Olran "Wanyai" Chujai was one of the busiest singers in town with a tightly packed schedule. This busy schedule led to meeting singer Nichaphat "Praewa" Chatchaipholrat, who soon after tested positive for Covid-19. Though a test confirmed that Wanyai did not contract the virus, he had to undergo a second test soon after taking a photograph with a fan who later posted online about her positive test result. Fortunately, Wanyai is still negative.
The Covid-19 pandemic not only put Wanyai at risk, but has also halted his career, like many others.
"All my performances are cancelled or postponed; but I understand the situation. The most important thing is everyone's health. I decided to not film a music video for my upcoming song because we have to work with unfamiliar people on set," Wanyai said.
Like many countries around the world, Covid-19 has taken its toll on Thailand's music industry. In an article, Bloomberg said that the music industry was one of the first to be affected by the global health crisis. This has echoed among music executives in Thailand, as live performances are the main money-makers in the country's music industry. According to a report by music streaming platform Fungjai, live performances earned 8.7 billion baht or 58.7% of the total revenue in Thailand's music industry last year. This was higher than other music-related activities such as recording and streaming.
Amid the pandemic, social distancing has become a barrier for public gatherings. Concerts such as Bangkok Fest, Kita Missing You Concert and Small Room Holiday Dance Party III have been postponed or cancelled. People in the music industry are forced to work from home, much like everyone else. Two executives from major music labels, Somrote Vasupongsotorn, managing director of GMM Media, and Thep-ard Kawin-anan, CEO of Love Is Entertainment, voiced the same concerns.
"Concerts and events were all postponed, including those with huge productions such as the '7 Xian Concert' performed by hosts from the travel show Toey Tiew Thai and Tote Bag Music Festival. This is a difficult time where all industries are earning less," said Somrote.
"Performing in pubs and events are our main incomes and they all were postponed. Our concerts have been postponed indefinitely because we can't evaluate the situation just yet. At first, we planned to have a concert by Krissada 'Noi' Sukosol Clapp, but we had to reconsider it," said Thep-ard.
Pavit Jittakorn, CEO at GMM Grammy, said last year the company's biggest revenue or around 1.4 billion baht came from artist management, 1.1 billion baht from digital music and around 520 million baht from showbiz. Although GMM Grammy's events and concerts are on hold, the company's radio programmes are still being aired.
Somrote, who is in charge of A-Time Media, which produces radio programmes, and A-Time Showbiz, which hosts concerts and events, said the staff at A-Time work remotely.
"Working with apps and online tools is a bit complicated, but our staff don't have problems handling online tools because we have used them for a while. We know what to do," stressed Somrote.
"Almost all DJs at A-Time are now running their music shows from home except for talk show DJs, who still work at our studios, but the number is being limited to two hosts for one show and they have to keep a distance from each other."
At Love Is, Thep-ard said most of the crew work from home, while music creators have online conferences for making songs and other content. Many artists have taken to performing on their social media channels for fans.
"Our artists use social media to entertain people. We are an entertainment company. We want to do our job. Most Thai people are stressed in these times. However if we can help out and make people happier even a tiny bit, we want to do it," added Thep-ard.
Somrote Vasupongsotorn, managing director at GMM Media. Photo © A-Time Media
As an artist, Olran doesn't want to stop performing. Waruntorn "Ink" Paonil feels the same. Both believe singing and streaming via their social media is a great way to heal everyone's soul and to connect with their fans.
"I realised that the sound quality and atmosphere are different from singing in front of the crowd. Reactions to performances are really different, but it can cure loneliness for fans who miss us," said Olran.
"Our main duty is to entertain people and to make them happy. I haven't sung for almost two weeks. I felt stressed after keeping up on news about the virus. When I live-stream, I feel relaxed. Live-streaming can't substitute a live performance, but it is great to exchange our thoughts and to communicate with fans. My singing could help my fans release stress and I felt released, too," said Ink.
People in the music industry have also begun raising funds from their live-streaming shows and donating proceeds to support healthcare workers and charitable organisations. A-Time Media's Green Wave Save Heroes 99 Baht Project is to buy Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) equipment for 50 hospitals nationwide. Artists from Love Is also participated in the project, along with Thep-ard who donated medical devices to hospitals.
"There is a possibility of using live-streaming as a business [model] in the future. At this moment, we don't want to make money from live-streaming because everyone faces difficulties. Our radio station Green Wave always runs social service projects. We want to do something to pay back society," Somrote said.
"We have worked on live-streaming for a while. Yet, in this situation we want to do our jobs first. More or less, we want to lighten up the atmosphere. Lots of people support our live-streams and donate to charity. If we want to make it commercial, content and production must be professional and worthwhile for viewers, but we haven't reached that point yet," added Thep-ard.
According to last year's figures from the Recording Industry Association of America, the American music industry was worth US$11.1 billion (359 billion baht). Streaming accounted for 79.5% of all music revenues, followed by physical albums (10%), digital downloads (8%) and others (2%). Though there is no specific figure about paid live-streaming concert, it has a potential to grow although Thai music audiences prefer using streaming platforms for free.
Waruntorn 'Ink' Paonil performing live on her Facebook. Photo: www.facebook.com/InkWaruntorn/
"Viewers can watch our live-streaming concerts for free through our Facebook, but we earn from sponsors who are telecommunication providers. The visual and sound quality on live-streaming concerts are fine, but the feeling and atmosphere are different from being at live shows. That's why our concert tickets had been sold out though we provided free streaming concerts. It is difficult to say if we can run a paid streaming concert because there are many streaming concerts available online. I'm not sure if Thai people will pay for it," said Somrote.
"If the impact of the pandemic continues, we may consider the possibility [of making money from streaming concerts]. We have to think of charging viewing fees because a concert has huge production costs, more than 10 million baht. We probably have to scale it down. It will be a new business, but if we work on it, we will need many additional crew -- for lighting, sound systems and so forth, which will be against the social distancing measure," Somrote concluded.
Olran 'Wanyai' Chujai released the song Gleaming Light to support health workers. Photo © Holy Fox
