[Manic Monday] The Multiple Screen Strategy

Some of us grew up with only one screen - the TV screen. In Indonesia, there was only one national, government-owned TV station that graced the airwaves, which we watched dutifully since there was nothing else to watch. Having the TV on was somewhat of a necessity, whether or not we watched anything - it somehow connected us to the world, even if it was only one way (and any content was tamed first by the government). Even for those fortunate to own videotape players, you had to choose: watch TV, or watch a videotape.

Most people nowadays carry at least one screen, their handphone, in their pocket. Another would be a desktop computer at home or at the office, a laptop, or even a tablet. Some invest in special game devices, some with their own screens. And TVs have become comparatively cheap compared to 25 years ago, so there would be at least be more than one television set in an average middle-income house in Jakarta. The TV also has so many options for content input - terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV, DVD players, Bluray players, IPTV, and so on. Even mobile phones have long expanded beyond their namesake and can play a variety of video and audio content, and games also. And let's not forget the cinema screen. We have been in the multiple screen era for some time.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Manic Monday] The Show Doesn't Stop At The Cinema

This weekend, people the world over are raving on about the last installment of the Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises. I watched it Friday night, 3 rows from the front, and I loved it. It's a fitting finish for the Batman trilogy as narrated by Nolan, and the trilogy is one of the best renditions of the Batman saga on the silver screen. If you haven't watched it, I recommend that you do. Especially if your a comic geek like me.

Don't worry, I won't spoil the movie for you, but I will talk a bit about how the TDKR opening was the pinnacle of a campaign that started... a year ago. The viral campaign started even before the movie shoots were finished. And towards the end of 2011, more tidbits surfaced about the movie. The vague nature of the viral campaigns added with the already much-hyped news about the movie itself, surely delivered many people to the cinemas even before the trailers started to run.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

What I Learned In Design School

Readers of this blog (if there actually are any, that is), might or might not know that I went to design school. Yes, I studied at what is said to be the best design school in Indonesia, at FSRD ITB. I put in 'said to be', because I don't really know how they determine this. But that's another matter altogether...

After 1 year of general courses (where we were taught basic foundations for art and design), we then had to choose the study program we wanted - since I loved drawing cars from childhood and am a Lego fan, I chose product design. But even before we started studying within our chosen study fields, the curriculum (and the student body, KMSR), tried to make sure we were brainwashed clean from 12 years of formal education based on memorizing facts, and tried to get us to see the world through a different perspective.

It was often said that those talented kids who already had advanced drawing skills would never be accepted to FSRD ITB, as it would be difficult to guide them through the curriculum which basically refreshed everything back to basics and built from there - to this day, I don't think I could draw better since before I studied at FSRD ITB, but I'm sure that I can convey my ideas visually better (even if it's through a Powerpoint). More on that later.

So, product design, in a nutshell, basically designs things - objects of daily life, manufactured or not. Shoes to cars, computers to phones, even clothes hangers. But good product design - or good design, generally - is not a matter of how things look - but it's how a problem is solved in a novel way. The look, the style, is an outcome of a process of attempting to find a solution.

Many people see design as making pretty stuff on the computer so that it looks good. Well, I can tell you, anyone with a little talent and a computer can make things look good, and a lot of software already helps people do this without much hassle. And Indonesia is full of talent, whether or not trained in design. But go to any web company and they'd be talking about ease of use, user interfaces, user experience design... and you'd see, the companies with the best UI and UX are the ones who include the visual design in the overall design process (see there, the word 'design' is used in different contexts in the same sentence).

Anyway, back to school. I thought I was going to be lying back and make cool sketches of cars and whatnot, then suddenly graduate. No such luck guys. We were taught a very scientific process, where before you even put pencil to paper, the design process already begins by identifying a problem. Of course, our creative and aesthetic sensitivities were trained and honed, but only to be used as an element or tool in helping to solve a problem.

In product design, we identified a problem we wanted to solve that we thought could be solved by introducing a new product. Then we had to study all about the surrounding circumstances. For instance, I designed a container for carrying radiopharmaceuticals. So before I even drew sketches, I had to learn about radiochemistry, I had to learn about the radiopharmaceutical industry, I had to learn about nuclear medicine installations, I had to study how staff used existing tools and systems for pharmaceuticals, and I had to learn everything about sociological impact, psychological impact, habit, ergonomics; I even had a special consultant from the National Nuclear Energy Agency.

