The Directorate General of Intellectual Property (“DGIP”), recently granted operational license to three new collective management organization (“CMO”), or officially known in Indonesia as Lembaga Management Kolektif (“LMK”). Different from the previous existing LMKs, the three new LMKs are specializing in collective rights management of Indonesian traditional music.
The Director of Copyright and Industrial Designs, Anggoro Dasananto, stated that traditional musicians in Indonesia are numerous and spread all over the country’s 38 province. While, according to Anggoro, many of them are quite productive in their respective region, most are still uncovered by the existing CMOs.
Creation of traditional music oriented CMOs had also been facilitated by the Directorate of Films, Music and Media (“DFMM”) of the Directorate General of Culture of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, Technology and Higher Education (“Kemendikbudristekdikti”). It was in 2021 during the 1st Nusantara Tradition Music Congress held by DFMM that the idea of forming CMOs specific for the needs of traditional music was formalized as one of the congress’ formal recommendation.
The three traditional music CMOs consist of LMK Langgam Kreasi Budaya, LMK Citra Nusa Swara, and LMK Pro Karindo Utama, each of them caters to different kind of creators and copyright owners. Langgam Kreasi Budaya serves mainly songwriters and lyrics authors, while Citra Nusa Swara and Pro Karindo Utama represent performers and music producers, respectively.
The existence and roles of CMO in Indonesia were officially recognized and regulated under Law no. 28 of 2014 concerning Copyrights (“Law 28/2014”), which designates the term “LMK” and defines the same as non-profit legal entities that are authorized by authors, copyright holders and/or related rights owners to manage their economic rights in the form collecting and distributing royalties. Article 87 of the Law 28/2014 provides that authors, copyright holders and related rights owners shall become member to an LMK to enable them collecting royalties from users of their respective works.
Archeologist Edi Sedyawati in her book, Traditional Music Skill, defined “music traditional” as music that is used as expression of cultural values according to the respective tradition. Music tradition is also understood as cultural heritage with high artistic values that rise from the cultures of each region in Indonesia. There are now more than a thousand recognized ethnic groups in Indonesia, each with its own cultural traits and values shaped by long interaction with one another as well as with religious and foreign influences for generations, taking music as one of its form of expression.
Formation of the three CMOs indeed will provide traditional musicians all over Indonesia with a better option where they could produce and commercialize their musical works with more convenience and foreseeable return, and the nation with a more optimistic way to preserve and enhance its culture and tradition.