Across the country, there are millions of music lovers like Obishai, who download songs from stream ripping sites or use the free tiers of music streaming services due to inability to afford such subscriptions or plain disregard for the value of the art. According to a report, Nigerians spend an average of 31 hours weekly — much more than the global average of 20.7 hours — listening to music, especially Afrobeats. And while there are now more people who are paying for music streaming platforms than five years ago, it’s not nearly enough revenue for the kind of growth the industry is witnessing.

The global music industry is dancing to the rhythm of streaming, with 67.3 percent of all music revenue worldwide generated from digital subscriptions to streaming platforms. In March 2024, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released the Global Music Report for 2023, which disclosed that streaming brought in 67 percent of the $28.6 billion realised in 2023, leaving the sales of physical copies and performance rights trailing behind with 17.8 percent and 9.5 percent respectively.

Sub-Saharan Africa had the fastest growth out of all global regions. It was the only one to surpass 20 percent growth as revenues climbed by 24.7 percent , fuelled by the growing popularity of Afrobeats and Amapiano tunes worldwide. Interestingly, while the Nigerian music industry is the largest on the continent, consistently churning out global hits and achieving billboard ranks; South Africa, the second largest music industry, has remained the most profitable music market in the region, bringing in the bigger bucks. According to the report, the rainbow nation contributes 77 percent to music revenue in sub-Saharan Africa — an impressive 19.9 percent growth from the previous year.

Joey Akan, a music journalist, isn’t surprised by this twist, as he shared that the Nigerian music industry has a long way to go before reaching profitability like its well-oiled South African counterpart.

“South Africans have a more structured industry. They have all their collection society rights which is basically a fanbase that values music and a government that punishes piracy. If you put all of these together, you have a better environment for music to generate more money,” he shared with TechCabal.

“It’s taken us about 30 years to build what this industry currently is, while South Africans were able to clock the system and build a functional industry which works for them. We have the artists to brag about, as well as the fanbases and cultural commitment to Afrobeats, but are missing one of the most important elements, which is the [revenue] numbers. This is why we cannot have access to certain deals and attract certain investments.”

While creatives across the world tussle with the illegal distribution of their work, Nigerian artists deal with a much more sophisticated version where bootlegged versions of their music might be even more popular than the original versions on streaming platforms. Nigeria was named the worst place in Africa to be a creative as it has the largest market in Africa for goods which infringe on intellectual property rights. Original physical copies of albums are almost nonexistent in the Nigerian industry, as pirated copies are already the norm.

Outside of the lack of regard for the value of music, Akan believes that the broader economy also has played a climacteric role in music revenue for the two countries as richer countries are more likely to have higher-yielding industries. The South African rand is stronger than the Nigerian naira, with one rand equaling over 70 naira. 

“It’s not new information that in Nigeria, everything competes with food,” he said. “The money the average Nigerian will pay for Apple Music can be diverted to pay for lunch.”

This means that for music artists in Nigeria, the biggest revenue opportunity lies in their music reaching international audiences across the Atlantic who bring in the juicier revenue; as the majority of their local fans cannot afford to pay for these streaming services.

*Kamal Chude, a popular artiste in Lagos is yet to get the “streaming cake” even after four years of making music, as he doesn’t consider the his earnings significant enough to withdraw yet. *Chude, who is in a two-year contract with a local distribution company he says isn’t transparent at all, has found himself still doing the bulk of the distribution work for his music despite having a 70:30 revenue split agreement. 

“I worked with them on one song, which is my biggest so far, and there isn’t much to show for it on the backends. I didn’t even get access to it until I brought my lawyer into the conversation. We checked the logs and found out that the streaming platforms that were on the list were not up to five. Meanwhile, the song was available on all the Digital Service Providers (DSPs) you can think of,” he shared.

Will partnerships save the music industry?

Distribution and record companies play a vital role in boosting artists and nurturing the industry’s growth, especially in today’s hyper-competitive global market, where social media platforms like TikTok are changing the game with their content-heavy environment.

Tunji Balogun, Chairman & CEO, of Def Jam Recordings, shared that one of the strategies that can be deployed for this growth is forging partnerships. 

“When it comes to music coming out of Sub-Saharan Africa, we’ve partnered with a label from Nigeria called Native. I felt strongly that I wanted to work with people that have a genuine connection to the culture on the continent,” he shared. 

