Indonesian Netlabels Compilations

Indonesian Netlabel Union conduct collective action to widely introduce the existence of Indonesian netlabels. The first step begins with a series of compilation albums released simultaneously on January 1st, 2011. The participants are five active netlabels including Hujan! Rekords, Inmyroom Records, StoneAge Records, Mindblasting and Yes No Wave Music. The materials in these compilations are songs taken from singles or albums which released for free and legal through netlabel, webzine, official website, and free-hosting website.

The netlabel phenomenon in Indonesia started widely by Yes No Wave Music in 2007. However, its existence is traceable marked by Tsefula/Tsefuelha Records in 2004 as a self-released label for indie-rock band Shorthand Phonetics. At the beginning of its presence, Tsefula/Tsefuelha Records created by the Ababil Ashari in Canada before returning to Indonesia in 2006. Then in 2008 to 2010, several other netlabel had appeared from various cities in Indonesia such as Invasi Records, Reload Your Stereo, Stone Well Sounds Records, Inmyroom Records, Hujan! Rekords, Mindblasting and StoneAge Records. The popularity of these netlabels is supported by articles about Yes No Wave Music in many mainstream media, and in a book entitled "Music Biz: A Smart Survival Guide in the Music Business Jungle", written by Wendi Putranto and published by Rolling Stone Magazine Indonesia.

As a country that has a high level of music piracy, file-sharing method which implemented by the netlabel, have helped to decrease the practice of piracy. One example is Frau's mini album entitled "Starlit Carousel" released for free by Yes No Wave Music and then the physical version, in CD format, with the same song material released by Cakrawala Records in the box with a unique and affordable prices. In 3 months, the album had been downloaded 3,000 times and CD version sold over 1000 copies (the sales are good enough for a newcomer artist and without the promotion support in the media). This has proved that album which is distributed for free does not always reduce the sales value of its physical version, and until recently (6 months) has not found a pirated version of the CD. For that, a network representing netlabels which aims to socialize to a wider audience is needed. After releasing a collective compilation album, Indonesian Netlabel Union would organize some other action such as festival.