Following our first discussion on copyright at Musik Tempo, the conversation continued into the question of how to actually monetize it. On March 25th, I led a discussion with Irfan Aulia — founder of the band Samsons and Massive Music, a music publishing company in Indonesia — as our main speaker, with the duo Endah N Rhesa also on stage. That evening covered the various ways songwriters can maximize the commercial value of the copyrights they already own.
The B2B Revenue Stream
I have attended several copyright-related seminars over the years. During my visit to the UK — on the second day — a British Council expert gave a presentation on the music industry in the world’s second-largest music-exporting country. One slide showed the revenue breakdown of the UK music industry: Record sales £1.3 billion. Live music £1.6 billion. B2B £1 billion. Digital £400 million.
Having never seen B2B music revenue discussed in the Indonesian context, I was immediately curious. What exactly is it? B2B in music refers to revenue generated from businesses using music — background music in retail stores, restaurants, hotels, airlines, and other commercial environments. This is licensing revenue: companies pay to use music, and that money flows back through the publishing system to songwriters and rights holders. In Indonesia, this income stream is almost entirely untapped.
What Is Music Publishing?
Music publishing is the business of managing and exploiting the rights attached to a song. A music publisher (MP) manages the rights of songwriters and composers, working to generate revenue from those rights across multiple channels. The key is that the song must first be “fixed” — meaning it must exist in a tangible form, whether as sheet music or a recording — and then published to the public. Without that step, copyright cannot be monetized.
The rights managed by a music publisher include: Mechanical rights, Sampling rights, Print rights, Grant rights, and Synchronisation rights. These can all be self-managed by the artist (known as self-publishing), but doing so is administratively complex. Managing publishing properly requires dedicated resources and expertise to exploit all five rights optimally.
Why This Matters Now
As the music economy shifts from a corporate model to a creator economy — where more platforms allow creators to connect directly with buyers and fans — music publishing services are becoming increasingly relevant. Songwriters who understand their rights and have the infrastructure to manage them are in a far stronger position than those who simply release music and hope for the best.
Indonesia has a vast catalog of songs and an enormous pool of songwriting talent. The missing piece is a publishing infrastructure that actually captures the value those songs generate. Building that infrastructure — and educating artists about what is possible — is one of the most important things the Indonesian music industry can do right now.