Country music R siam plans concert push

R Siam, the country music sub¬sidiary of RS, will make up for declining VCD and DVD sales by organising more marketing events.

Most of the company's customers are in the provinces, and their buy¬ing mood has been dampened by the sluggish economy and seasonal storms.

Soopachai Nillawan, R Siam's managing director for the music business, said yesterday that the company would focus on holding marketing events such as concerts to gain revenue from the sponsorship of partners as well as from ticket sales.

R Siam targets revenue of Bt50 million from music marketing this year and Bt100 million next year.

Music marketing now accounts for 20 per cent of its sales, but the company will try to raise that share to 30 per cent. About 60 per cent of sales come from VCDs and DVDs, with the rest from music downloads.

Several companies are unaware that R Siam has experience in organ¬ising musicmarketing events, so it will become more aggressive in pro¬moting awareness to get more spon¬sors next year, Soopachai said.

Physical sales such as music DVDs have been hurt by competition from pirate products. Political and eco¬nomic uncertainties as well as flood¬ing in the company's core upcountry markets are also sapping sales.

The country music market this year will not grow and R Siam might not meet its revenue target of Bt600 million. The company is now look¬ing at revenue of only Bt500 million, improving to Bt650 million next year, Soopachai added.