On All that means something In Singapore, Sony Music Asia and the Middle East President Shridhar Subramaniam The rapid influence of Asia in the global music industry, emphasizes cultural diversity, location and the power of fandrer economies.
Talk to veteran music manager Ralph Simon, Subramaniam, who also serves as chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), pointed to Org’s launch of weekly charts of six Asian countries as “a fantastic effort” that offers new benchmarks to measure success.
“Throughout Asia, there is a huge amount of obvious language diversity, cultural diversity,” Subramaniam said. “It’s almost like the stratified Grand Canyon. When it goes deeper, you suddenly reveal new cultures, new colors and new material.”
Subramaniam emphasized the development of regional genres into global format, with reference to Indonesia’s folk-rotated Dangdut music. Once played in villages, the style has been reinforced by urban youths such as “hipdum”, mixing traditional rhythms with modern beats. “If you look at the Indonesian diagrams now, quite a lot during most of this year, it has been one of these sounds that has been on the lists, number one to number 10,” he noted.
Sony has invested early, launched a dedicated label and acquisition strategy around Dangdut. Subramaniam compared his path to reggaeton, which crossed Afrobeats and Punjabi music. “We see a similar thing with this,” he said.
The Philippines also cut out a niche with Pinoy Pop. Shops like SB19Modeled partly on the K-Pop system but deeply located, “billions of currents” and now expand to Japan through live trips and collaborations. “In fact, they recently landed in Japan, worked with a sister company to try to expand a live tour and collaborate with local artists,” explained Subramaniam.
Thailand’s growing importance emphasized by rising cross -border interest rates. “China is now starting to be interested in Thai Pop and Thai artists,” Subramaniam said, noted collaborations involving Korean and Japanese players as well as Chinese producers.
While global breakthroughs often start with pioneers, Subramaniam emphasized that “everything starts with success at home.” He added: “People forget that the increase in K-pop was fundamental of home fans who drove it outside Korea. It is a comprehensive effort, but they did.”
When Spotify uploaded 135,000 new songs daily, Subramaniam warned that developing artists is more difficult than ever. Strategies range from fan economies and live tour to synchronization with television, film, games and influencers. “You now have a tool kit as wide as you can do,” he said. “The challenge is to find the map and the right path for each of these artists.”
Despite fragmentation, he remains Hausse on Asia’s prospects: “Asia has his moment, not only from revenue but also a cultural point of view. About five to seven years ago we used to stand for less than 5% to 7% of the global market. Now we are up to close to 14% and 15% and could potentially get up to 20%.”
He predicted Hyper-local scenes will increasingly shape global culture through pure volume and algorithmic dominance. “It’s almost as if you are looking at the Youtube video clips. It’s crazy. It’s completely driven by Indian and Latin American actions. And then you will see it happen on other platforms,” he said.
