Indosat Bets Back Digital Music Store Service Through Indosat Arena Musik

As if they still see a bright future in the Indonesian digital music industry, Indosat is reportedly pushing for a digital music store service named Indosat Music Arena. This music service from Indosat comes with a new format than before with various features and content.

Like other digital music stores, Indosat Arena Musik is a music portal that sells various song content from various musicians, both from within and outside the country. As reported by IndoTelko on 15/1, Indosat Arena Musik is actually not a new “stuff” from Indosat, formerly this service was called Indosat Backstage. The name may have changed but the services provided by Indosat Arena Musik are not really new.

By using a subscription method consisting of various packages and also a method without a subscription, Indosat Arena Musik offers a wide collection of songs that can be downloaded and can only be played through the music player application provided by Indosat itself. Indosat also said that each song can only be played on one device because it is protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). Similar to SkyMusic from Telkomsel, songs that have been downloaded cannot be moved at all.

Indosat presents song downloads in a self-developed format. In this case, Indosat itself through Hesti Diyahanita Priamsari as theDivision Head Content & Value Added Service (VAS) Indosat stated that Indosat Arena Musik was also developed to support the prevention of piracy. "This is done as Indosat's support to protect copyright and prevent piracy," he said in an official statement published by IndoTelko.

With a number of features and content offered earlier, what is the potential of Indosat Arena Musik in today's digital music industry? 10 years after Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store, which became the dominant digital music store, the world has changed a lot. Now subscription services such as Spotify, Deezer, Rdio, and others are the choice of music fans. Digital stores are starting to be abandoned by many consumers thanks to the ease and flexibility of access provided. The faster mobile internet connection allows streaming services to be easier to enjoy. The re-launch of Indosat's digital song store seems to be a very late and outdated step.

[photo illustration from: Shutterstock]

This syndicated article was first published on DailySocial and written by Avi Tejo Bhaskoro.