Nigeria 'Celebrates' Its Recording Artists With 'No Music Day'
from the here's-hoping-pirate-radio-drives-them-to-celebrate-'no-radio-day' dept
If you happen to be Nigerian or passing through Nigeria and are looking for a little traveling music or something catchy enough to push the voices in your head out of the way for a few moments, don’t bother turning on your radio. September 1st is “No Music Day” in Nigeria, a new tradition (since 2009!) seeking to “draw national attention to the widespread infringement of the rights of composers, song writers, performers, music publishers and other stakeholders in the music industry in Nigeria.”
As someone who only inadvertently listens to the radio, I can safely state that for many people, a day without a radio broadcast is like Thursday. Or Friday. Or other days of the week. However, for those that do, September 1st will be the day that most will find something else to do rather than listen to an assortment of talking heads speaking loudly about the abuse of the aforementioned traveling music, all the while packing metaphorical 7-piece luggage sets for their listeners’ suprise guilt trips. Perhaps, for example, you might listen to music via a computer or personal listening device which isn’t subject to the whims of people accusing you of being a criminal. And, let’s not get started discussing the possible irony of this effort probably pushing more people to spend their day listening to unlicensed music, rather than licensed music on the radio…
But it’s not just the listeners that are due for a long miserable day of self-righteousness. If you happen to be on the “supply” side of the “debate,” you’d better eat early and often. In fact, you probably should have started carb loading or whatever a couple of weeks ago. (Apologies for the late notice.)
No Music Day 2009 was preceded by a huge rally of Nigerian artistes held at the National Theatre in Lagos and a weeklong Hunger Strike campaign waged by top Nigerian artistes across the nation.
All in all, it sounds like a great day for alleged pirates (yep, that would be everybody listening) and literally starving artists alike. If you can’t make it to Nigeria in time for the “festivities,” keep in mind that it only happens once a year, which should give you plenty of time to make plans to be elsewhere during “You’re-All-A-Bunch-of-Thieves-Fest 2K12.”
Call me crazy (or worse), but couldn’t this be handled in a much more “fan friendly” way? Instead of spending the day talking about everything that’s wrong with the Nigerian music industry, wouldn’t it be better to play some songs and invite the artists to talk about their work and what it means to them? This could be a chance to give smaller artists a chance to be heard and grow their fan bases. Maybe musicians connecting with the public would be more productive than artists treating their audiences like selfish children who need a once-a-year time out.
Filed Under: music, nigeria, no music day, piracy
Comments on “Nigeria 'Celebrates' Its Recording Artists With 'No Music Day'”
Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
I sure the artists could get help from the King if they just help get his money out of the country.
Re: Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
I personally received an email about helping him out by aiding in transferring some money… maybe I could lend a hand.
Re: Re: Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
This is actually a great way to make some extra income. Just give them your account # or write them a check and watch the money stack up. Can’t beat the IRR, plus you don’t even have to leave your house. I think I am going to use most of my retirement funds so I can buy a bigger house.
OT, the Wall Street Journal is smearing Iran for the same thing the UK was doing with respect to Water Gun Fights. Why didn’t they put out a piece on what the UK politicians were doing?
Free country
At least I live in a free country where I can be called a thief for using the Google Music beta and downloading lots of music from archive.org.
Fail. I barely ever listen to the radio these days. They cut the songs to have more space for ads and they play a handful of songs over and over (thank you MAFIAA for huge license fees) so it’s not really interesting. The station I do listen to every once in a while is the news one. And surprise surprise! No music at the news station! I plug my phone to the car sound system and play my collection of mp3 consisting of both legal and illegal content.
But that’s just me. Now on to Nigeria.
It is amusing how they are talking about starving artists in a country where starvation is more than a marginal issue. And as the article puts so well, it’s a very wise move to put every1 in the same boat, file sharers and/or (notice it’s more and than or) legitimate customers as if all of them were filthy criminals. In the end it might be good since they’ll rise awareness that there are other ways to get music. Cheaper and more readily.
But I digress. Show me a big Nigerian musician that is being really affected (with numbers, citations and methodology) by piracy in Nigeria. Thank you.
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Similar here. I find them playing the same songs over and over, and after a few days I just turn the damned thing off. Or in a 30 minute commute I usually hear the end of a song I like, then they go into 28 minutes of endless commercials interspersed with traffic/sports/news/weather, then they start a song I never liked just as I get to work. Guess what? I’m not a captive audience. I just plug in my MP3 player and listen to Discworld or Paul Oakenfold or Edison Suit or whatever else suits my mood.
Which means you’ve completely lost me as a listener. More commercials does not equal more income; it means lost audience.
Sorry, bit of a rant there. You know, people just love to hear about how horrible they are, does wonders for their self-respect. I think most of ’em are going to turn the radio off and listed to silence.
“No Music Day 2009 was preceded by a huge rally of Nigerian artistes held at the National Theatre in Lagos and a weeklong Hunger Strike campaign waged by top Nigerian artistes across the nation.”
Translation: Look at us. We are so rich that we can afford to go on hunger strikes while you, the general population, often can’t even guarantee a meal per day for yourselves! Yay for us, we are f-king heroes! Buy our CDs you freeloaders!
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I was a bit struck by this as well.
It’s been a while since social studies, but I didn’t know Nigeria was established to the point where they don’t have better things to worry about than who does or doesn’t pay for digital copies of entertainment. The RIAA or whoever probably just bought the holiday from some corrupt official.
No clearer action
There’s no clearer action than this to show that the middlemen in the recording business are taking these actions as punitive measures, both against consumers who have the audacity to try to listen to music how they want, and against musicians who have the audacity to try to cater to said consumers.
The beatings shall continue until morale improves
“Call me crazy…”
Tim, you’re crazy.
“If our children don’t love us let’s beat them until they do.” – The Hornet’s Nest, Sally Watson
Re: The beatings shall continue until morale improves
Pretty sure it’s not an exact quote, it’s been years since I read the book, but you get the idea.
Somehow I don’t think this is going to work. I mean, the people in Somalia have been on a hunger strike for years and I’m pretty sure we haven’t given in to their demands for food.
PS: I’m a bad person.
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as bad as that may sound… something tells me you are 100% correct in that thought.
gotta love the government sponsored National Break the Law Day.
To bad in the hunger strike those artists didn’t die.