Gary Granada is an established artist in the music industry. He has released albums (Gary Granada Live, Pagsamba at Pakikibaka, and Saranggola sa Ulan) that are not under major labels. He also made compositions for others as well. Gary Granada’s project that’s involved with this issue is entitled “3-pid Handog Edukasyon ng Procter and Gamble”. He was commissioned by GMA Kapuso Foundation in this project where he was given the lyrics and his task is to compose the music for the lyrics which is usually how it works in the advertising industry.
In the audio recording, Gary relays that the length is 60 seconds. It has the lyrics:
Kung may lapis kaya kong isulat ang aking mga pangarap
Kung may crayola kaya kong iguhit ang aking kinabukasan
Sa Handog Edukasyon, mga gamit pang-paaralan aking makakamtan
Sa tulong mo, edukasyon ko, tuluy-tuloy na magagampan
Ang aking pagpupursigi di masasayang
Dahil nandiyan ka katulong mo sa bawat hakbang
After the set of the above lyrics, a voice over will play, then the final line of the song will proceed.
Sa magandang edukasyon, magandang kinabukasan aking makakamtan
Like in any typical work that was commissioned by someone, of course the client will require revisions where the composer has to comply. The final revision that he submitted didn’t pass and then they commissioned another composer to do this. It was obvious that the edited lyrics was used in the song, as Gary Granada related and yeah, it’s obvious when you listen to the recording. However, that was not the only issue as Gary related, it was because of the use of the musical structure/form (the one he made) as a basis for the “new composition”.
Gary sang it the way the new composition was sung along with the minus one of his work. I understand what Gary Granada pointed out. He told this issue to FILSCAP (Filipino Society of Composers, Artists and Publishers). It has been said that if the one who commissioned the work will give the job to another composer, the one will have to give the original set of lyrics and not the study done by the one who first made the study. FILSCAP sent a letter about this to GMA Kapuso. However, GMA’s response was that Gary Granada has no claim because it was a collective effort.
Sigh. The issue on intellectual property is not old. A lot have experienced that issue already. But it gets more frustrating if the one who commits it is the one that should actually uphold it.
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