ANNUAL ADDRESS IN ENGLISH BY DR EDMUND LAM
CEO & DIRECTOR / COMPASS & DEPUTY CHAIRMAN/ CISAC (ASIA PACIFIC)
AT COMPASS AWARDS 2010 CEREMONY
HELD AT RAFFLES BALLROM, RAFFLES CITY CONVENTION CENTRE
ON SUNDAY 11TH JULY 2010
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, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport,distinguished guests, COMPASS members and friends.
First of all, it is my great pleasure to note that Mrs Lim is our first woman Guest-of-Honour in our fifteen years of history. On the same note, Mrs Lim is also the first woman to become a full Cabinet minister and was inducted to the Wall of Fame of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations in April. On behalf of our membership, I would like to convey our heartiest congratulations.
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 dan ahli COMPASS.
Pada tahun lalu saya melaporkan bahawa industri muzik Melayu Singapura telah mencapai kejayaan yang menggalakkan, dengan sukacita saya ingin sampaikan bahawa perkembangan muzik Melayu Singapura telah menunjukkan satu tanda yang positif.
Artis-artis tempatan kita dan lagu-lagu ciptaan karyawan muzik kita telah mencapai kejayaan di dalam carta tempatan, dan lebih ramai artis-artis Singapura yang menyanyikan lagu-lagu ciptaan Singapura mendapat tempat di hati peminat tempatan seperti Taufik Batisah, Hardy Mirza dan Didicazli, ini menunjukkan peminat Melayu Singapura semakin terpegun dengan lagu dan artis Singapura.
Sebagai contoh bulan December tahun lalu lima daripada lagu-lagu paling popular di carta radio adalah lagu-lagu Singapura. Terdapat bertambahnya lagu-lagu tempatan yang popular sehingga Radio Ria bersama Life Record mampu menerbitkan kompalasi album RiAHitz.sg mengandungi 20 lagu-lagu hit ungtuk tahun 2009, sekali lagi saya ucapkan tahniah dan teruskan usaha demikian.
Saya masih optimis yang lagu-lagu Melayu tempatan akan terus menguasai pasaran kita, sebagaimana nasihat yang diberi oleh Menteri Lui Tuck Yew ketika beliau berucap dalam acara pelancaran Kompalasi Album Aku Dia dan Lagu untuk meraikan pencapaian hayat Encik Yusnor Ef,” Bahawa kita harus mencuba dan berusaha untuk menembusi pasaran serantau terutama pasaran Malaysia dan Indonesia.” Ada diantara artis kita telah mula menuju ke pasaran Malaysia, seperti kumpulan Sleeq yang telah berjaya tahun lalu di Malaysia, kita melihat juga Didicazli melancarkan albumnya di Indonesia awal tahun ini berduet dengan Indonesia Idol Gisel, lagu tersebut mendapat perhatian dari sebahagian dari saluran TV Indonesia, saya berharap ramai lagi artis-artis kita mengikut jejak mereka.
Satu lagi kejayaan kita ialah Anugerah Hitz.sg pada 2 hb April yang disiarkan secara langsung melalui saluran TV Suria, ini adalah satu penghargaan kepada artis dan lagu-lagu tempatan. Acara tersebut tidak akan terlaksana tanpa pelibatan bersama antara PERKAMUS, Suria RIA,Warna dan COMPASS. Saya juga berterima kasih kepada pihak MDA yang dengan murah hati membantu sebagai penaja, yang penting acara itu telah mendapat sambutan yang luar biasa dari penonton dengan “rating” yang tinggi. Saya harap kita akan terus bekerja keras untuk mencapai lebih baik lagi.
Dengan kejayaan dua siri pertama “Projek Rentak’ paraduan mencipta lagu anjuran bersama radio Warna dan Ria dengan sokongan PERKAMUS, kita telah melancarkan siri ketiga dalam bulam May dan peringkat akhirnya akan diadakan pada akhir bulan ini.
PERKAMUS juga banyak menjalankan aktiviti-aktiviti yang bermakna, walapun Presidennya Encik Yusnor Ef diserang sakit jantung baru-baru ini, namon kegiatan PERKAMUS terus dilaksanakan, sebahagian acara pentingnya ialah Gegaran 2010 dan perlawanan bola sepak Piala Dollah Kassim untuk mengumpul dana kebajikan, perlawanan akhirnya akan di adakan pada bulan July ini.
