Video Content Distribution Platform Pitchplay Offers New Monetization Tool in Music Industry

The music industry is one of the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The government's policy to establish health protocols including the Treatment of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) caused the performing arts to come to a complete halt. No concerts offline as well as restrictions in social interaction in fact greatly affect the activities of musicians.

One of the musicians, Febrian Nindyo Purbowiseso, known as Febrian HIVI, said that around 55 percent of Indonesian musicians have now sold their musical instruments to survive during the Covid-19 pandemic. This figure was obtained when conducting a survey with the Federation of Indonesian Musicians Union (Fesmi) to 186 people, in the working area for DKI Jakarta and West Java.

Over time, the music industry began to rise with innovations created through digital platforms. Then, with strict health protocols and the rest of the offline shows began to be held again but more turned to virtual. Even so, not a few musicians admit that it is difficult to monetize their work virtually. One of the players who tried to offer a solution to this problem was pitchplay. co.

Pitchplay Co-Founder & CEO Fauzan Rezda revealed that currently the existence of Indonesian musicians is being shaken. Apart from live performance which is one of the main sources of income for musicians, significantly reduced during the pandemic, but also polemics revenue models pada digital music streaming which only favors large-scale musicians.

Through Pitchplay, Fauzan and his team are committed to providing a sustainable revenue model for musicians without replacing revenue models that existed before.

New monetization tool in the music industry

The first pitchplay was founded in June 2020 by three founder, namely Fauzan Rezda as CEO, Egi Purwana as CTO, and Daus Gonia as CMO. The platform was officially released in October 2020.

He also revealed that the idea behind the formation of Pitchplay was the desire to create a business model that would allow musicians to earn money revenue streams not only from the finished product (song work) but also from the creative process in the form of video content and directly to fans, not dependent on sponsors/brands.

Currently, Pitchplay has 3 features namely rent-to-view, bundles, and support. Its main features are rent-to-view, which allows musicians to sell video content directly to fans. Once paid, fans can watch unlimited content for 7 days and Pitchplay will only charge musicians a discount per transaction.

Whereas for bundle, musicians can sell more than one content or with merchandise. In addition, there are also features support which allows fans to provide support in the form of money as well as messages to their favorite musicians.

At first glance it may look no different from other content distribution platforms like YouTube or the like. However, one of the mortal enemies of musicians is piracy or piracy. Meanwhile, virtual content that is distributed for free through digital platforms is very vulnerable to piracy issues. In this case, Pitchplay also offers a platform for musicians to distribute works comfortably and safely from the threat of piracy.

In terms of technology, his team claimed to have implemented several supporting technologies to meet content security standards, such as DRM, third party blocker download, as well Watermarking to prevent piracy. "We believe that piracy cannot be 100% eliminated, but it can be optimized in terms of both prevention and control," added Fauzan

Referring to Article 3 of PP 56/2021 which states that anyone can use songs and or music in the form of commercial public services with a record that they must pay royalties to the creator, copyright holder and or the owner of the related rights.

For the content itself, the team also carries out a curation process that will be displayed on the platform. If the content and quality of the content is deemed irrelevant, then the content will not be raised or immediately removed take down.

As a platform that has a B2B2C model, Pitchplay focuses on artist acquisition as a content provider. To support the acquisition strategy, the team has also conducted several educational programs either directly to artists or through programs on social media.

Challenges and opportunities

So far, Pitchplay's analysis and preliminary theses show that market adoption is fairly good even with small marketing costs. However, there are several challenges that arise, one of which is that many fans don't even have an account yet e-wallet or m-banking for payment. Therefore, in addition to OVO and GoPay, this platform also provides payments via Alfamart.

From the user's point of view, Pitchplay admits that the enthusiasm is quite strong even from segments that were previously unpredictable. The power of exclusivity and content type are still the main factors for users to buy content.

According to Fauzan, the potential for paid content itself is still very large and continues to grow in Indonesia. The key is how to reach a promising target market not only in terms of quality but also quantity.

"This is what makes us focus on music, because for us music is something that is close to the target market in Indonesia, especially when we talk about the millennial and millennial segments. second-tier cities, which is a very large number," he said.

In the country's music industry, there are already several platforms that also offer revenue addition to musicians. One of which is GoPlay Live which have been customized in such a way as to offer an experience real-time through the platform. In addition, there is also an application Structure which enables virtual concerts using Augmented Reality technology.

In addition, the challenge that then arises is the difficulty of musicians to create new content, constrained by creative or funding problems. This platform is also preparing a solution to this problem through several features that will be released in the future.

Future goals

Despite the challenges that arose, this service received quite a positive response from musicians. Fauzan also mentioned that there were even requests from other industries besides music that had the same problems and needs.

There are currently 43 artists registered on Pitchplay with 20 exclusive content and that number continues to grow as discussions with several artists are still ongoing. Regarding the users themselves, there are currently more than 3.500 active registered users. Several well-known bands have displayed exclusive content on Pitchplay such as Mocca (Mocca's Valentine Special), Burgerkill (25th Annivesary Virtual Concert), also The SIGIT (Footnote: The SIGIT - Behind the Stage) and others.

Since its establishment, Pitchplay has run its operational activities bootstrapping. This year, his team admitted that they had succeeded in obtaining the first external funding, but for now, the names of investors and the amount could not be revealed.

Through music, this platform is sure to reach untapped a market that has not been optimally touched. His team also conducted a survey which showed that 4 out of 5 paid Pitchplay users made their first purchase of digital content on Pitchplay. Previously they had never subscribed/purchased digital content including services music streaming/ VOD.

In addition to positioning its platform that focuses on music, Pitchplay is also trying to provide a 360° service for musicians who can not only sell paid content, but also provide fanengagement through several new features to come.

Currently, Pitchplay is said to be preparing to release mobile app and some new features. "Through these new features, our focus will remain on strengthening the solution sustainable revenue model for musicians and also provides a more enjoyable experience for users," added Fauzan.