Before even proposing any drawings, we had to do our research on the problem, and research on the research. We had to present a 'problem case' to our professors to argue that the problem we are attempting to solve, deserves merit for a design-driven approach (as opposed to a simple redesign or even, just an adjustment of the visual look). Then only after we had the go-ahead, we started sketching and building a solution to the problem. And as a solution-finding process has emphasis on the visual, we tried to optimize semantics and gestures. For instance: see how for some door handles, you simply already know how to open them, even when there are no signs saying 'press here' or 'turn here'? Or how to open or close a faucet? Or how to best tie your shoes? The best product designs solve problems in such a way, that we do not need writing to operate them.  Would you need arrows showing 'turn left' or 'turn right' on a steering wheel? No, right?

And good product design is a synergy and collaboration between the designer, the engineer and any other fields tied in to the product - ideally, an anthropologist and psychologist as well - to make sure the product can be used, used well and avoid 'malfunction' (where the product is used outside of its function parameters). Good design completes the equation of the solution; it is not just window dressing. Look at how x-banners in front of stores and billboards are designed slightly differently - because they fulfill a different function and optimize for a different kind of message conveyance (and that's also why, I consider billboards with too many words to be bad design).

Creativity and innovation is not 'just' about doing stuff differently than others. It's finding new, elegant solutions to the right problems and questions. And design, is a thought process, not just the visual end-product. So looking to be creative? Find a problem that you want to solve for yourself, and go through the design process and start from zero, don't start by assuming all existing answers are correct. Just go back to square one and research everything, and see where it leads you. Brainwash yourself. It's never about being 'different', but it's about asking all the questions all over again and challenging existing answers.

Just my opinion.

Introducing: Manic Monday

Today we’re veering from the oft-serious topic of the digital music business to go slightly mad. Well, not entirely (at least not yet), and I’m not going to break out in song on a tech blog. I am, however, introducing a new title to this column, ‘Manic Monday’, which could be applicable to any number of things related or not to tech, since we all “love” Mondays. But bear with me a bit, and I’ll show you a bit of what’s in store.

So for those of you who don’t know, ‘Manic Monday’ is a song by a band called The Bangles, which are probably more popular as the band behind the song ‘Eternal Flame’. The song itself was written by Prince, which became a no.2 hit in 1986, only outsold by Prince’s own ‘Kiss‘. The song’s lyricsbasically tell about the fleeting dread that we feel when faced with yet another Monday, a feeling that most of us feel all to well.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] The Darker Side Of Digital Music

Many people are not aware the complex structure that sits in what is vaguely known as "the music industry". For many people, what is seen through the media is the musician, artist or songwriter (albeit not as often), and sometimes a mild mention of the music label here, a record producer there, and sometimes the supporting musicians of  a certain album. But actually, a clockwork between songwriters, publishers, record producers, music labels, distribution channels, artists, and countless other people and bodies are involved in an intricate (and often confusing) dance. So, what happens if that clockwork breaks down?

Yet again it was somehow much simpler in the pre-digital days of music, and even that balance was struck after years of haggling, negotiation, and corporate maneuvering. The publishers represent the songwriters for anything to do with duplication (duplication of the song to any medium, of which they get 'mechanical' royalties), and synchronization (the use of a song in sync with any sort of other media, i.e. TV commercials) and make sure the songwriters get a good deal. The record labels basically invest in making albums and building artists, and take the lion's share of profits from album sales. The distributor - the CD store and any go-betweens - make money from distributing the music products, and public performance collecting societies, usually representing the songwriter also, collect royalties from any company or body that uses songs for public performance, i.e. for TV broadcast, radio, karaoke, hotels, restaurants; anything where the establishment using the music gets an indirect benefit (more viewers, more customers, etc). Things more or less stayed in balance and any issue was discussed between the industry-level associations.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Revisiting Indonesia’s Copyright Law

Indonesia is a democratic country, at least by principle. Well, at least, the word “democratic” doesn’t come with quote marks anymore, as it did during the time of the New Order. Now, a democracy will either vote or discuss on everything, or appoint representatives to do all the voting and discussing, and thus deciding on whatever is going to be enacted into law, to be followed and safeguarded by the executive branch (just to remind you, this means the President and his government). Now what does this have to do with the digital music business? The law, that’s what.

Being basically a content-based business, the music industry is highly influenced by copyright laws – how the government sees the issue regarding copyright and how it thinks it is best implemented. And of the million things that need regulation in the country, Indonesia’s most recent copyright law was signed into law in 2002, under President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Albeit according to some still lacking in some areas, the upgraded legislation added some much-needed law protection for works of cinematography to computer programs, as the earlier version of the copyright law was signed into law in 1979.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Does The Average Consumer Care About Legal, Digital Music?