Akhirnya dengan ikhlas saya sampaikan ucapan terima kasih kepada anda semua, marilah kita terus memandang masa depan yang lebih cemerlang.
Terima Kasih
Translation of Malay Speech
Dear Members of the Malay Music Community,
When I spoke to you all last year, I reported on the significant progress made by the Malay music industry. I am happy to declare here again that further positive developments have taken place since then.
Our local artists and compositions continue to do well in our local charts. The number one spot for most of the time were local compositions sung by Singaporean artists – Taufik Batisah, Hardy Mirza, and Didicazli. Indeed, Malay Singaporeans love their local songs and artists. A case in point – last December, the five most popular songs on the radio chart were all local songs. There were so many popular local songs that RIA together with Life Records were able to issue a compilation album, RiAHitz.sg, comprising 20 hit songs for 2009. Once again, my heartiest congratulations and keep it up!
I remain optimistic that local Malay music will continue to dominate the domestic market. But as advised by Minister Lui Tuck Yew, in his speech given at the launching of Encik Yusnor Ef ‘s album compilation “Adu Dia dan Lagu” in celebration of his lifetime achievements, that we have to try to venture into regional markets especially Malaysia and Indonesia. Some of our artists are making inroads into Malaysia. For example, Sleeq is having some success in Malaysia last year. We also see Didicazli making a successful career launch in Indonesia early this year with a duet song with Indonesian Idol, Gisel. The song is currently doing very well at some of the major Indonesian TV channels. They are the trailblazers and I would urge other artists who have done well locally to follow their footsteps.
Another milestone for the industry is the successful inaugural of the AguneraHitz.sg on 2nd April, an awards live telecast TV show to recognise the achievements of our local artists and music writers. The event could not have been possible without the unprecedented collaboration between PERKAMUS, Suria, RIA, Warna and COMPASS. I must also thank MDA for their generous funding support. Most important of all, we received overwhelming response from many Singaporeans with very high viewership ratings. I hope we can do even better next year!
With the success of the first two series of “Project Rentak” – a songwriting competition, jointly organised with radio Warna and Ria, and supported by PERKAMUS, we launched the third series in May and the final will be held
at the end of this month.
PERKAMUS also had a busy year organising many meaningful activities despite his President, Encik Yusnor Ef , having suffered from a heart ailment. Some of the major activities were Gegaran 2010 and the Charity Dollah Kassim Cup to raise funds for charity with the final match taking place also during this July.
Lastly, thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart and let us all look forward to another great year ahead.
MANDARIN SPEECH
亲爱的会员和朋友们，
我国经济在去年经历了一段萧条时期。虽然经济环境不理想，COMPASS仍取得了不错的营业额。总营业额超出了1千5百50万元，比前年高出了8.2个百分点。这要归功于数字新媒体方面的税收增长。另外，我们在香港、台湾、马来西亚等海外地区的税收也增加了将近9个百分点。
歌手方面，本地已有不少艺人在台湾及中国大陆等区域打响了知名度。我们也即将见证亚洲新巨星的诞生。我在去年的致辞中略略提到本地团体By2在台湾与中国取得不错的成绩。其实她们现在也开始在其他亚洲国家崭露头角。
BY2在不久前以她们自创的新歌“This Is Love”击败周杰伦、张学友等歌手，晋级《全球华语歌曲排行榜》的榜首位置。《全球华语歌曲排行榜》汇集了台北、香港、北京、上海、广东、新加坡及马来西亚七个地区顶尖电台的歌曲排行，是个具指标性的国际排行榜。
这的确是一个值得庆祝的好消息，但我们其实还有许多进步的空间。就以韩国为例，其实在韩国以外的国家，真正能听得懂韩语的人并不多。但语言障碍并没有阻挠韩国人在亚洲开拓市场。韩国的流行文化，主要包括韩语歌、韩剧及韩国电影，都充斥了整个亚洲市场。单单在去年，韩国流行文化的外销量就达到85亿新元。
前阵子一度盛传母语学习的重要性将被削减。这引起了坊间的热烈讨论与抗议。我并不打算在这里加入讨论。但我相信，推广本地华文歌曲是有助于推动本地年轻人使用华语。在本地，听华语歌曲及看华语电视剧和电影青少年占大部分。就如我本身和我的孩子上卡拉ok时，我只会唱60年代的英语经典老歌如“My Way”和”Yesterday”。但我的孩子却能够凭着字幕，流利地唱出林俊杰和孙燕姿的最新华语歌曲。所以，我会希望本地音乐人能继续多写一些歌曲引起年轻人的共鸣与兴趣。
我们在这方面也做了努力。协会会继续与南洋理工大学孔子学院联办华语流行歌词创作班。其实我们在两个星期前已经为我们第2及第3届初阶班，以及第1届进阶班的学员举行了结业礼。
结业礼当天，我们也特地联合新加坡报业控股，邀请到台湾知名作家兼写词人张曼娟教授来和本地的梁文福博士进行交流讲座。这个讲座带出了不少让人深思的话题。我们希望在近期内能办更多类似的活动，我相信这会提高本地的歌词素质。
最后，我祝大家在各自的创作领域里取得成功！
Translation of Chinese Speech
Dear Members and Friends.
