Should Radio Stations Pay Nigerian Artistes for Playing Their Songs?

I have recently been pondering the age-long debate on whether radio stations should pay artistes for playing their songs. The need to ponder has also been heightened by recent commendable efforts of the Tony Okoroji led COSON to make this happen in Nigeria. Commendable as the efforts have been, premised on the notion that radio stations are infringing on the intellectual property rights of artistes by playing their songs and not paying, I keep wondering if this is a possibility in the Nigerian context. How do you measure how often an artiste’s songs are played? How do you collate the numbers and how do you allocate payment? In a country that is notoriously inadequate in record-keeping, is this even a possibility? If a flat rate is applied, as COSON has demanded from radio stations, how do you share between, let’s say, a Fuji musician and a hip hop artiste if Beat FM pays? Besides, who gets paid? Songwriters? Producers? Musicians? Singers?

In the US and much of Europe, radio stations pay for the music they play through rights groups like ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.  The money goes to songwriters, rather than singers or musicians. The amount varies from station to station and it’s not a lot of money. In 2009, some American musicians including Sheryl Crow, will.i.am, Patti LaBelle and Herbie Hancock urged the US congress to force radio stations to pay performers when their songs are played on radio. The thrust of their argument is this, as said by Herbie Hancock: People deserve to be paid when somebody else uses their property. The bill is still pending before congress and the status quo is maintained at the moment.

If this is a fair argument in the American context, it should be equally fair in the Nigerian one too, no? Let us examine the Nigerian situation: Music blogs and websites have sprung widely in the past 5 years and garnered an appreciable followership. However, radio remains the biggest outlet for any musician to make significant impact. Go through Nigerian music blogs and websites and you’ll notice that the songs with the highest number of views have about 150, 000 views. Each time the same songs are played on stations like Beat FM or Top Radio, they are likely heard by at 10 times that number. Iceprince‘s ‘Oleku‘ is probably the most popular song of 2010. It was played in every club/bar/lounge and made the artiste a force to reckon with, even without releasing a full album. Should Iceprince have expected radio stations to pay him for playing that song? Who did who a favour, if anyone did anyone a favour?

Artistes will often argue that they actually pay to get their songs played on radio. It isn’t uncommon, I’m told, for OAPs to demand for money before an artiste’s songs are played. In fact, many upcoming artistes believe that the reason they are yet ‘unsuccessful’ is because they cannot afford to pay every OAP at every station they need to get their songs played on. I believe that this is wrong as stations should air music because they need to entertain their listeners and they find each song worthy. However, this is far from the reality. Artistes like 2face and D’banj probably don’t have the same problem as stations will eagerly play their songs without inducement as listeners expect to hear their songs on radio. Also, record labels and music publishers in the US have been paying radio stations to get their artistes played for decades. Popularly referred to as ‘Payola’; this has led to many amazing Billboard positions and record sales. In the final analysis, radio stations need music for their programming content and musicians need radio stations to promote their music which, hopefully, will lead to popularity, sales and concerts. It seems that this is a mutually-beneficial relationship for which there should be no payment on either side, especially in a country like Nigeria where people don’t pay to listen to radio. It may be argued that radio stations make money from playing music and therefore should pay musicians, as it is the music they play that draws listenership and consequently, adverts. However, a counter argument may also be made that artistes benefit from airplay as the artiste becomes popular as a result of having his/her songs constantly played on radio and that this popularity leads to album sales as well as concert engagements. Any artiste who feels that this is not the case can ask that stations should desist from playing his/her songs if they are unwilling to pay. That will be a fair request.

I believe that no payment should be made either way, but if either side insists on being paid, then I suggest that radio stations should pay artistes for playing their songs and that this payment should be exactly the same amount the artiste pays the radio station for getting his/her music to the largest local audience possible.

I rest my case.