For quite some time now, the
Copyrights Society of Nigeria (COSON),
has been harassing the Broadcasting
Society of Nigeria (BON) and the
Independent Broadcasting Society of
Nigeria, IBAN, insisting that they pay royalties for playing the songs of
Nigerian artists. COSON has dragged
several radio and TV stations to court,
demanding millions, sometimes
billions of Naira in royalty. Well, it seems IBAN and BON have had
enough. Two days ago, they
announced the ban of all Nigerian
artists registered with COSON. Meaning
that they ordered the immediate stop
to the airing of songs of artists who are COSON members. The artists include 2face Idibia, D'banj,
Onyeka Onwenu, Iyanya, Banky W,
Flavour, Ice Prince, Dr Sid, Olamide,
9ice, M.I, eLDee, Ruggedman, Wizkid,
Asa, Waje, Omawumi and several
others. In a statement released and signed
jointly by the President and Secretary
of IBAN, Sonny Adun and Guy Murray
Bruce, the need for such a drastic step
was due to "the antagonism and
harassment under the leadership of Tony Okoroji (COSON Chairman)”.
Continue... The statement in part reads "No
person or organisation, particularly a
collection society such as COSON has a
monopoly of authority over any
other…IBAN and BON have the utmost
respect for Nigerian artistes in their individual and collective capacities and
have indeed contributed more than
any known institution to the promotion
of Nigerian music and the
development of the entertainment
industry as a whole." They are accusing COSON of arbitrarily
imposing and concocting fees which
are not based on any agreeable and
verifiable tariff and standards. However Mr Okoroji while reacting to
the decision of the broadcasting bodies
says the issue here is the strict stand
COSON has on the royalties of artist
works used on any of the broadcast
stations. He says some stations have this attitude of "we can handle COSON"
and goes on airing the works of the
artist without paying them their due
royalty which COSON is strongly
against. Meanwhile the Performing Musicians
Association of Nigeria interim
president has released a statement on
the ban on airplay of Nigerian artists
by BON. The statement below... PMAN Speaks on the current ban of airplay of Nigerian artists by BON & IBAN The Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria is appalled by the recent development spearheaded by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and Independent Broadcasters’ Association of Nigeria (IBAN) via an official press release yesterday, calling for the immediate airplay ban on all media platforms on content from Nigerian artistes, the association which was created with the sole mission to PROTECT, PRESERVE, and PROMOTE Nigerian musicianshas decided to react on the ban and on- going feud between the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria(BON), Independent Broadcasters’ Association of Nigeria (IBAN) and Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) calling for an immediate reversal of the ban in the interest of these artistes whom we know that all the above mentioned organisations have their best interests at heart. The ban on airplay of these Nigerian artistes and their music on various Nigerian media platforms is from our standpointvery unfair, demeaning and discouraging. Weall knowwithout a doubt that these same artistes who have persevered and assisted us to build, today what is known as the Nigerian music industry, Africa’s biggest entertainment export to the world are the same people that are now being victimised. With this action, the association foresees a situation where this ban will, rather than encourage well meaning members of the society, with musical talent to hone
their craft and join the success story of the entertainment industry, reverse will be the case. We also foresee a situation where the bulk of the material that will be circulated on nigerian airwaves will be foreign materials, celebrating alien artistes instead of embracing, home grown talent and ourcultural heritage. COSONin it’s own right by a mandate given to the organisation acts as a collecting society for these artistes, helping to monitor and collect royalties entitled to them. As a collecting society, they have since inception acted as a shield to these artistes protecting their intellectual rights. BON& IBAN are arguing that the tariffs and standards presented to them by COSON should be defended and agreeable with them, but we know that the ban is not the best invitation to the negotiating table. Article 3.13.2.2 of the Broadcast code issued by NBC says: ‘For the purpose of free-to-air broadcast, Nigerian music shall constitute 80 per cent of all music broadcast’. If this ban is sustained, and 80% of the music played on the various media platforms are foreign material, we should ask ourselves as guardians of the music industry, if these media houses are paying the royalties owed to these foreign artistes, and thereby sidelining Nigerian music by Nigerian artistes, are we supporting them or failing them?We should also ask ourselves, ifthis ban which will invariably affect the rising profile of the Nigerian music industry in the world, economically and in relevance is good for us. With these ongoing conflicts, lets not forget the owners of this intellectual properties, the music owners, record label owners, recording artistes, the instrumentalists, composers, who have spent time and money producing and packaging, what we know, enjoy and call music, their interests should be siginifcant in these agreements. In light of all that has been mentioned above we ask again that the ban be reversed and that all the affected parties and major stakeholders in the entertainment industry sit down for a dialogue and reach a favourable agreement, beneficial to everyone involved.
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