Lokananta is the first record label of Indonesia. It was established on 29 October 1956 at Surakarta, Central Java. In the beginning of its history, its primary function was that of offering a transcription service for RRI (Radio of the Republic of Indonesia) and manufacturing phonograph records and audio cassettes for broadcast by RRI stations throughout Indonesia; the master records were produced by the various RRI facilities and then sent to Surakarta for pressing.

The word Lokananta means “Gamelan from Heaven”, was suggested by R. Maladi, the head of RRI at the time, and Surakarta was chosen because of its long history of radio broadcasting.

Lokananta has over 40,000 recordings, which include some 5,200 commercial labels, in its collection. About 20,000 recordings are without cover.

Nowadays, after the bankrupt of 2001, Lokananta is trying to renovate its image, working on the recording of new musical genres and on the re-mastering of its impressive archive on physical supports like CDs, DVDs and WAV files: nineteen people still work here and Lokananta’s main income is now the rental fee of some futsal space they were forced to create in the past three years.

Source: Wikipedia