[Music Monday] Music Labels, Make Something Simple And Put It On The Web!

As covered by DailySocial a few days ago, Touchten launched a music app in collaboration with Aquarius Musikindo, one of the ‘major independent’ labels (this is the term they use in the industry to note a large music label not affiliated with the Big Four: Sony, Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI). This move deserves applause as it shows that the music labels are willing to try out untested new waters, instead of trying to find a new medium to repeat the old business model of record music and profit by amount of sold copies.

I mean, if we’re going to move on from the issue if piracy, we might as well try something new. The increasing trend of concerts being a major income contributor for musicians has emphasized that the recorded music itself, obtained legally or illegally, is a way to sell a music experience, which in some cases in better enjoyed live.

I think if you checked each person who came to a Katy Perry concert, not all would have bought the original CD – but they definitely have paid full price to buy the concert tickets. Why? Because the concert is an irreplaceable experience, with different meaning to different people. Just like the songs themselves.

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[Music Monday] Mengapa Kita Perlu Peduli dengan Ringback Tones

Bagi sebagian orang di Indonesia, ringback tone (RBT) menjadi sebuah isu kontroversial; membuat marah banyak orang dan memisahkan industri terkait hampir dalam situasi pro – kontra. Tetapi sebelumnya, RBT booming dan menjadi tumpuan dari industri musik (masih sampai sekarang, tergantung Anda bertanya pada siapa). Dan tidak hanya industri musik, pertumbuhan dari pasar RBT menjadikan indikasi pertama bahwa Indonesia, sebagai pasar konten digital, adalah berbeda dengan negara lain dan digerakan oleh aturan yang berbeda.

Saya telah menuliskan tentang bagaimana startup di segmen musik telah ada kurang lebih sejak 6-7 tahun ke belakang, dan saya merasa tulisan ini pas sebagai bagian dari seri yang mendikusikan ringback tone (RBT). RBT menjadi populer di Korea untuk mengantikan nada dering yang membosankan ketika Anda menunggu telepon Anda diangkat, RBT (dikenal juga sebagai ‘color ringback tones’, karena nada ini menambahkan ‘warna’ pada nada sambung Anda), teknologi tersebut akhirnya diterapkan di Indonesia pada tahun 2004 ketika Indosat dan Telkomsel mulai membangun layanan RBT mereka dan menawarkannya pada publik pada tahun yang sama. Perusahaan telekomunikasi mendekati label musik untuk memelihara agar layanan ini tetap menarik; negosiasi mengambil tempat dan kesepakatan bisnis tercipta dimana akhirnya mendefinisikan model bisnis untuk RBT di seluruh industri ke depan.

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[Music Monday] Why You Should Care About Ringback Tones

For many in Indonesia, the ringback tone is somewhat of a controversial issue; drawing the ire of many, and polarizing related industries into an almost “for-and-against” situation. But not too long ago, ringbacktones were the craze of the moment and the darling of the music industry (and remains the darling of the music industry, depending on who you ask). And not only the music industry – the soaring growth of the ringbacktone market was one of the first indications that Indonesia, as a digital content market, is simply different from other countries and plays by different rules.

I have been writing about how music startups have actually been around in Indonesia for the past 6-7 years or so, and I felt it fitting to dedicate the last post in the series to discuss the ringback tone. Popularized in Korea to replace that boring connecting tone when you wait for the person on the other end to pick up your call, ringback tones (also known as ‘color ringback tones’, as they added ‘color’ to your ringback tone), the technology was imported into Indonesia in 2004 when both Indosat and Telkomsel started building their ringback tone services and offered them to the public later that year. The telecommunication companies approached the music labels to obtain attractive content for these services; negotiations took place, and business deals were agreed which were to define the business model for ringback tones across the industry.

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[Music Monday] Forgetting About Digital Piracy

It all started with a chat. I came late, so I didn’t get to see this presentation by Robin, but the blog post covers it pretty much (it’s a good read, so if you haven’t read it, read it now!). Robin basically says that the digital era is a major shift in many things and should not be viewed just as a new ‘channel’, but also a new way of thinking. Taking a different approach, so to speak. I’ve written about this several times, even here on Dailysocial, and I generally believe that the audience has changed. Not only because of things going digital, but a true paradigm shift in the industry itself. The changes happened in large part due to the digital, unlimited copying nature of the Internet, but it impacted non-Internet industries as well.

But let’s step back a bit and look what a business is. Many businesses basically take one thing, a product or a service, and try to sell it as many times as they can, with minimum effort in modifying the product. At some point the money they invested in making the product or service can be recouped and they can make a profit. The recorded music business, in essence, is not selling music, but selling the music product; i.e. CDs, cassettes, vinyls. Produce and record once, and essentially sell copies of that recording. Even music copyright is constructed around this. The payment of royalties is based on the amount of copies sold. Of course, any copy obtained without any payment of royalties, is viewed as a copyright infringement. The act itself, whether or not for commercial gain, is known as piracy.

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[Music Monday] Sebenarnya, Startup Musik Sudah Lama Ada di Indonesia (Part 2)

Minggu kemarin, saya menulis pengenalan dasar tentang startup tanpa tanda jasa, penyedia konten. Minggu ini saya akan menulis tentang bagaimana mereka muncul dan bagaimana mereka menghasilkan uang dari musik digital. Tentu saja, setiap industri yang menghasilkan banyak uang tidak terlepas dari kontroversi, jadi saya juga akan membahas hal tersebut. Tetapi secara keseluruhan, pasar nada dering di Indonesia sebenarnya hadir dari apa yang kini kita kenal dengan nama crowdsourcing – dulu cukup mudah untuk membuat nada dering monophonic, nada dering ini bisa dibuat menggunakan PC atau bahkan dengan ponsel Anda, orang dengan mudah membuat dan membagikan karya mereka melalui forum daring. Dan akhirnya seseorang memiliki ide untuk menjual nada dering tersebut pada orang lain. Akhirnya, mereka mulai merekrut pegawai untuk membuat berbagai nada dering tersebut.

Di awal tahun 2000-an, berbagai perusahaan yang ingin mengkapitalisasi bisnis nada dering harus menggunakan nomor premium 0809 lewat nomor telepon darat – nomor awal telepon yang sama yang digunakan untuk panggilan premium telepon sex – dengan proses ini pengguna yang ingin memilih nada dering harus melewati sistem Interactive Voice Response, nantinya nada dering akan dikirimkan secara langsung ke ponsel. Para pemain awal industri ini antara lain PT Katagiprima (kini bernama Iguana Technology), dan Klub Mobile. Klub Mobile perlu diberi catatan karena mereka akhirnya menutup layanannya setelah dituntut oleh penerbit lagu pada tahun 2003, tuntutan para penerbit lagu dikarenakan Klub Mobile menjual karya intelektual – lagu – tanpa izin dan tanpa royalti.

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[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] 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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