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By Eric S. Caruncho Inquirer MANILA, Philippines--Prophets of doom notwithstanding, these are boom times for music. The compact disc might be dead, and the music business as we know it dying, but make no mistake, there’s more music being made -- and listened to -- than ever before. It’s just that the local industry hasn’t figured out yet how to make money off file sharing, the dominant form of music distribution. While Apple quickly cornered the market with iTunes, cutting heavily into the CD retailing business, no comparable local model has yet emerged. But there can be little doubt that the future of local music will be digital. And it won’t wait for the Philippines to be online. Already, savvy entrepreneurs armed only with a PC and a dream have set up music “downloading” stations where new owners of the cheap MP3 players now flooding the market, as well as the new MP3-capable cellphones, can buy tunes even without owning an Internet connection. These are the same kiosks where you can get screensavers and ringtones for your phones, and sometimes mix CDs. Many of them serve squid balls too. So people on the street have got it all figured out, even if the music biz hasn’t. Despite the uncertainty of getting their royalty payments -- so what else is new? -- artists seem ready to take the plunge. After all, it’s a brave new world out there, where the ringtone charts matter more than the music retailers’ Top Ten, and landing a soap opera soundtrack deal is better than getting your video on MTV. Just ask Acel. If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, the voice should. It’s the same voice TV audiences heard singing the theme of “Maria Flor de Luna.” Those with longer recall might also dimly remember a little ditty called “Torete” by an outfit called Moonstar 88 that was a radio staple a while back. And if that still doesn’t do it, not to worry: By October televiewers will be getting a daily dose of Acel since she’ll be singing the main theme of ABS-CBN’s new Koreanovela “Spring Waltz." Acel also has the distinction of being the first local artist to release an album without a CD. That’s right, the album “Silver Lining” will be available only online, at least for the moment. A CD release down the road remains a possibility, but for now it’s available by download only. “Almost all new releases are available as digital downloads, but mine is the first album to be released without an actual CD,” says the slender, waifish and hard-to-believe-she’s-32 Acel, Maria Cecilia Bisa van Ommen in real life. Two songs from the album, “Pakiusap” and “Laugh and Cry” are already enjoying airplay and video exposure. If these songs tickle the listener’s fancy, they’ll have to go online, either to www.acelbisa.com, Acel’s fansite, or to www.starrecords.ph, her label’s site, and log in. “They’ll need to get a prepaid card and an electronic PIN at a load or card central like Netopia, and log in at the website. Then they can download the songs at P12 per song,” she explains. You heard that right, P12 per song. Compare that with iTunes’ 99 cents (about P44) per song -- or the current P250 per CD -- and do the math. Acel admits it’s a stab into the unknown. “We don’t have any feedback yet as to how the downloads are doing,” she says. “We also don’t know if any anti-piracy software has been installed, but we think this is the next phase.” Although she only decided to go solo this year, Acel is already a veteran of the music scene, having come of age during the immediate post-Eraserheads alternative music boom of the mid-’90s. As an angsty, Doc Martens-clad punkette, Acel cut her teeth at the legendary venue Club Dredd with her first band, Orphan Lily. “I never thought I would be a performer,” she says. “I grew up insecure and with an inferiority complex because throughout high school, I had to wear a body brace for my scoliosis.” But she also grew up with a love for music. Her parents, both professors of creative writing, literature and grammar in Filipino and noted textbook authors, had a taste for Broadway musicals. Her elder brother was also into theater and influenced her toward the performing arts. So when a neighbor asked her to join his band, Acel immediately said yes. “If you love what you’re doing, you’ll really work to overcome whatever hinders you from doing that,” she says. “But even then, it took me years to overcome my shyness. At Club Dredd, I would sing with my eyes closed. I just stood there like a stump. But the other bands around encouraged and helped me out, and kind of mentored me in a way. They’d say, ‘Acel, tumingin ka naman sa tao.’” Eventually, she overcame her shyness, she says, because she had to shout Orphan Lily’s angsty, pop-punk lyrics. Orphan Lily managed to land a record deal with Polyeast Records, but disbanded soon after. Acel’s next outfit, Moonstar 88, was a mellower and more commercial proposition, steeped in Acel’s love for singer-songwriter music by the likes of the Sundays and Tori Amos. They immediately landed a record deal and released their debut “Popcorn” in 2001. The band scored with “Torete,” and followed up with a second album “Press to Play.” Meanwhile, Acel was discovering a talent for songwriting, inherited perhaps from her parents’ literary proclivities. “I started writing after I left Orphan Lily. I wrote almost all the songs for Moonstar’s first album,” she recalls. “Then for the second album, I encouraged the other members to write so we divided the songwriting duties. I write mostly in English, but a lot of people who’ve heard me, say my strength is in Tagalog lyrics and how I sing them.” In 2004, Acel left Moonstar 88 to marry her Dutch-Indonesian-Nepali fiancée and take a two-year hiatus from music. During that time, she helped a friend set up and manage a recording studio. But watching other artists recording their songs rekindled her love for music, and by last year, she had already written enough material for her solo debut. Earlier this year, she signed with Cornerstone Talent Management, the same outfit managing glamor-boy Sam Milby, which helped set her solo career in motion. Acel describes her current music as “easy listening, relaxed driving music” -- perhaps a reflection of her settled life and matured outlook on things. “It’s emotional, with stellar melodies,” she says, admitting to being influenced by Brit pop by the likes of Keane, Coldplay and U2. “My sister-in-law, who’s a graphic artist, told me, ‘when I listen to your music I feel like I’m swimming under the stars.’”