Smart, MCA team up to offer digital music

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Communications, Inc. and MCA Music, Inc. have banded together to provide music lovers with downloads for as low as P15 per track, the lowest in today’s digital music market.

Through Smart Music (www.smart.com.ph/music), MCA Music is making available its more than three million tracks in its global catalog to the more than 70 million subscribers of Smart, Talk ‘N Text and Sun Cellular.

MCA Music carries in its labels the likes of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, U2, Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, and more, including licenses to classic collections from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Motown catalogs. Locally, the roster is being headlined by Ely Buendia and his bands Pupil and The Oktaves, Sitti, Nyoy Volante, Urbandub, Franco and Chicosci.

Subscribers can pay for their downloads by charging these against their prepaid load or their postpaid bill, eliminating the need to have a credit card, which hinders most Filipinos to purchase legitimate music online.

“Music is so much a part of Filipinos’ lifestyle,” says Charles Lim, EVP and head of wireless consumer business for Smart and Sun Cellular. “Through our partnership with Universal Music Group (UMGI) and its local company MCA Music, we will enrich our subscribers’ lives by democratizing access to legitimate music and enabling them to keep creating the playlists of their lives in fast, easy, and affordable way.”

Lim add that digital music is only the beginning and that multimedia content offerings will be coming in the next few months.

Ricky Ilacad, president of MCA Music, likened the partnership to rolling out millions of retail outlets right in the hands of the consumers.

“We at UMGI and MCA Music are excited to bring our extensive roster of global and local artists closer to every Filipino music lover,” Ilacad says.

For the duration of the partnership, Smart will be major presenter of the Philippine concerts of MCA Music’s international and local artists starting with Rihanna in September.

With Smart, Talk ‘N Text, Sun Cellular and broadband services Smart Bro and Sun Broadband along with other multimedia services from PLDT and in partnership with Mediaquest (TV5/Cignal), the PLDT group envisions to build the most extensive mobile content distribution in the country.

Philstar.com also caught up with MCA Music's Business Development Manager Cris Hermosisima and Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-Aawit President Ogie Alcasid. Watch the video below (available in 480p):