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View all search resultsIndie musicians make a living from everything but music
Three Indonesian independent musicians with growing audiences on Spotify share a common reality: streaming does not pay the bills, so they built something else that does
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Growing roots: Enamore drummer Ezra Adinugroho stands among orchid plants on June 3 at DD Orchid Nursery in Batu, East Java. (JP/Puti Cinintya Arie Safitri)
Contributor/Bekasi, West Java
On a weekday morning in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Wendra irons his shirt, packs his bag and arrives at his government desk at the usual hour.
By most measures, his band, Murphy Radio, is doing well. The math-rock trio draws 226,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. They have toured China. A government creative economy program commissioned a music video for their song "Graduation Song." None of that changes the morning routine.
"Everything I do basically comes down to, just keep going. Nothing is forced," said Wendra, the guitarist and vocalist of Murphy Radio. "Nobody saw this coming. Murphy ended up with this many shows and this many listeners, especially with how fast things moved in 2026."
Wendra is not an exception. Across Indonesia's independent music scene, the gap between a band's visibility and its members' actual income is wide enough that nearly everyone has learned to live on the other side of it.
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