Noong ako ay bata pa, ang payo ng nanay ko, Pag-aaral muna ang una sa lahat, Huwag daw akong umistambay at mag-combo ng mag-combo, Mahirap daw ang buhay musikero. - Mike Hanopol, Juan de la Cruz
Filipinos not only spend the most time on the internet and on social media; they listen to music the longest anywhere on the planet
The time spent by Filipinos listening to music, at an average of 126 minutes or a little over two hours a day, is the longest in the world, according to a new study conducted by the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP).
“Music is more than a means of entertainment – it is the people’s way to communicate feelings, resonate their stories, and build on their emotions,” says Dr. Maria Alexandra Chua, a professor at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Conservatory of Music who leads NRCP’s Musika Pilipinas project.
Measly earnings
And yet, as important music is in these islands, more than half of Filipinos in the industry earn less than P20,000 a month, the NRCP study found.
The meager earnings are a little over the minimum wage in Metro Manila, says Chua who is associated with the UST Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities.
This is reflected in the small share of music in creative revenues.
The gross value added of the country’s creative industry expanded from P1.61 trillion in 2022 to P1.72 trillion in 2023, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Music’s contribution is only P18.1 billion or 8.8 percent of the creative total.
The Musika Pilipinas project is designed to remedy this, defining the scope of the music ecosystem from publishing, recording and live music to the value chain of the industry. It will identify and assess market capital of music goods particularly in the pivotal transformation to digital platforms and determine growth prospects.
Freelancers
The NRCP study covered 700 industry players, and data was gathered from focus group discussions with artists, music company executives and organizations.
The study found that 61.1 percent of Filipinos involved in music creation, production, distribution, and consumption are college degree holders, majority of them freelance artists.
Most of the respondents said they earn income not related to the music industry to support their living expenses.
“Local artists would always have to go through what we normally identify as sariling sikap, that is, without any government intervention and support in music training, marketing and promotion,” says Chua.
Despite the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act which promotes and supports the development of Philippine creative industries, music is not a stand-alone sector in the creative industries council.
The music industry is subsumed under performing arts and audiovisuals, says Chua, whose major at UST is in Piano (Magna cum Laude).
Thus, there are problems of representation for music industry members in policy discussions, as well as in identifying music’s economic contribution as an important part of the Philippine creative economy, she points out.
Music council
A music coordinating council responsible for handling the dynamics, concerns, development and challenges faced by the industry is about time, according to the study’s recommendations.
A centralized music coordinating council will handle the dynamics, concerns, strategic development plan and challenges faced by the music industry and its stakeholders, Chua says.
“The lack of effective protection of the intellectual property rights of local artists is another crucial issue that needs to be addressed,” she adds.
“The Philippine music industry should be understood as individuals, groups, institutions, companies, and stakeholders who engage in the entire process of the creation, production, distribution, and consumption of music within the Philippines,” Chua explains.
“To put it simply, if they are creating, producing, reproducing, distributing, or consuming music within the Philippines or producing music while representing the Philippines and from whose activities the Philippine economy benefits, including overseas Filipino musicians who send remittances,” Chua also notes.
NRCP, a part of the Department of Science and Technology, was founded in 1933 and is the oldest research council in Asia.