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Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 2, No. 2, March-April 2023. https://klamidas.com/gojar-v2n2-2023-04/ |
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Issues in Profitable Marketing of Nigerian Popular Music Artistes’ Works By Stella N. Nwobu & Agatha Ijeoma Onwuekwe Abstract From the early 1970s till around 2013, conventional music marketing in Nigeria has been a lucrative business starting with the selling of vinyl records such as SPs, EPs, LPs and mp3; CDs and VCDs took over by late 90s. From 2015 till date, music marketing has been struggling to survive as a result of many challenges that emanate from the use of social media and technology, from issues relating to exploitative contracts and agreements, copyright infringement (piracy), music copyrights, royalties collections, and more. This paper attempts to look at various issues of the conventional music marketing that encroached into the rights of marketers and artistes as entrenched in the legal and institutional frameworks of Nigerian music industry. Normative ethical theory of Aristotle forms the bedrock for this paper. The study made use of descriptive survey method to collect data. Primary as well as secondary resources were used in order to elicit information. It discovered among other things that there is need for re-establishment of legal framework which needs to be deriven by legal enforcement organizations that regulate the activities in the industry. Keywords: Nigeria, music, marketing, copyright, piracy, internet
Introduction Music marketing is one of the major careers in the music industry; it is essentially the intersection of music and marketing. Musical works are provided by artists while marketing activities are done by the marketers. This is an area of music careers where both artists and marketers are indispensable companions; one cannot survive without the other as music artistes create, perform and release music either independently or through record labels. Music marketing involves marketers and artistes, where artistes prepare music albums and hand them over to the marketers who then design and implement advertising campaigns to promote artistes and releases through TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and crnivals. They examine how music and consumers behaviour interact, showing how effectively using music brings products and services closer to their customers. They help musicians unlock their full potentials. Through the process of marketing, actions are implemented to reach and persuade general fans and create awareness for artiste’s work. Beside talent and production, marketers are the key component in turning artistes into stars. They amplify artistes’ hard work and talents to millions of potential fans. In Nigeria, music artists are given rights to record music, sell or distribute copies of the music they recorded in different formats, perform the music in public, recreate the musical work and prevent others from doing any of these acts without their acquiescence. Marketers who are desirous of dubbing and marketing artists’ albums after paying contractual fees are given the rights to dub such works into cassette, CDs or any other format and to market such works not withstanding that the copyright belong to the licensors. Marketers and the rights of musicians are embedded in Nigerian music law. Mbanugo (2020: 119) asserts that “music law is essentially a subset of entertainment law that guides specific issues in the music industry. Such issues being but not limited to music publishing, music licensing, copyright ownership, contracts amongst others”. He went further to explain that music law covers a range of traditional legal subjects including intellectual property law (copyright law, trademarks, image publicity rights, and design rights), competition law, bankruptcy law, contract law, defamation and, for the live events industry, immigration law, health and safety law, and licensing. This law is a very important aspect of law that guides the affairs of the stakeholders in the industry and it equally regulates their conduct. According to the Registry of Trademarks, Patents and Designs, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment (2011), the principal legislation on copyright in Nigeria is the Copyright Act (as amended), Chapter C20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004. It states that: Copyright law grants authors, composers, songwriters, and other creators’ legal protection for their literary, artistic and other types of creations, which are usually referred to as works”.copyright law gives an author or creator of work a diverse bundle of exclusive rights over his/her work for a limited bur rather lengthy period of time. These rights enable the author to control the economic use of his work in a number of ways to receive payment (p. 1). Marketers and musicians in Nigeria need to understand copyright laws to enable them know when authorization is essential and how to go about obtaining it. They should understand the types of works that are copyrightable and the criteria to meet to qualify for protection. In Nigeria, to qualify for copyright protection, the basic requirements to be met include:
