Limits of sharing and materialization of support: Indonesian Net Label Union

ABSTRACT

The end of the 2000s saw the robust development of net labels as an internet-based distribution platform for musicians to share their music for free. The development of the Indonesian Net Label Union represents a self-organizing act to indicate the rise of a new breed of indie music generation. Sharing is employed as a uniting concept and envisioned to be a collective project to achieve a collective sustainability. It prompts direct questions of the layered support for net label. In this article, I interrogate the embodiment (and the disembodiment) of sharing as well as the meaning of sustainability. In doing so, I examine the interlinking of sharing with piracy, materialization of support from the fans’ loyalties and friendship, which forms the alternative infrastructure of the net label organization.

KEYWORDS:

• Net label
• music culture
• commons
• gotong royong
• sharing

Notes on contributor

Nuraini Juliastuti is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University. She is the co-founder of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta.

Notes

1 It is pointed out by Hill and Sen (2000) in their study of alternative music, as quoted in Baulch (2002, 222).

2 See also Nugroho (2011, 2012) to learn about the role of the internet as an important tool in advocating social movement in Indonesian NGOs activism.

3 For more details, please see the website http://creativecommons.org/.

4 Koneksi also refers to an access to individuals or a group of people of high social standing. To have such access means to have the opportunity to secure certain advantages and bypass formal bureaucracies at once. To have connection is associated with corruption, collusion, and nepotism. The popularity of “KKN,” an abbreviation for Korupsi, Kolusi, dan Nepotisme indicates that the corrupt connection is rampant. During the New Order era, “KKN” was emblematic of the Soeharto regime.