By Joy Festin and Katherine Lopez, Special to The Manila Times
May 20, 2008
Digital downloads are the future of the music industry. In the US, 48 percent of teenagers did not purchase a single CD in 2007and 37 percent of consumers own an iPod or other brand of portable MP3 player. Researchers predicts that by 2011, 50 percent of music sold will be digital.
In January 2008, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, stated that his companys iTunes Music Store has accounted for more than 70 percent of worldwide online digital music sales. Warner Music Group chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. has stated that Apples iTunes was the download model and its iPodwhich necessitates the iTunes softwareis the default device.
However, the iTunes store has yet to be made available to citizens of the Philippines. Digital downloadsbe it through peer-to-peer file sharing (most often illegally without payment) or through legal online purchasesrequire Internet access. Online purchases, especially from international institutions, most often require credit card ownership.
According to AC Neilsen, 4.5 million Filipinos out of a total population of 76.5 million have Internet access. The Credit Card Association of the Philippines estimates around 4.6 million Filipino credit card holders.
The absence of the iTunes Store in the local market and other factors have created opportunities for several Filipino Internet companies that offer digital music downloads. Some offer alternative payment schemes such as pre-paid cards and automated teller machine transactions for non-credit cardholders. These companies also have created a niche market by offering Filipino music.
The seller
Fliptunes is just one of the many sites for downloading music. It is a music portal that retails music online. Customers can download songs from Fliptunes from P30 to P40 each. Videos can also be downloaded for P80 each.
The music industry today has changed dramatically, says Ronald Aniceto, president of Fliptunes Inc. Generally, people download for convenience. Instead of going out, you can just browse through the 70,000 songs in our collection.
Its also cost-effective for producers to sell online, Aniceto says. In producing an album, there are a lot of costs involved. If you upload your song in Fliptunes, thats it.
Aniceto says whole albums are also available for download in Fliptunes for P250, which is cheaper compared to paying per song download. Its an incentive for album buyers, he says.
Aniceto adds that Fliptunes asks permission from producers for them to be able to upload songs in their music portal. We have license rights to upload songs for three years, he says, adding that these rights sometimes go on indefinitely.
Revenue generated from song downloads are also shared between Fliptunes and the producers, Aniceto adds.
Songs and videos in Fliptunes are protected through Microsoft Windows Media digital rights management by limiting the number of downloads of a song to three, as well as burning these songs in a CD and copying them to portable music players.
With music now in digital format, songs are easier to store and carry from one place to another. I do not have to carry CDs in my car anymore, Aniceto says.
In the future, maybe more people will be interested in downloading music, he says. But, Aniceto adds, this entails contending with illegal competitors that affect the legitimate business.
People dont realize that if they support the illegal competitors, they are taking away music from the consumers. If you buy from a pirate, everything goes to their pockets, Aniceto says.
The artists
Technology is and always will be a double-edged sword, acoustic band Make Your Momma Proud (MYMP) says. The band recognizes downloading in making their music known, however, they believe that it is also responsible for the decline of the music industry.
These sites are part of the many factors why the music industry is declining, the band claims. Record labels need album sales to stay alive, MYMP says adding: Music downloading is good for the artist because they become popular, but bad for the record labels.
The watcher
Its more of an expression of their coping capacity with poverty, says Gerardo Lanuza, sociologist from the University of the Philippines.
Downloading music democratizes the access, Lanuza says describing the new trend of music downloading. However, he warns that people should not romanticized the term democratizes because it goes with both sides of the coin.
It creates inequalities, he strongly remarks. He argues that downloading sets the division socially and economically speaking. He explains that people with Internet access have absolutely the edge compared to those who are unfortunate enough to avail some online access.
Lanuza foresees the collapse of the music industry as a result of the modernization in music access.
The people
Digital music downloads are just one of the many technologies that allow musicians to bring their music directly to the people. Digital online videos and blogs allow artists to promote themselves globally at little cost. The record labels companies are the middlemen who have been cut out of the new deal. Its power to the artist and power to the people.
