Ministry of Law and Human Rights: Modernising royalty management to ensure legal certainty

Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkum) emphasises modernising the system for collecting, managing, and distributing music royalties to ensure transparency, accountability, and legal certainty for rights holders. In a royalty distribution plenary in Jakarta, on Tuesday (3/3), Director-General of Intellectual Property Hermansyah Siregar of Kemenkum said that transparency in royalty management is not enough, and there must be digital-based modernisation. “Implementation of Government Regulation No. 56 of 2021 on the development of the Data Center for Songs and/or Music (PDLM) is ongoing and targeted to be completed soon as part of strengthening the national royalties ecosystem,” he said, cited from a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Thursday. He noted that the government has issued Ministerial Regulation No. 27 of 2025 as the implementing regulation of PP 56/2021, which governs governance, collection, and distribution of royalties for song/music copyrights more transparently. The regulation requires the National Collective Management Agency (LMKN) to input data into the PDLM and expand the scope of royalties to digital services. “No matter how good the regulation, if the players aren’t good, it won’t work,” he added. The National Collective Management Agency (LMKN) Commissioner for Licensing Ahmad Ali Fahmi said that due to the high level of unclaimed royalties, they are opening room for discussion and claims by LMKs and inviting musicians and rights holders not yet affiliated with LMK to promptly register and file claims. Under PP 56/2021, he said, every creator or rights holder of songs and/or music must be a member of an LMK in order to claim royalties. “Without membership, royalties from utilisation of works cannot be distributed directly,” Ahmad stated. Through modernising the system, institutional consolidation, and strengthening compliance, he noted that the government and LMKN reaffirm their commitment to protecting the economic rights of creators and related rights holders. Consequently, musicians and rights holders are urged to actively check for unclaimed royalties via the official LMKN account at lmkn.id, ensure their works are recorded, and join LMK so their economic rights are protected and distributed optimally. He stressed that collaboration and integration are the keys to ensuring the system runs more effectively. He admitted that efforts have been made to fulfil obligations so that royalties already collected can be disbursed to creators or related parties as soon as possible. “We continue to discuss this via Zoom, in person, or through other communication instruments. I apologise if in recent months there have been aspects not yet perfect, but we continue the process,” Andi said at the same event. In the plenary meeting, LMKN announced royalty distributions from several sectors: direct activities, karaoke, and digital and overseas. The distributions cover thousands of creators and rights holders, domestic and foreign, based on identified usage data. LMKN said that a more systematic data validation method has been implemented, including the use of log sheets and multi-layer verification, as part of its commitment to transparency and accountability.