It's Arts and Cultural Management

 I can’t believe it!

Bahkan di h-3 minggu kelulusan, masiiiihh aja ada orang yang salah mengira jurusan kuliah gw. This is insane!

Gw itu sering banget dikira jurusan Global Media and Communication (GMC) atau Communication and Media Studies (CMS). Rata-rata orang yang tau gw kuliah jurusan Ilmu Komunikasi waktu S1 atau orang yang tau kalo dulu gw kerja sebagai jurnalis, pasti mengira gw kuliah jurusan GMC atau CMS~

Mungkin karena branding jurnalis gw terlalu kuat.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love being known/called a journalist. I was a proud journalist and I still think journalist is the most awesome job in the world.

Sayangnya, kecintaan gw pada dunia jurnalisme ini tidak cukup memotivasi gw untuk mendalami ilmu jurnalisme, studi media, atau semacamnya. Karena di samping mencintai dunia jurnalisme, gw juga main hati sama dunia entertainment—sebuah dunia yang udah gw suka sejak kecil dan selama ini hanya bisa mengamati dari jauh, dari kacamata seorang jurnalis. Tapi belum pernah gw masuki sebelumnya. Walaupun sudah sering bermimpi untuk bisa masuk ke dalamnya.

Keputusan gw untuk ambil jurusan yang beda banget sama ilmu komunikasi/jurnalisme untuk S2 salah satunya dimotivasi oleh hal tersebut. Menuntut ilmu lain supaya bisa mengantarkan gw masuk dunia entertainment. Bukan sebagai artis, tapi lebih ke orang di balik layar yang bantu-bantu sepak terjang artis atau artwork atau produk entertainment atau whatever you wanna call it. 

To manage them, making sure to give them platforms to express themselves. To be heard, to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be appreciated.

Demikian, gw, seperti majority orang Indonesia pada umumnya, mengambil jurusan manajemen untuk S2 (yes, jurusan gw kalo di Indo gelarnya setara dengan Magister Manajemen atau MM).

Sounds conservative? Indeed, tapi manajemen yang gw ambil spesifik untuk satu industri, yakni arts and culture. Karena menurut gw percuma mempelajari ilmu manajemen secara general untuk S2. Itu tugas S1~

Mempelajari manajemen khusus industri seni dan budaya membuat pemahaman dan pemikiran gw lebih terarah. Pengaplikasian teori yang tersedia bisa lebih tepat sasaran dan sesuai dengan perkembangan dan kebutuhan industri.

In conclusion, I know what I wanna do and what I wanna be. To be specific, I wanna take on a management role in entertainment industry—which is part of arts and cultural industry. That’s why I took arts and cultural management—literally, that is the name of my course.

I studied Arts and Cultural Management (manajemen seni dan budaya) and will be graduating in couple of weeks.

So, jangan salah lagi, ya. :)

Unemployment Rant #3

Holygoodness~

I never thought I would be in the position that I need to write this kind of blogpost again. To give you a context, I used to write posts with “Unemployment Rant” as the title which basically as obvious as it sounds, it’s about me ranting during the time I am unemployed.

Terakhir gw nulis Unemployment Rant itu 6 tahun yang lalu, literally abis lulus kuliah S1 gw jobless sekitar 5 bulan, eh 3 bulan deng, WAIT~ Gw lulus bulan Mei, tapi baru wisuda Agustus, mulai kerja di XXXXX bulan Oktober. Nah, gimana tuh perhitungannya? Berapa bulan gw jobless?

Well intinya selama sekian bulan jobless, sambil nyebar CV dan dipanggil interview sana sini, gw tentu merasakan unnecessary anxiety yang kalo cuma dipendem dalam hati/pikiran bisa bikin gw meledak dan depresi. So, gw ngeblog.

Yang diomongin aneh2 deh, mulai dari hobi baru (last time it was makeup~ wtf!), review Korean drama super shitty yang lagi gw tonton (like I knew it’s shit but still gave good review anyway~ wtf~), pikiran2 dan ide2 ajaib yang bermuncul karena anxiety itu (bisa tiba2 mengarang puisi dalam bahasa Inggris yang acak kadut ga jelas mau ngomong apa~ wtf~), nyinyirin temen2 yang udah kerja duluan (in other words being an ass just to avoid feeling down about myself~ wtf~), random deh pokoknya~

Ya seperti isi blog ini pada umumnya sih, tapi lebih ga terarah, angle-nya berantakan~

Begitulah kalo jobless, my friends. You start to make no sense of everything~ It’s like you can’t get yourself together~ Your mind is isolated~ Your morale is sapped~ Your time is no longer structured.

