The problems are threefold. First is compliance: I would estimate that fewer than 10% of broadcast platforms in Nigeria actually comply with licensing requirements. Second is the tariff structure: even when there is compliance, the fees are extremely low compared to the commercial value of the music. Third is the distribution mechanism: royalties rarely reach the actual right holders — composers, songwriters, record labels, and publishers — because of the opacity of the system.
As it stands, collective management organizations (CMOs) in Nigeria are widely seen as opaque and unaccountable. Many don’t have up-to-date operating licenses or transparent repertoires. So when they approach broadcasters to demand payments, they are often dismissed as hustlers. Broadcasters then negotiate token payments ‘under the table’ instead of paying the real value, further undermining the system. This vicious cycle means that even big artists whose music dominates airplay — like Rema, Ayra Starr, or Magixx — are often not represented by the CMOs going around collecting fees. So money gets collected in their name without ever reaching them. The result is a system that looks murky and untrustworthy from both the user’s side and the artist’s side.
What’s needed is transparency and enforcement. If the government mandated that CMOs could only collect for the catalogs they truly control, and if regulators like NBC required broadcasters to show proof of valid licenses before going on air, compliance would rise quickly. These are not impossible fixes — it would just take clear rules and the political will to enforce them. With the right reforms, the system could be cleaned up in a matter of months, and artists would finally begin to earn meaningfully from this segment of the industry.
I’m grateful for the growth we’ve seen in the music industry and for the incredible achievements so far, but we have to be honest: the industry is an ecosystem. It cannot be sustainable if only 5–10% of players are making the bulk of the money. That imbalance is dangerous because every part of the system has to feed into the other for it to thrive long term. If we’re not intentional about fixing this, we won’t be able to fully harness the opportunities we’ve gained over the past few years.
Right now, the system is tilted in such a way that to earn meaningful income, you almost need international exposure. If you look at the data, most of the top earners are artists whose music is in demand in markets with stronger monetization structures — whether it’s streaming platforms where fans pay premium subscription fees, or markets with touring infrastructure and merchandise economies that allow artists to generate real revenue. Domestically, it’s the brands with the marketing budget that bolster the economic activity and they are typically incentivized to lean towards artists with the trending songs to meet their brand’s objectives.
The problem with this is that everyone is scrambling to enter that top 5% bracket. It creates a bottleneck that shuts out young writers, producers, and emerging musicians, who can’t find enough opportunities to grow. At the same time, artists who may have passed their peak in terms of commercial relevance struggle to sustain themselves. That kind of structure isn’t healthy for the industry as a whole, and unless we rebalance it, the risks to long-term growth and sustainability remain very real.
This piece first appeared in RegalStone’s Basslines to Billions: Nigeria’s Music Market Intelligence Report
