Filipino Music Anti Piracy: A Strategic Plan

Conceptual Framework

What?

            This project is all about using original Filipino music (and its various partners/stakeholders) to promote itself to the public making them purchase original Filipino music and hopefully altogether stop music piracy in the Philippines.

Where?

            As mentioned, the target of this project is to promote anti-piracy in the Philippines, specifically in key cities and towns as follow:  Metro Manila, Pasig City, Antipolo City, Baguio City, Cebu City,   Davao City, Boracay, Tagaytay, White Beach, Puerto Galera, Cagayan De Oro City

When?

            This project will start on September 2006 until February 2009. The first four months will be devoted to gathering of baseline information/data and funds from the various stakeholders and concerned groups. The last two months will be spent on the gathering of results and comparing them to the baseline data to see whether the objectives were met or not. Further evaluation will be done to effect and maintain the project’s sustainability.

Why?

            Music Piracy, when closely looked at, has a lot of repercussions to our country – economically, politically and entertainment-wise.

            Economically, we lose millions of pesos in taxes alone; we also lose numerous markets for job opportunities and the scenario looks bleak in front of our Western counterparts, causing them to not trust us with their music products for fear of it being illegally copied and pirated for global supply.

            Politically, it reflects how badly our government is facing the piracy situation. It means that anti-piracy laws are being ineffective and inefficient and that the government is not really doing its best in combating the situation.

            Entertainment-wise, it could mean the slow death of the entertainment industry. The producers are not earning properly from developing music talents and slowly, they might just totally give up on it. Pretty soon, nobody would want to make music anymore because it will just cost them too much to produce good music, without getting any returns from their investments.           

How?

            Promoting music anti-piracy is nothing new. Yet, it is also not very easy. Everyone has to do their part. For this project alone, we need the concerted effort of the entire music industry’s stakeholders. The main theme would be “music against piracy”. Various social marketing and social mobilization activities are discussed below on how to go about this project and hopefully at the end of the campaign period, more people would buy original music recordings and more people would fully support music anti-piracy.

 

Project Objectives

Audience        

            This project’s targets cut across the board so to speak. But to be more specific, it aims to affect the buying behavior of the youth. Youth being those who belong to the 18-35 age bracket, male and female, belonging to the middle-income group, and at least high school graduates.

Behavior

            This project aims to decrease if not stop music piracy in the Philippines through concerted efforts of the music and entertainment industry; this project aims to shift the general paradigm of people regarding piracy; This project aims for people to think and believe that…

·         Piracy hurts people

·         Piracy preys on the poor

·         Piracy is stealing

                  ·         Piracy is detrimental to the economy (“tipid ngayon, mas malaking gastos bukas”)           

            This can be shown once more and more of the target audience buys original Filipino Music recordings.

Condition and Degree           

            Achievement of this goal will be seen if by the end of the project period on June 30, 2008, the sales of original Filipino music recordings increased by at least 50% in the key cities involved as compared to the baseline data gathered.

Social Marketing/Mobilization Thrusts

            Given that the Philippine Music Industry is slowly choking due to music piracy, it is this project’s thrust to make use of the same industry to campaign and advocate for  anti-piracy. It is not enough that our government with its resources and law enforcement capabilities, must step in to forestall the further deterioration of the industry, but we, as music lovers must also do something about it and our entertainment and music idols will be the forerunners. They, who are mostly in the spotlight, are looked up and idolized by the masses. Perhaps, if they make their voices heard through anti-piracy messages in their music and other promotional tools, they could inculcate and instill in the minds and consciousness of the buying public that music piracy is a societal evil — very “uncool” and no doubt unpopular; There should also be a focus on making the act of buying and owning pirated material something shameful and the act of buying original as “cool”.           

           Therefore, we need to have a holistic approach with short and long term courses of action that will also have a short and long term solution to this economic menace that we call music piracy.