Yes, you have so much free time for Netflix and chillin, goin outside and hangin out, but with limited money??? How far can you go?

You also have to deal with initial shock, depression, and adjustment on daily basis, and THE WORSE THING is: IT FEELS LIKE FOREVER!!!!!

Asli ya gw kalo look back kayaknya baru less than two weeks ago I started sending out CVs and stuffs, I know prosesnya akan lama, I’ve been there before, I know exactly how long the process is, tapi masya aulohhh it feels like forever~~~

Stressful and frustrating. Dua kata paling tepat untuk menggambarkan job-seeking. That’s why sejak gw keterima kerjaan pertama tahun 2011 itu, I basically didn’t give myself a break. Hampir ga ada celah pengangguran di hidup gw sepanjang 2011-2016. Hanya 1-2 hari off setelah resign dari XXXXX dan sebelum mulai di WKWKWK, dan sekitar 1 bulan sebelum berangkat ke Melbourne which is ga bisa dibilang nganggur juga karena harus urus settlement di Melbourne. Other than that, it’s all about kerja, kerja, kerja.

I LOVE KERJA! Or just the fact that ada sesuatu yang bisa dikerjakan. Kerja keeps me sane. Poin plus kalo kerjaan itu stabil, full time, di bawah naungan sebuah institusi, dan memberikan benefit tambahan. Lebih plus lagi kalo gw bisa mengerjakan apa yang gw suka.

Sometimes life can be very funny. Waktu baru lulus S1 dan keterima kerja untuk pertama kalinya, the first thing I had in mind on the first day of employment was “God I miss being a student~”. But then ketika mulai kuliah S2, di hari pertama kuliah, yang terbesit di pikiran gw adalah “oh my God mendingan kerja kemana-mana deh~”.

Intinya manusia ga pernah puas, itu aja sih.

Ini gw sebenernya mau ngomong apa sih di postingan ini??

Well just to give you updates about me life. I’ve just done with postgraduate, now waiting for my graduation next month, and then I’ll go home right after. Belum ada tanggal pasti karena result gw ada yang belum keluar. Prosedurnya adalah as soon as result keluar, gw harus lapor ke yang mulia pemberi beasiswa, kemudian mereka akan issue tiket pulang gw.

Idealnya, gw pulang setelah Natal tapi sebelum tahun baru, which is sekitar tanggal 26-30 Desember. Tapi jika ada satu dan lain hal yang memungkinkan gw untuk pulang lebih cepat, I can definitely go home sooner. Point is, as soon as I get confirmation about the return date, I will let you guys know so y’all can prepare me a red carpet in Terminal 3 Ultimate! Wkwk~

Gosh that terminal looks super awesome, ya~ I probably spend 1-2 hours to IG stories the fuck out of it when I arrive~ Wkwkwk~

In the meantime menuju kepulangan, kesibukan gw yang lain adalah belanja oleh-oleh untuk orang2 terdekat, packing barang2 yang akan dikargoin, menyelesaikan unfinished business gw di Melbourne aka kerja part time, ngejual2in/menghibahkan barang2 gw yang masih layak pakai, bikin financial planning sampai hari H kepulangan, bikin day-to-day event planning sampai hari H kepulangan, mengejar ilmu gratisan lewat free seminar/workshop/discussion, dan ngabisin jatah Netflix karena harus unsubscribe by the end of this month. I still have The Punisher (besok kelar) and Mindhunter on top of my priorities. Kalo ada usulan series apalagi yang harus gw tonton boleh komen di bawah.

A’ite! Nice to catch up witcha!

Laters!

Such a NERD!

Hi, guys! Wassup!

So, seminggu sudah hidup gw diacak-acak Stranger Things. Thank you, Netflix. Lo bikin gw menghilang dari peradaban. Literally ngomongin ST melulu baik di kehidupan nyata maupun di internet. Setiap malem binge-watching diulang2. Mulai dari Joyce-Will focus, Mike-Eleven focus, Hopper focus, Demodogs-Mind Flayer Focus, Dustin-Steve focus, Hawkins Lab focus, etc.. Diulang2 terus sampai gw bener2 dapet konteksnya sehingga bisa memahami jalur cerita dengan baik dan benar.

Sekarang sudah mencapai level menuju bosan, tapi insya auloh khatam luar dalam dari segi cerita, dan siap di-argue dari segala angle. So, shoot! :D

Anyway, yang mau gw omongin sekarang bukan itu. Postingan ini juga bukan untuk review Stranger Things 2, karena kalo udah masuk review gw bisa nulis essay panjang lebar that nobody will read, so I keep it simple, mau ambil satu angle aja.

