PlayMusic: Digital Music in Indonesia

It’s been a while since I wrote few posts about digital music in Indonesia. Few weeks ago (yeah, weeks… been really lazy to write recently), I stumbled on a new Indonesian music site: PlayMusic – they advertised on the T3 Magazine.

Seems that they have a good collection of music. Ada Band, Mulan, Peterpan, Slank, Ungu, Project Pop. All the popular names. And few less popular names. But no Krakatau or Karimata (probably due to the copyrights?).

Website is nice and modern looking, though I find the loading time is so lethargic… Wondering if it’s also going to be that slow if I download the file. (Probably yes).

Other than that, if you’re interested to buy the music… here’s a few details:

• DRM? Yes… unfortunately. FairPlay (Windows Media)-based DRM. Good thing is that they mention it clearly and explain it in details: no burning to CD, one time (ONE!!!) transfer to media player, download to one computer only, download link expires after 7 days… seems to me that it’s pretty limitting.
• Price? Affordable, Rp 5.000 per song I guess that’s the acceptable price for one song in Indonesia. The psychologically accepted price. (Don’t ask me about the revenue share pct ya…)
• Payment? Voucher-based payment. So you got to become a member, then top up the account with some credit by buying scratch card vouchers.  Registration is web-based… but…
• Where can we get the voucher? Two ways: physical and online…
• Physical distribution… they use the so called PlayPoint voucher. Looks like a voucher used in some online gaming area. Never into online gaming, so need to do some more research, if this is the best way to reach the target market.
• Online purchase: gudangvoucher.com and indomog.com – they accept bank transfer and credit card

Speaking of target market… what are their target market? Youths, teens? Or more young pro? Or 30’s? Who are the most likely people to buy these kind of music. That will definitely determine pricing, selection of music, payment, and the distribution of voucher.

Anyway, it’s nice! But in my opinion this is still Music 1.0… which is simply changing the distribution of music from physical to digital – and still paranoidly concerned with DRM. Yes, it’s a good start. Hope they can generate enough interest, traffic, revenue, and innovation for the sake of the artists (and the country).

Again, it’s a Music 2.0 (or even 3.0) world. Where it’s very social and everything is about sharing… Piracy is no longer relevant, because (most) content will legally free. Make money not from the content, but around the content. So, think… think… think…

My other posts about digital music store:

• digitalbeatmusicstore (old post from 2006 #1, post #2, web) – digital kiosks in blitzmegaplex and online store, DRM-free! (at this time, website is down… wondering why…)
• im:port (old post from 2006 #1, post #2, post #3, web) – DRM-ed
• disctarra (post – web) – digital kiosks, haven’t tried (MP3 I heard)
• equinoxdmd (web) – iTunes channel in Indonesia, sells Indonesian music to iTunes (yet ironically we can not buy it here in our own country… yay…)
• update: kongkoow (web) – music store, initiated by IM2/Indosat, supported by 11 labels… DRM & non-DRM available, payment through i-Pay system (links to Indosat vouchers & able to top up via ATM too)