ANNUAL ADDRESS BY DR EDMUND LAM
CEO & DIRECTOR / COMPASS & CHAIRMAN/ CISAC (ASIA PACIFIC)
AT COMPASS AWARDS 2009 CEREMONY
AT SWISSOTEL THE STAMFORD SINGAPORE
ON SUNDAY 17 MAY 2009
Ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening.
On behalf of the Chairman and the Board of Directors of COMPASS, I extend our warmest welcome to our distinguished guest-of-honour, RAdm(NS)Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, distinguished guests, members of the HIP alliance, COMPASS members and friends.
As per normal, I will speak shortly in Malay and Chinese on specific issues before I revert to English. The issues are different and the English translation of my speeches will be on our website.
MALAY SPEECH
Saudara dan saudari, Karyawan Muzik Melayu Singapura,
Tahun lalu adalah satu lagi tahun yang cemerlang untuk industri muzik Melayu tempatan, kita harus berbangga dengan kejayaan itu. Walaupun kedudukan ekonomi agak tidak menentu, namun kita dapati ramai karyawan muzik tempatan dimana karyanya mendapat tempat di dalam carta utama susunan lagu-lagu popular. Mereka kebanyakkanya karyawan muda yang mempunyai daya kreatif yang terserlah.
Lima tahun lalu, agak payah untuk melihat lagu-lagu tempatan di dalam senarai carta lagu-lagu popular, semuanya di dominasi oleh lagu-lagu Malaysia dan Indonesia. Tetapi hari ini karyawan muzik kita telah dapat menguasai semula kedudukan mereka di dalam carta lagu-lagu popular. Lagu yang menjadi juara dan naib juara pada keseluruhan tahun lalu di dalam “carta tiga puluh lagu paling popular tahun 2008”, adalah hasil karya artis Singapura seperti lagu “Berserah “oleh Taufik Batisah dan lagu “Seribu Kenangan” oleh Didicazli. Empat daripada lima di tangga teratas adalah lagu Singapura dan tiga belas daripada tiga puluh lagu yang tersenarai juga hasil artis Singapura. Tahniah diucapkan dan teruskan berkarya!
Dengan kejayaan sedemikian, maka “Royalties” untuk karyawan muzik Melayu Singapura akan bertambah lagi bagi tahun ketiga. Diwaktu yang sama bertambah ramai artis-artis Melayu yang menjadi ahli . Saya optimis yang muzik Melayu tempatan akan menguasai pasaran tempatan. Kita juga harus melihat ruang pasaran yang meluas melalui “digital” seperti “Muzik Bersama Nokia” dan “StarHub Mobile Service”
Banyak muzik popular hari ini datangnya dari syarikat bebas yang kecil, mereka agak kurang berkemampuan apabila berunding dengan pihak yang menyediakan ruang. COMPASS telah membuat satu keputusan untuk mempelawa syarikat-syarikat kecil ini agar bergabung untuk mengadakan perbincangan dengan pihak-pihak tertentu agar muzik Melayu tempatan akan dapat berperanan di “Pasaran Digitel”
Saya amat gembira menyatakan tentang kejayaan besar “Projek Rentak” peraduan mencipta lagu anjuran bersama radio Ria dan Warna yang disokong oleh PERKAMUS. Kami terkejut apabila kami menerima dua ratus peserta yang mengambil bahagian kerana ia nya lebih dari yang dijangka. Peringkat akhirnya mendapat sambutan yang luar biasa sebanyak seribu lima ratus penonton yang berbayar. Lagu “Novela Cinta” ciptaan Ross Revalina memenangi pertandingan tersebut dan lagu itu juga turut tersenarai di dalam carta “tiga puluh lagu paling popular tahun 2008”.
Saya ingin mengucapkan tahniah kepada PERKAMUS khususnya kepada Encik Yusnor Ef sebagai Presiden kerana telah berjaya projek Gegaran 2009, di mana peringkat akhirnya pada 14hb March dengan Yang Berhormat Menteri Undang-undang Encik K.Shanmugam sebagai tetamu kehormat, projek ini mendapat sambutan yang menggalakkan dari belia-belia Melayu.
Sebuah lagi projek PERKAMUS yang mendapat sambutan hangat ialah ceramah dan konsert “Muzik Melayu Etenik Moden” pada 20 March di Taman Warisan Melayu. Saya menyokong penuh usaha yang dijalankan itu untuk pembaruan muzik Melayu tradisional dalam era moden tanpa terjejas keaslian muzik tradisional itu. Ini akan menarik lebih ramai lagi khususnya generasi muda dalam mendekati muzik tradisional. Saya amat tertarik dengan artis-artis muda yang beraksi di dalam konsert itu. Dan amat besar maknanya apabila kita dapat membawa tokoh muzik Melayu Malaysia Pak Ngah sebagai artis jemputan.