So, gw baru selesai semester 3 alias semester terakhir gw di dunia perkuliahan yang fana ini. Yes, I did it, guys! But no need to congratulate me coz it wasn’t anything special. Just prepare yourself to see me next month. We gon have fun!

Anywaaay~~ 

So yeah I just finished semester 3 and all the assignments, meaning otak gw sekarang lagi fresh2-nya mengingat dan mengerti semua materi kuliah Semester 3. Stranger Things 2 dirilis pas banget barengan sama berakhirnya Semester 3 itu, meaning ketika gw nonton, otak gw lagi dalam posisi super nerd, so I can’t help but connecting some of the show materials to what I have learned during Semester 3.

So I studied this subject called Managing Creative Content that is basically the continuation of Arts Law which I studied in Semester 2 (wrote about it here). Deskripsi resmi matakuliah itu sebagai berikut:

This subject examines the practical legal aspects of the management of intellectual property in the area of creative production. The focus is on contracts and copyright in a range of specific arts and cultural contexts. These include film and multimedia production and distribution, fashion and design, the commissioning and production of public art, the creation and presentation of performing arts; the management of museum and gallery collections and the administration of artistic and literary estates. (Unimelb Handbook, 2017)

Kata kuncinya:

-       Legal

-       Intellectual Property

-       Contracts

-       Copyrights

Assignment untuk matakuliah ini adalah 5000-words case study essay, dimana kita diminta untuk memilih salah satu bentuk creative practice dan menganalisis peran intellectual property di dalamnya:

Drawing on the readings and additional research, analyse the role that intellectual property rights play in one or more areas of creative practice referred to in the course.

For that assignment, or for my every case study assignment to be exact, I always use my favorite things approach to do it. Meaning gw akan memilih hal-hal yang gw suka untuk gw analisis. Kenapa? 1) Supaya proses mengerjakannya lebih menyenangkan, 2) Supaya along the way gw bisa discover awesome things yang bisa jadi bekal pengetahuan kalo gw berkarier di dunia yang berhubungan dengan my favorite things someday (amien~~), 3) Supaya gw ngerjainnya ga cuma pake otak, tapi juga pake hati.

Doing things that you love simply gives you no pressure, only motivation. #SeetaTheWise

So what’s my favorite things? That’s easy, it’s music and movie. So for that assignment, I decided to include both of them and named my essay:

Intellectual Property Rights for Music and

How They Help Musicians Explore Their Works Commercially in Films

I basically talk about any kinds of music exploitation (it’s good term in law by the way) in a movie, for example as a soundtrack, scoring, adaptation (cover song), and how the musicians got paid for those, and how if they decide to make an album off, how’s the royalties, how’s the license, what rights each party has, such as what rights the musicians have, what rights the record labels have, how copyrights works, which area copyrights don’t protect, etc…

Sounds epic, right? Well, it’s epic for me and my lecturer at least, coz I got a freaking 90 from that! H FUCKING 1, BABY!!!! So I don’t care if you think my essay sounds lame~ I was certified H1 from Australian #1 University, your opinion doesn’t deserve me giving fucks~ LOLOLOLOL~~

So, what does it have anything to do with Stranger Things?

Here’s the thing, I am referring to this one particular scene.

The Snowball.

Let’s just not focus on the kids or the ball. I know they were cute as hell. But instead, let’s pay attention to the underlying music that accompanied the scene a.k.a the song.

If you recognize the song as The Police’s Every Breath You Take, congratulation! You can conquer two generations within two decades! :D

I don’t mean you’re old, but more like your knowledge is so extensive that you can recognize the original version of the song!

I mean, me, myself was failing so hard in this department. When I first heard the song on the show, I recognized the tune and I was like… “Whoa, wait, what is Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You doing over here?”

LOL~ I know~ So embarrassing, right? I don’t even know that song was The Police’s at the first place~ I was like, this can’t be happening, they seriously can’t make this huge mistake~ I mean, how come they didn’t know I’ll Be Missing You was released in 1997, while the event in Stranger Things took place in 1984???

But don’t worry, instead of quickly roasting and calling out The Duffer Brothers or Shawn Levy on social media, I decided to do the right thing. I jumped on the curiosity voyage (GOD WHAT A BEAUTIFUL TERM I LOVE YOU DUFFER BROTHERS!) and googled it up.

There I had it. Finally. The truth revealed.

I’m just gonna go fuck myself now.

