Is Vinyl Dead in Indonesia?

Vinyl had its moment in the sun. In 2009, Indonesian music fans were going nuts over vinyl. They were out on Jakarta's Jalan Surabaya, the basements of Blok M, or god-knows-where searching for some long-lost kroncong classic or a super expensive Dara Puspita rare pressing.

Local bands started to release their own records, and shops like Laid Back Blues, in Pasar Santa, began to offer up some a mix of rare Indonesian classics and select imports. But according to recent surveys by Nielsen found that global sales of vinyl dropped in the first half of 2016 by some 1.2 million units over figures from the same period last year.

There are no statistics for national vinyl sales over the last five years, but the co-owner of one record store, Raja Panggabean, said sales are stable. His online-only shop, hearingeye Records, had one of its best quarters last year.

"The last quarter of 2016 was our best period," Raja said. "In one of those months, we managed to sell 100 records."

Hearingeye Records' biggest sellers are repressings and new releases from foreign bands. The shop skews heavily toward imports (two of the best selling albums last year were Blink-182's California and Frank Ocean's Blond) but it also pushes local releases on its website. Its customers like imported music, and they can afford to pay a premium for vinyl sold in U.S. dollars but priced in rupiah during a time when the currency's value is down.

But a lot of these same people who are willing to spend as much as Rp 530,000 ($39.75 USD) for a copy of Neurosis' Sun That Never Sets aren't paying Rp 420,000 ($31.50 USD) for Polka Wars' Axis Mudni double LP. The store carries both, but it actually releases the vinyl of bands like Polka Wars, Seringai, and Collapse itself.

"A lot of people buy millions of rupiah worth of imported records," Raja said. "But most of them still underestimate records put out by local bands."

At Warung Musik, one of Jakarta's biggest distros, vinyl has all been on the decline. Agus Susanto, who the Blok M record shop and Majemuk Records, is now concentrating more on CDs and cassettes—both of which continue to sell well. Agus said that he used to sell a lot more vinyl a few years ago, but explained that the trend has already started to die off at his shops.

"Actually, it's hard to sell vinyl these days,' Agus said. "The sales are just OK. Not really all that good, actually. It used to be better because hipsters buy all kinds of stuff."

Part of the problem here is that vinyl is expensive. Classic records are super rare because of limited pressings and tropical conditions that take their toll of old vinyl. A trip down Jalan Surabaya, in Central Jakarta, uncovers countless old records, but at the lesser shops the vinyl is often slightly warped and the sleeves are in less-than-ideal condition.

New releases suffer from other problems. Imported records come into Indonesia with U.S. dollar price tags and shipping costs. Even local bands suffer from import price hikes because there are no vinyl pressing plants left in Indonesia. It's because of this, to a certain extent, that cassette releases are en vogue right now.

Twin Music, which is located down the hall in Blok M, die-hard collectors are willing to drop large sums for rare Indonesian records. Vintage recordings of Koes Plus, Harry Roesly, and Guruh Gipsy fetch millions of rupiah. But newer releases can't keep up, said Twin Music owner Andi Hasan Madya.

"Some people are still looking for vinyls from the 70s—usually disco and psych," Andi said. "But if we're talking about rather new bands, records like White Shoes and the Couples Company are worth, at the most, around 1 to 2 million rupiah."

The cost is enough to make record collectors like music critic Alfendy Razdir think twice before buying something new. Today, he mostly collects CDs, seven-inches, and cassettes. Others, he said, scour forums on Kaskus and Instagram to find a good price.

"A lot of people used to let their records pile up," he said. "Now there are only a few. They took their chances."