When Harry Harding, 22, first uploaded his Mandarin music covers online, he never anticipated it would go viral so quickly.
“It basically started when I put some videos on the internet to show my Chinese friends,” says Harding, also known as 'Hazza' to his Chinese fans.
The novelty of a blonde-haired Queenslander singing in pitch-perfect Mandarin has helped him rack up more than 10 million hits on Youku, the Chinese version of YouTube.
His popularity has even lead to acting roles and a television presenting gig in China's Guangzhou, where he now lives.
“China is such a big country with a billion people, so even if you have 10 million hits, it's only really scratching the surface,” he tells SBS News.
Like Hazza, the Australian music industry is also looking to tap into the Asian music market. At this week's inaugural ARIA Week Masterclass, industry experts believe Asia as a whole is where the opportunities lie.
“We're really been focused on Malaysia and Singapore as the two real strongholds for us,” says Future Entertainment Director, Brett Robinson. “But we have noticed that our international line-up, and the broad appeal and diversity of our line-up has drawn people from India, Manilla and Indonesia.”
Diversity is evident on Sony Australia's books, which holds a string of Australian artists with multicultural backgrounds.
“Think of two great examples: Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy, both with Asian backgrounds,” says Gavin Parry, General Manager of Sony Digital Australia. “They're extremely busy with their careers here, but I would expect acts like that to be looking north.”
Australians are healthy music consumers with the sixth largest music market in the world. This is worth some $2 billion each year. There were 42 million attendances at live music performances last year across 4,000 venues, which in turn supported nearly 15,000 jobs.
And with TV shows like SBS's PopAsia, many believe the rise of K-Pop in Australia could help boost the local music industry, particularly through the tours of international acts.
Artists like Psy has one of the highest selling singles in Australia this year, and with more than 830 million views, its video has just become the most watched YouTube clip in history.
“I think he excited so many people when he came to this market,” says Parry.
“It wouldn't surprise me if we see more K-Pop acts come to Australia very soon.”
