10th October, 2015
A renowned musician, Michael Stephens, on Saturday said that lack of requisite structures and greed were the ills crippling the music industry in the country.
“If proper structures were to be in place, the industry will run very well and artistes will enjoy the fruits of their labour,’’ Stephens, popularly known as Ruggedman, said.
Stephens told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the industry lacked viable documentation for easy reference to archival materials.
He added that the lack of indexed intellectual properties had made it possible for some unscrupulous stakeholders to encroach on the creative output of other artistes.
“If structures are in place, things will be well documented.
“We should be able to know how many record labels are in existence, how much was spent and how much the artistes are making.
“That is why Americans and British artistes are able to get reward from their intellectual properties because the industry is well structured.
“With the new Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) administration, we hope to change things on the music scene, ” he said.
The musician said the PMAN administration was working hard to establish proper structures.
According to him, the Pretty Okafor-led administration has put up a platform for CD code to indicate royalties accruing to musicians when due.
“ A biometric identity card, encoding and bar coding of songs that will be downloaded everywhere have been put in place.
“If it is scanned automatically, money will be credited to the musician. That is a great thing coming to the industry.
“It will change a lot of things for musicians and intellectual properties will be protected and piracy will be minimised,” he said.
Stephens said that PMAN, the artiste and the record label will all get some percentages.
“I like the fact that PMAN is having a working relationship with Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) although it might not be as effective as we want it to be.
“NIPOST is in every state of the federation and the videos and CDs will be transported through it to various destinations,” he said.
He said that with the arrangement, marketers in various cities do not need to travel to Lagos to buy CDs and videos.
“Before they pick them, they will be scanned to ascertain the authenticity and also pay up for the consignment,” he said.