Last night, Smart held a party to celebrate its partnership with MCA Music to bring us Smart Music, a music portal where you can download tracks for as low as P15 without a credit card. Smart calls this a “œgame-changing” online music service.
With Smart Music, over 70 million subscribers from Smart, Talk “˜N Text, and Sun Cellular can purchase more than 3 million tracks in MCA’s global music catalog using their prepaid load or as an additional charge to their monthly bill. Tracks cost P15 for old releases while P20 for newer ones.
Simply register your mobile number, which will be your account for this service, at www.smart.com.ph/music using your desktop or mobile web browser. Once registered, you can browse through the songs (international and local) under the MCA label and purchase them. You will be given a link for you to download your MP3. If you have an Android device, you can download the MP3 straight to your phone’s memory. Else, you can always download the file to your PC or Mac before syncing to your device.
Obviously, the service is still limited to songs by artists under MCA and there are plenty of good ones out there not under that label. Smart is going to bring in other labels in the future. However, you’ll get access to music of some of the top international stars like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, U2, Black Eyed Peas, and Eminem. For the local scene, there’s Ely Buendia and his bands Pupil and The Oktaves, Sitti, Nyoy Volante, Urbandub, Franco, ChicoSci and more. MCA Music also carries the license to music’s classic collections like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Motown catalogs.
Tracks downloaded from Smart Music are not protected by DRM and once downloaded, there’s no way to prevent you from sharing them with other people. Smart is banking on the affordability and accessibility provided by their service for Filipinos to support the music artists, especially local ones, by legally acquiring their music.
Sign up now at www.smart.com.ph/music and avail of 5 free music downloads (until August 8). Once you make your purchase, you need to download the track within 24 hours or else you’ll have to purchase it back again.