The local economy suffered a serious recession last year. But despite the odds, we did well with our total income exceeding $15.5 million – an increase of 8.2% over previous year’s. The increase was partially helped by the growing revenues in the new digital media. Royalties from overseas markets, mainly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, has also risen by almost 9%.
While some of our established artists are doing well overseas mainly in Taiwan and mainland China, we are about to witness some mega Asian stars in the making. BY2, whom I mentioned last year for achieving unprecedented success in Taiwan and China, are now making waves in other parts of Asia too.
BY2 beats Jay Chow, Jacky Cheung and many others in the recent Global Chinese Billboard, 全球華語歌曲排行榜, with their new composition, “This is Love” to clinch the No. 1 spot. This is an international radio chart combining results from 7 top radio stations across Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Singapore and Malaysia.
This is excellent news that our local community should celebrate but there are still lots of potential going forward. Singapore may want to take note of how South Korea has been able to nurture stunning competitiveness in their pop culture over Asian markets especially their pop songs, dramas and movies – despite the obvious language handicap – practically very few people speak Korean outside Korea! Last year alone the export of Korean pop culture reached S$8.5 billion.
There was uproar within the Chinese community over their perceived concern that the importance of learning Chinese in school is being eroded. While I am not getting into this debate, I believe that our successful promotion of local Chinese songs and artists among youngsters will have a positive impact to promote the use of Chinese language among them. The majority of our youth continues to consume more and more Chinese music, dramas and films. When I visit the karaoke with my teenage children, all I could sing are evergreen English songs of the sixties like, “My Way” and “Yesterday”, but they sang with ease the latest Chinese songs by JJ and Stephanie Sun, reading lyrics off the screen.
Therefore I would continue to urge our music writers to write music that can catch the attention of our youth and also ensure that the theme and lyrics of the songs are relevant and interesting to them.
In this area, we have continued with our lyric writing courses co-organised with Confucius Institute. We had our second graduation ceremony recently on 25th June. Three groups of students graduated – beginner 2nd and 3rd intake, and advanced 1st intake.
In conjunction with the graduation ceremony, co-organised with SPH and Confucius Institute, an interesting forum by renowned Taiwanese Prof Zhang Man Juan 张曼娟 and our Dr Liang Wern Fook, was also held. The forum gave us plenty of food for thought and this is the sort of programme we would like to organise more in the near future. This effort will undoubtedly contribute to improving the standard of lyric writing among our members.
Finally, I wish everyone a successful year ahead with your intellectual creativity.
ENGLISH SPEECH
Ladies and Gentlemen
Our economy suffered its worst recession in years contracting by minus 2 percent last year. We were prepared for the worst scenario as our business is closely linked to the entertainment sector. However, against all odds, we remained resilient and instead achieved a revenue growth of more than 8% exceeding $15.5 million – a historical high.
Our expense-to-revenue ratio or operating cost continued to improve – down to 12.9% from 14.4%, comparable to the best collective management societies around the world despite our small market size.
On top of this good performance, our members also earned more from overseas markets, about 10% more than last year’s. Our local works continue to make inroads into Chinese markets – Hong Kong, Taiwan, and gradually Mainland China.
Part of the increase in last year’s revenue is attributed to New Media incomes exceeding $1.3 million – a resounding increase of 85% over the previous year. The contributing success factor is the one-stop joint licensing collaboration between COMPASS and some major and independent publishers. Many licences have been promptly concluded with music users and content providers who find the one-stop approach an efficient channel to obtain the necessary copyright licences.
