PINOYTUNES... BIGGEST ONLINE LIBRARY OF ORIGINAL PINOY MUSIC NOW AVAILABLE FOR FILIPINOS GLOBALLY

USA (SANEPR.com) April 15, 2008 --
Filipinos overseas have one more reason to be happy despite being away from home while working abroad for their for their families back here in the Philippines. Working abroad, one misses a lot about their home country. Filipinos in various parts of the globe gobble up almost anything or any product that will bring fond memories of home. One of the most sought after consumer products from the Philippines among Pinoys abroad is music. Original Pilipino Music or OPM is one of the most saleable goods among “Pinoy” stores and one of the most requested gift or “coming home present” among “balikbayans” (Filipinos returning home).

However, due to cost and price constraints there are only a limited number of OPM albums and songs that are physically available to overseas Filipinos at any given time.

“Filipinos are known to be music lovers, just give them a microphone and they will belt out their favorite songs. That’s why in every party, having to have a karaoke or videoke machine is as staple as food and drinks”, shares Bambi Fonacier, a certified music lover and collector, a well-known music industry personality - being a star DJ in the 70’s, founder of the biggest music retail store in the country (Odyssey Records) and creator of the digital music entertainment system and listening station called TMV (Touch Music Video).

With all of Fonacier’s background and years of experience in the music industry and with his growing realization that the current trend is gearing towards the “non-phyisical” digital music formats like the MP3 and “music downloading”, he developed an online OPM library called Pinoytunes.net

Pinoytunes.net is a member-based downloading service and online music store that offers a comprehensive catalogue of hard-to-find and classic Original Pinoy Music (OPM) hits from the 60’s , 70’s, 80’ and 90’s, regional music in various Filipino dialects and of course, current releases from Manila-based record companies. This will be an attractive and exciting way to reach overseas Filipinos longing for OPM.

Pinoytunes.net has almost 6,000 songs currently in its database ready for downloading anytime 24/7 anywhere in the world. It is fast cultivating its catalogue of top OPM hits and classics spanning all genre of music from established, popular and new artists from major Philippine labels, Manila-based international labels and independent labels. Weekly updates of its music library are also being done to give consumers fresh and varied Pinoy music choices.

When asked why OPM? Fonacier, happily answered, “the fact that there are more than 12 million overseas Filipinos, and over 4 million of them are residing in the Unites States, there is a huge potential for pinoytunes.net and high patronage of the website is very likely.”

“Our initial and major target market for Pinoytunes.net is the US-based Pinoys especially in California where the biggest Filipino population averaging 1 out of 5 Filipinos choose to live. Since around 70% of the US population is connected to the internet, it is safe to assume that there are about 3 million US- based Filipinos who have access to the internet. Translated to sales this means a multi-million dollar business opportunity not only for our company but also for the Filipino music industry as a whole”, Fonacier stresses.


Fonacier relates that even the artists themselves are excited about the online library where their music-- even the ones no longer being physically reproduced-- will be heard worldwide and still earn royalties everytime it is purchased and downloaded. “We basically have some of the biggest labels and artists in the industry to have their songs or music become part of our online library” he proudly states. Fonacier’s deep relationships with the local record labels and the Manila-based international labels enable Pinoytunes to offer a wide-range, diverse and even cutting-edge music catalogue to its members.

Almost all of the major international record companies have started to take notice of the impact in their business of downloading music from the internet. Most of them are now in partnership with Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, among others, in introducing and selling in whole or in part their music catalogues via the internet. Apple’s iTunes store alone sells more than 3million tracks per day at $0.99 a song.

Research shows that there are more than 240 million internet users who download music from the internet either through p2p music file sharing or legitimate pay sites. Merryl Lynch projects that by end of 2006, the non-US music downloading sector will be worth $11.6B while the US sector will be worth $16B.

A news report in early part of the year showed that in 2006, there was a 55 percent decline in the sale of CDs but there was a 66% increase in sales from online music purchasing/downloading. This only proves that consumer behavior and acceptability of the market towards music download have increased tremendously which some sources are attributing to the popularity of mp3 players and mobile lifestyle of the consumer markets nowadays.

“Pinoytunes membership fee and per song cost are extremely affordable. They are just a fraction of what you’d pay for music on other digital music stores, Pinoy music or otherwise.

The Pinoytunes.net website currently stands alone as the only digital music store that is focused on one thing - serving the needs of the “classic and hard-to-find pinoy music fans” and the record labels that have a huge back catalogue of this culturally-rich and nostalgia-eliciting music. Global Filipinos of all generation will have a chance to rediscover their music roots aside from discovering new Pinoy music. Most other digital music stores only promote today’s major hits and neglect the thousands of great classic popular music of the past years. Pinoytunes gives the Pinoys from all over the world a chance to hear a diverse catalogue of songs from established artists of “yesteryears” and today and from emerging artists in every genre.

Pinoytunes delivers music in the universally compatible MP3 format – the most popular and versatile digital file format. Downloads can be played an unlimited number of times and can be copied 5 times to computers, portable MP3 players including the Ipod.

So if you are new to downloading and want to enjoy Pinoy music of all genre and generation, read up, register and download now at www.pinoytunes.net. Upon signing up, members will automatically get 5 free song downloads plus free 50 reward points to enable them to aim for exciting rewards upon reaching a certain number of points. A raffle of a round trip ticket to-and-from Manila to the U.S. West Coast (Los Angeles) is also at stake on Pinoytunes’ first anniversary where members may qualify. Members will be allowed exclusive access to the exciting and rare music catalogue and receive periodic special treats that only the pinoytunes site provides.