No Music Day was observed by some radio stations on Tuesday 1st September 2015. Justin Ige, Partner at Creative Legal, a media and entertainment law outfit and consultant to COSON explains the reason behind such a move in this interview. Excerpts:
What is Copyright in itself?
Copyright can be referred to as a basket of rights. Basically it is the authorization to be able to do certain things such as broadcast, copying, duplicating, performing publicly, as well as its adaptations. These are some of the parts of the acts which copyright controls technically.
What is the idea behind today's "No Music Day"?
The idea behind the NO MUSIC DAY is this. In most cases, when you have something in abundance, sometimes you don't take a while or a step back to appreciate its value. But if you are deprived on that very thing just for a little while you begin to realize how much it is. The NO MUSIC DAY is just a device to make people reflect on the value of music.
Imagine a whole day without any form of music in your house, no music in your car, no music on Radio, Television, all your advert jingles without music, your film without music, and so on.
[Cuts in]It's like not breathing…
[Laughs]You should chop knuckle for that.
The theme for this year's NO MUSIC DAY is 'Music, the Untapped Alternative to Crude Oil.'
What are the prospects and possibilities of Music in monetary terms?
The reality is that money is being made a whole lot. Less money is also being made and the other reality is that a lot of the little money is being made by the wrong people.
When you say the wrong people, are you referring to the pirates?
Yes the pirates! And there are different categories of pirates, not just physical pirates which most people generally refer to as the Alaba boys but we also have digital pirates, people who release music online without authorization. Some are even free but they are depriving people of their income by the bit.
Sometimes back, we got reports that some artistes actually went to the pirates to get them to make duplicate copies in order to sell their music as they were finding it difficult to break through demands of the industry.
I understand and am aware of that. They were using the method of compilation albums, which initially the Alaba marketers of that time pay to get done. Then later the artistes started paying to have their works on these mixes. It is wrong to do that, but then again I can speak for the Alaba boys; they are business men, they want to make money.
[Cuts in] It is wrong for who to do that?
It is wrong for artistes to do that. But if you(artiste) decide to be like Esau of the holy books who sold off his birthright for a plate of porridge, fine! But that's shortchanging your destiny as a talented artiste and not having foresight. Most artistes want the hot plate of porridge but never look at the future ahead. Though not sure most artistes still do that anyways.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
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