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Theodora Sarah Abigail · · 7 min readThis made-in-Singapore app with millions of users is democratizing music creation
These days, Kuok Meng Ru, the son of palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong, is flying high with his fast-growing startup BandLab Technologies.
The BandLab platform, which allows users to create music for free, has seen explosive growth since it was established about six years ago. This year, it has reached a new milestone: 30 million registered users.
Photo credit: BandLab
The younger Kuok is definitely not an industry outsider. In 2012, he acquired Swee Lee, a Singapore-based music retailer founded in 1946 that operates across Southeast Asia.
In 2016, Kuok’s startup made headlines by reportedly plunking down US$40 million for a 49% stake in the iconic American magazine Rolling Stone. Three years later, BandLab snapped up British publications New Musical Express (NME) and Uncut.
Even after selling the Rolling Stone shares in 2019, Kuok’s ecosystem is still thriving amid the pandemic.
Where it all began
Though Kuok has always enjoyed music, it wasn’t until he moved to the UK to attend high school that he fell in love with it.
“My friends made me listen to… Radiohead’s The Bends until I [learned to] appreciate it,” he recalls. Eventually, he read about other rock bands like Muse, and The Strokes in NME and other niche publications.
Music aficionado and entrepreneur Kuok Meng Ru / Photo credit: BandLab
When Kuok finished his studies and returned to Singapore in 2012, Swee Lee was his point of entry into the local music industry.
“That’s where I bought my first guitar,” a Fender Highway One Stratocaster, he tells Tech in Asia.
It was through Swee Lee that Kuok met his BandLab co-founder, Steve Skilling, whose product, audio mixer JamHub, was being represented by the retailer. They both agreed that the available tools for music creation were too complicated and costly for most creators.
The license for a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) – a software like FL Studio or Ableton that musicians use to record, edit, and produce audio files – can cost up to hundreds of dollars.
The explosion of the music industry
Organic growth
Built by musicians, for musicians
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The son of palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong wants to build a digital music empire.
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