Discussing rights accruable to owners of musical compositions, Famojuro and Nebolisa (2021) state that a copyright owner of a musical work has an exclusive right over acts stated in section 6 (1) (a) of the NCA subject to the exceptions specified in the second schedule to the NCA – which include the reproduction of the work, publication of the work, performance of the work in public, public display of the work, preparation of derivative works, commercial distribution of the work by way of retail, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement, communication of the work to the public by a loudspeaker, among others. They further stress that “for creators of designed works like musicians to be protected under the law, must have sufficient effort in addition to the work being fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which it can be perceived or reproduced” (p. 1). Two works which emanate from the recording of a song that are protected by copyright are musical works and sound recordings. Musical works are created by songwriters or composers of work while sound recordings are created by the performers and producers of the recordings. The interpretation section of the Nigerian copyright Act (NCA) Cap (28) Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004 according to Famojuro and Nedolisa (2021) defines musical works to mean any musical composition, irrespective of musical quality and includes works composed for musical accompaniment and sound recording is defined to mean the first fixation of a sequence of sound capable of being perceived aurally and of being reproduced” (p. 1). Copyright in musical works exists throughout the lifetime of the author and continues for a period of seventy years after the end of the year in which the author of the work dies and if owned by two authors the copyright lasts for seventy years after the death of the last surviving author. Copyright in sound recording lasts for fifty (50) years after the end of the year in which the recording was first published. In Nigeria, copyright laws confer right to creators of artistic, musical or literary works which gives exclusive right on the copyright owner and eliminates any other person from replicating or exploiting the work without the authorization of the copyright owner. Copyright owner can prevent those original elements from being used by others and to control commercial exploitation of original works without proper authorization. Music marketing business in Nigeria is not without challenges that can only be remedied with the re-establishment of ethical principles that can guide the industry (ethics of morality). The reasons for this are for the well-being of consumers and the application of standard of fairness or moral rights and wrongs to marketing decision making, behaviour and practice, in order to satisfy the needs of both customers and the organization. Marketing ethics sets the guidelines for which good marketing is practised. To market ethically and effectively one should be reminded that all marketing decisions and efforts are necessary to meet and suit the needs of customers, suppliers, and business partners. Music marketing should set guide lines, rules, norms, codes and principles that will lead musicians and all other music workers to make moral decisions. Ethical principles guiding music production assist music workers in determining what is right and how to choose the best from several alternatives. Conventional Music Marketing In the past, Nigerian music industry’s focus, revenue-wise, was limited to physical music sales, fees from appearances and shows and, for the more popular artists, endorsement fees from music product. Music marketing was all about pushing out music with big money to fit in front of as many people as possible and this is the way most records are made. A music artist creates, performs and releases music independently or through a record label. He signs a recording contract drafted by the marketer’s attorney for a major label and hands in his or her recordings. The company then turns them into records. Such company moves the artistes’ records to distributors and retailers for the selling of such records to consumers. The company then gears up its advertising, promotion, and marketing. They tend to bombard traditional media (like TV, radio, magazines and newspapers). They also use music videos and live performances to monetize and promote their artists. The norm has been music for music creators to put the basic principles of retail marketing to bear: introduce a song/album), advertise (promote) it until there is consistent need for the production. Recorded works need to be promoted and even after been distributed, just like any other business needs to promote a new product even if the product itself is amazing, for without promotion, no one will know about it, the business will not serve people and no money will be made. In conventional music marketing, the artiste is responsible for the art, making the music, recording it and performing it even when a record label has decided to sponsor the recording. The label hires and pays for producers, mix engineers, managers, advert, promoters, and event bookers, among others, to perform their assigned tasks. The artiste as well receives royalty from the record label. According to Passman (2003) “the artiste turns his recordings over to the company who then sells the finished product. For each record sold, the artist gets a piece of the price and the company keeps the rest to cover its costs and a profit” (p.69). Sometimes, artiste after recording an album might decide to sell the music outright to a music marketer who in return pays the artiste off. Through that way, the artistes automatically relinquish the copyright to the marketer with the condition that the artistes name and pictures remain intact. Before the digital and technology marketing era, high potential artiste had far more time to grow; experiment and even fail before coming up with something great. A record label would sign an artist for three or four releases or more and during the amount of time needed to produce and publish those records; an artist had the opportunity to mature. During this time, big labels would sign the artist and then handle their music marketing strategies and promotional activities. When a thoughtful strategy is in place and artist and marketer are appropriately aligned, everybody wins. The artistes get a monetary reward, additional exposure or both. The marketers receive engaging contract to reinforce the values of their company and the artiste’s fans get more great art. Traditional methods of artist development have always been centered