If your work is not in SILM, you don't get paid. A short explainer of Indonesia's central music database, who runs it, and how foreign catalogues plug in.
SILM — Sistem Informasi Lagu dan Musik — is the single national database of musical works, ownership, and royalty transactions in Indonesia. It was created under Government Regulation 56/2021 and is the operational backbone of every royalty distribution in the country.
What SILM contains
- Title, ISWC, and metadata of each composition.
- List of authors with split percentages (sum = 100%).
- Linked recordings (with ISRCs), performers, and producers.
- Publisher and CMO assignment per work.
- History of distributions allocated to each work.
How works enter SILM
Works enter SILM via:
- Direct submission by the rights holder (with login credentials).
- Submission by their CMO (WAMI, KCI, RAI, ARDI, SELMI, SMI).
- Submission by a publishing administrator acting under a power of attorney.
Why it matters: distribution gating
LMKN distributes collected royalties based on usage data matched against SILM. If a play is reported but the corresponding ISWC/ISRC is not in SILM, the royalty cannot be allocated — it sits in the unmatched pool.
For foreign catalogues, SILM is the most common point of failure. Reciprocal agreements between CMOs deliver royalty flow, but the matching happens at the SILM layer. Without a SILM entry, the reciprocal route can leak.
SILM vs the global infrastructure
| Layer | System | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| National Indonesia | SILM | Distribution within Indonesia |
| Global authors | CISAC ISWC-Net | Composition matching across CMOs worldwide |
| Global recordings | IFPI / ISRC / DDEX | Master recording identification & reporting |
| US mechanical | MLC | Streaming mechanical in the US |
A complete metadata strategy ensures the same work is consistently identified across all four layers.
What to do. Whether you register with WAMI/KCI directly or through a publishing administrator, ask explicitly: "Is my catalogue ingested into SILM, with ISWC matched and splits confirmed?" Anything less is leakage.