The downfall of Malaysian music industry

As any other industry, there will always be a U-shaped trend, upwards and downwards. Honestly speaking, the Malaysian music industry was comfortably in the upward zone and suddenly before you know it, it is rock bottom. All you can hear now in the radio is foreign (more precisely Indonesian) song. It you have read Malcolm Gladwell's book entitled "The Tipping Point", he explains very precisely about the U-shaped trend. He explains that at a point of time, the trends of particular events or industry can shifted drastically. This point of time is called the tipping point. So, what's that got to do with the Malaysian music industry? Well, if we applied Malcolm's theory, the fall of the Malaysian music industry must starts at a tipping point. So, when exactly is that tipping point? Maybe its hard to believe this but from my personal view, the tipping point is at the start of the first debut of hit music reality tv.

Ok, let's look at facts first shall we? Akademi Fantasia first hits the airwave in 2003. In that same time also saw the emergence of Sheila on 7, the first Indonesian band that really make an impact to the Malaysian music industry. These followed by Peterpan, Dewa and so on. Interesting coincidence isn't it? Not convinced? Ok, let's look at a more serious note, the economics theory. Wahh,, fun stuff :).

Reality tv's singing competition in a positive note, has given a breath of fresh air for the Malaysian music industry. It has provide a platform to discover hidden talent among Malaysians. All of a sudden, Malaysia have a surplus of artists that Malaysian's can idolise. Mind you, one batch of Akademi Fantasia is 12 -14 students. These students who either eliminated or graduated from the akademi will and has established a fan base. This causes surplus of artist exceeding tha actual demand of the market. But, in the sametime, the Malaysian's songwriter and composer remains the same. So, what happens is the mismatch of supply and demand of artists created and songwriters available.

In economic terms, if the price of a substitute good changes, the economic value for the good in question will change in the same direction. For example, wheat bread is a close substitute for multi-grain bread. So, if the price of multi-grain bread goes up, while the price of wheat bread remains the same, some people will switch, or substitute, from multi-grain to wheat bread. Therefore, more wheat bread is demanded and its demand function shifts upward, making the area under it, the consumer surplus, greater.

Therefore, to conclude, we have now way too many artist in Malaysia but with the same amount of songwriters. This caused the market to shift and therefore creates high demand for Indonesian musics. Freaky isn't it?