
Behind every new song released is a lot of hard work on the part of not just the artists themselves, but the people around them: producers, instrumentalists, managers, PR officers, album art creatives, and more. With the call to “respect local artists” that went trending on Pinoy Twitter after the topic of royalties was briefly raised on “It’s Showtime,” it’s worth remembering that the people behind the music we love need to make a living. Even Sam Concepcion chimed in, posting: “Pay artists their royalties.”
While the whole system of royalties remains convoluted, and unfortunately often not in the favor of artists, they still can become a vital source of sustenance for musicians. However, buying a single album or t-shirt can still be worth more than thousands of Spotify streams to a local artist.
While our monthly music lists often span artists who thrive within the mainstream industry to those who remain fiercely independent, if you enjoy an artist’s music, consider going out of your way to show your support. A little goes a long way. Keep that in mind as you go through this curated list of tracks, fresh from the Philippines, to lend your ears to.
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“BUDOTS WORLD: Bawal Umiwas sa Sayawan!”
“BUDOTS WORLD: Bawal Umiwas sa Sayawan!” is a mammoth compilation curated by DJ Love and co-released by Manila Community Radio featuring budots producers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The 53 tracks are a frenetically diverse selection of budots and budots-adjacent music are a sonic treasure trove of Pinoy pop culture: Bisaya radio skit samples, cross-pollination with other genres and folk songs, and cheeky nonsequiturs. Some of the tracks hit the ground running with soundbites proudly proclaiming the DJ’s name and the neighborhood that they represent. While this may no means be a comprehensive overview of budots — a simple YouTube search would bring up many more producers actively releasing music — these collectively surface a certain pulse of this grassroots electronic genre that has firmly embedded itself in the urban Philippine soundscape.
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