Saya ucapkan selamat maju jaya menempuh ke tahun-tahun mendatang.
Terima kasih
Translation of Malay Speech in English
Dear Members of the Malay Music Community,
Last year was once again a good year for the Malay music industry to be proud of. Despite the poor economic conditions, we saw many local artists sang their compositions to the top local charts. These local artists are often young with dynamic and creative energy.
Five years ago, it was difficult to find a local song in the popularity charts which were dominated by Malaysian and Indonesian songs. Our Malay music professionals have successfully overturned the table. The number one and two songs for the whole of last year were local compositions sung by Singaporean artists – Berserah by Taufik Batisah and Seribu Kenangan by Didicazli. Four out of the top five are Singapore songs and 13 out of the top 20 are also local. Congratulations and a job well done!
With this kind of performance, royalties for Malay music writers will increase again – third year in a row. At the same time the number of Malay members has also continued to increase significantly. I remain optimistic that local Malay music will continue to dominate the domestic market.
There are also other areas we can look into. We should try to make available more local music through the major content providers in the digital market like Nokia Comes With Music , StarHub Mobile Services.
Many of the current popular music are often from the small independent music companies. They lack bargaining power when negotiating with the content providers. COMPASS has decided to approach these companies to form a collective group to facilitate discussion with the content providers with the aim to get more local Malay music into the digital market.
I am happy to report on the great success of “Project Rentak” – a songwriting competition – jointly organised with radio Warna and Ria, and supported by PERKAMUS. We were greatly surprised when we received more than 200 entries. The final was held at the finale concert “Rentak Singapura” in August with a full house audience of 1500 paying fans. The winning entry “Novela Cinta” composed by Ross Revalina was among the top 30 songs for year 2008.
PERKAMUS has also been very active recently. Let me congratulate PERKAMUS, especially Encik Yusnor Ef, as President, for a very successful Gegaran 2009. The final was held on 14 March with Minister for Law, Mr K Shanmugam as the Guest of Honour.The event got an overwhelming response from the Malay youths
The well-attended concert on “Modern-Traditional Malay Music” held on 20 March at the Kampong Glam Istana also met with an enthusiastic response.
I strongly support your approach of modernising traditional Malay music without compromising on its original values. This would attract interest from the younger generation. I am impressed with the young artists featured in the concert. It was also great to get Malaysian maestro, Pakngah, to be the special guest artist.
I wish everyone a good year ahead.
MANDARIN SPEECH
亲爱的会员和朋友们，
我们现在正处在严重的经济下滑和衰退时期，但是COMPASS有幸能在去年取得了相当不错的税收成绩，总收益比前年高出了8个百分点，达到了1千4百50万元。本地创作的税收不止在新加坡得到增长，在香港、台湾、马来西亚等海外地区也起了将近10个百分点。
本地歌手如林俊杰、孙燕姿和蔡健雅在华人地区继续取得亮眼的成绩。本地创作人也在这些市场受到欢迎。令人感到欣慰与骄傲的还有近期海蝶推出的歌手by2。这对年仅17岁的双胞胎姐妹放弃了学业，在许环良先生的带领下成功打入了台湾和中国市场。她们的最新作品“I Know”更登上了各大销售网的榜首位置。
众所周知，作词一直是我们在歌曲创作方面较弱的一环。有鉴于此，COMPASS与南大孔子学院在国家艺术理事会的支持下，推出了中文流行歌曲写词班。我们很高兴看到课程在推出之后，得到了非常热烈的回响。这显示了本地创作人的求知欲与自我提升的积极性。在学员的反馈与要求下，我们正在筹备开办进阶班。希望能通过这项课程，为本地乐坛发掘并引入更多写词人才。
当然，课程如此成功，最大的功臣莫过于我们的课程顾问兼导师，梁文福博士。谢谢文福。我也藉此机会恭喜文福的音乐剧《天冷就回来》演出成功。我们当中有不少人是听文福的作品长大的，音乐剧会受到大家的喜爱，证明了文福作品的影响力与持久性。
我知道有很多人非常关注中国市场。在推动版权工作方面，中国有了令人鼓舞的进展。中国国家版权局的一名要员表示，中国国务院正在拟定条例，规定电台与电视台必须为使用音乐作品缴付版权费。版权费收取标准暂定为电视每分钟2.5元（约新币5角钱）、广播每分钟0.3元（约新币6分钱）。尽管收取标准比其他亚洲国家明显较低，而我也相信在实施时必定困难重重，但总的来说，我觉得像中国拥有如此庞大市场但难以驾驭的国家来说，已是相当不错的突破了。
在本地方面，COMPASS也通过赞助协会会员参与的企划与活动来推广古典乐和合唱曲。包括了中正校友合唱团演出的《黄河大合唱》、收录了由本地著名乐手唐四重奏、林翠芳及陈慧雯弹奏的潘耀田CD作品集。
今晚，我们将颁发一个重要奖项给我们的一位好朋友，新谣运动的先驱，已故的黄元成先生。由于待会儿将以英语向他致敬，我就先在这儿以华语与大家说说我所认识的元成。
元成在三年前突然离开了我们，享年42岁。在他短暂的生命里，他选择了一条很少人会走的道路。在八十年代初期，他与两名好友组成了“水草三重唱”，成为了当时最受欢迎的新谣小组之一。他们后来又组织了海蝶音乐。现在，海蝶已发展成国际品牌，成功地把本地创作和歌手带到了中国、台湾、香港、马来西亚市场。
