Finally. A long last gasp for current situation at iTunes Indonesia Store. After becoming the only country in Southeast Asia that was left out from obtaining ability the download music and film, we can confirm that today iTunes users in Indonesia are able to buy their favorite music tunes and films. The price ranges from Rp 5000 to 7000 (50 cent to 70 cent Dollar) for music (and ringtones), while one album may cost Rp 45.000 to Rp 65.000 ($4.7 – $6.8). A full download of The Raid movie in HD quality is set at Rp 149.000 ($15.5).
One that is left out in this party is Book section, as we are still only seeing free books offered in iBooks. There are some Indonesian artists and their songs among more than 20 million listed in iTunes database and it will be a new channel for local artists to promote their creativity. Hopefully it would help creative people in this area in the battle against piracy, where Indonesia’s rank is notoriously among top ten (if not better) in the world.
In other side, digital music industry has already directed into two big business model. This first one is full download services, where iTunes is the king, and the other one is online streaming with monthly subscription — Spotify and Deezer are among the latter. Deezer has already available in Indonesia since October with $5.99 per month scheme for unlimited access in mobile and desktop.
Which scheme will be getting better support (and more usages) from Indonesian customers? We hope the overall winner is Indonesia’s creative people in this industry that be able to shift their business model towards digital era.
