Word gets around

Sun, 11/01/2009 11:57 AM  |  Music

A music journalist travels nationwide to promote his book. Somehow, the atmosphere is just awesome.

Wendi Putranto from Rolling Stone Indonesia might be surprised to see that his book was so well-received by the public. His debut Music Biz: A Smart Survival Guide to Survive in the Music Business Jungle was just released a few weeks ago.

The book is a collection of his articles which appeared in the Music Biz column of the Rolling Stone. He writes articles regularly for the column.

To support the promotional campaign, the magazine held workshops and discussions about the music business in some cities in Java and Bali, put them on high profile campuses in cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Jogjakarta, Denpasar, Malang, and Semarang.

Halfway through, the workshops and discussions gather an average of five hundred people in each city they visit. It was way beyond his and his team's expectation.

"The least amount of attendants was 400, the maximum was 700. It was surely beyond my expectation. Come on, it's a seminar. It should be boring," Wendi chuckles.

"If you happen to be one of the participants at those workshops, you will get that positive vibe. We have a good future, our music industry, I mean. Everyone's boring, I guess," he adds enthusiastically.

Wendi and his guest panelists also found another interesting fact.

"From around 2,500 people who came *to the event*, there's no single person without a pirated CD in their home. Can you imagine that? No wonder we hear that 96 percent of our market is filled with pirated stuff," he said.

He said this interesting but sad fact is one of the reasons why he wants to travel around and share his thoughts about the music industry.

"With this book, I want to educate people. I want to contribute to the development of people in this industry. Actually we have good resources," says Wendi who also runs the biggest Indonesian new wave band, The Upstairs.

This road show meets its expectation. Even the book itself sold around 100 copies on the road. It's a good number; the book's price is quite expensive for students' shallow pockets.

With this kind of enthusiasm, just like Wendi says, we all should believe that promising future in our local music industry is waiting ahead. If you want to contact Wendi, he's on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wenzrawk.

- Felix Dass

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