Fliptunes - Digital Music Online
for Filipinos, by Filipinos
May 22, 2006

In this digital world wherein every imaginable technological gadget has become a commodity, only one thing is a constant--the ardent drive for mobility through online access. Information aside, entertainment has become the reason for the existence of online games, videos and most of all, music.

The boundless nature of the Internet paved way for the availability of music, videos and games by the click of a mouse. However, this also resulted to the dreaded "piracy" proliferating among online music, video and game stores. The recent advent of the Apple iPod and other portable music players with enormous storage capacity made it even more convenient and practical to buy music online instead of buying the physical DVD, CD or VCD formats.

The demand for online digital music has become alarming with statistics showing that for the year 2005 alone, global digital music sales was reported to be US$1.1 billion which is in fact three times that of 2004. The trend also reveals a higher demand for single tracks or the "a la carte" sale online equivalent to 75% of sales in 2005 with a total of 450 million single track downloads. Two years ago, there were only 50 legitimate online music stores and has surged to 335 in 2005. Study also shows that 69% of Internet users worldwide have experienced using digital music; 46% of whom are frequent users.

A local portal recognizes this escalating need. Fliptunes.net, a purely online music store with online payment facility system, took presence in the cyber world recently. Fliptunes is the local equivalent of the popular Apple iTunes site and uses Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) 10 to enforce intellectual property rights. Its network infrastructure, that mainly includes web hosting and online payment facility, is provided by the pioneer commercial ISP in the country, Mozcom. Fliptunes uses the award-winning PayEasy Online Payment System of Mozcom to accept payments via credit card, debit/ATM cards, PayPal, G-Cash and many others.

By simply logging-on to www.fliptunes.net, one can create his or her own Fliptunes account then open a PayEasy account or pay directly using credit cards or PayPal and purchase songs online. After downloading the purchased music, one can easily transfer it to his or her portable music device. Fliptunes uses the Microsoft Windows Media Audio (WMA) format which supports DRM unlike MP3. And for a reasonable rate of P40.00 per song downloaded and P80.00 for video, this is truly one of the best solutions in this realm.

Get the hottest music and video hits of your favorite artists from Fliptunes.net. The site highlights top Filipino record labels and artists coming from a broad range of music genre. Top recordings in the site include hits of Kitchie Nadal, Barbie Almalbis, South Border and Mojofly. Whether its acoustic music, alternative pop/rock, ballad, blues, chillout, dance, electronica, ethno-pop/world, heavy metal, jazz lounge, new age, nostalgia, novelty, rock, R&B/soul, rap, rap-metal, reggae, or even music for children, religious, regional, inspirational, traditional and tribal, Fliptunes is the way to go.

Fliptunes users may either download the entire album or music singles from the various artists it features. What makes it truly unique is that Fliptunes will feature songs exclusively available from its site. In fact it has become the launch pad of South Border’s latest single, "Reward," prior to the retail music stores.

But most important of all, Fliptunes takes an active role in fighting piracy in the entertainment industry being equipped with a strong security feature for the protection of music publishers' rights.

"Despite the fact that piracy is very high for music download world wide, Fliptunes aims to help educate the market on legitimate alternatives for digital music collection. We exist not just for the business, but because of our strong belief in the Filipino talent. This is the main reason why we actively promote Original Pilipino Music (OPM) in Fliptunes. Fliptunes.net is by Filipinos and for the Filipinos," explains Ms. Tin Loya, Fliptunes Project Manager.

With its noble aim to provide Filipinos a better option to avail of digital entertainment under legitimate means, Fliptunes does not only seek to provide satisfaction to the online music buyers but to the music recording companies and artists as well. This is the harmonic tune Fliptunes plays for all.