You will soon be able to listen to music from 53 local artists at MRT stations and bus interchanges

The National Arts Council (NAC) and SMRT Trains have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to enliven spaces of commute through music, poetry, and busking. It also aims to widen avenues of exposure to Singapore’s art in public spaces.

The collaboration is anchored by the launch of a year-long “I Play SG Music” campaign led by Hear65, a national music movement by NAC and produced by music media company Bandwagon. The campaign will run for one year. 

The campaign aims to bring homegrown music closer to over three million commuters across 125 MRT, LRT stations and bus interchanges operated by SMRT for the first time, enhancing the daily experience of commuters as they make their way to spaces where they live, work and play.

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According to NAC, the campaign was inspired by its key findings in the 2021 Deep Dive Study of Singaporean Music Listeners, which revealed significant improvements in the levels of interest and perception among Singaporeans upon hearing playlists with homegrown music in them.

In working closely with local artists, music labels, and performance rights organisations (PROs), the campaign aims to champion new opportunities and exposure of our homegrown musicians amongst wider audiences. This is especially in areas where local music can be easily accessible such as in public spaces.

As part of this initiative, commuters can expect a diverse range of original Singaporean music acts, selected from artists and repertoire under music labels such as Universal Music Singapore, Warner Music Singapore, Sony Music Singapore, Cross Ratio Entertainment, Where Are the Fruits and Ocean Butterflies.

Curated by Hear65, the playlists also aim to fit the mood for different times of the day and will be refreshed quarterly to include new artists and songs.

In addition to this, NAC and SMRT Trains will also be introducing other initiatives under the MoU in order to further enhance the commuting experience for locals and visitors alike. One such initiative is where commuters can enjoy snippets of poetry and prose in trains as they go about their daily commute and be inspired by local literature.

Also in the works is a collaboration with ART:DIS Singapore, an organisation that predominantly works on creating learning and livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities. The aim of the collaboration is to provide buskers with disabilities accessible platforms to showcase their musical talents at train stations across the island.

Low Eng Teong, the CEO of NAC said that partnerships are key to unlocking more avenues for arts creation, presentation and connections in Singapore. “The support of valued stakeholders such as SMRT is a cornerstone of Our SG Arts Plan, as spaces across the island will be invigorated by the arts, transforming Singapore into an endearing home and a distinctive city that inspires,” he added.

The partnership with NAC, SMRT Trains’ President Lam Sheau Kai said, is one of the ways in which it hopes to connect communities around its public transport network through the common language of art and music. “We are happy that our spaces in the transit network can become an enabling platform for homegrown artists and buskers with disabilities to share their works with a wider audience,” he added.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information.

In order to support Our SG Arts Plan (2023-2027) and support its strategic marketing needs, it recently appointed TBWA as its creative agency in February this year. The contract will run all the way until 31 March 2026. The scope of work includes arts advocacy strategy, creative production across ATL & BTL, creative execution and evaluation, social media community management, and brand guides. 

The vision of appointing a creative agency of record is to move towards standardisation of quality across all NAC projects, said the council when the pitch was first called. TBWA will need to deliver strategic marketing campaigns and impactful creatives, achieve project management efficiencies with a single creative agency and increase synergies across whole of Council, with cross campaign learnings.

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