The scourge of music piracy (2)

Another artist who recently opined that radio stations are more of a hindrance than a help to the Nigerian music industry is Michelle singer, Etcetera. While Phemz is an upcoming artist, and it might be felt that he is speaking out of frustration, Etcetera has attained recognition and success, yet he also feels the way Phemz does about piracy. In an explosive article he wrote in his column in Punch newspaper (an article which was so explosive that at least two popular radio on-air personalities, Cool FM’s Freeze and Beat FM’s Olisa Adibua, were so bitter about it that they lashed out at Etcetera publicly but were berated by the public who said Etcetera was saying the truth), he went as far as saying that due to the radio stations’ attitude of playing the music of majorly those who can grease their palms, piracy continues to thrive. According to him, people don’t like to listen to radio again in the country because it’s boring listening to radio as the same music of musicians who settle them financially is played over and over again at the expense of better music by new musicians who cannot settle them. Without mincing words, he thanked and praised the pirates for pirating Nigerian music, saying they were promoting new music and new musicians to Nigerian audiences thereby. Also speaking on the issue, Ori Owo singer, Tillaman, made a disclosure that further sheds light on why piracy is really thriving in the country. “I was forced to patronise pirates to make my songs popular,” he told E-News. “When you can’t beat them, you have to join them. And the trend I met in the industry is that people promote their music through pirates to achieve certain results and if you want to achieve those results, then you have to patronise pirates too.” Reacting to the issue, a top radio presenter with one of the radio stations in Ikeja, Lagos, and who prefers his name not to be in print, said piracy is an explosive issue that is difficult to wade into because some prominent people are feeding fat from it so they are the ones pulling the strings that is making it thrive. He admitted that it’s quite true that some DJs assist pirates in producing pirated CDs. But he kicked against Phemz’s claims that radio stations don’t like to play Nigerian music. He countered that they play lots of Nigerian music but that the bulk of Nigerian music is not up to required standards and members of the public sometimes call them and complain over some Nigerian songs they play. On the issue of playing only Nigerian music on Nigerian radio stations, he said it wasn’t such a bad idea, but he doesn’t see that happening in Nigeria due to many reasons, one of which is that it seems undemocratic. He concluded that “if Nigerian musicians say their songs are not being played abroad, that is a message to them to make songs that are up to world standard.” When E-News visited the popular Alaba Market, Lagos which is regarded as the headquarters of piracy, the scenario there was shocking. Pirates were selling their pirate CDs in full view and alongside genuine CD sellers. An Alaba insider who spoke with this reporter also on the condition of anonymity defended the pirates, saying, “Piracy came about from necessity. People come here asking for certain songs that are not in the market and that demand metamorphosed into musicians themselves coming here to beg that the ‘so-called’ pirates should put their music in pirated CDs. So would you still call that piracy, a situation where artists are even paying pirates to pirate their songs? “There is no successful artist in Nigeria today whose success is not as a result of pirates’ support. Most artists don’t have the necessary finance to promote their music on radio and TV. But with a fraction of what they would spend for radio, TV promotion, they blow through Alaba mixtapes, and even when they’ve blown, they keep coming back because they know Alaba promo is the best that gets them everywhere within a very short time. “Alaba mixtapes are so good for musicians that you’ll see some of them singing songs to praise pirates in thanks for what they’ve done for their careers. I know the general feeling is that people say piracy is not good, but the musicians come to the pirates themselves and sign forms and contracts to have their songs pirated, so what do people have to say about that?”