Uniting music lovers around the world with Asia's best independent artists

From left to right: Performing artists Kate Miller-Heidke and BTOB

Singapore, 18 May 2012 - Music Matters Live returns for the second-year running with more than 40 bands that are set to rock festival-goers at various venues in Singapore's premier nightlife destination, Clarke Quay. For the first time, audiences outside of Singapore can join in the party via Official Broadcast Partner, YouTube, which will be broadcasting the 'live' performances to unite music lovers around the world.

Music Matters Live is the music festival component of a week-long series of conferences - Music Matters and Digital Matters - that cover all the latest topics, trends and opportunities in the digital and music world. This year's festival, which will be held over three nights from 24 - 26 May 2012, features more than 40 bands from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Festival-goers can look forward to performances by 11 Singapore independent artists and bands, including The Auditory Effect, Inch Chua, The Great Spy Experiment and more.

In addition to Singapore, festival-goers can also enjoy acts from a total of 15 countries, including a special showcase of K-Pop bands alongside Pandorum from Australia; Peter Katz from Canada; White+ from China, 9 Maps from Hong Kong;Aftermiles from Indonesia; Early Rise from Israel; BTOB from Korea; Turtlegiant from Macau; Lab the Rat from Malaysia; Midnight Youth from New Zealand; Orangegrass from Taiwan; Myra from Thailand; Gary Nock from the UK and Tara Priya from the United States, just to name a few.

For the full list of participating artists and performance times, please refer to the MML schedule.

Music Matters Live aims to showcase many of today's greatest breakthrough bands, irrespective of national and cultural differences. Access to most performances will be free, encouraging festival-goers to embark on an exciting voyage of musical discovery.

The festival is responsible for jump-starting many careers in the music industry as it also serves as a platform for music recording industry professionals from the Music Matters conference to spot and sign musical talents. For many bands and artists, the festival has helped propelled their careers and led them to perform at other music festivals around the world, including the hugely successful South By Southwest (SXSW, http://sxsw.com) held in Austin, Texas.

With the growth of live music venues and performances in Asia, coupled by the increasing sophistication and affluence of Asian economies, the festival heralds a renaissance for independent music and artists that are looking to break into the flourishing Asian music scene.

This is also the first-ever music festival in Singapore that will be beamed 'live' via YouTube to an international audience, further reinforcing music's uniting factor, now amplified with the help of digital technology.

"We are exhilarated to bring Music Matters Live back to the fantastic music fans in Singapore. We are putting on a show for the international audience this time, and I hope that the performances will not only thrill music enthusiasts around the world, this will open up doors and avenues for the performing artists we had carefully selected out of more than 100 applications this year," said Jasper Donat, Co-Founder of Branded Ltd and President of Digital and Music Matters.

Music Matters Live takes place in the following venues in Clarke Quay - The Arena, Shuffle, Forbidden City by IndoChine, Cuba Libre, China One, Crazy Elephant, Beer Market and the Main Stage at Clarke Quay Fountain Square. Performances will start nightly from 7pm onwards. For more information on Music Matters Live, please visit: http://www.allthatmatters.asia/live/2012/for the latest updates.

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For the full list of participating artists and performance times, please refer to Annex A.

About Branded Ltd.

Branded Ltd. is the organiser of Digital and Music Matters and Music Matters Live.  Branded is a leading Asian media and entertainment brand marketing agency. Branded has successfully partnered brands with a number of the world's leading entertainment attractions including: Walking with Dinosaurs, the Rolling Stones, Coco Lee, Black Eyed Peas, Jamie Cullum, We Will Rock You, James Blunt, ARTHK, Chicago the Musical and even Barney the Dinosaur.

Branded also has unique experience in the media and technology space having been the exclusive sales agent for the CASBAA Convention since 2003. Branded also created the MediaWorks event in partnership with Haymarket (the publishers of Campaign). 

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