At the age of 17, guitarist and keyboardist Dominic Yuan (BBM 2024) knew he wanted to make music his life because “music has the power to move hearts and souls”. 

But he wanted to go beyond being an on-demand gig musician and music producer for hire. He wanted to make a bigger and more meaningful impact – by providing the infrastructure to help other artistes grow their passions into successful careers. 

“I had been playing music and producing for quite a few artistes and realised that while it’s easy for artistes to write music, perform, there is little structure for them to find legitimacy. It’s a career that requires a team,” said Dominic, now aged 26. 

After honing his business chops in SMU – where he participated in a four-month business incubator programme and met his mentor – the Business Management student started his music label company, PARKA, in 2022, while he was still in school. 

Today, Dominic, who graduated from SMU in 2024, runs PARKA full-time with a team of eight from a shophouse studio in Whampoa. With the vision “by youths, for youths”, it is an upcoming music label known for championing the Asian music scene by supporting Asian singer-songwriters with an indie pop edge. 

Providing support from music arrangement and production, to marketing and promotions, PARKA’s roster of rising stars include Singaporean artiste Regina Song, who was recently featured in the press for her TikTok viral hit, “the cutest pair”. 

Under PARKA's support and guidance, Regina – who first approached PARKA on her own – released her debut album "fangirl". Released in June 2024, "fangirl" has gotten over 10 million streams across streaming platforms, and has recently gone viral on TikTok with "the cutest pair" gaining 20 million views 

Another upcoming star from PARKA is Elaine, an Indonesian Chinese who is based in Singapore and has about 70,000 Tiktok followers, who is set to release her upcoming EP “lovlaine” in late November. 

Balancing Books and Business 

It can be said that PARKA was birthed in SMU.  

That was where Dominic, after meeting fellow musicians from the likes of SMU music club, SMU SoundFoundry, first developed his vision. “We all connected based on what music meant to us, and I started to realise that I wanted to develop a music label,” said Dominic, who had studied music and audio technology at the Singapore Polytechnic. Those friends ended up being the pioneer crew of PARKA.

A singer-songwriter friend at SMU became PARKA’s very first “experiment”. He said, “From releasing her song to running ads and social media posts and developing a media kit, we were able to submit our experiments in developing her as an artist for our course work. In a way, I used SMU as a testbed to try things out.” 

Right after he started PARKA, he also joined SMU’s intensive four-month incubation programme for start-ups, the Business Innovations Generator (BIG). That was where Dominic honed his pitching skills, got access to SMU’s incubation space The Greenhouse, received advice from business mentors on his strategy, and support from a community of other start-up founders. 

At BIG, I especially enjoyed meeting other student founders, where we had the shared challenges of trying to run a business while in school and had common concerns like whether to take a gap year to focus on our businesses."

A Mentor’s Pride 

For an entrepreneur, meeting the right mentor can be the difference between success and failure. For Dominic, that mentor was his lecturer, Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship Prof David Gomulya. 

On his special connection with Dominic, Prof Gomulya said, “My son plays the piano, drums and euphonium. My son is quite serious about music so I fully understand the challenges that aspiring artists feel. In that sense, the problem that Dominic was trying to solve resonates with me.” 

Over the last two years, Prof Gomulya has been a pillar of support for Dominic: From providing strategic business advice to helping Dominic to overcome mental hurdles. 

Dr Gomulya has watched PARKA grow to its success today and is justifiably proud. 

PARKA has come a long way. I used to ask Dominic how many streams we had of our Spotify artists, and from thousands we now have millions. There are also people and teams who want to work with him because he is now very embedded in the community. I think one of my proudest moments was when I attended a generic music event, and I overheard strangers next to me saying that they knew about PARKA, and that it was a good company.” 

 

Tuning to Tomorrow 

Currently, while a portion of revenue comes from corporate work that PARKA takes on – in arranging, mixing and producing music – Dominic intends to grow his artistes in their own right as well. 

He said, “We are looking to expand regionally into Southeast Asia. We currently represent one artiste in Malaysia and we hope to eventually build a regional network and hopefully we can do something for the greater good in the region.” 

PARKA’s work also supports a trend towards artist-led innovation. Dominic said, "We've heard horror stories in the past about how artists have to conform to what labels want them to do. But now there is a push for artist managers and producers who put their artists’ vision first, which is what we do. We are a safe space for artistes to dream big.” 

Hence the name PARKA, which has nothing to do with hoodies. The name of the company is a play on “Park in Asia” – Dominic envisions PARKA as a safe space where young Asian artistes can roam free and grow.

* In October 2024, Singapore Business Review named Dominic as one of 9 Singapore student entrepreneurs to watch.