[Music Monday] Actually, Music Startups In Indonesia Have Been Around For A While (Part 2)

Last week, I wrote a basic introduction of the unsung music startup in Indonesia, the content providers. This week I want to write a bit more about how they came into being and how they make money from digital music. Of course, any industry that makes tons of money is not without controversy, so I’ll also touch on that. But on the whole, the ringtone market in Indonesia actually was born from what we now call crowdsourcing – as back then it was easy to make monophonic ringtones, with your PC or even with your phone, people made and shared their creations through online forums. Then somebody had the idea to sell these homemade ringtones to others. Eventually, they started hiring people to make these ringtones themselves.

In the early 2000s, companies wanting to capitalize on the ringtone business had to use a premium 0809 number through a landline number – the same prefix used for premium sex calls – where a user would select a ringtone via the Interactive Voice Response system, and then the ringtone would be sent directly to the mobile phone. Early players were PT Katagiprima (now Iguana Technology), and Klub Mobile. Klub Mobile was notable since they were shut down by a lawsuit from the song publishers in 2003, who sued because Klub Mobile was selling their intellectual property – songs – without permission and without any royalty payments.

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[Music Monday] Sebenarnya, Startup Musik Sudah Lama Ada di Indonesia (Part 1)

Sebenarnya apakah definisi startup itu? Dan dalam konteks DailySocial, apakah startup teknologi itu? Berdasarkan Wikipedia, sebuah startup adalah, “Perusahaan atau organisasi sementara yang dirancang untuk mencari model bisnis yang dapat berkembang atau diulang”. Artikel di Wikipedia tersebut menjelaskan lebih lanjut bahwa, “Perusahaan startup memiliki berbagai macam bentuk namun istilah perusahan startup sering diasosiasikan dengan perusahaan dengan perkembangan pesat yang berorientasi teknologi. Investor umumnya lebih sering tertarik pada perusahaan baru yang dikenal oleh profil risiko/ganjaran dan skalabilitas”.

Anda bisa membaca penjelasan lengkap pada tautan di atas, namun saya pikir saya telah menuliskan kata kunci dari definisinya, dan saya pikir sebagian besar dari Anda juga akan menambahkan keterangan ‘beroperasi tidak lebih dari 3 tahun’ dari kriteria tersebut.

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[Music Monday] Actually, Music Startups In Indonesia Have Been Around For A While (Part 1)

What is a startup, actually? And in the context of DailySocial, what is a tech startup, anyway? According to Wikipedia, a startup is a “company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”. The article goes on to describe that “Startup companies can come in all forms, but the phrase “startup company” is often associated with high growth, technology oriented companies. Investors are generally most attracted to those new companies distinguished by their risk/reward profile and scalability”. You can read the whole thing on the link provided, but I think I’ve put the key definitions here. And I think most people would add “under 3 years old” to that criteria.

Now, with all the attention that tech startups have been receiving the past year, a quick look at the the Startuplokal.org Showcase shows a small smattering of music startups, some defunct, some only having a beta signup page, and some not live at all. Although I agree that it the list is less than comprehensive, it shows that at least music startups have largely gone unnoticed by the recent wave of media attention towards startups in general. If you don’t believe me, try an internet search for music startups in Indonesia, and see where that gets you.

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[Music Monday] Minggu yang Menyenangkan untuk Musik Digital!

Siapa yang bilang industri musik telah mati? Sementara Napster tinggal sejarah, namun 10 tahun ke belakang telah memperlihatkan kembalinya dunia musik digital. iTunes bisa jadi masih memegang peran dominan di penjualan musik digital, namun kini telah muncul lebih banyak inovasi serta startup yang masuk ke dunia musik digital dan memperkenalkan layanan mereka (colek Spotify).

Saya sendiri tidak bisa memutuskan untuk mengambil tema apa sebagai bahan artikel kolom rutin ini, jadi saya memutuskan untuk menyusun rangkuman pendek dari berbagai berita menarik tentang musik digital.

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[Music Monday] What An Exciting Week For Digital Music!

Who says the music industry is dead? While Napster might have spelled doom at one point in history, the past 10 years have seen an ever-accelerating comeback in the digital music space. While iTunes might still hold a dominant spot over digital music sales, more innovations and startups are breaking into the scene and making their own noise (nudge at Spotify). I literally couldn’t decide what to write about for this week’s column, so I’ve decided to do a short summary of all the interesting news around digital music.

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[Music Monday] Bagaimana Musik Digital Bisa Membantu Proses Lisensi Musik

Hari ini kami mengumumkan kolom Musik Monday, sebuah kolom baru dari DailySocial oleh Ario Tamat tentang dunia musik digital. Ario Tamat telah berkecimpung di industri musik sepanjang tahun 2000-an, ikut terlibat dalam SoundBuzz – yang kini telah tutup – dan juga di Universal Music berurusan dengan lisensi digital, distribusi serta Ringback Tone. Kolom Music Monday akan muncul tiap minggu.

Baru-baru ini, banyak orang yang membicarakan apa yang disebut “masa depan musik”, dan bagaimana industri musik dan atau para musisi bisa mendapatkan uang dari musik. Banyak fokus yang mengarah ke penawaran musik secara mobile, layanan unduh musik, serta layanan streaming musik akan menjadi “the next big thing”. Mereka pada dasarnya adalah bisnis yang berhadapan langsung dengan konsumen, di mana layanan yang ditawarkan – dan perusahaan musik yang bermitra dengan mereka – mencoba untuk memonetisasi perpustakaan musik mereka secara langsung pada konsumen pecinta musik.

Namun aspek lisensi musik tidak banyak dibicarakan dan bahkan lebih sedikit dimengerti. Komposisi musik (yang dibuat oleh komposer) atau rekaman suara musik (yang direkam dan diproduksi oleh perusahaan rekaman atau oleh musisi sendiri) dapat dilisensikan pada berbagai pihak yang memiliki kepentingan usaha untuk musik tersebut; musik yang paling dikenali untuk hal ini adalah musik untuk iklan televisi atau radio.

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[Music Monday] How Going Digital Can Help Music Licensing

Today we’re happy to announce Music Monday, a new column by Ario Tamat about the digital music scene. Ario Tamat had been in the music industry throughout the 2000s, being involved in the now defunct SoundBuzz and later Universal Music, dealing with digital licensing, distribution, as well as ringback tones. Music Monday will appear every week.

Recently, many people have been talking about the so-called “future of music’, on how the music industry and/or the musicians can make money from music. A lot of focus has gone into mobile music offerings, music download services, and the music streaming services much heralded to be the “next big thing”. They’re all basically consumer-facing businesses, where the services – and the music companies partnered with them – attempt to monetize their music library direct to the music-loving consumer.

The music licensing aspect, however, is not talked about much, and even less understood. A music composition (created by a composer) or a music sound recording (recorded and produced by a record label or the artists themselves) can be licensed out to various parties who have corporate uses for the music; the most recognizable being music for television or radio commercials.

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