In Order To Avoid Bodong Promotors, This Is APMI's Saran For Prospective Audiences Of Concerts

Illustration (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Association of Indonesian Music Promotors (APMI) invites the public to observe not only performers at a festival or music event, but also promoters to avoid losses, such as money not coming back when the event was canceled.

"Everything goes back to the audience again, not only smart in choosing who or what is in the event, but also being able to profile who the event maker is," said APMI Chairman Dino Hamid to Antara, Thursday.

According to Dino, recognizing who organized the event was the basic thing to reduce the risk of "bodong" promoters, namely those who made pre-sale tickets and then disappeared and could not return ticket purchases to spectators.

Knowing the promoter profile of a show is as important as knowing who the performers at the event are. Moreover, the entertainment industry business is currently developing after the COVID-19 pandemic for the past two years.

"More or less the analogy is like watching a favorite film. Maybe in the past we only saw who the actor or actress starred in the film. However, now maybe many people have started to see who produced the film to get assurances of the spectacle that is indeed in line with expectations," said Dino explained.

Moreover, the entertainment business mechanism, said Dino, is very simple because the promoter only needs to find and pay artists, find locations and sponsors, then sell tickets to the community. However, there are many factors closely related to the advantages of organizing the event which concerns the credibility of the promoter.

The entertainment business, according to Dino, is at high risk. When the promoter announced a music concert, however, the public's response was not very good, so they were under the shadow of the loss.

"At that time, are promoters ready to lose capitally? If they are not ready, usually they will run away. However, if they are ready, yes, they must be responsible for bearing losses," said Dino.

Regarding fake tickets, Dino thinks this has often happened to the entertainment business since the conventional era. Every show that has high demand is usually accompanied by tickets that are sold out so that this is used by certain elements.

Especially in today's digital era, said Dino, it is very easy for anyone to create a microsite. For example, in a case, there is an overseas artist named BLABLA holding a concert in Indonesia, then the BLACKLA.ICKet.id website appears that sells concert tickets, however, it is not known who the maker is.

People could be fooled into buying tickets there because they thought the site was an official seller.

"So, let's really look at the promoter profile so that accountability and other technical matters can be known with certainty. If you buy a ticket from an unknown party, it will obviously be a hassle later," said Dino.

APMI, said Dino, gave confidence to the public that the promoters who are members of the association have good qualifications. In addition, APMI has also started to socialize its members to include the information "Member of APMI" in every promotional material.

APMI provides 3K requirements for membership, namely qualification, capability, and quality. Qualification is related to promoters that must take the form of legal entities, while capability is the ability of promoters to hold performances for two years.

Quality, on APMI membership requirements, is the resulting content. APMI also stipulates that promoters have carried out music events with ticket sales for capacities above a minimum of 1,000 people twice a year, held international standard music events or had intellectual property rights registered on one or more music shows, and received recommendations from at least two members.

Recently, the Indonesian music world has been enlivened by news of the refund process for the 2022 Gudfest event which is not going well. Prospective audiences demand that Gudlive as the organizer keep their promises.

Gudfest 2022 was originally scheduled to be held on November 18-20 at the Gelora Bung Karno Area. However, five days before the D day, Gudlive stated that the girl's event was postponed until March 2023.

In that statement, Gudlive did not specify the reason for the postponement of Gudfest 2022. They only said that there were technical reasons that had not been fulfilled.

A few hours later, Gudlive uploaded a photo containing procedures and links for the refund process. Ticket buyers immediately stormed the link.

But, until now, according to several prospective spectators who filled the comments column for Gudlive's upload on Instagram, the promoters had not kept their promise to complete the refund process.

Gudfest instead uploaded a second wave event for March 2023 with different line-ups. Sum 41 as a headliner, supported by NTRL and Summerlane as well as Rocket Rockers, Stereo Wall, and many others. One of the prospective spectators, Kurniawan, who bought two tickets for the Early Fest Daily 3 category at a price of IDR 1.3 million in September 2022, questioned the seriousness of the organizers regarding the refund process.

"Essentially, the buyer of the 2022 Gudfest ticket demands a refund before the 2023 Gudfest concert starts. There is no reason! Because they have provided a refund procedure, we have filled it all. And until now I have not received a fraction of money," he told VOI.

VOI has tried to contact the CEO of GUDLIVE Bimo Nugroho regarding this issue. However, there has been no response.