By Lydia Gomez
KUALA LUMPUR: The new ruling that makes it compulsory for radio stations to play songs by local artistes or risk having their licences revoked is aimed at giving the local music industry a shot in the arm."It is to assist the local music industry which has gone from being worth RM201 million in 2005 to RM65 million now," he said yesterday.
"Instead of just playing singles from the United States and Europe, it would not hurt (radio stations) to play songs by Siti Nurhaliza, if she produces a new album."
The directive, which falls under Section 33 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988, was enforced from March 1.
Asked if radio station operators had met with him to discuss the ruling, Rais said they had yet to do so.
"If the owners of the radio stations say no, I'd like to see them," he said after the launch of a reading campaign here.
The Commercial Radio Operators Association is trying to fix a date to lay out the pros and cons of the ruling to the ministry.
Its spokesman said the association was neither agreeing nor refusing to comply with the ruling until they had discussed the matter with Rais.
"We will show how we have supported local artistes by not only playing their songs, but also organised roadshows, concerts and put together endorsement deals."
The spokesman added that the trend in the music industry, which had shifted drastically from the CD-buying culture a decade ago to simply downloading music online, had a lot to do with the drop in sales.
He said some radio stations could lose revenue by playing local music as the market was very small.
Recording Industry of Malaysia (RIM) chief executive officer Tan Ngiap Foo said sale of local and international CDs and cassettes hit an all-time low in 2008 with just RM58 million, compared with RM315 million in 1996.
Last year, sales increased to RM71 million, mainly due to the surging sale of Michael Jackson's albums.
"The sad part is that piracy and changing technology are to be blamed for this. They affect both local and international markets. Malaysians have access to many illegal downloading sites."
Tan said the latest information showed that local music was in strong demand as caller ringtones, making close to RM30 million last year.