LOL~

Anyway, just a bit about the song, Every Breath You Take by The Police. It was released in 1983, so it was contextual, very relevant, and perfect for the 1984 snowball scene. It was written by Sting and it is about him cheating on his wife with her best friend who lived next door to them~ What the fuck? LOL~

So now that I know the provenance of the song, my nerdy post-assignment self kicks in. I am curious about what’s gonna happen to Sting after the song being played in Stranger Things 2. Moreover, Wikipedia says Sting owns the publishing royalties, which means 100% royalty-nya adalah milik dia, ga dibagi ke performing rights organization yang biasa berfungsi untuk ngumpulin royalty, seperti ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) atau BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc), and… (kalau dugaan gw benar) ga dibagi ke record label-nya juga.

Start to feel your head spinnin? Well if you’re not into music and movie, don’t continue reading coz I’m gonna spin you even faster!

Technically, kalo sebuah lagu dijadikan soundtrack film atau TV show, produser harus punya master use license atau master license lagu tersebut. Master license memberikan produser hak untuk menggunakan versi original sound recording lagu itu (versi rekaman asli yang biasa ada di CD atau iTunes).

Untuk mendapatkan license ini, ada license fee yang harus dibayar. On top of that ada juga royalty yang harus dibayar sesuai dengan berapa kali lagu itu disiarkan. Well, ga cuma itu sih, royalty juga ditentukan oleh beberapa faktor lain, seperti:

1) The length of the song that is being aired

2) Whether it is vocal or instrument or vocal+instrument (harganya lain)

3) When the TV show airs (what day, prime time or not)

4) Which TV station airs the TV show (bigger station higher royalty payment)

Just FYI, those points only apply if the production airs on TV or is shown in movie theatres OUTSIDE THE U.S. For example, My Heart Will Go On-nya Celine Dion, kalau filmnya ditayangin di TV Amrik, TV Amrik ga usah bayar royalty. Tapi kalau Titanic ditayangin di RCTI, maka RCTI harus bayar royalty.

Balik lagi ke Stranger Things. If Stranger Things is aired on TV, it is easy to determine how much the royalty will cost if we refer to those points. The thing is Stranger Things is aired on Netflix, yang adalah global streaming service. Bisa ditonton berkali-kali di belahan dunia manapun.

So how much will Sting earn from licensing his song to a Netflix show?

Mungkin beliau ga dapet royalty dari orang2 yang binge-watch Stranger Things di US, but how about worldwide? Gimana perhitungannya?

There’s no air-time limitation. There’s no prime time. There’s no advertisement.

So how do they decide on the royalty cost?

And I heard that they made a soundtrack album off the show as well, which mean labelnya Sting, atau maybe Sting sendiri harus mengeluarkan mechanical license. But if that’s the case, how about the album that is being streamed on Spotify? I know Spotify has created Stranger Things gimmick for people who stream Stranger Things OST. How is the scheme giving back royalties to Sting?

Interesting, isn’t it?

This is hella interesting for me~ I wish I could just fly to the UK and ask Sting personally~ But I can’t~

But I already jumped on the curiosity voyage, there’s no turning back, this thirst for knowledge needs to be satisfied~ I NEED MY GODDAMN PADDLE~ LOL~

So, bertanyalah gw ke teman2 sejurusan di Whatsapp Chat. Kira-kira percakapannya begini:

Gw: Guys, udah pada nonton Stranger Things 2 belum?

Friend 1 (F1): Belum.

Friend 2 (F2): Belum.

Friend 3 (F3): Udah, kenape?

*japri F3*

Gw: Have you finished all the episodes?

F3: Yeah~

Gw: Did you catch The Police’s song in the last episode?

F3: Err.. Yeah I think so~

Gw: Do you think Sting gets royalties off that?

F3: Huh?

Gw: I mean he owns the whole publishing rights and he licensed his song.

F3: Oh yeah.. then.. maybe~

Gw: How much do you think he gets?

F3: Err.. Millions of dollar..

Gw: But this isn’t a television, it’s a streaming service~ There’s no air-time limitation. There’s no prime time. There’s no advertisement. How do they decide on the number?

F3: I have no idea, man~ Honestly, I won’t bother to think about that shit~

Gw: But you really do think he will get royalties?

F3: Yeah that’s what I said~

Gw: Like every single time the show being streamed he will get royalties?

F3: Yeah..

Gw: Including rerun? Like if I watch the show again..

F3: Yeah.. maybe~

Gw: So if I watch the show three times, technically I give him the royalty three times as well?

F3: Maybe, dude~ I don’t know~

Gw: But how do they count on that royalty? I only pay $10 per month~

F3: I don’t know, man~ I don’t work for Netflix~ Gosh~

Gw: Do you think within my $10, there is 0,0000000000001% Sting’s royalty?

F3: I DON’T KNOW, MAN~ OH MY GOD~ YOU ARE SUCH A NERD~

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OKAY~

~THE END~