The nascent local music industry is in a better business condition than before with the support of a huge gaming industry and a collective management organisation to address royalty issues. But a citywide awareness of intellectual property rights – in particular, performance rights – still needs strengthening, says Ung Kuoc Iang, a founder and president of Macau Association of Composers, Authors & Publishers (MACA).
What is the background of MACAs establishment?
In 1993/1994, I sent some demos to Hong Kong record companies and eventually Polygram signed me up as an exclusive writer. Consequently, I was signed up as a member of CASH (Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Ltd).
Around 2000 to 2003, I always travelled between Hong Kong and Macau and I heard many of my works played [without public performance licensing]. So I asked CASH about it and they said they could do nothing. Because the copyright law is different in Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China. So its hard to execute the law cross-border and you have to have a local collective management organisation (CMO) to ensure the copyright law is executed. So, with some songwriter friends, we sent a letter to the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) [to establish MACA]. In 2004, their regional director [for Asia Pacific] came over here to communicate with us on the subject.
After some five years, on 6th November 2009, MACA was officially established.
The first licence [for public performance licence] was signed in MACAs debut activity, the 23rd Macao International Music Festival.
It took us five years because CISAC had to understand if you could really be committed to the works. CISAC can, first of all, fund you to have a working space. Second, you keep their royalties and each year you help them to collect the money. So if they found you untrustworthy, they would consider it a risk. CISAC has two meetings for Asia Pacific every year. And its only after some ten meetings that they decided to have us as a trusted unit and member of the confederation.
What are the criteria you have to meet in order to be a member of CISAC?
The society has to be formed of music writers. In the beginning I had found some non-music writers that were willing to invest in this field but that was not accepted by CISAC. Later, we eventually gathered some music writers that were active in Hong Kong and here to form the society, around 20 writers in total.
For CISAC, it really took them some time to analyse the local market to see if it was mature enough [for the establishment of MACA]. As early as 2000, they had already conducted research into the subject and the conclusion they reached at the time was that Macau was not yet a mature market. That was a time before the liberalisation of the casino business. But afterwards, in 2004, they saw that music usage would increase a lot following the openings of the casinos here. So, they decided to observe for a few more years and eventually approved us as a member.
Looking back, when MACA first approached businesses here to request the collection of a tariff [for broadcasting copyrighted music in public venues], what was that like?
For the big international brands, they had long been accustomed to following the tariff and so they were the easier parties to discuss with on the subject of public performance licensing.
But for local retail units, it was more difficult to discuss the tariff issue with them. We had one local retail unit responding in a conservative fashion; whilst they said they respected us they were not willing to apply for the public performance licence and pay royalties. So, this is what I thought was the common problem CISAC had found here before in its research prior to 2003.
Does this problem exist today?
Yes, it does. Although the case Ive mentioned is rather extreme, I still felt that for some reason for Asia, except Japan and South Korea, its understanding of intellectual property is relatively weak compared to the mature markets of Europe, for instance.
You can see that the cultural and creative industry in Japan is self-sufficient and vibrant. But when you look at other territories in Asia, like Mainland China or Southeast Asia, the infringement of copyright issues is still serious and this is an important factor that affects how well the music industry can grow.
Aside from education, what can be done to enhance the awareness of intellectual property rights here?
Enhancing the penalties for violating the rights, just as the U.S.! Here, the common scenario is that most units will only be aware of the royalties issue after we have approached them.
In Macau, theres an annual adjustment in the tariff for public performance of music following the changes in the composite price index (CPI). But theres no copyright tribunal here to handle the disputes over tariff terms . . .
No, we dont have such an organ here, the existence of which, of course, we would welcome. This is an issue that weve reflected to the government before, and I think theyre aware of it. But perhaps as the issue is a complex one the government need more time to figure it out.
In MACAs experience, have there been any disputes over the tariff for public performance licensing?
Most cases are commercial units asking for a discount on the tariff, which we cannot do because were not selling music but collecting the royalties for artists. So, in some of the cases either the businesses have stopped playing the copyrighted music, or they ignore us and continue to play them without paying royalties.
You say only one of the six casino operators has yet to agree with MACA on the signing of music public performance rights licensing. Would you conclude that the casino operators here are supportive of MACA?
Yes, and for them its corporate social responsibility. Now only one casino operator is left because they have researched the local market, and they did not agree to the tariff we listed. But meanwhile, for SJM, aside from signing the public performance licensing agreement with us, they have also agreed to play songs of local artists in their venues as background music, which is a specific agreement that they have spelled out and is different from the other operators.
Five or six years is not really a long time for the casino operators to agree to signing such a licensing agreement with us because first of all, as I said, it really took us some time to prove ourselves as a valid CMO since our establishment in 2009.
Last year, the resolving of a court case [disputing public performance licensing] was really an important defining line for us. Winning the case is strong proof of our status.
So when did this case take place and can you tell us more about it?
The case took place in 2013. They had played our songs without obtaining a public performance licence. But because of a confidentiality agreement, we cannot say much about the case, including the compensation amount.
MACA currently has two ongoing lawsuits regarding the infringement of public performance rights licensing?
Yes. One of them involves a retail unit.
Can you say we now have a more established music industry in Macau?
I think were still at the infant stage when compared with other regions. But if we measure against ourselves, what we see now is that were now reaching a peak we have been participating much more in music festivals, competitions and music productions. In terms of numbers, we have around 1,000 songs produced here by local member artists. Four or five years ago, we had an addition of only about 10 songs annually; but now, its over a hundred more every year. In Hong Kong, the addition is like 500 songs per year.
But the problem remains as we only have the same handful of artists producing and performing all of these songs here.
More song productions but what about the quality of local songwriters and performers?
They have also improved, especially now that there are more learning opportunities available and that there are more diverse types of musical instruments, and more accessible tools online to teach you how to make music.
More casinos are opening and they present a good opportunity for musical development here. But looking at ourselves, at a casino which pools over 10,000 songs in its database, we have only 1,000 for them to select. The issue is how much capacity we can achieve in order to have a higher gain of the local market.
With local artists, the issue is how they can find their own style. If they just copy the K-Pop model, its not going to work out as you see in the case of Hong Kongs pop music industry which now has diminishing influence compared to a decade ago. Weve seen some local bands that have their style, and with more time and polishing they can probably stand out.
In the past few years, have more entertainment and artist management companies been established here?
Yes. These companies take jobs from both the government and private sector, like the casinos. Up to now there are about 10 entertainment and artist management agencies, with the major players Chessman Macau and 100 Plus Music.
Still, its not easy to keep an artist. For their grooming and song production costs, you have to spend like MOP80,000-MOP100,000 a month. But you only receive MOP8,000 for singing at a show and perhaps you can get three shows a month. Its not easy to sustain the [music] business here, especially with a company that doesnt have a special background [of resourceful financing].
So how would you comment on the outlook for the local music industry?
Its good. Macau doesnt have many musicians and the market is a small one, but everyone still has a chance to run his or her own business.
Business conditions are much better than before: at least now you have the support of CMO and more support from the gaming industry.
In the long term, the city is going to develop itself as an entertainment hub. And weve seen that at [Galaxy Entertainment Groups] Broadway Macau musicians from Taiwan and Thailand have been invited to play there [although] I think they can actually consider using more local artists, and in a more permanent fashion.
