areas like film, video gaming, TV and advertising
According to Justin Sweeting, a promoter and prominent figure in Hong Kong’s music scene:
It’s a blow to HK of course, though it’s easy to see the reasons why they’d move. Singapore has a more developed infrastructure, support network and a larger music-attending audience. Plus although the labels have their HQ’s in HK, the ad dollar accounts are mostly in the Lion City. I also think they needed a move to refresh and relaunch MM, and Singapore is a more fertile pot in which to grow – both musically but also in terms of the digital angle they’re focusing more on.
I’m going to miss the Hyatt buffets…
We’re going to agree with most of that, plus add a couple of thoughts of our own:
First, Singapore’s government is very eager to import all matter of culture, and a semi-cultural conference is a good step. We imagine that Singapore were simply more persuasive than Hong Kong in wanting the event.
Second, it does serve as notice to China generally – until you get your creative industries protected and sorted out, it’s not worth our time and you are going to lose us to other, more supportive countries.
So now, if you want to come to China to get your music industry fix, you’ll have to head to TransmitCHINA instead.