on record label investing huge amounts of funds to produce the best tracks, trademarks and image. In Nigerian music industry, the dream of every music artist is to become famous; though some people think success depends on luck, others know that it depends on hard work and opportunities, and on what strategies one uses to promote one’s music. Issues from Conventional Music Marketing Many issues are associated with music marketing, especially in Nigeria, which have implications for overall profitability. These include absence of/poor legal framework, lack of training /orientation, copyright issues, poor production, piracy, and social media and technology, among others. For more than ten years, traditional method of music marketing that has worked for years has been challenged. Illegal and unethical behavour have hovered around the music marketing business as a result of these issues. Recording artistes and marketers, alleging all sorts of wrong doings by those who want to make illegal money from the industry, have been the subjects of documentaries. The sense of what is fair and just, which is part of cultural values instilled in people from their early ages, has been broken over the years. Artistes as well as marketers have lost trust in each other. Majority of marketers in Nigeria participate in illegal use of resources and embezzlement of their artistes’ funds. Once trust is breached, it becomes difficult to re-establish. According to the Registry of Trademarks, Patents and Designs, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, (2011), It may take years to create an environment of trust with an artist and the other members of the management team where the talent agent, attorney, artist, personal manager and business manager trust one another. One breach of a fiduciary relationship can end many years of loyal and devoted service (p. 7). Absence of / poor legal framework For music industry to work properly there is need to have proper working legal framework. Mbanugo (2020:118) avers that “like most industries, proper regulation of the music industry and creation of an effective legal and institutional framework will do great good to ensuring that the gold present in such industry is greatly explored, mined and harnessed”. But looking at the relationship between some marketers and their artistes, one believes that lots of things have gone wrong even when contracts agreement is signed between the record company and the artist stipulating the function of the licensor and the licensee. According to Mbanugo (2020:122-123), “contracts are the basic entities that establish a relationship between the artists and the record label, inclusive of other related persons”. He further listed the very key contracts, record deal, publishing deal, distribution deal, administration deal, producer deal, co-writer agreement, performance license, booking or performance deal, which are music specific to include considering the multiple relationships needed to be established and the dynamic of these contracts. He equally points out an overview of a few of the important clauses in music contracts to include:
Even after these conditions, some of the marketers don’t keep to the agreement. They swindle the artiste because the artiste might be a novice and has no way of keeping track of what is happening (the number of records sold). The artiste, who is ignorant of what is happening in the business, might be popular but without getting or ripping the fruit of his labour. In some cases, the artistes abandon the record label for one reason or the other which would amount to a breach of contract and make them liable. All these can frustrate the artiste and hinder his creative compositions. Lack of training /orientation Another issue affecting the music marketing industry in Nigeria is lack of lack of training /proper orientation of aspiring artists on peculiarities of music industry. This is very important as the success of this industry depends on the training of young and aspiring artists many of whom do not comprehend the innards of the contracts signed for marketers thereby making it essential to train or engage the services of professionals in this regard. Conflicts between marketer and artiste may arise as a result of not keeping to the terms stipulated in the direct agreements (contract) made and signed. There is need to get a legal practitioner to scrutinize the agreement before signing it in order to avoid crying out against exploitative contracts. This is found to be in conformity with what Mbanugo (2020) says: It is fairly easy for marketers to take advantage of artists especially if such artist is relatively new in the music scene, has little legal knowledge and just looking to land a major deal. They most often sign off a great percentage of their rights and the benefits accruable to that. We see this very often as young artists over time begin to cry out against exploitative contracts. (p. 124). Signing of contract agreement shouldn’t be done in haste, even with an attorney, without studying the implications of the deal. Copyright Issues “Copyright is a form of legal protection given to many kinds of created works such as musical compositions or songs, lyrics, records (CDs, LPs, Singles, 45s, cassettes, DAT, etc) poems, films, TV shows, computer software and commercials” (Mbanugo, 2020:121). Copyright is not only one of the major pillars for sustenance of the entertainment industry, but it is indeed a cornerstone; an indispensable factor for the very existence of music industry. It is the bedrock of the music industry. It enables music owners, creators and entrepreneurs to make a living from their creative/intellectual works, and gives any author or owner of musical work the right to copy, (meaning reproduce, perform, adopt, rework) their own music. Passman (2003) defines it as “a limited duration monopoly which promotes the progress of science and useful arts by giving creators exclusive rights to their works for a