{"id":18725,"date":"2026-08-15T19:35:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/laos-only-asean-country-no-collecting-society-biggest-artist-320000-spotify-listeners\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:38:10","slug":"laos-only-asean-country-no-collecting-society-biggest-artist-320000-spotify-listeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/laos-only-asean-country-no-collecting-society-biggest-artist-320000-spotify-listeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Laos Was the Only ASEAN Country With No Collecting Society in the Survey. Its Biggest Artist Has 320,000 Spotify Listeners."},"content":{"rendered":"

Laos was the only one of the ten ASEAN member states with no participating music collecting society in the WIPO-ASEAN Copyright and Related Rights Collective Management Resource Document<\/a> of October 2023, which logged 38 collective management organisations and 10 copyright offices across the region. The entry under Lao PDR is one word: “Nil.” Meanwhile the country’s most-streamed act, Gomen., sits at roughly 320,000 monthly Spotify listeners.<\/p>\n

A collective management organisation, or CMO, is the body that licenses bars, broadcasters and venues to play music, then pays songwriters and rightsholders their share.<\/p>\n

What the WIPO-ASEAN document actually says<\/h2>\n

The survey opened in June 2022 and drew responses from copyright offices in all ten member states, including the Copyright Division of the Department of Intellectual Property in Vientiane.<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight societies answered. Indonesia fielded six, Myanmar five, Malaysia four, Vietnam four including the Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright. Lao PDR fielded none.<\/p>\n

The same document separately lists societies “identified to also be existing and operating” in ASEAN. For Laos there is exactly one entry: LASCAP, representing musical works, sourced from the Lao IP department itself.<\/p>\n

One society, no survey response, no published tariff. That is the entire performance-rights rail for a country of 7.9 million people.<\/p>\n

The law exists. The plumbing does not.<\/h2>\n

Laos acceded to the Berne Convention on 14 March 2012, and its Law on Intellectual Property No. 038\/NA took effect on 15 November 2017, per KENFOX IP & Law Office<\/a>. Copyright runs 50 years after the author’s death, the Berne floor, 20 years shorter than the UK, EU or US.<\/p>\n

Registration with the Department of Intellectual Property is optional but useful as evidence in a dispute. That same department oversees CMOs, which is why its own filing showing a single music society matters.<\/p>\n

There is fresh institutional movement, just not on royalties. On 16 July 2026, Laos approved the Lao Cultural Values Promotion Association, led by Savanhkhone Razmountry, with a mandate to build a “cultural economy” and link artists, performers and cultural entrepreneurs. Tourism Laos reported on 27 July<\/a> that funding and staffing beyond the advisory structure remain unclear. Royalty collection is not in the brief.<\/p>\n

The recorded rail is already running<\/h2>\n

Spotify reached Laos in the roughly 80-market expansion announced in early 2021, covered at the time by Mixmag Asia<\/a>. Premium Individual in Laos is priced at US$3.29 a month and Student at US$1.69, among the cheapest tiers Spotify sells anywhere.<\/p>\n

The audience is there to buy it. DataReportal’s Digital 2026: Laos<\/a> counts 5.03 million internet users, 63.6 percent penetration, and 6.73 million mobile connections as of October 2025.<\/p>\n

And the artists are charting. Soundcharts<\/a> ranks Gomen. at about 320,000 monthly Spotify listeners, Thinlamphone at 203,000, Joe Ananda at 85,000 and Zamio P at 67,000.<\/p>\n

Every one of those numbers pays out as a recording royalty, per stream, through a distributor. None of it waits on a domestic society.<\/p>\n

What a Lao artist should do about the gap<\/h3>\n