MANILA, Philippines — Having an online community platform to engage with their followers “on a more personal level” is important for music artists, especially emerging ones. It serves as a means to give back to their supporters and also facilitates discovery by other fan groups.
That’s what homegrown talents Juan Karlos “JK” Labajo, BINI, PLAYERTWO, and Sugarcane members thought when they were chosen as the featured artists in Rakuten Viber’s Backstage Pass — a community where fans can interact with their music idols and have the opportunity to meet them in person. The supporters of these music artists had the chance to do so during the messaging app’s year-end invite-only gig at Baked Studios in Makati.
The Backstage Pass channel, created in 2021, now boasts 1.3 million members. JK, the singer of Buwan, found it “nice” to be part of a public group chat where they can engage in conversations with people.
“As an artist it’s nice because not all of those people follow you or know about you. Aside from being a nice way to connect with people on a more personal level, if you’re a super fan for example, it’s also a nice way for you to be able to reach out to the people who haven’t discovered you yet,” said JK.
“And honestly, the Viber people are really cool. They’re really sweet and setting up this whole event. It’s actually really nice (and) to be able to perform with these other artists as well. So that’s really cool because they are doing this initiatives and as artists, we really appreciate that.”
He further cited Viber for taking advantage of the platform as a venue to gather all the fans and put them in one group chat. “Because for sure marami ding ibang tao na nag-join na fans ng ibang artists and that were able to connect to them as well. And the other artists were able to connect to other fans who joined because of me.”
JK personally replies to fans in the group chat. One of his craziest encounters was meeting an actual Backstage Pass member in real life.
He recalled to The STAR, “I was eating somewhere and then all of a sudden someone approached me and told me, ‘I’m a member of the Backstage Pass. I joined because of you.’ After that, I invited that person to eat with me for a bit.”
That was such an interesting encounter, commented JK.
“I guess, as a fan, it makes you get a little closer to the person that you want to support. And masaya yung marami ring bardagulan replies lang. It’s like sometimes mga kapitbahay vibes lang,” the singer added.
“Because when you send a message to the group chat they’re able to reply to that message or whatever it is that you sent. So nakakatuwa lang especially when you send questions tapos kung ano-ano sagot nila. It was really fun.”
The P-pop girl group BINI, consisting of Mikha, Jhoanna, Maloi, Sheena, Gwen, Colet, and Aiah, felt honored to perform with other musicians on stage during the music event and to be part of the group chat.
On their experience interacting with fans on Viber, Aiah shared, “Sobrang saya because parang it’s like we get to communicate with them and it’s fun because we get to use stickers and just type and have fun chats.”
The girls acknowledged their fan group called Blooms, whom they consider more than just fans — they see them as “friends and family.”
“Whenever we have a show, for example in Cebu, they would also fly in. They would follow us wherever we go, whether it’s in Bacolod or Sydney. They would fly in. So amazing,” shared Colet.
Gwen interjected, “Even if it’s an early morning flight, they would go to the airport, pauwi man or papunta dun. They would really wait for us.”
The eight-member group just dropped their singles Karera and Pantropiko, which are part of their EP to be released hopefully next year.
On the other hand, the folk-pop band Sugarcane, consisting of Ronamae Tiñola, Cedric Angeles, Frain Reyes, Froilan Bautista, Carl Guerzon, Luis Beato, was grateful for the opportunity that Viber had given them.
Luis offered on behalf of the group, “We really enjoyed the energy in the Backstage Pass group chat. We really enjoyed the interaction with the fans and with other people who got to know us. The newer fans, that’s because of Viber and for that, we are very much grateful.”
The most memorable moment they had in the group chat was when Viber held an online game. Frain recounted, “I was thinking magpapa-games ka sa Viber, how will the more than one million members participate? So how will we pull that off?” But they were able to carry out the game, nevertheless.
Froilan said, “It was really memorable because the game is more on trivia about us.”
“We got nervous kasi parang wala yata sila masasagot sa amin,” chimed in Frain.
“When the game started, (we thought) ‘What if once the game starts, no one will answer (trivia about us?)’ But there were who replied (eventually),” narrated Cedric.
Sugarcane began their music journey as a cover band on social media and went on to produce original tracks, such as Leonora and Paruparo. They are currently signed with Warner Music Philippines and are “brewing a big project” for next year.
The alternative hip-hop group from Davao, PLAYERTWO, was also glad to participate in the Backstage Pass show and community. The PLAYERTWO members are Wave P, DJ PUHKEN, Ven Villariza, Luke April, and Impreso.
“We’re happy because it’s like one step closer para maging close to our fans or kung meron man kaming fans,” quipped Wave P.
“It’s fun to show them the behind the scenes of what we do,” informed DJ. “That’s the purpose of the Backstage Pass for us. And then, there were also things that we did that they were not able to see like inside the house, us playing games and doing preparation for the shows.”
“It’s nice because they can get to see us more than just the music, personalities, life stories,” remarked Impreso.
PLAYERTWO is also under Warner Music Philippines, and they recently celebrated their first anniversary as a group last month. They were thrilled to announce that their second album, Happy Accidents Vol. 2’ is coming out next year. Moreover, David Tse, the senior director for Asia Pacific at Rakuten Viber, explained that the idea for the Backstage Pass was conceived because they deeply considered how it could benefit the users.
“It’s always how well we can get into the ecosystem. So Backstage Pass has always been one of the dreams to really get into the entertainment space. And for us, the whole concept, as the name explained by itself, Backstage Pass, we want us to really have that backstage experience for music fans,” he detailed.
“We are very new in the music scene, in the entertainment scene. We are not an entertainment company. We are a messaging app. So what we wanna do is to be beneficial to the users by setting up a channel where we can invite up and coming artists.”
The team wants the artists to take advantage of Viber and reach out to their fans, said Tse. As the number of users who joined the Backstage Pass grew, they were able to attract established artists and music labels. “So we believe that for us to really fulfill all the wishes from music fans is to gather on this stage. Other than just a content channel, we want to get to the next page to get a face-to-face experience.
“Of course, the pandemic is out, we have a lot more opportunity to do so. So we decided that we need to get into the area where the features allow the people to redeem tickets and also to redeem merchandise from different artists and ultimately to land an in-person experience.”
The staging of the music event and online community was just a “first step into the doorway to be recognized and to be trusted by the music labels,” according to Tse. He likewise extended his gratitude to the music artists, labels and global partners who have worked with them.
“So next year, we see this event even bigger for us to advocate Rakuten Viber as a place for music fans and you can really get in touch with the artists. And for artists most importantly to share their journey. I think this is the ultimate experience we wanted to deliver. And these are the different categories that we are looking for, entertainment is just one (aspect).”
Tse described their first in-person Viber gig in the Philippines as a “big step” for the messaging app to bring the music event and Filipino artists to the global stage.