In September 2023, Def Jam signed a Nigerian rapper,  Odumodublvck, who was one of the biggest new artists on the continent with over 252 million Spotify streams. Two of his songs, Declan Rice and Blood on the Dance Floor, were some of the top-streamed Nigerian songs in 2023.

Capital will always move to where it’ll find a profit, and more global labels are partnering with local names. Seventeen months after Def Jam and Native Records signed a partnership deal, Mavin Records, another heavyweight in the music ring, announced that the majority of its stake had been acquired by Universal Music Group (UMG) in a deal that is speculated to be worth about $125 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, will give Mavin artists unhindered access to the resources at UMG, furthering their reach. 

This is excellent for the industry, except that it feels like deja vu for industry professionals like Akan. The journalist cuts through the positivity with blunt honesty, and shares that until the structural problems are solved, the challenges in the industry will erode all positive development. 

“We need to increase the numbers we have outside their [the West’s]  influence. We need to know that they can take whatever percentage of our money and numbers or this crop of artists, and we’ll still have the base to successfully nurture new artists and make money independently in the future.”

As the world slowly moves from TV to streaming platforms, Kannywood has been left behind as the industry does not have the necessary funding and talent to create films and shows that match the quality requirements of global platforms like Netflix or Prime Video. This has led to a big gap as Kannywood films have been left out of the streaming revolution, depriving producers of a wider, more global audience. 

At an event in Kano, where he was invited to give a lecture to graduates, businessman Jamilu Abdussalam had a conversation with veteran actor Ali Nuhu, where the actor mentioned the distribution problems wrecking the Hausa film industry. The desire to solve it pushed Abdussalam to create a streaming platform, Northflix, that offered a wide variety of Hausa films to people across the globe.

What has the reception to Northflix been like?

JA: We’re growing really fast. In the past five years, we’ve achieved over 100,000 subscribers from all around the world. When we started, we thought only people in Nigeria would watch content on our platform, but to our surprise, we have subscribers from close to  100 countries. People from Greece and Finland watch content on Northflix, and that’s a great thing. We’ve been featured on CNN and BBC as well, which I believe speaks volumes about how far we’ve come.

What’s the relationship between Northflix and Kannywood like?

JA: The relationship has evolved over time. When we started, we used to rent films on our platforms and split the revenue with producers. After about a year, we started to acquire the content licence from producers. So, we’re buying the licence that gives us the rights to be the exclusive streaming platform, but they can take the [same] films to TV stations.

This relationship is the basis for our business. We came in for three purposes. One is to control the piracy problem in the industry. Secondly, we want to provide access to a distribution channel where people across the globe can have real-time access to the content. Lastly, we wanted to improve the quality of the films Kannywood produces. 

How do you navigate finding quality content for your platform?

JA: One of the most challenging things we experienced was selecting the films to be streamed on our platform. There was a need for better-produced content and better stories if we wanted to appeal to a more global audience. People watch movies of a certain quality on platforms like Showmax, and you can’t expect them to go from that to low-quality content. We had to step up and be more deliberate about the kind of stories we tell and the quality of content available on the platform, which meant being more choosy with films and insisting that producers put in more effort. 

What we do to improve the quality of the content being produced in the industry is to join the production team or produce original content for our platform. Right now, we have over ten projects that have been scripted and they range from feature-length films to documentaries and even TV series. So far, we’ve produced only one TV series called Zaure (The Corridor) to test the market, and it’s doing well.

Another challenge we struggled with was piracy but I’m glad to say that we’ve solved that. We’ve enabled technology that makes it impossible to record movies directly from our website which has greatly reduced the rate of piracy.

What are some challenges that you’ve encountered so far?

JA: As with every business, a challenge I’ve experienced is funding. With investors from the Northern part of the country where I’m from, it’s hard to sell them the idea of a streaming platform as a viable business opportunity. They’re used to traditional business ventures so telling them about subscribers and how they can yield revenue is not what they understand or want to hear.

On the other hand, investors from other parts of the country or world do not understand why we’re exclusively a Kannywood streaming platform. We always get questions like “Why not include other Nollywood or Bollywood films?” or “What’s so special about the northern entertainment industry?”

What’s so special about the northern entertainment industry?

JA: I did not build Northflix just because I’m a Northerner. The reason I started Northflix is because Kannywood is a niche market with a lot of opportunities. There are over 200 million Hausa speakers around the world, which is a lot, and creating quality content in Hausa for these people is a great business opportunity. 

