(Taipei, Taiwan, July 14) – 2015 Golden Melody Festival has drawn to a successful close. The GMA Festival this year features activities including Conference, Pitching Program with curators of international music festivals, Biz Matching Center, Taiwan’s music festivals exhibition, Showcase, Golden Melody Workshop and Occupying Campus. Having gained enormous attraction and felicitations since last year, GMA set its milestone for becoming the iconic trading center for music business in Asia. Zoe Lin – GMA’s Project Leader in Taiwan Television – says, “We are thankful for the opportunity given by Ministry of Culture to curate Golden Melody Festival. We appreciate the support of Recording Industry Foundation in Taiwan (RIT), and special thanks to all our friends in music industries at home and abroad. GMA Festival succeeded not only in bridging Taiwanese and International music ecosystems, but in providing a platform to exchange and share.” Another Project Leader Denver Chang – Chairman of RIT points out, “Taiwan has been the hub for MandoPop in Asia, even in the world; this position is further reinforced. GMA now serves as an important platform for overseas players coming into MandoPop area or for Asian artists reaching out for international markets.”
Amid all happenings of 2015 Golden Melody Festival, GMA Conference, taking place from June 24 to 26, invites 22 international speakers from across four continents and 12 different countries (total 48 speakers), including Randy Jackson – Grammy-winning Best Album Producer, Steve Savoca – Head of Content at Spotify, Kaz Michjima – Director for TIMM (Tokyo International Music Market), Lihui Shen –Founder and CEO at Modern Sky Festival, James Minor – GM of SXSW, Alexander Shulgin – Founder of rASiA.com in Russia, Jonathan Serbin – Head of Asia at Billboard, Johnny Au, Editor at the AU Review and Hello Asia, Minseuk Kim – Head of Strategy Planning and fund of funds for digital content industry at NIPA, Korea, Ken Cheung – Head of Media Partnerships, Asia Pacific at Facebook. All sessions of Conference are packed by audience, with the number of participation exceeds 2,500. Having transformed into trading and matching platform in 2014, the Biz Matching Center reinforces its b2b (business to business) model this year and invites international and domestic prominent buyers and companies. 293 music-ecosystem-related companies have joined the platform, with 845 personnel registered and over 3,000 number of visits. The number of matching sessions has come near to 300.
In addition, exhibition “A Music Journey of A Thousand Kilometers” within the Biz Matching Center presents Taiwan’s major music festivals and has attracted over 2,500 visits during 3 days. Also from June 24 to 26, 6 rounds of Golden Melody Showcase take place at Neo Studio, showcasing the potential and creativity of Taiwan’s new artists. Canadian Juno-award-nominated rapper FAMOUS is also invited to perform at GMA Showcase. Nearly 2,000 visitors participated in the Showcase. The organizer has invited Grammy-winning Best Album Producer, former American Idol judge and A&R manager Randy Jackson. Randy shares his experience and observation during the Keynote Speech session “Face to face with Randy – An Avenue for Asian Artists to the International Market” held in June 25. Whereas Occupying Campus has mobilized 34 groups of artists, organized touring in over 20 colleges and universities around Taiwan and met with more than 60 thousands young scholars. 2 sessions of Golden Melody Workshop have drawn over 150 students with music-related background or experience to participate.
2015 Golden Melody Festival has not only successfully motivate new thinking within Taiwan’s music ecosystem, but encourage more exchanging and collaborating opportunities for international and domestic buyers, companies, artists and professionals. The use of social media also accomplishes substantial results: more than 42 thousands Likes on Facebook fan page (@金曲GMA) and more than 38 thousands followers on Line Official Account (@GMA).
