Asia News: Suncity Event, BTS, Sandbox Summit Global

Suncity Group, an organization that operates VIP services for guests to the Chinese territory of Macau, which has one of the largest casino industries in Asia, held a local arts and music event on Sept. 19 in Macau to help revitalize the region’s entertainment sector in the midst of the COVID crisis. The event, called “Suncity Group Rooting for Macau-SIM! Music Festival 2020,” took place at the Cotai Arena in the Venetian Macau. 

The performers consisted of “local singers, artists and dancers.” More than 200 industry people were also in attendance as organizers. The event presented 12 separate performances, which were judged by a panel of guests who awarded prizes. 

Alvin Chau, Suncity Group’s CEO and the president of the Macau Artists Association, said during the event, “2020 has been a year of difficulties. With the impact of the pandemic, performing arts and cultural industries in mainland China and Macau have been hit hard. Most of the large-scale musical performances have also been suspended.” 

With that in mind, the festival was touted as the first real large-scale musical event of the year, and according to media reports the purpose was to bring attention to the fact that the hospitality and cultural industries in the territory are determined to recover Macau’s economy. 

Suncity Group is planning more similar events in the near future, including a rock music festival featuring local bands. 

K-pop’s biggest group, BTS, is planning another large-scale online concert. The event, called Map of the Soul ON:E, will take place in two parts, the first on Oct. 10 and the second on Oct. 11. 

There will also be an offline version of the concert in South Korea with limited seating for chosen fans in line with government regulations. The concert is being staged in conjunction with a month-long “virtual exhibition” and the sale of BTS memorabilia that will be available exclusively to members of BTS’s Global Official Fanclub. 

On a much smaller scale, the South Korean entertainment agency My Music is working with the Korea Creative Content Agency to hold a series of small concerts featuring indie rock groups who have been idle since the COVID crisis began. The Minimal Life Festival, as it’s being called, started Sept. 18 and will last 25 days. It will take place in various small halls located in the Hongdae district of Seoul, which is considered the country’s bastion of indie music. Each concert will be limited to 50 audience members.

South Korea continues to regulate concerts and outdoor events, with most major K-Pop artists making do with online concerts. My Music told Aju Business Daily that the festival’s purpose is to help keep small venues afloat.

For many years, Japan’s music industry could rely exclusively on its homegrown market to guarantee growth because it was so large – it’s still the third biggest in the world. South Korea, of course, is much smaller, which is why its cultural industries have pushed so hard for visibility abroad. Now, apparently, in the midst of the COVID crisis, The Japan music industry has realized it will also have to be more aggressive with overseas promotion if it is to see any growth at all, at least in the near future.

This reality was discussed by Tatsuya Nomura, the president of the Federation of Music Producers Japan at Music Ally’s Sandbox Summit Global online conference on Sept. 21. 

“I think there has been a lot of self-reflection among Japanese music industry people around expanding our business worldwide,” he said, and specifically mentioned the success of BTS and other K-Pop artists. “Looking at those examples, the Japanese music industry has realized how Japanese artists have lost their global perspective over the years. With that in mind, we are now shifting our focus to how we should distribute Japanese music content overseas.”

Though physical media has always supported the Japanese music industry, sales have been declining, albeit gradually, for the past decade and more. 

With the sudden popularity of streaming, content producers see that they cannot make as much money using the old model, which relied on CD sales. And in a sense, the confluence of a focus on streaming and the advent of the COVID crisis is a good thing, Nomura says. He mentioned as an example Japanese artist Kenshi Yonezu, who made his newest album available for streaming in early August. It was the first time Yonezu, a major player, ever streamed his music. 

Nomura called it “a really big moment in Japan,” and one that could persuade more artists to consider streaming. In addition, this changed mindset has opened the door to more livestreamed concerts, which are taking place much more often right now after a slow, cautious start at the beginning of the summer.