We are optimistic of further growth in New Media as the digital market continues to evolve with big players making entries into the market place. Ideally, if all stakeholders collaborate to achieve an effective licensing and enforcement infrastructure the future of the digital music market is indeed very bright. We should destroy the old paradigm and old ways of doing business and look beyond what we already know. There are many opportunities out there and we still are not able to fully understand and monetize them. But the strategic approach is to ensure convenient accessibility of music by consumers and the licensing of music easy to obtain by the content providers. The song is and will continue to be the main driver of the music business, now and future, and the easier we make it for more people to access our music, the more money we will make.
Next, I would like to gently remind members that all of you have entered into a deed of assignment with COMPASS, assigning your performing rights (comprising basically the right to perform the work in public and the right to communicate the work to the public) of your past, present and future musical works to our organisation so that they can get immediate protection and compensation around the world especially for use in broadcast and cable.
Of late, it has come to our notice that a few members have entered into contracts with organizations to write songs for a flat fee and in the process surrender all their copyrights of the musical works to these organizations. Similarly, some members have participated in songwriting competitions that required participants to totally surrender their copyrights.
Members need to know that copyright to a creative work expires only seventy years after death of the author. As such, we have to exercise great caution. Many older members have realized their mistakes, in the years before COMPASS was established, by giving away whatever rights they had to organizations and commercial companies, sadly, many of which no longer exist.
We are like a union of workers to protect the interest and welfare of our members and only when we are united as one, can we effectively ensure our rights as creators are safeguarded and respected. We should not as individual, in order to clinch a contract, forgo the collective interest of our organization. It is also legally not correct to take on contracts that require you to surrender all your rights, especially when you have already assigned your performing rights to COMPASS. If anyone is in doubt, please feel free to seek our advice.
Next, I would like to briefly inform members about a recently-launched local music portal, Republic of Pop (rop.com.sg), managed by our established local music company, Music & Movement. It aims to promote local talents and music of all genres with a comprehensive one-stop music resource centre for anyone seeking information about our local music scene. I would urge members to visit the site and consider how you can leverage on the services it provides to expand your marketing network and accessibility to the public.
Our family size grew again to about 1200 members with a very diverse membership profile, but nevertheless, with enduring unity. I have very great respect for the membership and like to sincerely compliment you all for your committed support and understanding even when we are unable to meet every need and request of members. For example in the recent AGM, we had a very good turnout and got more than enough quorum before the commencement time. The agenda items were done with efficiently and professionally. When we sent our invitations for this event requiring members to use electronic RSVP we got prompt and effective results. I am also pleased to note that our successful senior members like Dr Liang Wern Fook and Billy Koh are setting aside some time from their heavy schedule to conduct programmes for us to help nurture and mentor our emerging young talents.
With the support of volunteers in our membership, we continue to play our part in community services. This year we will be supporting the Singapore Children’s Society Gala Dinner 2010 on Children’s Day with Clement Chow directing the performances of our members and writing the theme song for Singapore Children’s Society. Our Director, Jeremy Monteiro, who will be celebrating his 50th birthday, will be putting together a jazz dinner concert ‘SWINGING IN SINGAPORE’ on 30 July which is tied in to a fund-raiser with Community Chest. Some of our members, led by our senior member Moliano, are also playing in the team of our sister organisation, PERKAMUS, in the Dollah Kassim Cup to raise funds for New Hope Community Services, a VWO set up in 2004, which provides temporary shelter for displaced families, individual adults and men-in-crisis. After the preliminary rounds, the final between Suria and PERKAMUS will be held on 18 July at Yishun Stadium. There were also many other events organised by members, some of which I were not able to attend and I hereby would like to convey my sincere apologies. In summary, I am very proud of what the membership is doing and every one of you deserves a pat on the back – well done!
For the benefit of those who are attending this event for the first time, the recipients for tonight’s awards 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. The highlight of this year’s presentation is the “COMPASS Life Time Achievement Award” to honour a distinguished musician for devoting his entire life to perfecting the art of playing the violin and even at the present age of 85 years old he is still active in his performing art. We look forward to his performance tonight. At the same time, 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 to thank our guest-of-honour, Mrs Lim, for her presence in gracing the occasion. Many thanks to the performers, technical and logistic 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. And of course last but definitely not least, Darryl and Chermaine, for hosting the event. So everyone just relax and enjoy your evening. Thank you.
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