A center for musical creativity opens
Fifteen years after coming to China, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the global leader in music publishing, has launched the Sony/ATV Polaris music center inside Beijing’s Chaoyang Park.
From June 23 to 29, more than 20 singer-songwriters and music producers from around the world gathered at the music center for the Polaris International Song Camp 2018 where they brainstormed, jammed and created original music materials. At the end of the weeklong camp, 34 original songs were born.
Besides songwriting, the participants also had the opportunity to attend master classes and workshops conducted by veteran musicians from around the world, including Singaporean music producer and songwriter Lee Wei Song, Hong Kong songwriter Chan Fai-young and Beijing-based songwriter Cui Shu.
“The Polaris International music center marks a brand new and exciting start of Sony/ATV music publishing in China,” says Guy Henderson, president of international of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, who was in Beijing to announce the opening of the music center.
“We came to China 15 years ago and through these years, we have seen the evolution of the music industry in China, from the rampant piracy of the physical market to the current exploding age of music on all kinds of digital platforms.”
Henderson says the music center will be a place that attracts and nurtures young music talents.
“With different cultural backgrounds and understanding of music, these talents will create music together and will bring out a magical chemistry,” he adds.
The music center will also provide songwriters and business partners access to potential collaborations with top music technologies, professional services and cross-boundary resources, Henderson says.
Headquartered in New York, the company was set up in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Michael Jackson. Sony became the sole owner of the company in 2016.
Norwegian record producer and songwriter Anders Froen was among the musicians who attended the music camp in Beijing. The Grammy-nominated musician, who is also known as Mood Melodies, has been in the music industry for a decade and has worked with top artists such as Jessie J and Alan Walker.
“It’s really cool to have one person in the room with a rock background and another who is a pop person. Something new keeps coming out from their collaboration. Different backgrounds spark ideas that never once existed,” Froen says.
According to Hua Shan, managing director of Sony/ATV Music Publishing China, the company first launched the song camp project in 2015 in Beijing with a goal of promoting the originality of Chinese songwriters. During that event, songwriters from different parts of the world created 22 new songs in four days.
In 2016, the song camp took place in Beijing and Taipei. For 11 days, songwriters worked together for about 10 hours a day. Last year, the camp went to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
In November 2017, the time when Henderson came to Beijing, he and Hua agreed to launch the music center and open it to songwriters around the world.
“In this world, a hit song can come from anywhere. We’ve witnessed the process of the creation of new songs. The participants may be physically exhausted but they enjoy the creative process,” says Hua.