The Music Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) has announced with excitement the receipt of the first tranche of the copyright levy under Section 89 of the Copyright Act 2022 in the sum of one billion, two hundred and five million, nine hundred and fifty-six thousand, five hundred and eighty naira, twenty kobo (N1,205,956,580.20) for musical works and sound recordings.
According to the MCSN, “this payment falls on all fours with the renewed hope agenda of the present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make the creative industry a very viable sector in the Nigerian economy.”
MCSN affirmed that “the copyright levy has been one of the legal provisions of Copyright Laws in Nigeria since 1988 but never implemented until President Bola Tinubu came into power.
“The eventual disbursement of the fund will certainly reach the grassroots and every Nigerian creator, no matter where they are located, in order to begin to actually lift our poor musicians out of deep poverty.”
MCSN posited that “sound recordings is a shared interest between record producers and performers (performing musicians) whose performances were recorded. The rights in sound recordings are normally shared between the producers and performers, in certain territories at the ratio of 50% a-piece.
“In Nigeria, most performers (performing musicians) whose performances were recorded in albums are direct members and assignors of MCSN, vis-à-vis many independent record producers and label owners. These are the real owners of sound recordings in Nigeria.
“The Performing Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), which is the only legally recognised union/association of performing and employers of musicians (including recording producers and labels) has a subsisting agreement with MCSN with which MCSN represents the copyright interests of all performers and producers in Nigeria.”
MCSN was of the view that “every discerning Nigerian author, composer, publisher, performer and producer of music are aligned with MCSN for the collective administration of their copyright. The collective management system is the only viable avenue through which the Nigerian Government can effectively administer and enforce copyright including the copyright levy scheme.”
In summary, MCSN stressed: “We want to state that with the benefit of hindsight of more than 30 years, the current Copyright Act 2022 and its implementation by the Nigerian Copyright Commission and Federal Ministry of Justice, have brought sanity and progress to the copyright system, particularly in the collective management of copyright
“This has effectively reduced, if not outrightly eliminated, the confusion that has bedevilled the music industry for more than three decades, particularly with regards to getting users of music and its related products to respect the right granted to musical works and sound recordings by law, by paying due royalties.”
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