Deezer, a growing music streaming service, is eyeing the Indonesian market.
According to a report on The Jakarta Globe, Dona Inthaxoum, head of label relations at Deezer for Asia and Oceania, mentioned that the Indonesian market has become a very important one for Deezer.
“We absolutely love Indonesia for its booming music industry — it is the homeground of so many good local acts such as Superman is Dead and Sore. Indonesians really love their local music too — based on data from Deezer, we found that Indonesians artists such as Superman is Dead, Sheila on 7, Fatin, Padi and Bondan Prakoso were among the most streamed artists among Indonesian Deezer users in 2013.” Dona said.
First created in Paris, the music streaming site quickly grew into a global phenomenon with more than 30 million licensed tracks in its library and an additional 30, 000 radio channels. Users can listen to their favorite songs through Deezer on a variety of devices, both online and offline. Deezer has a presence in over 180 countries, and in Asia, it’s available in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and South Korea.
Users can subscribe to Deezer through the Premium+ plan, which is available at US$5.99 a month and allows users to access their music offline and also includes exclusive content such as competitions, album previews before their release, and unlimited streaming. There also won’t be any ads popping up on your device or computer screen.
For users who are unable to afford that, there is a free plan which limits your music streaming to two hours per month.
Growth through partnership
Dona also told The Jakarta Globe that Deezer’s expansion plan to Indonesia includes partnerships with different brands there. In 2014, the team will be looking to grow the numbers of partnerships in Indonesia. For example, Deezer recently partnered with one of Indonesia’s most iconic rock groups, Slank, which saw the band digitally released its full catalog on Deezer.
As an extra treat for Slank fans, Deezer users that have the highest number of streams, shares and added favorites for Slank will have the chance to meet the members of the band during a private dinner.
“We have seen positive interest and uptake in Deezer since we launched in Indonesia, and are confident that we have drawn a good number of Indonesians away from piracy and onto a legal service. As we continue to broaden our reach, we make sure that we deliver the most interesting and engaging local content and services, tailored to each market — Indonesia in this case,” Dona told The Jakarta Globe.
Other than Indonesia, Deezer also grows its reach in Asia Pacific through partnerships. For example back in December 2013, Deezer partnered with Singapore mobile service provider M1, to provide its post paid users unlimited Premium+ access to Deezer’s music library at a special rate of S$5.99 per month. The usual fee for unlimited music streaming on Deezer is at S$9.90.
Other than M1 in Singapore, Deezer has also partnered up with major telcos around the region: In Malaysia, it has tied up with DiGi, and has also partnered with dtac in Thailand to offer exclusive discounts and perks to these telco subscribers. For the partnership with DiGi in Malaysia, customers who sign up with selected postpaid, tablet and broadband plans with DiGi, can enjoy three months of Deezer Premium+ free of charge.
Challenges in Indonesia
It seems that Deezer is actively seeking out partnerships with local telcos where it will gain instant access to hundred thousands of subscribers. There’s a possibility that Deezer will do the same in Indonesia.
However, Deezer might find difficulty in signing a deal with the country’s biggest telco, Telkomsel. As Tech in Asia pointed out, the operator has its own music streaming services called LangitMusik, while its parent company Telkom Indonesia has Melon Indonesia. Deezer’s other potential rivals in Indonesia include Australia’s Guvera and local player Ohdio.
Other than the competition, Dona also told The Jakarta Globe that many Indonesians still resort to piracy when it comes to music.
“Last year, the Indonesian Record Industry Association [AIRI] reported that record companies may suffer potential losses of Rp. 16 billion [$1.3 million] a day due to illegal downloads by no less than 6 million people via the Internet,” she said.
“This proves that piracy is a local and global concern. Music piracy ultimately hurts record sales for the artist. Apart from being illegal, it takes a long time and is a great hassle to build a database of music from unauthorized sites. It is important that music fans have a legal and easy alternative to piracy, which is why we are happy to be able to provide our service in Indonesia.”
However, there’s another challenge which the team has to overcome: localization. Ario Tamat, an Indonesian entrepreneur and analyst writing about digital music services for tech site Daily Social, noted that while Deezer has global deals with all the international labels, yet they do not have deals with the local Indonesian labels directly. The music is obtained through an aggregator working on behalf of the Indonesian labels who is authorised to distribute to international partners, and is somehow updated less frequently.
“As far as I know they do not have a team in Indonesia, so any focus for local content would not be there yet as it requires local knowledge.”
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