Last Saturday, April 20th, 2013, a few friends and I had the chance to create a small gathering to discuss about music, entrepreneurship and technology. This gathering started off from people who had joined a group with the same name on Google+, moderated by Robin Malau and Widi Asmoro. Looking at how active the discussions were in the group, and the variety of topics covered in a group what was literally weeks old, I offered to create the first gathering for this group at the offices of Think Web, which is also where Wooz.in is headquartered. Thanks to Ramya Prajna for providing the space and the audiovisual equipment.

There were fewer than 20 people present, but the material presented were all very interesting.

Hang Dimas took time from his busy schedule to discuss the importance of the music publishing business, and how creating a proper music industry structure will provide long term benefits for the core workers of the industry, which are the musicians and the composers. Adityo Pratomo proposed how technology should provide new ways to experience music – for instance, music does not always have to have a fixed duration, or how music and visual can be integrated into a harmonious and interactive composition. Music can and should be presented in new formats.

Yohan Totting discussed about the importance of music databases like Gracenote and Music Brain, because these music databases are used by so many services for music discovery. Yohan encourages all Indonesian musicians to submit their data to these databases, and also explains how; he even suggested that Indonesia makes its own Digital Music Database. Wiku Baskoro described the intersections between technology media and music, and how that intersection could benefit the industry at large. Noor Kamil stated that the music industry is not just the record industry, and there are many ways to go for gold for musicians willing to work hard. Does it have to be with a major label? That seems to be optional now…

Of course these kinds of gatherings is not just about people presenting something. The most interesting part for me and a few other attendees was the discussions that surfaced during these presentations, that I hope will give ideas or inspirations to everybody there to do something. The music industry’s sustainable survival will depend on many new small things, instead of the next big thing, and the more people involved in exploring and developing the music industry into new ways and forms, the better.

This is of course not a solution, as the issue remains #unresolved – but with that spirit, we can continue to step further and create smarter. A good business plan can also be said as a creation, right? 🙂 So, what are your ideas?

Ario is a co-founder of Ohd.io, an Indonesian music streaming service. He worked in the digital music industry in Indonesia from 2003 to 2010, and recently worked in the movie and TV industry in Vietnam. Keep up with him on Twitter at @barijoe or his blog at http://barijoe.wordpress.com.

[Image by Pugar Restu Julian – Music, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Community]