What are the next steps for Northflix?

JA: We look forward to being listed as an IPO company and selling shares to the wider public, that’s our dream. We want to make Northflix bigger and create content of higher quality content that can compete with content from global streaming platforms. People watch Indian and Korean movies even when they don’t understand the language, and this is what we want for Hausa films and shows.

The Nigerian film industry is one of the fastest growing in the world, with about 2,000 movies produced yearly. However, the industry’s high productivity does not necessarily translate to real financial benefits for its professionals as its distribution problem makes it difficult for filmmakers to recoup their investment in filmmaking. Nollywood has transitioned through various forms of distribution, from the VHS to VCDs and then cinemas, each channel coming with its own challenges. Now, the industry has the opportunity to distribute its movies via international streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, and Showmax.

Streaming services vs the box office 

Netflix pays Nigerian filmmakers between $10,000 and $90,000 for streaming rights per film, on average, although the amount occasionally goes up, depending on the director, film budget, and projected numbers. For originals, Netflix pays as high as ₦1.4 billion ($3.8 million), like in the case of Genevieve Nnaji’s 2018 film, Lionheart. In contrast, the highest-grossing movies in cinemas, like Omo Ghetto, made up to ₦636 million ($848,000).

Rather than pay for individual films, Prime Video strikes licensing deals with production companies. Between December 2021 and January 2022, the platform struck multi-year deals of undisclosed amounts, with leading production companies Inkblot Productions and Anthill Studios giving it exclusive rights for all theatrical productions by these companies. Showmax employs a different tactic where they share revenue from advertising and sponsorship rather than an upfront payment.

Xavier Ighorodje, a writer and producer in Nollywood, shares that, while cinema releases generate more money, compared to the VHS and VCD distribution model, the direct-to-streaming route has put even more money in the pockets of filmmakers.

“To make money in film, before now, you had to go to the cinemas to have your films played. You had to pay the cinemas a certain percentage for showing your film as well as the distributors who take your film to these cinemas. For example, if you budget ₦150 million on creating a movie that makes ₦300 million, you haven’t made a profit because the cinema alone takes a large percentage—up to half—and the distributors also take about 20–25%. However, with streaming platforms, you can go straight to the platform to have them stream your film and pay only your middlemen. This means that you get to keep more of the net profit,” Ighorodje explained. 

There are thousands of films produced daily, but only very few of them make it to the big streaming platforms. This leaves a large number of other—often smaller—filmmakers without many viable options for distributing their films. While cinemas are an option, foreign movies get more attention in them, taking over 75% of the market share. 

International platforms and Nigerian problems

Crime will evolve to the level of innovation, and piracy has proven that. While, in the past, filmmakers struggled with pirated VCDs and DVDs, their new-age counterparts have to deal with another form of crime: illegal streaming and download sites. With platforms like Netflix and Showmax charging a monthly subscription as low as ₦1,200 ($2.5) to access films on their platforms, there is still a large percentage of the Nigerian population who find that too expensive. This has given rise to illegal streaming websites and Telegram groups in Nigeria where popular films are recorded from streaming platforms and then uploaded for other users to download straight to their devices. This costs the industry about $2 billion in losses annually.

Karima, who enjoys watching Nollywood films, gets a lot of the films she watches from Telegram. “There are different Nollywood movies now on different platforms that you have to pay for. How many platforms am I going to subscribe to? I can’t afford to pay for multiple streaming channels and so, sometimes, I just download from Telegram.” 

Alheri, another film enthusiast in her mid-40s, says her problem is subscription payments. “I can afford to pay for Netflix, but I don’t know how to pay for it. When I downloaded the app, my card kept getting declined and I do not know why. I heard that only people with dollar cards can successfully pay, but I don’t have one.”

Netflix revealed in January 2023 that it has lost 39,000 already-active subscribers and about ₦250 million ($330,000) as Nigerian banks suspended international transactions from naira cards.

Unlike in the case of DVD retailers who receive payments directly in cash, these illegal streaming sites get paid in internet currency—traffic. This traffic translates into revenue through ad placements.

Has streaming impacted Nollywood’s stories?

