Yours truly opening #Unresolved Bandung. Photo by Bob Merdeka.
Another #Unresolved event has come and gone — this time in Bandung. As always, we tried to answer the small questions in the music industry that nobody else seems to want to tackle.
A few days before the event I noticed that Unresolved was starting to reach people outside the original circle — beyond the MET forum where the whole thing first spread. I was right. Of the roughly 20 people who showed up, more than 10 were new faces, people I hadn’t met before and who hadn’t been to a previous Unresolved event. But the energy was consistent, anchored by some of the returning thinkers who’d been there from the start: Wiku from Trenologi, Dimas from Langit Data, and Mayo from Protocol Afro.
The event took place at Omuniuum on Jl. Ciumbuleuit, Bandung. Scheduled for 1pm, it started at 1:30 — which, given that this is Indonesia, counts as basically on time. I opened with the 5W+1H of Unresolved: what it is, why it exists, who it’s for, and where it’s going.
Langit Data: Building Indonesia’s Music Licensing System
The most substantive presentation of the day was from Dimas, whose company Langit Data is building a music licensing infrastructure for Indonesia.
The backstory: Dimas was living and playing in a band in Malaysia when he received an unexpected cheque in the mail. He didn’t know what it was for. Turned out it was a royalty payment — performance royalties collected from radio stations, TV channels, and other sources that had played his band’s music. He still receives those cheques. He never stopped.
Coming back to Indonesia and seeing the contrast was jarring. A music licensing system exists here — it has for decades — but it’s in a state of near-total dysfunction. Dimas, with a background in computer science, took it on himself to build a proper system from scratch, with buy-in from key players in the recording industry. The technical architecture was the easier part. The harder part has been lobbying the government to pass the legislation that would make the system legally enforceable.
The implications are significant. A functioning licensing system means artists and rights-holders get paid when their music is played commercially — on radio, in cafes, at events, on digital platforms. Right now, most of that money simply doesn’t reach them.
Taking a Band Overseas: The Bureaucracy Problem
The second major topic was something I know firsthand: the nightmare of taking an Indonesian band abroad. I shared the Burgerkill/Download Festival story — the visa scramble, the last-minute approvals, the network you need to build just to get out of the country with a band.
The recurring themes that came up:
- Time. There is never enough of it. The bureaucracy doesn’t care about your tour dates. Start earlier than you think you need to.
- Funding. Sponsors, friends, crowdfunding — use every channel. Don’t be too proud to ask.
- Visas. Western countries (US, UK, Europe) have specific requirements that trip up most first-timers. Find someone who has done it before and listen to them.
- Network. This was the recurring answer to almost every problem raised. The people who succeed at this are the ones who’ve invested in relationships long before they needed them.
We’re working on building a resource that connects people with the right contacts — people who’ve actually taken bands abroad and know the terrain. More on that soon.
Why Unresolved Matters
These aren’t the glamorous problems of the music industry. Nobody’s writing think-pieces about Indonesian music licensing infrastructure or the visa process for touring bands. But these are the problems that stop good things from happening. Fix the small stuff, and the big stuff becomes possible.
See you at the next one.