Indie Musicians Also Have Similar Anxiety Regarding Royalty Problems

ERK, indie musician (instagram @ sampingmata_erk)

JAKARTA - The issue of royalties in Indonesia is not only for those who have big names in the music industry. Although his voice is rarely heard, indie musicians also have similar concerns about royalties.

David Tarigan as a music observer who is known to be close to many indie musicians, or who is now more familiarly called a skewer, feels that royalty issues are the concern of all musicians, regardless of his status as an artist from a large music label or living it independently.

"Actually (royalti) is a fundamental problem. There are also many aspirations that are basically the same," said David Tarigan in Sudirman, Central Jakarta some time ago.

"All of them experience the same basic anxiety, only they do have groups and have their own specifications," he continued.

Furthermore, David also said that royalty issues were also a concern for those labeled as traditional musicians.

"For musicians, both from independent music, even traditional music, the basis (problems) is the same, it's just that there may be a little difference, for example the cases, his life and others," he said.

What David said was in line with Cholil Mahmud's opinion from the Greenhouse Effect, which saw the perspective of indie musicians ten years ago as different from today.

Cholil, who started his music career with Efek Rumah Kaca in the mid-2000s, said understanding how the music industry works could help musicians understand what his rights are.

In this case, Cholil called royalties the right of creators of music one of the essential things that musicians need to know.

"Because digital music has become daily consumption, knowledge of royalties is becoming more important," said Cholil in Pamulang, South Tangerang last October.

From his experience as an independent musician, Cholil gave an example of how the music industry at that time was much different from the current situation.

"I have an independent musician background who, if we have physical releases, we produce our own products, and we sell them directly when we perform," said Cholil.

"There we feel that what is happening in the industry is not very understanding and we don't know," he continued.

The 48-year-old musician sees that independent musicians are now more accepted, both by connoisseurs and industry. The existence of digital technology has also made independent musicians part of the music industry itself.

In my opinion, when there is digital music technology that uses an established system outside, they have rules that are already running, they submit to their own system. Now, this platform has entered Indonesia, and we are unconsciously uploading it to YouTube and others, like it or not, it has entered the industry," said Cholil.

"This is different from the paradigm first, the mechanical one is still analogous. Finally, our paradigm is different now, because we are already part of the industry," he said.