Strategic Partners/Stakeholders                       

The following are the stakeholders in this project:

- Leading executives from the major record labels, music artists, and music producers who are the ones who first and foremost lose in this battle. They lose huge chunks of money to syndicates of music piracy considering the fact that they are the ones who poured their capital and talent into this endeavor.

- Mass Media (TV, Radio, Print Ads, Internet Ads)/ leading executives/ promoters and sponsors in the  communications business (Smart, Sun Cellular, Globe) who profit from ad sales and promotions.

 - Regional Anti-Piracy Enforcement (IFPI) who are supposed to be one of the forerunners in salvaging the music industry.

- Optical Media Board (OMB) headed by Edu Manzano who also acts in protecting the music industry from eventual bankruptcy.

- Local & National Government whose reputations are at stake in the face of global piracy   and who will eventually earn from the taxes being paid if piracy is stopped in the music and entertainment industry.( US government slapped trade sanctions against the Ukraine for failure to protect the US’ intellectual property rights. The Philippines & Indonesia are next on that list. They wouldn’t want this to happen because this could trigger a massive devaluation of the Philippine peso that would take us decades to recover from.

Project Components

 Advocacy       

            Music piracy or any form of piracy for that matter is an organized crime. Yes, it used to be something we just let pass; not thinking that someday it could have great ramifications to our country. And now that these ramifications are reaching us faster than we could stop it, we really need to take huge steps to counter it. Music piracy is crippling our economy, our country’s political power and our entertainment industry. This project therefore pleads to the stakeholders that they take an active role in this campaign. What have they got to lose? They can earn in the process while at the same time reclaiming their glory days when producing original music really pays off, not only financially but culturally as well. This is not just for us now, but for our future generation as well.

Information, Education and Communication           

            This project is all about communication. Music, being a form of communication in itself, will be the primary medium of this campaign. With the songs that will be released and played over and over during concerts and radio airplay, the project hopes to “brainwash” or influence the target audience into supporting music anti-piracy and buying original music recordings so to speak. Channel 23 (Kabarkada Mo) will be used as the premier station where live and recorded anti-piracy concerts will be aired, ABS-CBN, GMA 7, and ABC 5 will also be used for the airing of commercial advertisements concerning anti-piracy campaigns. Advertisements on TV, Newspapers, Magazines and radio are only secondary. Tertiary would be the support that telecommunication networks will grant this project thru their text line promos.

Capacity Building

            Through the information materials, educational ads, music and songs that will be printed on newspapers and magazines, televised, and aired on the radio, the target audience will be made aware of the repercussions of buying pirated music. Important messages will be:

·         How music piracy cripples our economy thru unpaid taxes

·         How we support Pinoy Mafia or organized crimes if we practice piracy

·         How we create more jobs by supporting anti-piracy

·         How we attract foreign investors by supporting anti-piracy

·         How we help improve our country’s political climate by supporting anti-piracy bills and laws

·         How we help struggling artists reach their dreams

            All these will be done regularly for a period of two (2) years. Within this period, the project will shape the behavior and views of the people about music piracy towards its intended goals and hopes to sustain it for a long period of time.

Networking/Coalition Building

            This component is done by the synergistic efforts of the stakeholders. The project liaisons will form partnerships with executives of record label companies, multimedia networks, key officials of the national and local government sectors, representatives from Regional Anti-Piracy Enforcement (IFPI) and the Optical Media Board (OMB). All in all, each stakeholder will be tasked a certain role in this campaign that will contribute to the success of advocating music anti-piracy to the public.

Monitoring and Evaluation

            Every week, survey results will be gathered and tabulated to see the trend about how the target audiences view anti-piracy. Every month, sales data of original Filipino music recordings will also be gathered and tabulated. At the end of the project period, all these data will be collated. Tabulated, and conclusion will be drawn whether indeed, the anti-piracy campaign helped shaped people’s views on anti-piracy thereby resulting in significant increase in sales (at least 50%).  If objectives are not met, further evaluation will be done to improve the project’s strategies. If objectives were met, further evaluation will still be done to maintain the sustainability of the campaign.