The country's music industry is colored by musicians with a variety of voices and varied genres.
The more choices that are given to the public, the more musicians are required to be able to stand out amidst the competition. At the very least, there should be special features that can be highlighted from his work. Kukuh Rizal, an entrepreneur who came from the corporate sector, has succeeded in proving his ability to shake up the music industry by introducing authentic collaborations of musicians. Evidently, tickets for their first showcase, Here Comes The Sun, were sold out in just a matter of hours.
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It may sound sentimental, but Kukuh Rizal believed that life is short. In order to be remembered well, Kukuh Rizal felt he needed to do something meaningful, something that could benefit many people. One of them is by opening job opportunities that can provide income for many people.
Apart from that, by running his own business, Kukuh Rizal also believes he can build a quality network. That is what he considers to be one of the things that motivated him to become an entrepreneur. Therefore, his failure to become an entrepreneur has been his biggest fear all this time. That fear, if we look at it from a positive perspective, should be able to motivate us too.
With a fine arts education background, Kukuh Rizal enriched himself with knowledge and knowledge in business. The simplest way, which actually everyone can do, is to learn about it through articles. One of the articles that Kukuh chose was how a company as big as Disney developed its business; how a character can be transformed in various mediums, not just ending on the screen. This gave rise to a term that Kukuh Rizal called sparkling imagination, or an explosion that inspired many people, including himself.
As an effort to enrich his creativity, Kukuh Rizal also admitted to learning many things from the animation One Piece, one of the best fictional shows in Japanese history. In One Piece, world building is explored very extensively. World building is character development that is not only varied, but also equipped with serious details.
Starting from the inspiration that Kukuh Rizal got from several of these articles, plus the influence of his networking with Double Deer and business model inspiration from Radiohead, Kukuh Rizal then built a record label which he named Sun Eater, whose first showcase ticket, Here's Comes The Sun, was successful. sold out in a matter of hours. How did Kukuh Rizal achieve such success?
Don't be afraid to make mistakes
Throughout his career, Kukuh Rizal often experimented with his own formula. The stages are like this; he processes the ideas he gets, then consults with seniors and business consultants, before pitching them to investors. To get validation regarding the pattern he has planned. Of course, patterns and plans are not always correct. However, Kukuh Rizal was not afraid of making mistakes. This experiment proved successful in bringing him success in holding Here's Comes The Sun.
Kukuh Rizal's first stage in working on Sun Eater was to gather musicians with a variety of different colors. The musicians are Feast, Hindia, Aldrian Risjad, Mothern, and Agatha Pricilla. Kukuh Rizal succeeded in capturing the uniqueness of each and combining them into an authentic performance. The showcase which was held in August, preparations began in March.
In such a short time, the efforts put in by Kukuh Rizal still gave maximum results. The majority of songs presented by each musician represent events that we experience every day, and this creates intimate and personal feelings. Experience is the main thing that Kukuh Rizal offers in its first showcase.
Kukuh Rizal was assisted by a team of Sun Eaters, which means people with habits like nocturnal creatures; literate and active at night, sleeping during the day. From a business perspective, Sun Eater is a media brand. During the 2020 pandemic, Sun Eater could be said to be safe from financial challenges even though offline projects were generally canceled.
Because, Kukuh Rizal had secured cash flow for the previous year. The pandemic also only affected Sun Eater's offline plans, but its online content is still running smoothly. The proof is, one of the jingles they produced was used by one of the providers to broadcast TVCs for 3 months during Ramadan.
The decisions that Kukuh Rizal takes in his business journey may not always be correct, in theory. However, as long as the mistake is still reasonable and possible to make, especially if it still provides the calculated benefits, then the decision is correct.
Want to be remembered as a teacher
Kukuh Rizal said that as a long-term plan, he hopes that 60% of Sun Eater's income can be collected from franchise results, because Kukuh Rizal has already created a concept for which partners he has the opportunity to work with. Starting from head to toe fashion activists to partners from the technology sector. Meanwhile, for short term plans, they plan to publish their work in book form through collaboration with Gramedia, to broadcast documentaries with Netflix / iFlix.
How Kukuh Rizal managed to achieve so many achievements in a short time, Kukuh Rizal admits that he spends a lot of his time playing around. In fact, the optimal time to work with the Sun Eater team every day is only 3 to 4 hours, from 1 pm to 4 or 5 pm. The rest, while they were playing around, they were also brainstorming in an informal way. It was during those times that great ideas often emerged, and then they were realized. The important thing, Kukuh Rizal said again, is that we have to do something we like.
Returning to his dream at the beginning, Kukuh Rizal wanted to be remembered as a teacher. That was one of the reasons that encouraged him to form Sun Eater. What this means is not a professional teacher, but someone who imparts knowledge to other people, whatever the form of delivery. To this day, Kukuh Rizal is still learning from many people. What he consistently does is implement what he has learned into reality. No one taught him the formula for whether a song would be successful or not, but Kukuh Rizal still made it happen. Rizal was firm and never gave up. Always open your ears to people's input.
That is also Kukuh Rizal's advice for young musicians who want to start a career by composing songs. Each song has its own market, our job is to find a way to connect the song with its listeners. Sometimes, we also need to be reckless and see where our recklessness takes us. It's good if it works. If you fail, it will be a valuable lesson.