HITZ, Malaysia’s No.1 English station is pleased to announce a 12 percent increase in local representation of music on its playlists on air, with local music available every hour of every day. In mid-2020 HITZ made a commitment to support more local music and talent. To this end the radio brand collaborated with leaders representing the local music industry to develop the Malaysian Music Panel in an effort to raise the standard for local music and talent.
This has resulted in vast and phenomenal diversification of the local talent pool featured on air, ranging from TikTok stars to home DJs – a testament to how Malaysians truly boleh (can), even as they are bench-marked against international artistes.
Priya Prabakaran, Network Content Manager, English Radio Brands, Astro Radio, said “We have come across some amazing local talent and music since this began and we remain committed to discovering more local talents and content in 2021.”
To highlight these local talents even further, HITZ also introduced multiple digital features, interview segments and music specials including the ‘Fresh Hitz Friday’ which plays new local and international music as soon as they are released, ‘Hitz Sessions’ providing an acoustic version of the hit local song, ‘Behind The Hit’ which gives fans an explanation and story behind a local song, and ‘Soundtrack of My Life’ where local artistes takeover HITZ for an hour, curating and playing their choice of songs that have inspired them.
The industry leaders serve on the panel on a rotation basis and curate a playlist of local tracks to be played on air. The local tracks are submitted to the panellists without identifying the musician so that panel’s selection remains objective and neutral. Prior to this, Malaysian artistes were featured exclusively only over an hour on weekends. Industry leaders will take turns to serve on the panel, thus ensuring a fair and diverse selection of local music on HITZ daily main playlist on-air and on the SYOK app. The role of the panel remains also to identify and develop local, promising music talents.
Aspiring local musicians looking to get their tracks produced can also send in their demo recordings to HITZ, who will select one track monthly to be pitched to labels for production. All local musicians and DJs can submit their tracks and mixes via [email protected].
