Pirates Cash In on Music in Nigeria
LAGOS, Nigeria — Forcing a smile, Seyi Shay, a music star in Nigeria, stood for hours under hot lights to record a video. Three changes of clothes later, she was still at it, singing snippets over and over.
Across town, her efforts to build a following over the years were paying off — for someone else. Dozens of customers lined up with their smartphones and flash drives, eagerly handing over cash to pirates with laptops to load up on Ms. Shay’s songs. She earned nothing. “Out here, nobody cares about the rules,” Ms. Shay said. “Everything is kind of cowboy.”
Artists across the world battle illegal sales of their work. But Nigeria’s piracy problem is so ingrained that music thieves worry about rip- offs of their rip- offs, slapping warning labels on pirated CDs to insist that “lending is not allowed.”
In Lagos, Africa’s biggest city, legitimate music stores are rare and streaming services haven’t caught on, so thousands of pirated CDs are churned out each day. But now, members of the music industry are trying to put a stop to the pilfering, hoping they can turn the popularity of Nigerian music to their advantage.
Nigerian music — Afrobeats especially — is having a moment. It blares in airport lounges, nightclubs and the bedroom recording studios where young people dream of stardom.
While many countries have courts focused on intellectual property cases, artists in Nigeria have only in recent years begun to pursue copy- right protection. They complain that laws to protect them are so seldom invoked that some judges don’t even know they exist.
The Nigerian government recently announced a new push to protect intellectual property, and the national copyright commission created an institute to train musicians, and judges, about artists’ rights.
“We’re trying to change people’s perception about the use of music,” said Chinedu Chukwuji, chief executive of the Copyright Society of Nigeria. “Music is everywhere, but they don’t know it’s proprietary.”
In recent decades, music from abroad — mainly American and British hip-hop and R&B — dominated the Nigerian scene. Yet international music distributors ignored the nation. With few ways of buying overseas music, illegal sales flourished. “American artists would come here to do a show and were stunned to find thousands of people singing their songs back to them,” said Efe Omorogbe, owner of Now Muzik, a local label.
Open piracy left little incentive for anyone to set up legitimate music sales. Local musicians, struggling to be heard above international competition, often gave away their work. “It’s descended to a point where people who use your material almost feel like you should celebrate them,” Mr. Omorogbe said.
The appetite for Nigerian music is clear. International labels are setting up shop in Lagos. Last year, Wizkid, one of Nigeria’s most popular artists, reached the top of the American singles chart for an Afrobeats collaboration with the Canadian rapper Drake. But for many artists, the more popular they become, the more their music is stolen. “There isn’t exactly a proper structure for us to make money,” said Falz, a Nigerian rapper and songwriter.
Many musicians pay to have their music heard. Popular music blogs collect as much as $120 to promote a song. Budding musicians also pay to have their songs featured on “latest mix” CDs sold on the streets. A collection called “Mega Mix” contained new pirated songs from well-known musicians like Wizkid, along with songs from 43 less-known singers.
Even Ms. Shay has paid to be heard, giving cash to blogs. But now fans fawn over her. She recently flew to South Africa for performances and has an endorsement deal with a Chinese telecom company. Her face has been on Pepsi billboards in Lagos. Not long ago, she was signed to the British-American label Island Records.
“You have to put in the work,” she advised. “Nobody is going to do it for you.”
Where artists have few protections, bootleggers profit.