Filipino musicians are adapting to the "new normal" with an new upcoming delivery system—Goodbanda.

Just think about it: you need your goods, you need someone to bring your stuff to your house, but instead of booking some random rider, you get your favorite band at your doorstep. It's a new way for you to get your necessities and help out a bunch of artists on a high note.

Bandwagon spoke with Musikaramay co-founder Stanley Seludo to discuss the story behind Goodbanda, how it works, and their plans for this new project.

Tell us about how Goodbanda came to be.

As a background, I co-founded a group called Musikaramay, which was initially created to raise funds for the blind musicians playing in an MRT station - me and my bandmates played in the same MRT station and asked donations from passers by.

Since being founded in 2014, Musikaramay has played in public places for free to raise funds for victims of Typhoon Yolanda, Bohol Earthquake, and the likes. Donations were being coursed through Alagang Kapatid Foundation.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the bars to close, my fellow musicians and I lost our main source of income. To support the displaced musicians and roadies,  I initially thought of a fund-raising campaign by soliciting donations from my network via Musikaramay's Facebook page. In an effort to make the distribution organized, I asked musicians to register and prioritized those with urgent needs (i.e. those with maintenance medicine). This proved to be a successful endeavor - we've just finished our 2^nd wave of distribution of donations.

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I then created Musikaramay Concert Series (where I interview musical artists who perform a few songs) and Musikaramay Success Stories (where I interview individuals who share how they found success in their chosen field), hoping to inspire the public. Both are being broadcasted live on Musikaramay's Facebook page almost everyday and donations are being asked from the viewers during the show.

Another group that has come from Musikaramay is Musikaramay Entrepreneurs. This is a Facebook page created to provide a marketplace where musician entrepreneurs can freely sell or market their products/services.

Coincidentally, I was able to create a database of musicians who need an alternative source of income. Instead of just depending on donations, I thought of a more sustainable source of livelihood during the pandemic. I called my brother, Pen Seludo, and discussed the idea of forming a company that offers delivery services with displaced musicians as riders. Hence, Goodbanda was founded.

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Understanding the challenges of the riders of Grab, Lalamove, Foodpanda, etc, our business model is focused on the pre-booking arrangement with the business owners where service requests must be sent to us at least one day before the delivery date.

We believe this will allow us to efficiently plan for the rides of our riders and will enable us to provide equal earning opportunities. Also worth mentioning is we would like our riders to feel that this is a community of musicians doing business where everyone is part of the company and not merely riders.

How do musicians get to be a part of Goodbanda?

At the moment, we are entertaining inquiries via our personal networks and our Facebook page. The official registration process/procedure is coming soon. While this is the case, we already have groups of musicians in key locations nationwide namely, Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, Cavite, and Bacolod.

How do patrons get to use your service?

As of now, we are servicing the businesses of our friends. We are not yet public. Once we introduce our app, we will officially launch Goodbanda.

Aside from the riders being musicians, are there any other music components to Goodbanda?

We will have musical trivia in our app. For example, if the delivery fee is PHP100 - "Top 100 OPM songs of a certain year" will be shown. We have a lot more. We will disclose them one by one once the app is public.

How do you see Goodbanda growing as we adapt to the changes brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis?

Despite the expected negative impact of this pandemic to the economy, we are expecting that due to the new normal there will be an increase in the number of online sellers as well as a spike in online purchases from existing businesses - which will increase the demand for delivery services. This will effectively present more earning opportunities for our musicians. In the long-term, we see these musicians still riding even if they can already go back to the bars for a gig.