Pinoy iTunes launched to help combat local music piracy
Posted on January 24th, 2012 under Entertainment Success
For the same price as a typical one-day unlimited texting offer from local telcos, Filipinos can now legally download their favorite MP3 songs from OPM and international artists through a recently launched service that could rival that of Apple’s famous iTunes music store.
Dubbed the MyMusicStore, the new online music portal boasts of as much as 160,000 songs from both local and foreign acts available for download for as low as P20 up to P35.
In contrast, songs from Apple’s iTunes store cost $0.99 each, or about P42 per download.
A record number of about 12 record labels have joined forces to provide their song catalogs–both old and newly released — available for download through the website. These include Alpha Music, EMI, PolyEast Records, Universal Records and Viva & Vicor Music Corp., among others.
Artists whose songs are available through the service include foreign acts such as Rihanna, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, as well as local bands such as Slapshock, Christian Bautista and Somedaydream.
The songs, according to MyMusicStore executives, will remain free from Digital Rights Management (DRM) tags, which means a single MP3 file downloaded through the site can be copied and played in an unlimited number of devices.
According to Universal Records Executive Vice President Ramon Chuaying, the service can help a lot in the music industry’s fight against Internet piracy, to which record companies lose as much as P3 billion a year in unrealized profits.
“[Internet piracy] has done a lot of damage to the industry, particularly in declining physical sales of albums,” Chuaying said. “But with MyMusicStore, they now have a legal means to download songs through the Internet.”
In fact, Chuaying pointed out, benchmarks for record awards given to artists in the industry have been reduced over the years to respond to the declining physical record sales.
A Gold Record award, for example, was usually given to artists whose albums have reached 20,000 unit sales in the Philippines. But because of Internet piracy, the number has been reduced to 7,500 only.
With the introduction of MyMusicStore, the Universal Records executive said digital downloads will now be included in the count for these record awards.
“As of now, for every 10 song downloads, it’s equivalent to one album,” Chuaying said.
Managed by MobileCash Inc. and Rising Tide Mobile Entertainment Inc., the MyMusicStore makes it easy for users to download songs by employing a number of payment options for their downloads.
These options include online payment gateway PayPal — through which they can also transact using their own credit cards without needing to sign up for an account — as well as through their Smart mobile phones, where they payment will be deducted from their prepaid credits.
Executives said they are still in talks with Globe Telecom and Sun Cellular to offer the service through their network, as well as through LoadCentral centers nationwide.
Optical Media Board Chairman Ronnie Ricketts, who was present during the launch of the service, said such an online store could only make it easier for users — who still think Internet piracy is not an illegal act — to choose the legal way toward acquiring MP3 files of their favorite songs.
“For P20 to P30, you can now get the original songs of your favorite artists. It makes it easier for people to download in a legal way, plus it helps in promoting the local OPM industry,” Ricketts said.
(Story courtesy of J. M. Tuazon of InterAksyon.com)
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