Yesterday I had in my office a famous Nigerian musician who came to brief me on how a song he made with another popular artiste has been generating revenues amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars for five years now and the other artiste is yet to give him a dime for the song. He (my client) is the original owner of the song and he featured the other artiste who happened to be bigger at that time. Because he needed to ride on the structure the other artiste already had in place he agreed for the song and the music video to be published on the channels of the featured artiste instead of being published under his own channel.
The song was a big hit and is still a hit up to this day and the song has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars as revenue from audio and the visual platforms it was published on but since it was published under the featured artiste the original owner has no access to the streaming revenues.
I queried this client if there was any negotiation or contract between them before the song was made but the usual answer I got from him which is a very similar response I do get when I’m handling a brief of this nature is that there was no prior conversation as to ownership or contract or negotiations as to the ownership or as to the generated revenue on the song. I remember one artiste with a similar case telling me that they were just making music based on friendship and vibes and they had no idea that the song will blow or generate much money; one other person told me that although he was given a contract but due to excitement, he signed it there without appreciating the contents of the contract document or seeking legal counsel only to later find out that what he did sign was relinquishing ownership of the song to the other person.
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The issue of having a contract in place before making music and getting features or getting featured cannot be over-emphasized. The issue of having a contract document that outlines the ownership and the sharing (percentage) formula of the revenue streams of the song and the artiste appreciating the contents of the contract documents before signing them cannot be said enough.
Nigerian artistes need to start treating music as a business which is what it is and has always been. The music industry is a billion-dollar industry and even if you are doing it as a hobby or just for the vibes of it, keep in mind that it is the means of livelihood of numerous other folks hence why you need to approach the making of it as a business and put every necessary legal framework in place for such business and when going into business, even if you are going into a business deal with your wife or twin brother let there be a contract; as far as there is money involved, draft a contract.
As to the ownership and the sharing formula in music, the internationally recognized best practice which is backed by music laws and intellectual property laws is of the opinion that every person who contributed to the making of the music is deemed to be a co owner of the music unless it is otherwise agreed by the parties. The beat maker, the composer, the producer, the mix and master engineer, the sound engineer, the lyricist, the vocalist etc are all presumed to be equal owners of the music unless one of the parties who is usually the vocalist or the producer decides to pay off the rest persons and there is an agreement as to that effect, there and then the vocalist or the producer can become the legal sole owner of that music.
Music laws are to the effect that anyone featured or that partook in the making of the song is a co-owner. Even if a person said just one word or made an intro or just coughed in the making of the song and the sound of the cough or the one-word intro was featured in the music, the person will be deemed to be a contributor or a co-owner of the song.
To this effect, anyone who is deemed to have been a co owner or a contributor to the song is entitled to the royalties and the streams of revenues that will be generated by the music. The co owners can decide on the sharing formula which could be decided by who contributed the most gets the lion share and who contributed the least gets the rat share.
Even music streaming platforms in line with music laws, international best practices and intellectual property rights are always interested in knowing who are the contributors and co-owners of the song so that the sue credits will be given to them. Music streaming platforms made available when registering a song that you register all the names of the people who are co-owners of the song even when registering for the copyright of the song you are asked and expected to write down all the names of the co-owners or co-contributors of the song.
I am looking forward to when the Nigeria music industry is legally advanced like our counterparts in the West when artistes, producers, composers, lyricists etc will all be knowledgeable as to their rights and royalties in the music they have created or they are about to create and they will ask for contracts itemizing their rights and royalties to the song before they can go ahead with the project as this will be the antidote to all this regular outbursts and name calling of one artiste ripping off or cheating the other artiste.