Musician Ely Buendia wrote about Sony Music’s closure in his online column, Thursday

MANILA, Philippines – The detrimental effects of online piracy continue to tremble the music industry, taking a toll on one of the long-standing record labels in the country, Sony Music.

The said record label is already on its last days, following the decision of Sony’s international arm to close the former as music sales continued to plummet, reported Interaksyon.com.

Products released by Sony Music will nevertheless not vanish into oblivion upon the company’s closure. It had made a licensing deal with another long-running local record company, Ivory Music, to handle record distribution.

Sony’s roster of artists ranges from esteemed ones such as Sharon Cuneta, Eraserheads, Lea Salonga, and Gloc-9, to up-and-coming acts like Letter Day Story, Kiss Jane, and Eevee.

Former Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia likewise broke the news in his Yahoo! column on Feb. 9.

“…not even two multimedia giants (Sony and BMG) were immune to the realities of a dwindling marketplace. While music was still very popular, CD sales were virtually nonexistent, thus the painful decision to call it quits,” he wrote.

Buendia, who leads rock group Pupil, recalled how the burning announcement was made last month.

“One rainy afternoon, Sony gathered all their artists in the boardroom of their offices on Emerald Avenue (Day [Cabuhat], Pupil's manager, went alone) and severed all ties with talents new and old in one fell swoop.

“All the air was sucked out of that jampacked room. And then a flurry of questions and reactions like some dramatic presidential press con,” said he.

Hope’s not dead

Despite the shake-ups in the industry, hope remains that the internet will turn from a foe to a friend of the music business. MyMusicStore, a seemingly localized version of Apple’s online store iTunes, was launched last month in hopes of pushing digital sales of Filipino artists. It’s dubbed as the first-ever online music store in the Philippines.

MyMusicStore offers legal downloads of songs for at least P20 each.