LMKN Receives IDR 24 Billion Of Royalties That Are Not Claimed, What Will They Do?

Commissioner of the National Collective Management Institute (LMKN) Ahmad Ali Fahmi/screenshot

JAKARTA - Commissioner of the National Collective Management Institute (LMKN) Ahmad Ali Fahmi revealed that LMKN received as much as Rp24 billion in royalties from tens of thousands of unclaimed songs and the number continued to grow every year.

"We have just received information (unclaimed royalties) of IDR 24 billion digitally. This consists of tens of thousands of song title data, meaning that there are tens of thousands of creators that we must protect their rights," Ahmad said at the General Hearing Meeting (RDPU) with the Legislation Board of the DPR, Thursday, November 13, reported by ANTARA.

Ahmad explained that the unclaimed royalties came from songs that were unknown to their creators or songwriters who were not registered with the Collective Management Institute (LMK) membership.

"For example, there is the song Cublek-Cublek Suweng, right from the Sunan Kalijaga era, royalties emerged because of use," he said.

Ahmad said that the management of royalty money that is not currently claimed is regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights (Permenkum) Number 27 of 2025.

Based on these rules, LMKN announced songs that the creators did not know or had not registered with the LMK.

"If there is a person later, he can claim, later we will direct him to the LMK that oversees him," he said.

LMKN is also authorized to save the money for two years. The money cannot be used except for empowerment and optimization of music for a maximum of eight percent.

Ahmad suggested that the mechanism for managing royalty money is not claimed to be further regulated in the revision of the Copyright Law.

In addition to copyrighting works that his creator does not know, he also highlighted royalties related to technological developments and business patterns changes in the music industry.

He explained, in the past, the economic rights of songwriters were distributed through a cooperation contract with labels or song publishers. In today's digital era, many songwriters produce and publish their works independently without being registered on labels or Collective Management Institutions (LMK).

This condition causes royalties for their work played on digital platforms to not be claimed directly.

"Thousands of people cannot claim the song because of their business practice on the field, this DSP (digital music platform) only recognizes large entities such as labels that have for decades controlled millions of song databases," said Ahmad.

He estimates that the royalty value of the unregistered songs can reach tens to hundreds of billions of rupiah every year.

For this reason, Ahmad suggested that a special institution or LMK be formed that handles other economic rights outside the rights of public performances (public reporting rights).

"We want to propose that from LMKN there must be a separate agency or LMK specifically to take care of other economic rights that are not covered by the law (Cipta Law)," he said.