DTI provides equipment for music sector
Trade and Industry Provincial Director Nelia Navarro leads the turnover of equipment of the Shared Service Facility on Creative Digital Content to artists and musicians at the UP Cebu campus. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
MUSICIANS, filmmakers and song writers have a new studio they can use for an affodable fee in Cebu City.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) turned over last week a set of musical and filmmaking equipment to Artists and Musicians Marketing Cooperative (Artist Ko).
The equipment in the the Shared Services Facility (SSF) for Creative Digital Content Production established by DTI behind the Cultural Center at the University of the Philippines Cebu campus in Lahug.
Among the equipment are microphones, a keyboard, a drum set, amplifiers, guitars, video cameras, and a mixer.
To purchase the equipment, DTI 7 allotted P874,000.00 from its SSF funds.
Beneficiaries of the SSF include Artist Ko members, independent filmmakers and other bands and musicians who are not members of the cooperative.
“The SSF addresses the gap in the production for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). In our case, the gap is that music studios can be expensive. Many bands are compromised,” said Artist Ko general manager Christian “Ian” Zafra.
For a fee of P160 per hour, bands and non-members of the cooperative can use the equipment and the facility for rehearsals. Students can also utilize the SSF and pay a discounted fee of P140. Artist Ko members also pay P160, but P20 of the fee will be converted to cooperative shares.
“The SSF will help the creative industry generate their own money and be sustainable,” said DTI Cebu provincial director Nelia Navarro.
“This SSF for Creative Digital Content Production enables the sector to improve the quality of music content prior to its full production phase, thereby increasing its marketability. Entering the international market and integrating itself into the global supply chain will be easier,” she added.
Per agreement signed by both Artist Ko and DTI, the equipment will be used by the creative sector and managed by Artist Ko.
However, after two years, DTI will offer the cooperative a chance to buy the equipment. Should they decide not to, DTI has the prerogative to transfer the equipment to a local government unit or the academe.
For 2016, Navarro said they will look at the existing SSFs in the region and intensify their commercialization.
DTI has launched a total of 105 SSFs in Central Visayas since 2013. Of these, 36 are based in Cebu.
In 2015, DTI allotted P37 million for the program. Cebu, having the most number of SSFs, received around P17 million from the budget.
At present, three more SSFs in Cebu are in the pre-bidding stages. This will bring DTI’s total number of SSFs to 108.
The program was created to enable MSMEs increase their productivity; accelerate their competitiveness by giving them access to better technologies and more sophisticated equipment; encourage their graduation to the next level where they could tap a better and wider market share and be integrated in the global supply chain; take into account convergence where government resources are pooled and integrated; and address the gaps and bottlenecks in the value chain of the priority industry cluster.
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