Smart renews partnership with MCA

SMART Communications (Smart) recently renewed a multi-year partnership with MCA Music Inc., a Universal Music Group International (UMGI) company, in line with providing subscribers with more digital content.

The Smart and MCA Music partnership was launched two years ago, and was the first in the Philippines to offer “convenient and affordable access to music anytime” via music service SPINNR.

“As a pioneer in the digital music industry in the Philippines, SPINNR has helped change the behavior of music fans nationwide by giving them affordable and legitimate access to all the music that they love,” Ariel Fermin, executive vice president and Head of Consumer Business at Smart, said in the statement.

SPINNR, ahead of competitors, allowed users to pay for their song purchases or streaming subscriptions using their prepaid loads or charge them on top of their postpaid accounts.

“This meant they need not be credit card holders in order to gain access to the music service, thereby opening an entire ecosystem of services to more Filipinos nationwide,” Smart said in its statement.

The company said this helped boost digital sales of local and international artists through music downloads and streaming subscriptions.

“The MCA Music Smart partnership is a big boost to the music industry, particularly in making music downloads more affordable and accessible to everyone through SPINNR,” Ricky Ilacad, CEO at MCA Music, said in the same statement.

The company said subscribers get added benefits with the renewed partnership such as so-called fly-offs to watch concerts in other countries, exclusive backstage access and meet-and-greet opportunities, as well as the latest merchandise from their favorite musical acts.