The beat goes on
The powerhouse behind PNG music
When Raymond Chin, the managing director of the CHM Group, first delved into the music industry as a hobby as a bass guitarist in 1972, he didn’t realise it would become a massive business for him.
By 1978, he had started CHM Supersound, PNG’s first recording studio.
“It was a small four-track studio and we started recording (PNG musicians),” he says.
“All the groups within the Central region (including the Paramana Strangers) were under my record label. It started to evolve in time, and it was really interesting seeing the music being created and becoming big hits.
“We started recording artists in every province from Central, Gulf, Madang, Sepik, Rabaul and the Highlands.”
At the same time, Chin had an electronics wholesale and retail operation, when he acquired the distributorship for the National brand from Matsushita in 1984.
“It developed into Panasonic and it became a massive business for us,” he says. “That (Panasonic) was the hardware (radio cassette players) and the music was the software (cassette tapes).
The CHM Group now has five divisions: retail electronics, with six outlets; a commercial division that operates as a distributor and agent for consumer electronic, photo digital printing and home products; property leasing; energy technology/air conditioning; and the music recording label and a radio station.
The history of CHM is one of innovation, according to Chin. He says in 1983, when local radio stations were refusing to play PNG music, he set up a PNG Top 20 and paid the stations to play it.
In 1984, he says, he started a music TV show for PNG under the name Pepsi Fizz. “It was so popular; it was huge. When Pepsi left, that program evolved into CHM
Supersound, which ran for about 20 years and was rated in the top three programs on MTV.”
In 1993, says Chin, he hosted PNG’s first open-air concert for the Red Cross at the Sir John Guise Stadium for about 50,000 people. “The concerts packed the stadium to full capacity.”
In 1995, the company began exporting PNG-made radio music programs to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Thursday Island and Australia ( Townsville and Cairns).
In 1996 and 1997 it launched PNG’s first music internet website (cmhsupersound. com) and hosted the first South Pacific music festival in Port Moresby, bringing artists from all over the region, including Fiji, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Vanuatu and Samoa. In 2004 CHM acquired Pacific Gold Studio, the other big recording studio in Port Moresby.
By 2008 conditions in the music industry had worsened, however.
“The way we did business 30 years ago worked very well for those years, but technology has changed the way we do business. The music industry was suffering, and declining very fast due to rampant piracy through the China trade stores who were also selling audio products using SD and USB drives.
“We could feel it, seeing our sales dropping very rapidly each year.
“I brought in some copyright lawyers and did a workshop with the public and with some of the government sector, to educate them on copyright and what they could do. But not a lot of people understood copyright at this stage. Even the lawyers didn’t understand it.
“We really had a hard time. I was watching the music business nosedive and there was nothing I could do. But I thought I’d have a last try: find out what was the best way to keep the music industry going.”
Chin started a radio station, 99.5 Rait FM (after the current slang, Right man), in the Central Province. It plays 100 per cent Papua New Guinean and South Pacific music. It forced all the other radio stations to play PNG music.
“We were the only station to create music as well as play it. We don’t borrow from other studios or people, we create our own hits and share the music with other stations.”
Chin is now also working with other Pacific producers to create international hits.
He believes it is an exciting era in the music industry. “We have really exciting plans on the move this year for what I will call a new super highway built for PNG music; a new platform that will cover not only Papua New Guinea, but the whole world.
“We’ll be working with big international technology companies. It will change the way PNG music will reach the people. We are also working with all the mobile phone companies.
“We have to build a totally new platform to drive PNG music to a higher level.”
Chin says he will announce the details of the platform soon.
Braden Chin, the son of Raymond, is the music division manager driving the new development. “It is important to keep the industry going and to continue to support and promote the unique sounds of PNG.”
We have really exciting plans for what I will call a new super highway built for PNG music; a new platform that will cover not only Papua New Guinea, but the whole world.