元成也成立了大石音乐版权公司来保护词曲创作人的权益。他在1990年被投选为COMPASS董事。在15年的任职期间，为协会鞠躬尽瘁,处处以会员的利益为前提，理智地为协会提供了许多很好的建议。元成走了，留下了妻子和儿子。值得欣慰的是，他们已勇敢地走出哀伤，现在正很充实、很实在地生活着。我相信，这也是我们永远的朋友，元成，所希望看到的。
最后，我希望大家能有自信、积极地面对这次经济危机，并成功安然地度过这段艰难的时刻。
谢谢。
Mandarin Speech in English
Dear Members and Friends,
We are in the midst of a serious recession. However we are fortunate enough to do well last year with our total income reaching $14.5 million – an increase of 8% over previous year’s. Royalty collections for local musical works have also gone up in the local market. On top of that income from overseas markets, mainly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, has also risen by almost 10%.
Our established artists, like JJ Lin, Stephanie Sun, and Tanya Chua, continue to do well in the Chinese territories. Our songwriters are also much sought after in these markets. What is heartening to note for the year is the sensational success of the new pop group – by2. They – seventeen year old identical twins, convinced by our Billy Koh to drop out of school a few years ago – are making waves in Taiwan and mainland China. Their latest hit “I Know” became No1 in some major online stores.
Mindful of the need to continue nurturing good songwriters, we recently launched a lyric writing course co-organised with Confucious Institute and supported by the National Arts Council. We are happy to report that we had an overwhelming response – an indication that our writers are willing to improve and upgrade themselves. We are planning to conduct an advanced course. All this could not have been possible without Dr Liang Wern Fook’s help as the Course Consultant. Many thanks to Wern Fook. And I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on the success of the musical “If There’re Seasons” which was based entirely on his repertoire of songs written over many years. It is a testimony to his remarkable achievements – especially the lasting impact of his songs on many of us who grew up listening to them.
On the China’s market, an encouraging development is taking place. According to an official of the National Copyright Administration of China television and radio stations will have to start paying royalties on the use of copyright music under a regulation being drafted by the State Council. The new regulation would establish a fee of 2.5 yuan (50 Singapore cents) and 0.3 yuan (6 cents) per minute for television and radio stations respectively. The rates are comparatively much lower than most Asian countries. Furthermore I predict there will be major difficulties to overcome when implementing the broadcast tariff. Nevertheless I think it is a significant breakthrough for the huge but difficult China market.
Back to Singapore, we are indeed very pleased to sponsor a number of projects involving our members in the classical and choral music category. Major events include “The Yellow River / My Homeland choir concert by Chung Cheng High School Alumni Choir involving many of our senior members, a CD compilation of works by Phoon Yew Tien featuring local musicians T’ang Quartet, Lim Shui Fang and Katryna Tan.
Tonight, we will present one of our top awards, posthumously, to our late friend, a pioneer in the Xin Yao movement, Ng Guan Seng. As the tribute later in the evening is in English, allow me to speak more on this.
He was 42 years young when he left us abruptly about three years ago. He chose the less trodden path in his career in the early eighties, forming “Straw”, with his two school pals – which later became one of the most popular Xin Yao groups in those days. Together with his buddies, they established Ocean Butterflies Production, now a successful international brand that brought local music and artists overseas to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia.
He established Touch Music Publishing to safeguard rights of music writers so that they are fairly compensated for use of their musical works. He was elected as a Director of COMPASS since 1990 and served with great commitment over a period of 15 years. Throughout his time in office, to which we are immensely indebted, he was a rock of steadiness, rationality and good counsel. He acted always for the benefit of the greater whole.