Being able to have Nollywood films on global streaming platforms has propelled the industry into placing its best foot forward in terms of the quality of movies released. Ighorodje believes that filmmakers have had to improve the quality of their films in order to be on global streaming platforms, which is great for the industry. “We have improved our shooting style and cinematics in order to measure up to international standards and compete on a global scale which is good for the business,” he shared with TechCabal.

Donald Tombia, a screenwriter, agrees with Ighorodje and believes that filmmakers now tell more daring stories, all thanks to international streaming platforms. “Now we can create the kinds of films we want without being afraid of censorship. There are stories you want to tell and you already know that the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) will put restrictions on them. An example is Gangs of Lagos, which did fantastic on Prime Video. If that movie was released to cinemas alone, it wouldn’t have gone as far without being banned or having some parts censored, considering the central themes.”

Netflix launched in Nigeria as a streamer in 2016, as part of its plan to expand into 130 countries. Fifty, a drama directed by Biyi Bandele, was among the first set of films to be streamed on the platform and opened the door for other Nollywood films. In 2018, Lionheart, a drama, became the first Netflix original film produced in Nigeria. Not only do Prime Video, Netflix and Showmax stream Nigerian films, but these platforms are also partnering with Nigerian filmmakers to create original content. 

While the presence of Western-based streaming platforms has taken Nollywood to a more global audience, the bulk of the local audience cannot access these films directly from these platforms due to problems like subscription fees, payment issues, and the high cost of internet data. The content from Nollywood also outpaces this distribution channel and leaves a lot of room for the industry to innovate in providing more digital channels that are tailored to the Nigerian experience and also profitable to filmmakers.

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Since April 2022, when Netflix officially announced that it would launch ads on its platform, there have been speculations about how the ads would operate, especially with Netflix’s recent efforts to end password sharing on the platform. The executives finally provided details on the ad-supported package during the company’s earnings review for the Q2 of 2022. 

In an interview video, Netflix’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, maintained that though the ad-supported tier will contain most of the movies on Netflix’s catalogue, some movies will remain exclusive to higher paying users of the platform. 

“There are some things that won’t—that we’re in conversation about with the studios on—but if we launched the product today, the members in the ad tier would have a great experience,” Sarandos said. “We will clear some additional content, but certainly not all of it.” 

Netflix initiated the ad-supported plan in response to declining subscriptions on its platform, which has reportedly lost it about 970,000 subscribers in H1 of 2022 alone. However, the idea of attracting new subscribers who will not have access to some of Netflix’s catalogue raises concerns about the decision hurting Netflix’s business.  

“We don’t think it’s a material holdback to the business,” Sarandos said.

The ad-supported tier launches in Q1of 2023.

This is the second time in a row that the streaming service is suffering a massive blow to its subscriber base. In the first quarter of this year, the service reported its first subscriber loss in 10 years with a 200,000 subscriber decline. 

At the time, Netflix outlined 4 reasons for its subscriber decline: an increase in streaming services; geopolitical events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; a decline in addressable market; and more notably, an increase in household password sharing. According to Netflix, over 100 million of its 222 million paying subscribers are sharing their passwords with people outside of their households. 

Netflix experiencing another dip in its subscriber count doesn’t come as a shock to the service because it predicted, in April, that it would lose up to 2 million subscribers in Q2. Its subscriber growth decline, however, was less than half of that. Netflix’s biggest subscriber loss came from its largest markets, the US and Canada, where Netflix said it lost 1.3 million users. This number was offset by an increase in subscribers from other regions.

While the streaming service has not commented on reasons for its recent decline, experts project that it’s due to the proliferation of streaming services. With the launch of HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix’s library of movies, series and even games will be limited as more studios launch their own streaming platforms. 

Netflix, however, still has the biggest share of the streaming service market with 220 million subscribers while Amazon’s Prime Video holds 200 million, while Disney+ and HBO Max hold 87.6 million and 74 million subscribers respectively. 

1 million subscribers in Q3

The service also plans to keep its top spot and add 1 million subscribers to its tally by Q3. 

To do this, the service will implement a few long-term solutions, including increased movie and game development budgets. It’s introducing ads to its platform in a partnership with Microsoft. Later this year, starting with the US and Canada, the platform will introduce a cheaper ad-tier option for streamers. 

The platform is also taking a tough stance on password-sharing as it announced the testing of an “add a home” feature which will charge users an extra $3 to share accounts with users in other households. “We know this will be a change for our members,” the company said in a statement. “Our goal is to find an easy-to-use paid sharing offering that we believe works for our members and our business that we can roll out in 2023.”

