Q&A With Siu Lui Shirley Choi, Founder and CEO of Happy Diamond Music Studio
Siu Lui Shirley Choi is a woman of many talents and accomplishments. In addition to being founder and CEO of Happy Diamond Music, she is an author, lyricist, app developer, and music composer. She strongly believes that what makes her successful is her commitment, dedication, and strong work ethic. She also attributes her success to a little bit of luck.
When she began training as a classical pianist at age four, Siu Lui Shirley Choi became passionate about music. She earned a diploma from the Royal School of Music in London, England. During her studies there, she also won several awards as a musician. In addition, she attended the University of San Diego, earning a degree in business and another in classical music. Through an extension program at the University of Los Angeles, she also studied music production and film scoring.
With her passion and positive attitude, Siu Lui Shirley Choi sets out to use her artistic talents to benefit the world and make a lasting impact. She has always been particularly passionate about making the world a better place and, therefore, decided to focus most of her work on educating younger generations on important topics such as global warming, climate change, and conservation. She created free apps in the form of educational books for children, encouraging them to make a difference and help save our planet.
Siu Lui Shirley Choi currently resides in Hong Kong, but also spends a lot of time in the UK.
What inspired you most to start your company, Happy Diamond Music?
As a musician and composer, I want to use my music to bring joy and happiness. There is enough negativity around the world, and I hope my music can make this world a better place. Music is a common language that evokes emotion and happiness in our lives and brains. This is why my music and lyrics are always positive and uplifting. I want my audience to feel love and inspiration when they listen to my music. The best way to reach out to people is through the internet. People from all walks of life and different parts of the world can download my apps and music for free. Thanks to the internet, we do not need any record company to promote our music.
Many years ago, I sent Disney a script with music. The story was about three kids saving the Kakamega Rainforest. I got an email with many pages of disclaimers from Disney. The content of that email was somewhat along the lines that if Disney has a similar storyline in one of their future productions, I would have no claims against them. But I did not want to give up despite this hiccup. Hence, I decided to take a “DIY” approach and developed a new app based on my Kakamega Rainforest script and music. I started looking on the internet to put a team together. Step by step, I was able to put together a team of illustrators, coders, videographers, and even mixing engineers. It wasn’t easy, especially as I knew nothing about developing apps. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun in this fulfilling and enlightening process.
The Kakamega Rainforest App reached number 10 worldwide on the iOS book chart eventually. Most importantly, I was able to do what I love most. While sharing my music and stories with people around the world, I was also able to educate young children about the importance of conservation.
What is the purpose of your apps?
I like to educate children about conservation. All the scripts and music for my apps are created by me. So far, my studio has released seven different apps. The storylines of my apps center around the concept of conservation and touch on important aspects of global warming and climate change. The Migalolo Ocean ebook is about a boy and his trusty pet cat getting turned into two dolphins by a sea fairy. Through their journey from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to Hong Kong, they learn about how coral reefs are being affected by global warming. Kakamega: The Rainforest Story touches on the importance of the rainforest as well as the themes of love, courage, and friendship. Gulangyu: The Musical Rescue takes audiences around the world with Xiao Rui and her baby dragon to learn about what we can do to stop global warming.
What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur, app developer, and composer at the same time?
Commitment, dedication, and hard work, plus a bit of luck.
As an entrepreneur, having a “vision” in what you want to do is very important. I also learned to accept failures. There may be disappointments and imperfections in life, but being able to learn from failures is extremely valuable in making us more resilient and wise. I also want to be relevant, which means I need to be constantly in touch with what is going on around the world with technology and social trends.
Having a great passion for what you do is extremely important. I love music. So, I do not mind spending hours in practicing and perfecting a simple tune. I want to reach out to the world with my music, so I spent hours researching how to develop apps – from coding to SEO, ASO, and digital marketing. I don’t see it as work. I see it as a learning curve to help me bring my music and stories to the world.
As a composer and musician, I spent many hours practicing piano from a young age. I wanted my performance to be perfect. Even as a young girl, I knew it takes dedication and passion to become a good musician and composer.
I love listening to different genres of music. It is very important to me to know what touches people’s hearts. Many of my peers do not feel comfortable stepping outside their comfort zone. Some of them refuse to learn about new technology. In my opinion, AI can never replace humans in the creative area. However, technology can help to enhance our production quality and efficiency. There are many talented people out there. When I was a film scoring student at UCLA through its extension program, I felt small because there were so many talented people in my class. However, feeling small does not mean feeling intimidated. I knew I had a niche in music, business, and marketing — this is also one of the reasons why I started developing educational apps for young children.
Streaming services like Apple music and Spotify use AI to introduce new artists. I wanted to be a participant in this digital era as well.
What do you think it takes to be successful in show business? Talent, luck, or money?
In show business, talent alone is not enough. Artists and artist management companies need to be in touch with the fans. The internet has given a platform for anyone and everyone. However, it also means that it is getting more and more difficult to stand out from the crowd unless you have a selling point and a huge fan base. For example:
Uniqueness – The artist must offer something that is rare and clicks with the crowd.
Hard work – Posting regularly and keeping in touch with fans through social media is important. On top of talent, today’s established artists, from Coldplay and Ed Sheeran to “Queen B”(Beyonce), need to take on hundreds of concerts just to be in touch with their fans. Not everyone can tour around the world, which could be very draining both mentally and physically. There are many one-hit wonders too. Some say it is good enough to just have one hit and live off its royalties forever. However, today’s artists get paid only about $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream from streaming services. Therefore, live shows have become more and more vital for artists and musicians. Creating interesting content and hit music consistently is also not as easy as people think. Staying relevant for artists nowadays must go hand in hand with live shows and social media channels.
Technology – Artist management companies (some artists produce their own shows and concerts) need to know and draw reference from data in order to determine what makes artists successful or not as successful. In short, data is not only used for economic purposes. Data is also used as a tool to analyze what makes or breaks an artist. An unknown artist in North America who struggles to fill the concert hall could be hugely popular in the east and vice versa.
With technologies increasing and improving every day, can computers replace actual composers?
Computers can draw data from music composed by Mozart or songs by The Beatles or Ed Sheeran. However, reproducing something based on past data is not the same as creating brand new music.
I once attended an exhibition where I was blown away by a female robot that gave an almost perfect performance singing one of Vivaldi’s Arias. If you were to close your eyes, it would be difficult to tell whether it was actually performed by a robot or a human. However, humans must feed the robot with instructions and commands before the performance, otherwise the robot cannot perform and execute what it is supposed to do. A robot cannot do a cadenza on its own if it has not been programmed to execute the command. I am a strong believer that a computer can only do what we ask it to do. Humans will always have an advantage because machines do not have cultures nor civilizations. Do we need computers and AI? Yes, because technology improves quality of life and helps to innovate every field from education to medicine. Nevertheless, humans will still be in charge.
How do you deal with adversity?
A big heart and a positive mindset help me to deal with adversity in life. Listening to my favorite music and doing yoga help to keep me in good spirits and balance my yin and yang. I feel grateful every day for just being alive in this wonderful world.
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