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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has facilitated a collaboration framework between the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) and Disco Jockeys Association of Nigeria (DJAN) to ensure the collection of royalties for musicians and improve the business dealings of DJs.
The tripartite collaboration is to curb piracy in the music industry and enhance the living standard of creative artists.
Director-General of the Commission Dr John Asein explained that the move was to address some grey areas of concern as identified by the two organisations.
A consultative meeting has been held between the affected organisations to fashion out a workable framework for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Dr Asein noted that the Commission was particularly interested in the development of sectorial synergy amongst right owners, users, collective management organisations (CMOs) and other stakeholders in the music value chain. This, he said, was part of the wider national policy of the government on the ease of doing business and sustainable growth of small and medium scale enterprises.
He stated that ‘the meeting is epoch-making and represents a paradigm shift in the engagement of CMOs and users’. He welcomed the initiative and assured both sides that the NCC would provide the needed institutional support to facilitate the anticipated collaboration for the good of the music industry. According to him, there was a need to ensure that the right owners were adequately rewarded for their intellectual investment.
‘We have this consultative meeting and there is a win-win situation. Both sides have agreed to continue this discussion in a very positive and constructive manner with a view to arriving at that destination where MCSN will be able to make collection from the use of music and DJs will be able to do their business in a way that their members will be adequately compensated,’ Asein disclosed.
Confirming this position, the National President of DJAN, Tade Adeyemi (aka DJ Kool), expressed confidence that the collaboration will yield the expected results in such a way that would be beneficial to all parties.
‘It is a good process in the area of royalty collection and it will help sensitise the DJs industry as there are lots of quack DJs who swindle their customers. With this collaboration, we will be able to streamline and weed out the bad ones among us.
‘In a few weeks’ time, there will be the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) and once that is done, things will begin to take positive shape,’ Adeyemi stated.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer(COE) of the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Limited (MCSN), Mr Mayo Ayilaran, noted that musicians stand to benefit from the collaboration.
‘By this collaboration, we are able to understand ourselves to the fact that each of us is within the ecosystem in the creative sector is important.
‘We believe that musicians will benefit from it. Previously, musicians cry about being driven out of jobs by the activities of DJs. But we now realised that everyone needs some kind of protection. So, within our own capacity, we will be able to do the needful to realise the objective of this collaboration. It’s a win-win situation for all,’ Ayilaran stated.
MCSN is an incorporated collective association of authors, composers, arrangers and publishers of music.
It is saddled with the responsibility of collecting royalties from users of music and creating a clear roadmap for the creation of wealth and prosperity for Nigerian musicians and the creative industry at large.
