By Tony Okoroji
September 1, is ‘No Music Day’ in Nigeria. Once again, the day is being devoted to drawing national attention to the widespread infringement of the rights of composers, song writers, performers, music publishers and other stakeholders in the music industry in Nigeria.
As has become our tradition, the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition, a coalition of the key national associations in the music industry across Nigeria, has asked broadcasting stations in the country to devote significant periods today to the broadcast of interviews, debates, comments, discussions and other programs related to the rights of artistes and creative people, as a mark of solidarity with the Nigerian creative community. Newspapers and magazines have also been requested to do special features and editorials on the subject.
The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Keep the Music Alive’. The objective is to once again engage the Nigerian people and the various governments on the potential contributions of Nigerian music to the socio-economic development of the Nigerian nation and the necessity to fully deploy the substantial international comparative advantage which our nation possesses in this area so as to provide hundreds of thousands of jobs to the teeming masses of Nigerian youth who today parade the streets of our country with little hope.
The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition believes that apart from the tremendous social impact of music, the contributions of our industry to the growth of the Nigerian economy ought to be tapped. We believe that if we do the right things, the music industry should be one of the largest employers of labour in the country catering to many talented Nigerians. It is therefore important that we understand the decision of the Nigerian Music industry Coalition to set aside September 1 every year to bring to sharp focus the value of the work of our great creative talents and to seek serious national intervention in the problems militating against the proper growth of Nigeria’s creative industries.
‘No Music Day’ has become a very important annual event for the creative community in Nigeria. On this 5th edition, we should be reminded of that week in 2009 when for several days many Nigerian artistes of all shades held huge rallies at the National Theatre in Lagos and went on a week-long hunger strike to protest the cruel infringement of the rights of artistes in Nigeria. For the first time in the history of mankind, the music industry called for the halt of the broadcast of music all over the country for a whole day, September 1, 2009.
No Music Day 2009 was also the beginning of a renewed onslaught on music and video pirates across the country leading to the degrading of the Alaba piracy cabal and the arrest and prosecution of their alleged kingpin, Tony Onwujekwe, Alias ‘Alaba King of Pirates’ who continues to face trial at the Federal High Court.
The unity of purpose brought about by No Music Day 2009 resulted in the birth of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and its approval by the Federal Government in May 2010 as the nation’s sole copyright collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings. The wave of developments that have followed the relentless activities of COSON is therefore traceable to No Music Day 2009.
Let us not forget that not so long ago, our nation was dominated by music from other lands. Our radio stations and night clubs played a very small percentage of Nigerian music. Today, at home, across the continent and indeed in most parts of the world, music created by young Nigerians has become dominant. To put it simply, Nigerian musicians have taken the world by storm. They are on top of their game. This revolution which should bring a lot of pride to our nation has not happened as a result of any serious national planning or contribution from the state. It is the product of individual efforts and the never-say-die spirit of many young Nigerians and a few people who believe in them. It is our deep belief that the time has come for the nation to fully harness this important development and make it easier for the creative endeavour to continue to thrive and a vibrant and sustainable industry to emerge from it.
We have noticed the interest of the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to provide badly needed funds for Nigeria’s creative industries so that they can achieve their clear potentials. We however hope that the government has not been misadvised to see Nigeria’s creative industries to begin and end with Nollywood. That would be a huge mistake. Let me be clear that we are in full support of any assistance by the government to our brothers and sisters in the movie industry with whom we maintain an excellent relationship and work very closely for the good of the Nigerian nation. We are simply saying that the very reasons for government intervention apply fully to the Nigerian music sector which is equally making our nation proud across the world.
Before No Music Day 2009, very few people believed that collective management of copyright would ever work in Nigeria. The emergence of the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition and the determination of the coalition to end the many years of confusion in collective management of copyright led to the formation of COSON and its approval by the Federal Government as the nation’s sole CMO for musical works and sound recordings in keeping with Nigerian law.
Today, the Nigerian music industry has probably the fastest growing collective management organization in the world, a very professional CMO driven by knowledge, skills and the most modern technology available. COSON is hiring the best brains we can find and we are making available to them first class training at home and abroad. This is without one naira financial support from the government.
In December last year at the National Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria witnessed the beginning of the distribution of N100 million as copyright royalties from the collective management system run by COSON. Several hundreds of Nigeria’s artistes have benefited from that distribution. The 2012 distribution followed the N25.7 million naira distribution in 2011, just one year after COSON was approved.
