TEMPO.CO, Jakarta- The Indonesian Recording Industry Association (ASIRI) said that the industry loses up to Rp8.4 trillion each year from illegal downloading.

ASIRI general manager Ventha Lesmana said that every year, 2.8 billion songs are downloaded by Indonesians through illegal sites.

"It causes huge losses to all parties involved in the music industry," Ventha said in Jakarta, Thursday, October 12.

ASIRI, he said, oversees 80 record industries in Indonesia of which 77 are local recording companies.

He said the government must block the illegal downloading sites because it suffocates the national music industry. Ventha also spoke of the importance of having an Infringing Website List (IWL) program, which aims to reduce pirate sites from garnering advertising revenue.

The program, he argued, can curb piracy sites and protect music and movies' copyrights. So far, more than 300 piracy sites have been blocked.

"The best thing for the music industry is to hear songs through legal streaming sites," he said, remarking that the digital music industry only gets 14 percent of profits due to the high rate of piracy.

IMAM HAMDI