Before I go on with this article, let me be clear - most references are anecdotal; I don't have a survey or research results to refer to. But I think this will ring true to most consumers of digital entertainment - not many of us, including me, think of the legal aspects of something we want to hear/view/play. Having worked in intellectual property based-industries for some time, I avoid pirated content and always try to find legal ways to get music, movies and software. Full disclosure - I've done my fair share of downloading and torrenting, and I often download TV shows that have not aired in Indonesia, and sometimes movies I missed watching in the cinema. I'm no saint.

I'll admit that I avoid illegal music and software, because I know what goes on behind the scenes and how they make their money. I also feel less guilty (but guilty nonetheless) about downloading TV and movies because I also know how they actually make their money (and outside of the cinema, it's based on upfront royalties, advertising revenue share, cable subscription share, and so on). I'll probably write more on that later... but here's the point: I happen to have insight into these industries. What of the average consumer who does not?

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Musiklegal.com And The Fight Against Piracy

Piracy remains a sensitive issue for music labels. Efforts to curb piracy on the national level in Indonesia remains in full steam, with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics blocking 20 illegal mp3 download sites end of May 2012. I tried some of the addresses announced in the article and sure enough, the sites could not be accessed. This action was the result of a lengthy lobbying process by ASIRI (the Recording Industry Association of Indonesia) to the government, while at the same time they also had active discussions with the Phone Credit Theft Task Force appointed by DPR to alleviate and soften the impact made by the government's decision to reset all mobile services dependent on subscription charged by SMS.

The effort to curb the spread of illegal music copies being spread through the internet would not mean a thing if the music industry did not offer something in its place - sure enough, music download stores have been around since 2009 but they have yet to achieve significant user traction and all-important revenue. Illegal downloads are said to be the cause of  low user traction, and even before that ASIRI has been lobbying the government to start blocking illegal download sites. Since the latest administration seems intent on blocking pornography sites, the same technology could be used to block these illegal music sites. So it was just the matter of political will. Now, the government seems to want to listen to the plight of the music labels, despite only taking action online and not taking care of the equally damaging pirate CD stores.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] NKOTBSB: A Great Impulse Buy For Digital Music

For weeks and days heading up to the NKOTBSB concert in Jakarta last Friday, longtime fans have been racking up YouTube views of their videos, and radio stations have been playing songs from NKOTB and Backstreet Boys to prime everybody up for enjoying the concert. Needless to say, on June 1 evening Jakarta time, Twitter was awash with people tweeting from the concert and sending whatever pics they can to share with their friends. The show was a success, but what can we learn and exploit from it?

One of the most basic principles of music marketing is to increase awareness and raise sales, a band or musician should do live shows direct in front of audiences. This applies to new or established artists - pushing a song for increased awareness is sometimes not enough through tv, radio and the internet; but a live show (especially if tied with met-and-greet sessions with fans and autograph sessions) would do a lot to reward fans, retain loyalty, and generate awareness and interest for people who have not previously heard of the band/musician. Bands would tour tirelessly around their country - and around the world - as a way to promote themselves and their most latest album. The music labels in charge would also arrange time for the band/musician to meet with the press, to make sure they get more exposure.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Selling Your Music On Foreign Shores

I've written previously on how we need to move on from the frame of mind that making money from music is confined to selling copies of our music recordings. I've even explained how selling digital files of your music will not work in Indonesia, and that we might even need to just forget about the issue of piracy altogether and think of new ways of reaching your fans with your music. But if you think that selling digital copies of your music internationally is a crucial part of your band's planning, then there are a few ways to do it, and it might make a lot of money for you and your band, too!

Expanding on the post that Widi Asmoro wrote responding to a previous post I wrote, he explained at length on how to prepare your music to be distributed through music aggregator Valleyarm to be sold at iTunes, Spotify, emusic, Amazon Mp3, and the Nokia Music Store. Going through Valleyarm will ensure your music will be distributed internationally, although I think only Nokia Music has official sales channels in Indonesia. But Valleyarm is not the only music aggregator company you can work with; there are many others to choose from.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] So You’ve Got A Band. Now What? Make A Website?

Despite all the doom and gloom you might hear in the music industry lately about how it’s more difficult to sell albums, it’s actually a great time to be a band or musician. Whatever the type of your music, you could probably record most or all of your music on your computer, with adequate quality also. And if you don’t have your own computer, most small-to-medium sized music studios already use a computer to do most of the heavy work, and cost less to rent.

From the software point of view, there are many software suites you can use to record, mix, and make a CD master, even free ones, and the Internet offers various paid and free audio libraries to enhance the recording, whether it be a sound effect or a drum loop. Just make sure you can use it for your own music (just make sure it’s totally free or ask permission from the owner). You can even write and share the musical notation of your songs online.

 Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Why Music Download Stores Won't Work In Indonesia

The more I think of it, the more I think that many music services - at least in Indonesia - are going about it the wrong way. Since 2008, Indonesia has had a number of online music download stores. Various business models were tried - an ISP tried ISP billing, telcos tried charging via SMS, and some others even had a choice of payment systems; either through SMS or electronic voucher. Investments in (quite expensive) hosting and delivery systems were made, in an attempt to replicate what seemed to work overseas - the music download. Essentially, users will pay for a song that they want, and only the song that they want, and download it to their choice device. Most services were required to implement digital rights management (DRM) as a way to circumvent unauthorized copying, and the files themselves were usually confined to the device that downloaded the file.

Needless to say, it didn't work. It has never delivered the results that the music industry wants, that's for sure.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Wait, You Can Make Money For Music From The Internet?

The [recorded] music industry has been in very dark days lately, especially in Indonesia - I've frequently written about the current situation so I won't revisit it. But the breakdown is this: there is currently no real way the [recorded] music industry can make money from their work. CD sales are diminished, music through mobile is going through a crisis, and there's not really an online music store worth mentioning. But this does not mean that the internet cannot make money for you, the musician or music label.

I'll admittedly be broad about this - I won't say there are a million ways to make money for music directly from the Internet, but there are definitely a lot of ways to make sure the Internet works for you and gets you that much-needed money. Music may be virtually free for most music listeners, but it doesn't mean making the music you want does not cost money. Even downloading Audacity or Gamelan will take some money off your internet bill. Trying to pitch to a music magazine to cover your band may not cost money but bringing along coffee for the journalists goes a long way. And so on. Even if you're a self-proclaimed indie artist that does not want to spend money, eventually you'd need money for food, right?

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Taking OpenEMI's Torch And Taking It Further #unresolved

On April 22-24, 2012, a conference aptly named Rethink Music was organized by the Berklee College of Music in Boston. They basically brought together professionals from all over the music industry - from media, from the music labels, from artist management, and even from technology companies like Youtube, Rhapsody and Echo Nest (you can look at the whole speaker roster here). But one of the most interesting things announced and discussed at Rethink Music, in my opinion, is OpenEMI.

The basic concept of OpenEMI is to provide access to startups who want to create music applications and services based on EMI's music library - and if the app is interesting enough, EMI may partner with the startup to develop it further. You can either request for a access to a wide range of songs, or request deeper access to single artists with more audio, video and other content. This developer-friendly system is supported by Echo Nest, the company that also has a wider-range API for music applications that power services like Spotify's Radio feature.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[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.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

Why You Should Care About Ringback Tones #unresolved

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 if 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 where 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.

 Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

Forgetting About Digital Piracy (#unresolved)

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 as just 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, so that at some point the money they invested in making the product or service can be recouped, and they can make a profit. So the recorded music business, in essence, is not selling music, but selling the music product; i.e. CDs, cassettes, vinyls. Produce and record one time, and essentially sell copies of that recording. Even music copyright is constructed around this - the payment of royalties based on the amount of copies sold. So of course, any copy obtained without any payment of royalties, is viewed a copyright infringement. The act itself - whether or not for commercial gain - is known as piracy.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[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 theStartuplokal.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.

Read the rest of the article at Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] What An Exciting Week For Digital Music!

Who says the music industry is dead? While Napster might of spelled doom at one point in history, the past 10 years has 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.

• As previously covered on Dailysocial, there's an indication that iTunes Store might finally be opening up in Indonesia. Although iOS device penetration is lowest here, it also means that there will finally be an easy-to-use music download store in Indonesia. But would it have the relevant music catalog to match?


• Spotify wants to cannibalize piracy. With 10 million active users and 3 milion paying customers, they might just do that, and catch up with iTunes to boot. But there's a monster looming around the corner - the artists who aren't getting paid from streaming services, not to mention big names like Coldplay and Adele withholding their catalog from streaming services, as part of a sales strategy, apparently. But with Spotify already paying out a lot in royalties, time will tell if they have a change of tune.

read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

What Lies Ahead for Digital Music Industry in Indonesia

After reading Aulia's post, I felt that I needed to add to it with some more facts and insight, and throw in my own opinion about the much-discussed yet perceived-as-slow-to-develop  state of the music industry's move to the digital medium in Indonesia.

Let's get through some points in the article first:

• most of the music labels work directly with the telcos to provide music content; and some content providers either aggregate content for smaller music labels, or develop their own artist roster to further capitalize the business potential of RBT.


• The RBT service itself uses premium SMS to charge customers, because it's the simplest way to do it. But the system itself differs than standard premium SMS services, because where usually premium SMS services have servers that sit at the content providers and route through the telco charging system, RBT systems are installed on the telco side.

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.