In January 2019 during a panel on Africa’s music industries at NY:LON Connect, Chocolate City group’s Aibee Abidoye talked about one of the challenges in Nigeria: competing collecting societies causing confusion in the market – including giving broadcasters an excuse for avoiding paying royalties for music usage. Are things looking any more settled two years on?
This report by news site Vanguard suggests not. It outlines the ongoing battle between collecting societies Coson and MCSN, with the latter recently announcing that it is the official PRO for Nigeria, courtesy of a decision by the Nigerian Copyright Commission. It also claims that Coson has been suspended from operating as a collecting society since 2018, although that organisation begs to differ in its own announcement. “It does appear the Nigerian Music Industry may be in a limbo,” suggested Vanguard. Global societies body Cisac currently has both Coson and MCSN listed as ‘provisional’ members in its directory.
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