SINGAPORE – Local concert and events production company Maestro Productions has staged only four events so far under its name, but its chairman believes the firm has the potential to go public in three to four years.
Mr Parthiban Murugaiyan, who is also managing director of the six-year-old firm, reckons doing so will help it “accelerate its global expansion and strengthen its brand in the global markets”.
He started the company in 2017 to bring in big-name Indian music stars with top-notch concert production for local audiences and the Indian diaspora around the world. Its debut production featured renowned Indian film composer Ilaiyaraaja at The Star Theatre in 2018.
“This is a specific niche target market; there’s huge potential for this to grow to a very big level of listing, so that’s my aim,” Mr Parthiban told The Straits Times at Ishtara Jewellery in Serangoon Road recently.
He is also chairman and managing director of the jewellery firm and splits his time 50-50 between both businesses.
While he has share market ambitions for Maestro Productions, it is not certain that the firm will list here.
Mr Parthiban said the company, which operated under the name Meshana Media until late 2020, will consider various exchanges around the world and pick one that “will best meet our needs and global objectives”.
The firm has 10 employees and three offices. The Singapore office serves the Asia-Pacific region, one in Canada deals with the North American market, and Europe is covered from Britain.
The demand is there – the proof in the pudding is in ticket sales. A March 4 concert starring wildly popular Indian music producer and singer Anirudh Ravichander at the Singapore Indoor Stadium sold all 12,000 tickets within two days.
Local fans of Indian-American singer Sid Sriram were even willing to wait out the pandemic for two frustrating years in the hope of seeing their favourite star, with 60 per cent of ticket holders for the cancelled May 2020 show holding on to their tickets despite not knowing if and when the show could be restaged.
Their faith was rewarded when the event was eventually held at The Star Theatre in November.
Mr Parthiban, 51, noted that revenue for a concert ranges from $1 million to $2 million, depending on the size of the gig, with profits ranging between 30 per cent to 50 per cent. He declined to disclose more detailed financial figures.
The company runs on a project basis with no fixed assets, and works with production partners on such aspects as stage set-up, lighting and sound.
It has certainly been an impressive performance from Maestro up to now, so it may come as a surprise that Mr Parthiban’s first foray into the concert business in 2017 did not go well. He was invited to be a silent investor of a show here and put in $200,000, but there were more sour notes than harmony. “I lost the investment money. It bothered me a lot and I had to overcome this,” he said.
“So I decided that I should... try to do all the concerts myself and see if I can succeed, and that’s when I started the company.”
This time, he was involved every step of the way, including learning about technical aspects of production such as sound, stage set-up and lighting.
This learning curve involved Mr Parthiban and his team attending concerts by Taiwanese singer Eric Chou and Singaporean artiste JJ Lin, seeing it as valuable homework. They expect to pick up more tips when they see K-pop girl group Blackpink’s concert in May.
Mr Parthiban’s two teenage daughters, aged 16 and 18, keep him “well informed” about any upcoming concerts in Singapore.
They love “all kinds of music”, he noted, including Indian, and remember “practically the entire lyrics of most new and trendy” English and Tamil songs.
“(For) the recent Billie Eilish concert, they forced me to wait online to grab the tickets at launch. Same for the Justin Bieber concert.”
While lavishly produced shows with elaborate staging and lighting effects are standard at K-pop shows, they are not necessarily the case for Indian music gigs here, and Maestro is out to jazz up that side of things.
Mr Parthiban aims to improve the overall concert experience for audiences, such as having light-up LED wristbands for concertgoers that pulse with different colours during the show, and going big on stage set-up and sound quality.
Anirudh Ravichander’s concert, for one, had a 360-degree stage – the first one used in an Indian rock concert here – and cost three times more than a normal set-up, said Mr Parthiban.
He intends to bring in Western and K-pop music acts, but for now he has five Indian concerts planned in 2023 to keep him busy – two in Britain, two in Canada and one here.
“By doing these shows, I’m able to do a little part to actually make this dream happen for many fans... (It) makes me really happy and (that’s what) makes me continue this journey.”
