Music stakeholders gather at PMAN’s house for industry roundtable

Over the weekend, music industry stakeholders had the opportunity to exchange ideas and deliberate on topical industry issues at a roundtable session.

The roundtable gathering, which held at the new head office of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) in Lekki Lagos, was part of the three-day Vis-à-vis Music Festival organised recently by the Embassy of Spain in Nigeria, the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) in collaboration with PMAN and Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN).

Speaking at the event, which held on the theme, ‘Maximising the international dimension of music as a vehicle of culture’, seven speakers from across the Nigerian and Spanish governments and music industries, explored topical issues, while offering pathways to optimize the benefit of the Nigerian music economy.

In his views at the roundtable, Pretty Okafor, president of PMAN, noted that the event was necessary to seek collaborations on how to further exploit the potential of the Nigerian music industry and maximising the revenue inflow for the benefits of musicians whose songs are making waves in Europe and also to impact the economy.

Okafor noted that with the help of the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria and partnership with the Spanish collective management organisation (SGAE), collection of royalties and revenues accruing to Nigerian musicians in Spain will now be possible.

Toeing the same line, Mayo Ayilaran, CEO, MCSN, noted that the roundtable was timely as MCSN had severally campaigned that music must pay for the musicians whose creative works are being exploited all over world with no or adequate returns to them.

According to him, there are difficulties in collecting all royalties due to Nigerian musicians from across the world, and that it takes collaborative effort to ensure that, hence the roundtable is offering PMAN, SGAE and MSCN the platform to address the challenges.

“We need to work together with other global collective management societies to get all revenues accruing to our musicians and the music industry from across the world. This will impact the economies of the musicians, the industry and our GDP as well,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, John Asein, director general, Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), noted that the Nigerian music industry has grown to global recognition, exporting our culture and creating positive awareness about the country.

With so much about the country out there in the global scene and to global audiences, Asien noted that it implies that much more volume of Nigerian creative products are being consumed internationally and needs to be tracked for better impact back home.

“It is no longer the musicians blowing with rich pockets, the country’s economy should also feel the positive impacts of the creative economy and we need collaborations to do that’” Asien said.

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Speaking further, the NCC director general noted that the recent passage of the Copyright bill into law by the president will boost content security and revenue as the law made provisions for all that.

While commending the National Assembly for speedy passage of the bill into law, Asien assured that the copyright law will go a long way in promoting creativity and encouraging more authors for the betterment of Nigeria at large.

On his part, Vincent Sanchis Morera, representative of Spanish collective management organization (SGAE), reeled out the huge creative collections the organisation holds, while commending the sustained volume and improved quality of creative outputs from Nigeria to the world.

Morera pointed to the huge volume of creative materials from Nigeria that are consumed daily in Spain, noting that both countries need collaboration to ensure mutual exchanges to ensure that royalties get into the right hands and to the economy.

He expressed the openness of the Spanish collective management organisation in further partnerships with relevant Nigerian organisations at ensuring that music pays for right owners in Nigeria.

Earlier in his remarks Juan Sell, Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, recognized the cordial bilateral relationship between the two countries, while commending the creative industry for the sustained feeding of global audiences, including Spanish people with quality Africa contents, amid creating awareness of their culture and heritage through music.

At the government to government level, he promised to assist the Nigerian music industry in getting across to its Spanish counterpart, as well as industry stakeholders platforms for exchanges between the two countries.

The Nigerian Tourism Development Authority, which was represented at the roundtable by the Lagos director, commended the orgainsers of the roundtable and the Spanish team for visiting, noting that now as NTDA, the organisation is more empowered by law to promote and seek collaborations in boosting the country’s image and culture across the world.

She commended the music industry for being a great ambassador of the country in promoting Nigeria’s culture and heritage through music.

The roundtable witnessed the presence of other dignitaries including; Sunny Neji and Zakky Azzay, PMAN’s first and second vice presidents; Asha Gangali, GoCreate president, Olisa Adibua, leading music professional, Ayoola Sadare, CEO, Inspiro Productions, festivals promoter/producer, representatives of Banwo & Ighodalo law firm and a host of others.