Local creatives’ work to be showcased on public transport as part of tie-up between National Arts Council, SMRT
Music by local artists will be broadcasted to over three million daily commuters.
Works of local musicians, poets and buskers will be broadcasted on public transport as part of a new campaign to widen avenues of exposure to Singapore’s art.
The campaign was officially launched on Wednesday (Aug 30), after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Arts Council (NAC) and SMRT Trains Ltd.
This is one of the three initiatives that were announced, titled I Play SG Music. The initiative is led by Hear65, a national music movement by NAC and produced by music media company Bandwagon.
Music by local artists will be broadcasted to over three million daily commuters across 125 MRT, LRT and bus interchanges operated by SMRT in the year-long initiative.
Playlists will be refreshed quarterly to include new artists and songs, and it is curated to fit the mood for different times of the day.
The selected artists are under music labels such as Universal Music Singapore, Warner Music Singapore, Sony Music Singapore, Cross Ratio Entertainment, Where Are The Fruits and Ocean Butterflies.
Commuters will also get the chance to encounter local poetry and prose on their daily commute.
NAC and SMRT will also provide accessible platforms for buskers with disabilities to showcase their talents at various train stations across the country as part of a collaboration with Arts & Disability Singapore (ART:DIS). Further details will be announced in due time.
Local singer, Marian Carmel, is one of the artists whose music will be featured in the I Play SG Music campaign.
“(The campaign) definitely feels like a step towards the right direction, because I think that a big challenge that we have as local musicians is having the local population actually listen to our stuff,” said the 26-year-old.
“A lot of people who don’t have an affinity with the arts or music, don’t really know the kind of music and talented artists that we have in Singapore, even though we really appreciate a lot of international artists. But we have a lot of talented people in our own backyard.”
