At Metro FM, No Music Day was observed on the morning of Tuesday 1st September 2015. Justin Ige, Partner at Creative Legal, a media and entertainment law outfit and consultant to COSON was hosted. Also present was Rex, an artiste. Enjoy the interview excerpts.
(Male Presenter): What is Copyright in itself?
(Justin Ige): Copyright can be referred to as a basket of rights. Basically, it is the authorization to be able to do certain things such as broadcast, copying, duplicating, performing publicly, as well as its adaptations. These are some of the parts of the acts which copyright controls technically.
(Male Presenter): What is the idea behind today’s No Music Day?
(Justin Ige): The idea behind the NO MUSIC DAY is this. In most cases, when you have something in abundance, sometimes you don’t take a while or a step back to appreciate its value. But if you are deprived of that very thing just for a little while you begin to realize how much it is. The NO MUSIC DAY is just a device to make people reflect on the value of music.
Imagine a whole day without any form of music in your house, no music in your car, no music on Radio, Television, all your advert jingles without music, your film without music, and so on.
(Female Presenter): [Cuts in] It’s like not breathing
(Justin Ige): [Laughs] You should chop knuckle for that.
(Male Presenter): The theme for this year’s NO MUSIC DAY is Music, the Untapped Alternative to Crude Oil. What are the prospects and possibilities of Music in monetary terms?
(Justin Ige): The reality is that money is being made a whole lot. Less money is also being made and the other reality is that a lot of the little money is being made by the wrong people. 
(Male Presenter): When you say the wrong people, are you referring to the pirates?
(Justin Ige): Yes the pirates! And there are different categories of pirates, not just physical pirates which most people generally refer to as the Alaba boys but we also have digital pirates, people who release music online without authorization. Some are even free but they are depriving people of their income by the bit.
(Male Presenter): Sometimes back, we got reports that some artistes actually went to the pirates to get them to make duplicate copies in order to sell their music as they were finding it difficult to break through demands of the industry.
(Justin Ige): I understand and am aware of that. They were using the method of compilation albums, which initially the Alaba marketers of that time pay to get done. Then later the artistes started paying to have their works on these mixes. It is wrong to do that, but then again I can speak for the Alaba boys; they are businessmen, they want to make money.
(Female Presenter): [Cuts in] It is wrong for who to do that?
(Justin Ige): It is wrong for artistes to do that. But if you (artiste) decide to be like Esau of the holy books who sold off his birthright for a plate of porridge, fine! But that’s shortchanging your destiny as a talented artiste and not having foresight. Most artistes want the hot plate of porridge but never look at the future ahead. Though not sure most artistes still do that anyways.
(Rex): They still do. It’s an industry; in fact, it’s a sub-industry on its own. A while back a guy hit me up on Facebook saying he is into promotions and stuff and can help get my music into Alaba. I was like, fine I can send you my music to put it out for free. But he said I have to pay for that service and I told him point blank that that’s the twisted side of his business and the guy challenged me back saying this is Nigeria and further asked if the radio stations that plays my songs pay me royalties and the truth here is we are actually not getting paid.
(Justin Ige): You see some radio stations are paying and some artistes are getting their royalties. Two years ago, about N100million was distributed to artistes and some artistes that I know about got as much as N3million for that year. But as an artiste, you have to qualify and you need to practically do certain things to get that much.
If you are Mr. A as a musician or artiste, are you getting paid? Or rather what are you doing to ensure you get paid? The structure is there, the platform is there. So to just generally say we are not getting paid or we are not seeing the money is so not true.
(Female Presenter): Let’s break it down here. What exactly should an artiste listening in right now do to get their money especially if they tune in and hear that their song is being played here?
(Justin Ige): The question we must ask is what category of artiste qualifies? There are different categories of artistes and most artistes don’t really know who they are. Are you a performer, or a songwriter, singer, a record label executive, your own publisher, producer and so on? These are all kinds of categories that can affect how much an artiste earns as royalties. For example, you go to COSON, the organization responsible for collecting and distributing royalties and you register your work as an artiste meanwhile you are also the one publishing your work. 50% of royalties is meant to go to the artiste and the other 50% will be unaccounted for. It remains in there as unclaimed in the account waiting for someone to come claim it.
(Male Presenter): So who does the awareness of this information? Is it the artistes manager, the record label company or the lawyer like yourself?
(Justin Ige): Lawyers are very private people. Some of us involve ourselves in some social crusades like this but it is not the responsibility of lawyers in any way. If you have a business, make efforts to understand the laws guiding the business and how the industry operates as well as the structures within that industry. So I think the investor or the artiste or that entertainment entrepreneur has the responsibility to be educated about his business. Yes, there is a COSON, there is a Copyright Commission that has some more responsibility to disseminate information but I feel that the primary responsibility lies with the people who have invested their intellectual property and resources in making this music that we all love.
(Male Presenter): In as much as artistes collect royalties, do artistes pay taxes?
(Justin Ige): We will have to ask the tax authorities about that.
(Male Presenter): How then do you account for royalties?
(Justin Ige): Well I am Justin Ige from Creative Legal. We are legal consultants to COSON and not employees of COSON who are involved in the collection of royalties and the actual copyright administration of royalties to artistes. But the truth is all broadcast stations do have that responsibility to pay royalties and also provide a log. So if you as a radio station pay your royalties to COSON and don’t provide a log, you have only fulfilled half of your obligation and I want to believe Metro FM does both.
(Male Presenter): Sure we comply. Let’s look at the concept of music as an alternative to crude oil which ties in with the theme for this year’s NO MUSIC DAY, tell us more about this.
(Justin Ige): The intellectual property business, as it relates to music, is very huge and has a lot of potentials; we can go to some statistics. In Nashville USA that’s just one city, the music industry helps to create and sustain more than 56,000 jobs.
Male Presenter: [Cuts in] That’s for country music.
(Justin Ige): Yes it is but that’s the industry there and their industry shows that they have about 10billion USD annual economic impact for music only and that’s about N4trillion. Imagine Lagos generating or allowing music to contribute about that for Lagos State. Do you know that Lagos generated N246billion for 2014? Now that’s a lot of money for just one year, isn’t it? Imagine N4trillion, in addition, being introduced into Lagos economy from music alone and then imagine what Lagos State will be making?
Male Presenter: Wow [Exhales deeply] Well with this, we have come to the end of our interview on today’s NO MUSIC DAY. We really do appreciate the enlightenment and the time you have spent with us thus far. For more information about COSON and Royalties log on to www.cosonng.com. Justin Ige is from Creative Legal; a Media and Entertainment law firm based here in Lagos and consultants to COSON.
(Justin Ige): Thank you for having me, the pleasure is mine.
(Male Presenter): Thank you once again for coming through.
Justin Ige MCIArb is a Managing partner at CREATIVE LEGAL, a Media, and Entertainment Law practice. He can be reached via Justin@creativelegal.com.ng or Mailjustinige@gmail.com
