Indonesia's music copyright royalty confusion continues

Lembaga Manajemen Kolektif Nasional (LMKN) is the national body that collects and distributes royalties for songs and music. It was established to centralize copyright collections. Various other individual collecting societies represent rights holders and work with LMKN which acts on their behalf. It helped remove some of the confusion caused when the many private collecting societies took action against venues for performing their individual music catalogues.  

Now some businesses have reportedly ceased playing local music for fear of the costs of royalty claims. In July, one of the collecting societies Sentra Lisensi Musik Indonesia which represents various producers and performers, complained that a Bali restaurant chain Mie Gacoan failed to obtain commercial music licenses, reporting them to the criminal authorities. The case has just settled after mediation by the government with Mie Gacoan reportedly paying Rp 2.2 billion (USD136,000) in licensing fees.  

This week news outlet Jakarta Post reported uproar after Wahana Musik Indonesia (WAMI), another collecting society indicated that weddings, parties and religious events, even when non ticketed playing music should pay royalties. Even the National Anthem has been suggested as subject to royalties. Many groups and organizations that play music in public are still understandably worried.

In January, the Central Jakarta Commercial Court ruled in a case between artists Ari Bias and Agnez Mo after Mo performed a Bias song at concerts in May 2023 without consent, and ordered Mo to pay compensation (previous report here). Mo appealed and the Supreme Court has now reversed the decision.  While the decision details are not yet public the Director General of Intellectual Property told lawmakers in June that royalties are generally the responsibility of event organizers.

A further problem is that musicians complain that they receive very little money from royalties. Some blame their specific collecting societies. A general concern is the complexity of the system and its 'black box' nature, due to the layers of collecting societies and the national agency which adds administration and presumably costs.  Foreign rights holders make their claims through their own national collecting societies which usually have international agreements that enable payment from LMKN. Indonesian artists have long complained about the lack of revenue from public performances; many hope that now the system is operational it will improve over time.