OPM to Go: Pinoy’s version of iTunes
Within this month Filipinos may have our own version of the iTunes selling only Original Pilipino Music on an online store, should that be a reality from its proponents singer Ogie Alcasid and the Dawn’s Jett Pangan. Enter OPM to Go. The Original Pilipino music (OPM) have its fair share of problems on why homegrown artists have difficulties of marketing their works and albums. There is the growing fascination of Filipinos to foreign K-pop and J-pop music, not to mention popular US hit makers, that affects their sales because of stiff competition. And need I say more about piracy, not only on the streets but also on the Internet that sucks the life of our movie and music industry. Perhaps, its these very issues why Ogie Alcasid and Jett Pangan came up with the idea of an online store for OPM titles.
“OPM to Go” ,the name which the site would be called, according to Pangan will be an online catalog of original Filipino music that where the local audience and Filipino musicians which is reminiscent of the concept of iTunes. With that said, expect that OPM titles can be download at reasonable prices. Ogie Alcasid, who happens to be the president of Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (a local group of OPM singers and musicians) is also one of the proponents of the project.
“It’s an online store. It’s like a very popular music store globally which starts with the letter I where we will feature 100 percent Original Filipino Music. That’s pop, rock, independent, everything”, said Jett during an interview after the Y! Rocks press conference last December 8 as posted in an article in Yahoo Philippines.
Jett has also confirmed that OPM president Ogie has been making arrangements to major record labels for materials for the online store “OPM to Go”, while he himself is was assigned in the independent division. The online store may be realized this month. When asked by the interviewer if Ogie and Jett believe an OPM online store is what the music industry needs right now? The Dawn frontman replied: “People will adjust eventually. It may take a while, it will take a lot of promotion, but like I say, it will take a lot of commitment from the talent and the audience”.
Data from physical album sales from 1999 – 2010 shows that there is at least 75% drop on the sales of OPM titles with a peak of Php 2.7 Billion in sales in 1999 it was reduced to a humble Php699 Million by 2010. Meanwhile, the sales generated from digital music sales has an increasing trend from 2005 to 2010. Recent data shows that OPM sales via the Internet has grown by 400% with Php 183 Million worth of OPM music sold online in 2010.
Category: Music