Music in N. Sumatra booms despite piracy

By Apriadi Gunawan

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): As far as music is concerned, North Sumatra seems to be in deep slumber, and little or no clamor is heard; but when it comes to piracy in the cassette recording business, it is something else. You will be dumbfounded.

And if cassette producers in Jakarta learned about the secret, they, too, would surely be flabbergasted. The reason? Albums of ethnic music are selling like hot cakes; as many as 100,000- 300,000 copies are sold each month. In the meantime, sales of national pop music seem to be heading south or dragging at a really slow pace. Seldom can they make a hit but when sales do hit a record high of 100,000 copies a month, there is no doubt that to have achieved that feat, it must have required tremendous effort.

Mind you, sales of pirated cassettes are not yet included in the calculations to determine what is a hit record! In terms of number, pirated cassettes and VCDs of ethnic songs in North Sumatra outnumber or rank level with the sales of albums of Slank or Dewa -- two Jakarta music groups that have recently shot to prominence. But again please don't be surprised! Medan is a hub and haven for cassette piracy.

According to the owner of LY Recording Company, H. Sofyan S, 40, sales of pirated cassettes and VCDs are higher than the sales of their originals. He cited that if sales of original cassettes and VCDs hit 250,000-300,000 copies, that meant the total sales number could have reached between 600,000-1,000,000 copies a month.

Sofyan added that extensive and rampant piracy had made some producers and recording companies in Medan hesitant to launch new albums. The pirates, with their agility and prowess, would outwit the authorities, offering readily available pirated cassettes and VCDs at a much-reduced price, thus forcing the originals to always remain on the shop shelves.

In the last few months, LY Recording Company has begun to feel the pain. Demand for originals have been very low, since pirated ones are rife across the city. And to make matters worse, pirates are always quick at taking action, leaving producers always lagging behind. An old saying goes "the early bird catches the worm". Producers have been taken by surprise! Before they have had a chance to release a new VCD, the pirates have launched theirs, enabling them to reap handsome profits.

Without harboring any feelings of guilt, the pirates start copying the songs from newly released cassettes, then make their own VCD clips and get them ready for circulation.

During their heyday, LY was able to release two albums to four albums every month. On average, each album cost roughly Rp 8 million, covering the cost of the music, transferring the music to tape and recording the singer's voice. Sofyan added that if a recording studio released three albums a month, it could pull in some Rp 24 million.

Gesit Record, the oldest and leading producer of Karo music cassettes in the city of Medan, has been very active in releasing ethnic songs to date. Remember the Biring Manggis album -- a widely known song hummed as far as Java island? This album was a great hit, with sales exceeding 300,000 copies.

That is not too extraordinary. Songs from South Tapanuli -- also of Batak ethnicity -- dominate the market more. Mostly popularized by Gita Record but recorded in LY Record Studio, the album Marbue I and II -- songs that tell about the fate of a wife and children abandoned by her husband -- were able to break a sales record of more than 1 million copies. According to Sofyan, this record sale is mainly because the society is so familiar with the work." The producer, of course, was all smiles, since he didn't have to provide a big promotion," said Sofyan.

Sofyan added that a producer normally didn't have to spend that much money on making an album. If one album contained 12 songs, a producer usually spent only Rp 12.8 million -- a singer got Rp 4.8 million and recording costs were Rp 8 million.

If they could sell 100,000 copies at only Rp 1,000 profit apiece, minus Rp 12.8 million for costs, then they would enjoy a profit of Rp 87 million -- handsome indeed.

The local singers would always come out worst. For singers such as Laila Hasyim and Syaiful Amri, they got Rp 400,000 for each of their songs, but they didn't know about their royalty rights. "Generally, they were satisfied with the deals made with their producers."

Speaking of profit, Gesit Record producer Dewan Tarigan, 42, expressed his disagreement over the unfair profit-sharing deal."Both producer and singer should enjoy equal profit, and singers deserve royalties," he said.

Based on his experience, he said that it was the singers who usually came first and made a deal. Due to their lack of education and unemployment, they naturally accepted what was offered.

"Every day they just sit in or hang around coffee shops, young and gifted, with a natural flair for singing."