Concert 78,000 tickets, 53,000 tickets, what next?

The Beautiful Sister Concert in Ho Chi Minh City gathered artists from both seasons of the show and thousands of audiences - Photo: Producer

On the morning of April 20, the seminar "Dialogue on mechanisms and policies to promote the development of cultural industries in the music field" was held by the Copyright Office (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) in Ho Chi Minh City.

The panel discussion was chaired by Mr. Tran Hoang (Director of the Copyright Department), Mr. Nguyen Xuan Bac (Director of the Performing Arts Department) and Ms. Tran Thi Phuong Lan - Director of the Department of Culture and Arts (Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission).

There is no "big data" about Vietnamese concert audiences.

At the beginning of the discussion, Mr. Tran Hoang commented that Vietnamese music has not developed commensurate with its potential, especially the potential of young people.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan An (An Zuno) - communications director of Yeah1 Group, the organizer of the programs and concerts Anh trai vu ngan cong gai and Chi dep dap gio - said the biggest concern is finding a suitable location to organize events of about 40,000 - 50,000 people.

Producer and singer APJ, famous for the song Who takes away loneliness - Photo: MI LY

Usually in Ho Chi Minh City this location will fall in large urban areas with large vacant lots, but that would require building a completely new stage.

Mr. An said that events with 10,000 people or more in Ho Chi Minh City are a difficult problem.

Mr. Chau Le - CEO of Bamboo Artists Agency, the organizer of the Hue Symphony program in Hue - said that when a partner wanted to organize a Korean artist concert in Vietnam and asked about the location, he replied: "In Ho Chi Minh City, the team is very professional because they have done so much, but in Hanoi, the location is great because it is right next to My Dinh Stadium."

Mr. Chau Le raised the issue that ticketing systems in Vietnam are not yet connected, so there is no "big data" about the number of audiences willing to pay for music. He said: "In fact, the numbers of 78,000 tickets and 53,000 tickets announced in the media are not verified, so we lack "big data".

Without big data, it is impossible to develop the cultural industry. We need underground data, preferably the ticket sales system or all units participating in the ticket sales registration. Each ticket code sold will be linked to the state system or an inspection unit."

For example, this show performs 40 songs, how many tickets are sold... then calculate the royalties. And like that, we will calculate the number of tickets sold nationwide in a year. When we have this data, there will be a better support mechanism.

For example, if statistics show that in Vietnam there are 10 million people who have the habit of going to concerts and music nights, this data will be very meaningful to organizers.

Localities are boiling

Not only Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, many localities also want to bring big concerts and music nights back but there are still many barriers.

For example, the Hue Symphony program is produced locally, so the costs are too high when the singers and production crew have to fly back and forth, but there is no purchasing power in the market.

Director Nguyen Xuan Bac said: "Recently, many localities have wanted to organize big shows. Organizers can rest assured that the province will somehow support: electricity, water, location, visual promotion...

There are provinces that I know are ready to respond. The spirit and desire to develop the cultural industry is very strong, the provinces are ready to accompany the organizing units."

But the habit of selling tickets, buying tickets, spending money on live music experiences... in Vietnam needs to be more popular.

Mr. Pham Minh Toan - representative of Vietfest, the organizer of the first two seasons of the Ho Do International Music Festival - said that many invited international artists expressed their opinion that they do not like to perform for free but have to sell tickets, reducing their dependence on sponsors because this is very "lucky". In good economic years, sponsors are abundant, but in bad years, the organizers bear all the risks.

In Vietnam, many concerts are only held for one night, which is wasteful and takes a lot of effort to organize. At these events, the audience comes and then leaves, and does not attract a large number of tourists to come and stay for a long time in that locality.

Meanwhile, in Thailand there are music festivals that last all week, tourists come to watch concerts and have fun all week and spend a lot on tourism.

Young artists lack understanding of copyright

Music producer and singer APJ of SpaceSpeakers Group said that many young artists like him initially made music without awareness of copyright, so later lost ownership of the works they had created.

He hopes that agencies and units in the industry will train young artists in this aspect so that authors and artists are better protected.

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MI LY

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/concert-78-000-ve-53-000-ve-sau-do-con-gi-nua-20250421091241314.htm