It has become a clear thing that in Nigeria we tend to abuse every privilege we receive. Just tell the man to take a step, he’ll be the next person jumping and this has become a way of life in our darling country, Nigeria.
Maybe someone taught our leaders how to squander a little fraction of public fund. They tried to see that it works and being Africans, we are mostly guided by some funny proverbs, of which one of them is ‘Anything that is worth doing, is worth doing well’.
Because it is worth doing well, we have chosen to always go to the extreme in anything we are doing be it good or bad.
The fact that one man’s food is another man’s poison makes the scenario of bloggers uploading artistes’ full album online very funny.
Some upcoming artistes would wish for that opportunity when their entire work will be flying around on the internet without spending a dime. I’m sure many of them would never mind at all if that happened to them.
Before we nail these bloggers on the cross of piracy let us make a list of wrongs we have actually overlooked in the music industry.
DJ Mixtape
Till now no one believes the reproduction of another person’s intellectual work without permission is wrong. Artistes pay heavily for their songs to feature in such mixtapes and there are cases of artistes paying close to one hundred thousand Naira [N100,000] for Alaba mixtape.
These artistes are all upcoming; they pay for their slots and the top artistes don’t pay a dime because their songs are used to give the mixtape value.
If someone violates one of your rights and you go home thanking God for it, why complain for another right that is violated. If anyone wants to complain, let him complain for everything. No wrong can be right because it is favouring someone.
Paying for radio airplay
Is this supposed to be? If the answer is no, who has ever complained about it? I once read online when a certain artiste sued a radio station for playing his song without permission.
Why one station? Why not all the stations? Nigeria has to define wrongs in the music industry. Maybe it is time for the Copyright Commission to come in and educate us.
Upload of full album
This is the sin at hand at the moment and if nothing is done to cub it, the music industry will surely crumble.
The big artistes have enjoyed massive support from bloggers when their singles dropped and when the album is supposed to be in the market, bloggers bring it back online.
Bloggers have become the bridge between music lovers and the artistes. They still want to be a good bridge and not one shaking like the Niger Bridge.
They want to be the first to release any content online, they don’t want to leave any stone unturned; this is the spirit of Nigerian bloggers, they want to be the best in the world, working so hard that Americans will someday be visiting Nigerians blogs to download their songs.
Inyanya, Olamide and others have paid the price and now Phyno is the target. As long as Nigeria media is concerned, internet does not exist; no one has ever been sued for a content posted on the internet in Nigeria meaning bloggers seem untouchable.
They help you, they bring you down, and artistes will have God to thank because no post on the internet so far can reduce the amount of money they’ll be making from shows.
Although it is a way of life for Nigerian bloggers to upload anything they see, going as far as uploading the full album of artistes will never make anyone the best blogger.
A certain blogger said “What do you expect? When you have already released 12 singles out of a 20 track album, what is left?”
Another said “I even bought the copy I ripped from, meaning I have patronized the artiste”
These are all excuses, to cover up for this wrong that will collapse our music industry if not checked.
We all look at the fame and success of today, forgetting there is something called tomorrow when every artiste will be afraid of releasing an album because of what we have done today.
Bloggers should also understand that it is not yet a war against artistes because they have done nothing to deserve the ill treatment of uploading their full album.
Full album upload, is wrong and will never help the industry, but just like the true picture of Nigeria, so many wrongs have not been addressed.
Change must start somewhere, maybe someone [Copyright Commission], should step up and educate us on this subject we are in dare need of it at the moment.
Chinedu Hardy Nwadike is novelist and blogger; he writes from Owerri Imo State, Nigeria. chikisnow@yahoo.com, 08038704454, @hardynwa and pin: 763D08AE
