NCC must sanitise the music industry ― HOMAL

 

The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has been asked to clean up the music industry by applying its extensive enforcement machinery in order to ensure that the industry follows best global practices and add values to the practitioners as well as all stakeholders in the music industry in a way that will help the economic growth of the country.

The call was made by the president of Hotel Owners and Managers Association of Lagos (HOMAL) Chief S.O Alabi, during a press conference held by the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte (MCSN) in Lagos to announce the concessionary rates extended to hoteliers by the MCSN in a bid to alleviate the financial burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged the entertainment and the hospitality sector.

Chief Alabi said NCC must fully utilise its mandate in ensuring the right thing is done for people in the industry to get the adequate reward for their labour, adding that “what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Only few years back NCC was at loggerheads with MCSN for operating without approval. So NCC should go after all acclaimed rights company operating on illegality and has no approval but is all over the place disturbing hoteliers and serious people from carrying out their legitimate businesses.”

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of MCSN, Mayo Ayilaran, stated that the rationale behind the concessionary rates granted to members of HOMAL is mainly the fact that the society sympathises with the hoteliers considering what they are going through at this period as a result of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hospitality business including the entertainment industry, adding that there is a need to extend a hand of fellowship since every stakeholder is working towards a common goal.

“We sympathize with the Hotel Owners and Managers Association of Lagos (HOMAL) at a time such as this when all its members’ businesses were shut down for five months during the lockdown and even when the government eased the restrictions on movement, the hospitality sector was asked to remain closed.

“The collateral effect of this shutdown was that music practitioners (performing musicians, DJs, professional dancers, dramatists, etc) were not able to ply their trades at the shutdown venues. This implies that our members who are composers’ authors, publishers, performers and music producers are equally affected by the pandemic,” he stated.

He explained that MCSN having given due consideration to the plight of the members of HOMAL as they share virtually the same pain, has decided to give certain concessions and discounts to the paying members for the year 2020 and 2021, depending on individual’s past compliance level.

The Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigerian (PMAN) expressed happiness about the cooperation between HOMAL and MCSN and appealed to all users of music and intellectual property to always respect the rights of authors and composers by paying due royalties to MCSN in line with the Copyright Act and NBC code.

The musicians union, represented by its second vice president, Zacky Azzay, called on the Federal Government and the Lagos State Governments to extend palliatives to members of the union because things are tough for them at present.