Babelmachine

Music to our ears

Jun 30, 2006 00:18

Once upon a time, no one thought people would pay to download digital music when you could get MP3 files for free with peer-to-peer tools such as the old Napster.

Until Apple's iTunes came along. Unfortunately, the iTunes service is still not available in the Philippines. The good news, however, is that when it comes to Filipino music, we now have online stores that sell audio files and even music videos.


One of these online stores is Fliptunes. I purchased my very first Filipino music video from its site. For the record, the video I bought was Radioactive Sago Project's Alaala ni Batman (Memory of Batman).

I used my credit card instead of trying out the site's Mozcom PayEasy online payment system. This was mainly because I would have to fax a copy of my credit card billing statement before PayEasy would recognize my card as a funding source. This is a good security measure but I wanted instant gratification, so I used my credit card directly. I plan to try out PayEasy soon, maybe using my ATM card.

Purchasing and downloading my video was a breeze, and Fliptunes offers cheaper rates than iTunes--40 Philippine pesos (roughly 75 US cents or S$1.19) for music files and 80 pesos (US$1.39 or S$2.38) ) for videos (compared with 99 US cents and US$1.99, respectively, at iTunes).

Another site you could check out for OPM audio and video files is mp3pilipinas.com. The site offers even cheaper rates--individual songs cost 25 pesos (roughly 47 US cents or 74 Singapore cents) each, while you can download albums for 200 pesos (US$3.73 or S$5.96).

Absolutely reasonable rates, huh? I haven't tried buying yet, but the site has a number of free downloads including the Rock Against the Round: Musicians Against the WTO album that I'm enjoying right now.

I'm actually tempted to buy Toni Gonzaga's You Complete Me album, or at least purchase some tracks! Yup, I've always found Gonzaga cute and hilarious whenever I see her on TV.

Once you purchase an album or song (you still make use of the shopping cart even for free downloads) from mp3pilipinas.com, you get emailed the download URL for the content you bought. For security reasons, the download URLs are valid for only 36 hours.

You might also want to check out the Lex Musika section of mp3pilipinas for information on music and piracy.

If you're into indie music, then find out more about FiestaMundo.com and IndieCulture.

Fiesta Mundo

IndieCulture

Fiesta Mundo not only offers MP3 downloads and artist profiles, it has evolved into a full-blown entertainment site covering the Filipino showbiz scene via blogs. Meanwhile, IndieCulture encourages artists to sign up and sell their albums online. The site sells CDs instead of audio downloads, and featured artists include Faspitch and Tabularaza.

For more on the Philippine music scene, check out PhilMusic.com, the country's most popular music site which also has its own news blog apart from its message boards.

It's great to see more Philippine sites offering digital audio and video downloads, and to have Filipino artists embracing e-commerce. I hope more Filipinos will support legal OPM (original Pilipino music) downloads.

It's been over a year now since I made a public stand against piracy in several INQ7 Infotech column pieces, including Why piracy is not fun and games and Consumers and piracy, for which I've gotten considerable flak from some quarters. I don't claim to be holier-than-thou. I've bought pirated products before, but I stopped cold turkey and made a public stand. My point is that we can choose not to buy something if we can't afford to get the original.

I haven't regretted that decision, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that digital rights management (DRM) as we know it today penalizes even consumers who have legally bought CDs or who have legally downloaded music and other digital content.

DRM is becoming absurd to the point that it might drive more people to piracy. It reminds me of the previous fears of music companies over the radio cassette recorder and home taping leading to fewer record sales. Ditto for the movie industry when the video cassette recorder came out.

I take exception--and I know many consumers are also up in arms--to DRM that would limit how I will rip the songs from an original CD I bought, or that would limit which devices I can play the audio files on which I had legally downloaded. I believe Apple will have to make iTunes non-proprietary, and that public pressure will force companies to reconsider the current state of DRM.

I don't have all the answers, but I know we must strike the right balance. We're already parting with our hardearned money to patronize original products and to buy legally. Why should we still be punished for that?

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