while” (p. 191). Ekpo, 1993 in Okwilagwe (2002) avers “copyright is closely related to music.” (p. 106). According to Mbanugo (2020), the importance of copyright law regulating the music industry can hardly be over-emphasized hence this law is one of the laws with the primary function under the law to protect from annexation the fruits of a person’s work. He further asserts that “this protection is of immense importance generally to actors, playwrights, performers and other artistes; particularly it is important to musicians and composers of music… (121). Okafor (2002) opines that: Copyright is the moral and financial rights creators have over their works. So, copyright grants an author, an artist, writer, publisher, musician, performer, photographer, architect, film maker, sculptor or any other creator rights over his/her work. He/she has the moral rights, which make it mandatory that his/her authorship to the work must always be acknowledged anytime it is used. Then he/she has the financial rights, which confer on him the right to earn a living and profit from the sale, exhibition, hire or other use of his/her work (p. 114). The issue in Nigerian music industry is that many copyright holders are not aware of their rights so that they can rise up to fight for the rights under the provision of the law. Some are too cautious to go to court to seek recompense. Some may also be too poor to get legal aide to pursue their claims through the court. Olatunbosum (2014) opines that “copyright law protects the owner of rights in artistic work against those who copy, those who take and use the form in which the original work was expressed by the author, without license or due authorization” (p. 15). In Nigerian music industry, lots of copyright works exist but artists couldn’t register them because they are not original works. Osele (2010:191) points out that “most of our musicians are not original”. Some of our artistes are fond of manipulating and copying each other’s song and style resulting to copyright infringement. The Copyright Act stipulates those conditions that must be satisfied before an author can lay claim to copyright. It is not all works that are eligible for copyright. In Nigerian music industry, copyright has been established, developed and administered without much effect because of ignorance of most of the artistes regarding the rights. Some corrupt marketers in Nigeria aide in crippling the business because of copyright issues. Okwilagwe (2001: 109) lists some strategies that have been put in place to ensure effective implementation of the copyright system; hence opportunities have been provided for the copyright owners to maximally exploit rights as follows: 1) Institute an action to recover damages that may result from the act of infringement 2) Institute criminal prosecution to punish infringers 3) Use Anton pillar order (a device to prevent piracy) 4) Ensure that an appropriate contract is signed with the producer 5) Join a collective society for collective administration of right. In Nigerian music marketing industry in recent years, lots of marketers have failed themselves as well as some of their artistes. They exploit their artistes since they are inferior to them and cannot challenge their superiority. Poor Production Processes Conventional music marketing was seen as a lucrative business which attracted even unprofessional persons to venture into the business just to make money. Some artistes simply want to become popular, to be exposed and some marketers want to make money irrespective of how and the outcome. Marketers sometimes force music ideas on their artistes, either to translate works from one language to another or requesting artistes to record works similar to the existing selling music. In some cases, artistes in a bid to make more money usually abandon the record label that assigned them which would amount to a breach of contract and make them liable. Mayiko (2003) in Osele (2010) condemns the attitude of some music companies who are not selective as far as music production is concerned. Once they discover an artiste who can give them quick money, not minding whether the music will stand the test of time, they go ahead to contract him. At the end the music comes and fades. The result is the deplorable standard of living of most Nigerian artistes. It is clear that the poor quality of production makes exportation of Nigerian music impossible and this in effects reduces the quality of sales. According to Olatunbosun (2014), The music industry is now dominated with people who do not have the professionalism and interest to make good musicians or good music but are only interested in making money out of the upcoming musicians and promising talent in the music world. People now run labels when they have no idea about music or the making of music, several artists and studio managers are businessmen who only use their resources to promote music making with zero knowledge on music professionals (p. 17). Most companies do not check materials that can cause them legal hassles such as infringing somebody’s copyright, denigrating someone or use of obscene language. That results in recording and re-recording without restrictions. Album is released and after a period of time, another person will duplicate the entire album or copy ideas or imitate such work and also release it. What is happening in this field is that some marketers are not interested in any other thing except money. Olatunbosun (2014:16) points out that “entertainment industry is becoming more lucrative, it has drawn attention from the society. The attraction has initiated people of different characters and interests into the industry with genuine, in-genuine and prejudicial intentions”. The desire to make quick money made most of the marketers to delve into marketing many albums at the same time and loosing lots of money from unpurchased albums which gradually liquidated some of them. Non adherence to ethical principles