Asian music stars gather in Helsinki to compose hits

A-Pop Castle (Asian Pop Castle) is an international songwriting workshop that is being held in Helsinki with the aim of creating hits for the Asian music markets.

Taiwanese artist and songwriter Waa Wei (Sony Music Taiwan) and songwriter Alex Ni (Warner/Chappell Music Taiwan) working with Finnish writer Nisse Nybäck (Sugar House Publishing) at A-Pop Castle 2016 at Ruka, Finland.

Music Finland’s songwriting workshop A-Pop Castle will take place this year from 21 to 26 May in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The workshop serves as a co-write camp where Finnish songwriters and their representatives can collaborate with their Asian colleagues and write hits for the Asian music markets.

This year the co-write camp will be attended by 13 Finnish and 11 foreign songwriters from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sweden. The workshop in Helsinki will also be attended by Asian music publishers and representatives of record labels. These include some of the biggest Asian music industry companies, including JYP Entertainment, one of the biggest record labels in South Korea and Japanese music industry giant Avex, plus Sony Music Japan and Warner Music Taiwan.

At the co-write camp the songwriters will be divided into songwriting teams who will then work according to the wishes and guidelines of the Asian record labels.

The participants in this year’s co-write camp will have the opportunity to see the sights in Helsinki, eat out at popular restaurants, and experience the Finnish sauna and archipelago.

Participants in this year’s co-write camp include the following artists:

R-Chord (Taiwan)
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Jimin Park (Korea)
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Toyama Mirei (Japan)
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Derrick Hoh (Singapore)
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Demand in Asia for Finnish music and songwriters

Asia has long been an important market for Finnish music exports. Finnish songwriters have already contributed to the hits of EXO, Arash, A-Lin, Jolin Tsai, KAT-TUN, SHIN and Rainie Yang.

The first A-Pop Castle co-write camp in 2013 resulted in the song “Journey” performed by Taiwanese musician Jolin Tsai and subsequently used in an ad campaign for Swarovski,  the song “Somebody” that appeared on the hit album Monochrome by Lee Hyori from South Korea, and the song “Rise” that appeared on the album Tense by South Korean pop duo TVXQ.

Four songs from A-Pop Castle 2016 have also been released already: “Smiley Days” by Shionoya Sayaka (Japan), “Circus” by Minmin (Japan), “Snow” by Fox.i.e feat. Venior (Japan) and “Dope” by Hyolyn (South Korea).

Further information:
Music Finland
Katariina Sorsa
Export Manager
katariina.sorsa@musicfinland.fi
+358 (0)40 5611 150