Countdown to Music Armageddon

*For Indonesian version please click hereAquarius Pondok Indah, one of the biggest record stores in Indonesia and located in the South of Jakarta, will soon be closed. The shop, first opened in 1995, has simply run out of business. Mid-August saw them start selling tens of thousands of items in their collection with a massive discount. A few months before that, in February, Aquarius Surabaya, after operating for 7 years, went bankrupt and Aquarius Dago, which used to be one of the coolest hangout spots for kids who lived in Bandung, was shut down in December 2009 after 19 years of guts and glory. Disc Tarra, another national record retail chain, consisting of 78 stores to be precise, is apparently in a similar situation and although they haven't closed any of their stores yet, some in significant cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, and Denpasar, have been resized, some down to 50% smaller. This phenomenon, most people believe, is caused by the digital trend. MP3s and iPods took over the world. They are more popular than cassettes or cds and walkmans or tape recorders, and piracy is exacerbating the problem. Even the gigantic-size record stores like Virgin have lost the add-on "Megastore" in their title, switching now to become Virgin Store only. HMV, idem ditto, they get tinier. Not to mention Tower Records, once considered a major influential music institution in their heyday, called it a day in 2006. With the many DVD and CD shops that line many of Indonesia's streets, the Indonesian government must come up with a strategy to put a stop to piracy and illegal copies. If they fail to do this, the countdown to music armageddon will continue...
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*For English version please scroll down

Di masa sekarang, ketika melihat pemandangan toko kaset/cakram digital membludak dilimpahi pengunjung jangan dulu direspons girang. Pengumuman besar tentang diskon gigantik untuk seluruh koleksinya jangan dulu disambut riang. Sebab di era kini, fenomena macam demikian biasanya pertanda buruk: institusi tersebut sedang merugi.

Lihat saja apa yang terjadi dengan Aquarius Pondok Indah sebulan silam. Salah satu ritel kaset/cakram digital terbesar di Indonesia ini pada pertengahan Agustus lalu tampak dibanjiri publik. Rupanya toko yang telah eksis sejak 1995 itu sedang menyelenggarakan rabat gila-gilaan. Puluhan ribu barang dilego jauh lebih murah dari biasanya. Dampaknya: lahan parkir sungguh penuh hingga harus menggunakan badan jalan, tiap orang bak berlomba memborong apa saja yang ada, antrian manusia bertumpuk di depan kasir. Pemandangan seperti ini belakangan sungguh jarang terjadi. Bisa dibilang, relatif di setiap gerai penjualan album rekaman di Nusantara tingkat kunjungan kian hari kian merosot. Omset setinggi langit sekadar jadi kisah masa lalu—bisa break even saja sudah bersyukur. Dan benar saja, menjulangnya derajat kedatangan masyarakat ke Aquarius Pondok Indah ternyata karena perusahaan yang bernaung di bawah bendera Aquarius Musikindo itu hendak tutup untuk selamanya. Sebelumnya, Aquarius Dago (Bandung) yang dibuka sejak 1990 berhenti beroperasi pada Desember 2009. Sementara Aquarius Surabaya terpaksa dibekukan pada Februari 2010 lampau setelah berjalan tujuh tahun.

Segendang sepenarian dengan toko kaset/cakram digital tingkat nasional lainnya, Disc Tarra. Walau tak sampai harus menutup barisan tokonya—menurut data tahun 2009 ada 78 toko Disc Tarra di seluruh Indonesia—namun indikasi rapuh tercuat gamblang dengan pengurangan luas area toko hingga setengahnya seperti yang terjadi di di Jakarta, Bandung, dan Bali. Varian artis yang disodorkannya pun cenderung yang “aman”, yang gampang laku. Gairah masyarakat berburu album musik dalam bentuk fisik dalam tempo singkat tersimak berkurang duhai cepat, terjadi merata di berbagai kota.

Dalam blantika internasional, Tower Records tumbang terjungkal pada 2006. Virgin Megastore yang tadinya berjumlah ratusan di seluruh dunia, kini hanya tinggal seratusan toko dengan cakupan wilayah yang terus menyempit. Segendang sepenarian dengan HMV, skala bisnisnya terus dan terus tergerus. Selain karena kecenderungan global yang serba digital—anak muda lebih mengakrabi MP3 dan iPod dibanding kaset/cd & pemutar audio tradisional—ditambah lagi pembajakan yang masih merdeka merajalela, utamanya di Indonesia. Benar, sengkarut ini menggejala di seluruh jagat raya, tak cuma di Nusantara.

Memang, yang dimatikan cuma 3 toko Aquarius—sekarang tinggal satu saja: Aquarius Mahakam—dan induk usahanya, PT Aquarius Musikindo, masih mampu bertahan. Tapi sampai kapan? Sebab jika pemerintah tetap ogah serius mengurusi pembajakan di negeri ini maka seluruh sendi industri rekaman akan cepat tamat. Maka bersiaplah: kiamat sudah semakin dekat.

English version

Aquarius Pondok Indah, one of the biggest record stores in Indonesia and located in the South of Jakarta, will soon be closed. The shop, first opened in 1995, has simply run out of business. Mid-August saw them start selling tens of thousands of items in their collection with a massive discount. A few months before that, in February, Aquarius Surabaya, after operating for 7 years, went bankrupt and Aquarius Dago, which used to be one of the coolest hangout spots for kids who lived in Bandung, was shut down in December 2009 after 19 years of guts and glory.

Disc Tarra, another national record retail chain, consisting of 78 stores to be precise, is  apparently in a similar situation and although they haven’t closed any of their stores yet, some in significant cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, and Denpasar, have been resized, some down to 50% smaller. This phenomenon, most people believe, is caused by the digital trend. MP3s and iPods took over the world. They are more popular than cassettes or cds and walkmans or tape recorders, and piracy is exacerbating the problem. Even the gigantic-size record stores like Virgin have lost the add-on “Megastore” in their title, switching now to become Virgin Store only. HMV, idem ditto, they get tinier. Not to mention Tower Records, once considered a major influential music institution in their heyday, called it a  day in 2006.

With the many DVD and CD shops that line many of Indonesia’s streets, the Indonesian government must come up with a strategy to put a stop to piracy and illegal copies. If they fail to do this, the countdown to music armageddon will continue…

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*This article was originally titled “Industri Rekaman: Letih, Lelah, Lemah, Loyo Lagi Lesu” and was published on The Beat (Jakarta) mag, edition # 23, September 2010
*Photo of Tower Records is taken from manhattan.about.com

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Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.
Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.

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