In a nation as big as Nigeria, there is clearly room for much more. However, if you recall that only three years ago, there was not even one naira distribution to any stakeholder in the music industry and many in fact doubted that collective management of copyright would ever work in Nigeria, then you will appreciate the historic nature of what the music industry in Nigeria has achieved in so short a time.
COSON is determined to substantially increase the royalty distributable to stakeholders in the music industry to match the massive use of music in our nation. Last year, COSON was compelled to institute several multi billion Naira law suits against some users of music and sound recordings in Nigeria. This was after every attempt at moral suasion had failed. COSON had to go to court as a last resort. As you know, the court actions were productive. It however appears that old habits die hard. Some of the users may have gone back to their old ways and not all have learnt the lesson that the days of free music are gone in Nigeria forever. Some may also be testing the resolve of COSON.
I therefore wish to make it clear that the resolve of COSON to protect the rights of music industry practitioners and to collect copyright royalties for the use of their music and sound recordings is rock solid. We will not waver and there will be no sacred cows. Our commitment to the cause of defending the rights of music industry practitioners in Nigeria is unshaken and unshakable. Very soon, we will bring the full weight of the law on all those who have refused to learn that the times have changed. Let me assure you that our approach this time will be very different. I wish to state clearly that it is far cheaper to obtain a COSON licence for the music used by anyone than to engage COSON in an expensive law suit which that person is sure to lose because in this day and age, no court of law anywhere will enter a judgment to the effect that anyone can freely abuse the intellectual property of others.
Last December, we concluded a historic agreement for the payment of royalties with the hotel industry in Nigeria. Following that agreement, a good number of hotels in Nigeria have been licensed for the use of music. We wish to request those who have not been licensed to do so expeditiously.
Today, we call on the National Assembly to ensure that forthwith, clear provisions are made in the budgets of all Federal government owned broadcast stations for the payment of copyright royalties. We refuse to accept a situation where the stations continue with the open stealing of the intellectual property of innocent creative people simply because there is no budget for the payment for the key raw material they deploy in their operations. Any scheme by which the stations are required to pay royalties from their meagre or non-existent ‘internally generated revenue’ is a joke and simply unacceptable to us.
As we well know, most of these stations were set up for political reasons. They have very little chance of generating proper revenue. Meanwhile, they sustain their operations by freely using the intellectual property of innocent citizens who have invested in creativity with hard earned money.The Nigerian music industry cannot and shall not subsidize broadcasting in Nigeria. The capital requirements of the stations are budgeted, the salaries of the staff are budgeted but the royalties to those who create and invest in the music which sustains the stations are not budgeted. The royalties are the ‘salaries’ of those in the music industry whose works are broadcast. We refuse that this be left to the vagaries, whims and caprices of the so called Internally Generated Revenue. The reality is that most of the stations, in defiance of the law, do not pay any royalties or when they pay at all, what they pay is absolutely laughable. This appears to be state sanctioned robbery of creative people, a lot of them young Nigerians, who invest in the music industry in our nation. The National Assembly has a responsibility to bring this robbery to an immediate end and every state assembly must do likewise.
Recently, COSON announced the signing of a landmark reciprocal representation agreement with the United Kingdom based PRS for Music, clearly the most respected CMO in the world.
The agreement formalizes the mandate to COSON to manage in Nigeria the extensive repertoire of world music controlled by PRS for Music while PRS for Music will ensure the collection of royalties on behalf of COSON, its members and affiliates for the use of Nigerian music in the UK and other territories where PRS operates directly or through its affiliates.
The signing of the agreement between COSON and PRS for Music is proof that the world has taken notice of the significant progress COSON has made with respect to the collective management of copyright in Nigeria. I hereby call on Nigerian artistes to go out and create massive world-wide hits. They have the assurance of COSON that wherever in the world their music is utilized, there is a worldwide network heavily protecting their interests.
The other significance of the COSON agreement with PRS is that the rest of the world now has huge interest in music licensing in Nigeria. We must now behave responsibly and can no longer act as we like or pretend that it does not matter. Economic and diplomatic sanctions await us if we act like we are free to use other people’s intellectual property for free.
As the digital age evolves more and more, it is clear that the shape of the music industry will be remarkably different. Already the method of music distribution is changing rapidly with the CD gradually disappearing and cell phones, i pads, ipods, Mp3s, Mp4s, memory chips, memory sticks and similar devices replacing the CD. The internet has also become a major source of music. These developments pose tremendous challenges to the industry as the business models cannot remain the same.
