Our mission

We started Flipstarz in 2008 with the simple goal of bringing Filipino Pop Culture to a wider audience around the world. We decided the best way to do this was to focus on Pinoy Music Video and build a social entertainment site with the following goals:

• It should be fun to visit and offer a world-class entertainment discovery experience.
• It should use music videos to start wider conversations about music, art and pop-culture.
• It should unite and promote various Pinoy music and artistic scenes worldwide
• It should provide a complete, accurate, and curated catalog of Pinoy music-related video that can be used by serious music and cultural researchers.

OPM Now!

As you explore Flipstarz, you may be shocked by just how much diverse music is being made in the Philippines. Western styles – various forms of rock, hip-hop, and the ever-present love songs – are the norm. When you dig deeper though, there are excellent examples (and sometimes entire scenes) in every imaginable musical genre.

Asian listeners have known about this audio treasure trove for years, and Pinoy music has gained a regional popularity. The quality of songwriting and performance is there, but very few echos have reached back to American and European audiences.

At FlipStarz.com, we intend to change that.

Mabuhay. Get ready to start your cultural journey

Modern Filipinos are an international people. On every continent, in every walk of life, music has a way of motivating Pinoys to reconnect with their roots.

For the workers abroad and recent immigrants, you might want to listen to songs from the Philippines out of homesickness. After decades, cultural assimilation kicks in, and children are born who didn't grow up in the Philippines. Taglish songs from the bilingual world of OPM provide a window into the poetry, culture, and everyday life for the next generations.

Original Pilipinos back on the islands are incredibly proud of internationally recognized Fil-Am and other Hyp-Noy (Hyphenated-Pinoy) artists: NIcole Scherzinger, Apl.de.ap, Bruno Mars, and many more.

Less known in Asia are the underground electronic, hip-hop, R&B and singer-songwriter scenes that Fil-Ams have created. We have an extensive catalog, probably the most diverse on the internet, of these artists.

Let's not forget the "Honorary Filipinos" – friends, asawas, co-workers, and people who just enjoy a good song when they hear one. When you share these videos in Facebook (by clicking the "Like" button), it's not just Filipinos who watch and comment. For all of us working on FlipStarz, that is one of the most rewarding measures of our success.

Whichever group you fall into – Original Pinoy, Hyp-Noy, or Honorary Kababayan – somehow you stumbled in here. We hope FlipStarz makes it easy to explore your favorite genres, artists and discover entirely new sounds. There are a lot of hidden gems waiting to be found.

Why focus on music videos?

Our original tagline was "Your Connection to Pinoy Pop Culture". After a while we realized this was a pretty big topic, already well covered by dozens of sites. We needed more focus. Even "Pinoy Music" is a pretty crowded field.

After some philosophical reflection, we decided that music videos could be used represent the heart of modern pop culture – especially for a musical people like Filipinos.

Music videos are extremely well defined as a genre, but within those confines they are intensely creative. The entertainment industry pumps out a reliable stream of poetry set to music. With it comes an orgy of graphics, costumes, set designs, dances, and animations. All of this is recorded and arranged by an emerging experimental cinema scene – the video directors, photographers and editors.

We spend countless hours watching these music videos, or letting them play in the background while we talk or surf the internet. Isn't it natural that If you fall in love with a song, you will feel a moment of pure excitement when you see the video for the first time. Whether in my home in San Francisco, or in an internet cafe in Dumaguete, these videos reflect our human fears, struggles, fantasies and aspirations... Read More

What makes Flipstarz different from YouTube?

Most of the videos on FlipStarz are actually embedded from YouTube. 

We love YouTube. Seriously. We even give you the option of logging in using their Google account.

That said, YouTube has one main drawback when you try to use it as a cultural archive – too much information. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the "tribute to my boyfriend" slideshow videos, off key covers, and lyrics videos in unreadable fonts.

And don't even get me started on the racist comments.

We try to take a slightly different approach here – one of collaborative catalog construction.

It's a model more like Wikipedia. As a community of fans, researchers, collectors, writers and musicians,  we take care to only select the best quality music videos, making the video discovery experience less frustrating. When it comes to writing, we foster artistic discussions about the songs and artists, not industry hype. We provide context as opposed to ego.

We need you!

Your comments and insight on the videos in the catalog are incredibly rewarding for us. That is why we are here. They also let us know what you want to soo more of.

Recommendations of songs, artists, and videos are always welcome.

Just clicking the LIKE button, or sharing a video on twitter helps us spread the word, and counts toward our monthly and weekly rankings of Pinoy music videos.

Artists and Promoters are encouraged to make profiles and upload their own videos. Artists and Musicians Guide to Adding Videos.

Interviews, and press releases on Pinoy music topics make the site a richer source of information. If you are an artist or manager, you are welcome to use the site to show and promote your work, please check out our press section (coming soon).

Music video fans who want to get more involved can help dig for videos, run a fan group, build playlists, or become a catalog moderator. Just ask us about it.

We always welcome guest bloggers. Writers with passion and a love for music can participate in our new featured articles blog. This part of the site is still new, but we get hundreds of unique visitors a day, so it will get read. 

The most important thing I can say to close is that this site is a labor of love and it's going to get a lot better as more people become involved. If you are reading this, take it as a challenge to join up, make some friends, and share something you know!