guiding the industry, amongst other issues, led to the near collapse of the business in Nigeria. Piracy Piracy has become a stigma in Nigerian music industry. It is a serious problem that defiles solution. According to Mbanugo (2020), the biggest issue plaguing the music industry is piracy which entails the use of works protected by copyright law without permission, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. Piracy’s impact on the revenue and economic benefits accruable to the artists is mind-blowing; it takes away a major chunk of the amounts. Incidences of piracy in the music industry are alarming and act as obstacles to budding talents. Mbanugo further describes Nigeria as “a country where music piracy and piracy of other copyrightable materials still reign supreme, with the attendant losses of income to the authors, music producers and many other copyright owners”. Piracy is a somber problem that affects both the marketers and the artistes in the field of music production in Nigeria. Efurhieve (2016) opines that: It is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer recording artiste or copyright – holding record company did not give consent. Piracy negatively impacts the music industry through the loss of album sales. In addition, the music industry often complains that piracy has a crippling effect on its revenues (p. 268). Weinstain (2015) in Efurhieve (2016) observes the negative impact of piracy on musicians and the music industry. He avows that with the expansion of technology comes financial damage of some kind for the artist involved. He is of the notion that piracy is not a new phenomenon, it is much more wide spread and its effects are seen on a much wider scale than ever before. Olatunbosun (2014) discussing the menace of piracy confirms that piracy has supplanted legal business in the music industry. That it has not only knocked out the essential backbone of the music industry but also destroyed the careers of musicians that would have made significant contributions to global music. Mbanugo (2020) agrees that music piracy and piracy of other copyrightable materials still reign supreme in this country, with the attendant losses of income to the authors, music producers and many other copyright owners. The pirates have dismantled all the structures of the music industry (the activity of companies and industries that have the aim of promoting performers and selling legitimate recorded music) and erected in their place crude and primitive structures of the one man one shop business. Social Media and Technology The nature of the music industry rapidly changed especially with the increasing influence of the online/digital environment, which creates both uncertainties and opportunities in the market place. According to Clerk (2021), the music industry has radically changed in the last couple of decades. The internet revolution has transformed the way we create and consume music. It has built new hierarchies and power balances, taking the control once owned by major record labels and giving it to the consumer. The emergence of streaming services and streaming platforms has greatly impacted the music listening experience in Nigeria and globally. Mbanugo (2020:118) avers that: The consumption of art and expression in the music scene has metamorphosed over the last decade. Globally and nationwide, music sales and distribution has moved from physical retail stores to online outlets, providing live streaming options, digital sales, amongst others. He further confirms that the supply chain of music has undergone a major shift, globally as well as in Nigeria, because prior to the digital era, channels to the marketing were typically physical retailers, analogue radio, public performance, films and TV. With this development, an artist now earns royalties based on the number of streams their songs have generated on the streaming platform. Although these streaming platforms have made CD piracy a thing of the past, a new challenge was created – digital piracy. Prior to the emergence of social media and technology, music recordings in Nigeria were sold on SPs, EPs, LPs and mp3, CDs, and VCDs. This created a huge opportunities for pirates to reproduce and sell these CDs at cheaper rate, thereby stripping the artist of any profit on such a piece of work. With social media, many promotional practices, such as physical retailing, analogue radio advertisements, public performance, films and TV in the music industry, that were useful in the past are no longer effective or relevant. Because of the internet, there is a new phase of marketing in the music industry – online promotion. Savannah (2017) deliberates extensively on the issue of social media and its impact in music industry. He noted that the internet has completely changed the music industry as we once knew it. Music scene was a very different place before technology and social media came into play. Before this time, music consumers had to rely heavily on CDs, Cassettes, Records, Top – of- the -charts, Newspapers and Radio to access music but today the scene is much different. With the power of social media and the internet, we can get access to music in a matter of seconds. Digital music downloads replaced buying physical albums, music videos on YouTube replaced music television and social media sites like Instagram and Twitter and trending topics replaced the record labels having to create a musician’s fame. He points out that just as the internet gave us YouTube, digital downloads and worldwide trending topics, it has also gifted us with the biggest craze in music: Streaming. Social media platforms have given musicians more control over the distribution of their music and through the use of service. Many artists now have the option to bypass the industry conventions completely. With streaming and social media, the music industry is losing its power over artists and musicians as a result of this shift from a product-based business to a