It is in recognition of the above that the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition working closely with COSON organized the first Nigerian Digital Music Licensing Summit which held at Protea Hotel, Ikeja on August 12, 2013. We recognize that practitioners in Nigeria need to be ahead of the curve and establish the rules of engagement in the new environment or the progress we seek will not happen. The 14 man working committee set up by the summit held its first meeting on Tuesday, August 27 and continues to work.
In recognition of the changing nature of access to music, efforts are at advanced stages to activate Section 40 of the Copyright Act which provides for a levy to be imposed on materials used or capable of being used to infringe copyright and for such levy to be distributed to stakeholders through approved collective management organizations. We are aware that the requisite order has been made by the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice. We are also aware that there are on-going discussionsbetween the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Federal Ministry of Finance on the successful commencement of the scheme. We call on all those involved to expedite action on the process because in the light of developments in the digital environment, the scheme ought to provide badly needed cushion for practitioners.
For many years our industry has complained about the destructive piracy with its headquarters at Alaba International Market, Lagos and Electromart in Onitsha where unauthorized CDs, DVDs and cassette tapes are copied round the clock and which has ruined the careers of many of Nigeria’s greatest creative minds and led to significant divestment of many multinational companies from Nigeria. Last year, another kind of piracy began in Nigeria with massive potentials to wreak havoc on the creative endeavours of our music stars and those who support them with badly needed investment.
In most major Nigerian cities today, thousands of young men with laptops under umbrellas,without the authorization of the owners of the works, are openly compiling the most popular songs in the market for a fee, transferring these songs to mobile handsets,mp3s, mp4s, i pods, i pads, i phones, or flash drives of whoever has money to pay! The emergence of this kind of brazen digital piracy is a menace that must be addressed forthwith by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and other law enforcement agencies. The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition requests the Federal Government to provide the required resources to the NCC to ensure a very robust onslaught on this menace. If this is not done, more jobs will be lost in this sector and new investments will not come in. In the same vein, the need to update our laws to deal with digital piracy especially, the many illegal websites offering Nigerian music either free of charge or for a fee has become urgent.
As we mark No Music Day, we observe with sadness the plight of various stakeholders in the creative community, who due to one ailment or another are living in abject poverty and begging for death to come because there is no fund anywhere to help such people. This is a huge embarrassment to the Nigerian creative sector.
It is in reaction to the above that in May, we instituted the COSON Music Foundation launched during the unforgettable COSON Week. The COSON Music Foundation is to a large extent still work-in-progress to which we are fully committed.
We hereby repeat our call on the Honourable Minister of Culture to act without further delay to get the National Endowment Fund for the Arts up and running so that there are resources to take care of funding for creative projects and the welfare of creative people who have fallen into hard times.
Once again, on the critical issue of funding, we are left with no choice but conclude that both the Growth in Employment in States Fund (GEMS) and the Entertainment Industry Intervention Fund announced by President Goodluck Jonathan two years ago, which created so much initial buzz, have become big disappointments and regrettably are now seen as sad political gimmicks.
As we mark No Music Day today, we once again call on President Jonathan to order the Bank of Industries (BOI), the Nigerian Export and Import Bank (NEXIM) the Federal Ministry of Commerce & Investments and everyone connected with the funds to do what is necessary to make sure that they begin to have impact on the industry and help to create the badly needed employment. Presently, the more we look, the less we see.
It is pertinent to restate that the lack of meaningful growth in our nation’s economy cannot be separated from the sorry state of various industries of which the music industry is a major sector. The sector with its huge potential to make significant contributions cannot continue to receive meager attention or total exclusion from the nation’s policy making. On this ‘No Music Day’ 2013, we appeal once again that more attention be paid to the music industry through proactive policies so that it may flourish and contribute its quota to the economic growth of our country.
In conclusion, we commend the leaders of the different national associations that make up the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition for the patriotic zeal that has made many of them make huge sacrifice so that an important legacy is left for coming generations of artistes in Nigeria. We also commend the hardworking staff of COSON who have co-ordinated the activities of No Music Day 2013 on behalf of the coalition. We appreciate all the stations, different media organizations and individual journalists who have continued to act in solidarity with the Nigerian music industry. We repeat our promise that we will not rest until the Nigerian music industry is delivering to the Nigerian economy ample wealth andproviding significant employment, economic and social progress.
Thank you and God bless Nigeria.