He left behind his wife and son. We are happy to know that against all odds they managed to overcome the huge sudden loss and are doing very well currently. This I believe has been the cherished hope of Guan Seng, our friend forever.
Finally, I wish everyone a successful year ahead with renewed determination to fight off the recession.
ENGLISH SPEECH
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The year 2008 was a mixed one for COMPASS. We seemed to be chugging along enjoying the unprecedented growth world wide. All of a sudden, all hell broke loose. The local economy was hit badly and our business, closely linked with the entertainment sector, was among the first to be affected.
We still managed to conclude the year 2008 with an 8% growth over previous year – at $14.3 million. Our expense-to-revenue ratio continued to improve – down to 14.8% from 16%. On top of this good performance, our members also earned more from overseas markets, about 11% more than last year’s.
We suffered no capital loss in the collapse of some financial products in Singapore. We have been conservative when investing our reserves and cash flows.
Our business environment continues to be in a state of flux as new business models are speedily implemented in the last few months.
Nokia, in an innovative collaboration with the music industry, launched the Nokia Comes with Music service in early March which offers for the first time in Singapore unlimited download of music from its online music store to consumers who purchase a Nokia mobile phone. This is followed in late April by Sony Ericsson which launched PlayNow – another buffet-style digital download service which consumers can enjoy on their computers and mobile phones. We have noted encouraging demand from consumers.
We now have a range of music retail services offered to Singaporeans from a number of service providers, from “ala carte” to “eat-all-you-can” with very affordable fees and at a “one click” convenience – anywhere, anytime. Other types of music services are in negotiation phase and coming on stream soon.
Music has become easy to acquire – as easy to acquire as free, illegal music for a vast number of consumers today – so we hope then that people will change their mindset and adapt to that. I believe Singaporeans generally, especially music lovers, want to do the right thing and they can be assured that fair compensation are indeed going back to music writers and artists. In return, they will have more inspiring and grooving music on the buffet table.
Now, on a longer-term topic ― proper preservation of the musical works created by our members.
Music is always an important component in any culture. Some academics said that music is the pure expression of sub-cultural values and beliefs. Our music, created by our members, is an important part of our heritage, and therefore needs to be properly archived for access by our future generations before it is lost.
We will be collaborating with the National Library Board (NLB) which is spearheading the establishment of Asia’s first music archive to be called ARCAsia ― a digital collection of Singapore and Asian music. I will leave the details to NLB to announce them in the near future. Our role in this project will be outlined officially in an MOU with NLB to be signed soon. There are two major tasks ahead for us:
Firstly, to loan or donate our existing and future physical music collection provided to us by our members, to NLB for digitization.
Secondly, to facilitate rights clearance with our members – that is to obtain their consent to digitalise their music and preserve them in ARCAsia. We do not expect objection from our members – but anyway there will be provisions to allow any member to opt out of this music preservation scheme. More detailed information on the scheme including the follow-up action required by each member will be available soon.
At the end of last year our family size has grown to 1100 over members, probably one of the largest arts group in Singapore. We are also likely to have one of the most diverse membership ― by age, race, language, religion, music genre (rock, classical, jazz, new age), nationality – you name it. The AWARE saga provides important lessons for organisation like us. We should never forget that unity amongst members, despite our diversity, is our core organisational strength with music being the important bridge to our differences in approach to life. We should zealously guard our prevailing culture – open, respectful, tolerant and secular. We all must abide by our Code of Conduct – which, among other things, spells out clearly the framework and the necessary mechanisms to resolve conflicts and complaints from any member in an objective and fair manner.
When I attended our in-house concert series, COMPASS Extravaganza where members performed their new compositions, I never failed to observe our members ― young and matured ― of all profiles interacting, performing and bonding on the same stage. We are in the right direction.
We may be in the worst recession ever but we have not cut down on the cost for tonight’s event. I think the recipients of tonight’s awards deserve our same respect and support. The recipients are members whose compositions topped the popularity charts and also outstanding Singaporeans within the music industry for achieving excellence in their musical field or have contributed significantly to the development of the local music industry. I would like to express our heartiest congratulations to all deserving winners and recipients.
Finally, on behalf of the membership, I would like once again thank our guest-of-honour, RAdm Lee, for his presence in gracing the occasion. Many thanks to the performers, sound and backstage crew, and of course the writers of musical works to be performed tonight, event advisor – our Director Mel Ferdinands, and our PR manager Rachel for carrying the responsibility for organising this event. So everyone just relax and enjoy your evening. Thank you.
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