service-based business. Today, there are fewer major labels and an abundance of independent online platforms, each striving to promote their artists to over abundance of consumers. Though CDs and records are still being sold and people rarely purchase them this way because most of us download music on our phones, apps or listen for free on YouTube. With most music being free or almost free to access, how does any label survive? Savannah laments that streaming is killing the industry. When everyone stream music, the number of people buying music physically or digitally will dramatically decrease. Social media music marketing has opened a new phase of piracy – digital piracy which is worst and difficult to trace. Here, artists’ works are being uploaded without proper authorization or the consent of the artists. Mbanugo (2020:121) avers that: Despite the growing contribution of the music industry to Nigeria’s economy as a vibrant subset of the entertainment industry, it is still plagued with the issue of piracy, unauthorized sampling and prevalence of exploitative contracts, amongst others. This is more so in this digital era. With the growing trend of live streaming, online downloads and file sharing. The artist is placed in a critical position where he gets little or no economic benefit for his work. According to Udozor (2020:407), The effect of this digitalization on music brought about a lot of changes like a drastic drop in the CD sales in Lagos, Onitsha and Aba in Abia state which are majorly the main market for music sales, platforms like spotify.com, CD bay.com and other internet sites took over music sharing and sales. The illegal sharing of music from CDs has apparently contributed to the current poor economic health of the music marketing industry along with other problems. In Onitsha, Emeka Offor Plaza, to be precise, as well as Nwobu Plaza, Eke Awka in Awka , Anambra State, people rent stores and shops only to pirate music properties. Once an album is released in the market, they buy the CD, conver it into mp3 format and start sharing to the public at the rate of N20 per track. Indiscriminate sharing of music files have become so devastating to the extent that even music artistes leverage on that as a means of promotion whereby an artiste will even pay these mp3 pirates to share their song freely. That is how bad it has become. (Udozor interview, 2021). This frustration was expressed by Austin Ukwu, a gospel artiste as well as a music marketer in the Southeast of Nigeria; he said: Many artistes and marketers have died because of digital sales. Many people who use music as their livelihood have gone to their villages because of digital sales. Many have turned their music shops to something belse as a result of hardship accrued as a result of the change of mode of music business via CD sales to pure virtual sales (online). It is a very big problem for an artiste who after production and mass production of CDs cannot sale as a result of one person ripping the song into system and shares the files to his friends online and the artiste will be left with thousands of unsold CDs and such results to discouragement effect. (Interview, 2021). Stella Nadis also laments on how online sales and mp3 aided to the crippling of the music marketing business in Nigeria. She confirms that there was an unimaginable drop in the music marketing of CDs that cause the major distributors to diversify, thereby causing exit of some talented artistes and marketers from the industry while the remaining ones are struggling to survive. Evidence gathered during the fieldwork she conducted in January 2023 indicated that the following record labels in Nigeria have folded up and are no longer in business:
Some of those that are still managing music marketing business in Nigeria include:
This evidence shows that there are more people who have been forced out of the music marketing business than those who are still in the industry. Conclusion Everyone who works in the music industry is subject to laws that govern their rights and actions. Music artists must abide by these laws, as must producers, promoters, marketers, music publishers and others. These laws pertain to the terms of record deals, royalties for artists, copyrights and more. To protect investments of investors in the industry, necessary actions must be taken to ensure that the rights and obligations of every participant, be it the marketer or the artiste, are exercised. There is need for continuous education and training for everyone involved in the industry. The artistes and record labels should work with a chain of professionals whose expertise is indispensable in this field. The recording contracts should not be shallow, it has to be written in such a way that ties the loose ends so that everybody is fairly treated, and the artiste as well as the marketer is not cheated. There is need to implement well-written legal contract agreements. There is need to establish the means of proving copyright infringement. Issues surrounding division of proceeds between the artiste and record company should be resolved. Finally, the established guidelines must be strictly followed. Music marketing industry in Nigeria needs to adopt a proper and common business structure and by implementing basic ethical principles into this business, positive changes will occur which will yield positive results to the artists as well as the marketers. Recommendations The menace of pirates needs to be curtailed. The record labels should employ experts in order to produce excellent musicians and music. They should also work with chain of professionals whose know-how is indispensable. To sensitize and to add to knowledge in order to educate more on the need to protect more creative works as established within Nigerian constitution of 1999, this paper further recommends that the record license agreement shall be signed subject to the following guidelines:
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