In early June a conference was held locally called musicmatters offering insights, an excuse for a 5 star jolly, and comment into the current music scene. It was fascinating to listen to those who ‘got it’. The digital revolution that is, and those who didn’t. To listen to Terry McBride, Avril Lavigne’s manager, about how they accepted piracy, used the internet for marketing, used Avril’s uber fans and their sites to create unique fan based and created content. Used social filtering to discover what the fans wanted, not what the record company dictated they should like – for example on a recent tour three fan designed t-shirts completely outsold those designed by the record company. This was in stark contrast to two Warner record company executives who couldn’t stop complaining about how piracy was ruining the business and that they were making no money and that the business was completely fucked. Their attitude and old style business concepts, typical of many in the music and film industry, was also shown to be firmly out of touch by an executive from the computer gaming industry who said that by changing their ideas and adopting new strategies the gaming industry in China had gone from a piracy ridden, zero revenue generating nightmare three years ago to a US$1.5 billion phenomena today.
It was odd as this conference followed close on the heels of a press trip to Macau to see the newly completed, privately funded, US$150million theatre built inside the Venetian, to hold the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Asia. Zaia will soft launch at the end of July and Cirque are so confident that the 1800 seats - at prices from MOP388 - MOP1288 - will sell out daily that a second permanent show is planned to open at the Four Seasons Macau in 2009. What a stark contrast to locally, where the government has been talking and talking and talking about West Kowloon, Kai Tak and assorted other entertainment and cultural hubs – but the first sod has still to be turned, and lets not even contemplate our Tai Pans having the vision to think beyond flats, offices and shopping malls. Sadly Macau currently gets it, and Hong Kong doesn’t. Let’s hope that changes in the very near future.
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