Revenue soars

In its letter to its shareholders, the service stated that Q2 was “better than expected”. 

While its total number of subscribers might have declined by 970,000, its year-on-year revenue, however, increased by 9% in Q2 2022. 

The streamer’s net profit for the quarter was $1.44 billion, up 6.5% from $1.35 billion in Q2 2021. It, however, noted that it expects its revenue growth would slow to 4.5% by Q3. 

Despite this news, Netflix’s shares jumped by 7% after the report was released. 

In theory, a slate deal in filmmaking is when one  party (in this case, Amazon Prime Video) has agreed to either co-finance or solely finance multiple films of a particular film studio (in this case, Nemsia Films). In practice, Amazon is reserving the IP rights of the 3 films on the slate deal, and will cover their production costs. They would likely be called Amazon originals.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Nemsia Films on this pioneering slate deal, which will complement our growing lineup of local Nollywood content for Prime Video customers,” Ayanna Lonian, Director of Content Acquisition and Head of Worldwide Major Studio Licensing Strategy at Prime Video, said in a statement sent to TechCabal. “This slate deal supports our goal to showcase Nollywood at its best, by telling authentic home-grown stories in a range of genres to Prime Video customers around the world.”

Nemsia was originally founded in 2009 as an advertising agency by Derin Adeyokunnu (Managing Partner) and BB Sasore (Creative  Director). But after creating a couple of TV commercials, the founders realised they could do great work in feature filmmaking. So in 2013, they added that to their suite of offerings. Nemsia’s first production, Before 30, a television drama series, was produced in 2014 and started airing on Africa Magic in 2015 before getting listed on Netflix in 2020.

The company has gone on to produce more films including God Calling (2018) and Journey of an African Colony (2019), a docuseries based on books by lawyer and author, Olasupo Shasore. According to Adeyokunnu and Sasore, these titles, available on Netflix, have all become Netflix most viewed at some point. 

“At Nemsia Films, it is our belief in ‘no gravity for the mind’ that has led us to work with Prime Video, one of the leading streaming services worldwide, capable of delivering our stories further than we ever imagined,” said Adeyokunnu said in a statement sent to TechCabal. “We are tremendously excited about the collaboration and what the future holds for Nollywood.”

Everybody is welcome 

According to Adeyokunnu, the journey to this slate deal started last year in June when Amazon Prime Video reached out to Sasore on LinkedIn for possible collaboration.  

“We shared what we’ve got, and they loved it. After giving our work some light touch and creative guidance, they were good to go,” Adeyokunnu told TechCabal

Sasore, who’s the writer and director of most of the company’s production, thinks Amazon is doing something right, which is leaving room for more emerging operators to play. “They’re really keen on the story and are ready to source from the best guys, regardless of their status,” he told TechCabal over a call. 

When entering a new market, it’s usual practice for big platforms to reach out to already-established contacts in the industries of interest for business. So it’s quite commendable when a big platform is keen on also reaching out to independent and emerging creators, like Amazon is currently doing.

Sasore thinks Amazon is different, and he has good reason to think so. Besides the fact that the streaming giant, with over 200 million global viewers, reached out to him on LinkedIn, it gave Nemsia the freedom to recommend more interesting production outfits. 

“We gave them some names, but they trusted us to make a choice, so we went for Loup Garou Films,” said Sasore. Amazon loved the recommendation and folded them into the deal. Loup Garou is a small production company focused mostly on music video production. The company has shot videos for artists like Ladipoe and Ayra Starr. 

The deal Amazon signed with Nemsia was originally for 2 films, but now that Loup Garou is involved, Amazon has made room for 1 more film. This means, Loup Garou will be producing their own film independently but under Nemsia Films. 

The first feature film from this deal will be Breath of Life, written and directed by Sasore and produced by actor Eku Edewor, who recently joined Nemsia as producer.

Sasore said the slated film will not be a production featuring an amalgamation of stars. “The story speaks for itself. It requires top talents and not necessarily the established stars,” he said while talking about how they are casting for the slated films. 

More skin in the game

It’s no more news that Amazon Prime Video is not only keen on entering the second biggest film industry in the world, Nollywood, but wants to build a formidable local content bank. The streaming platform has already begun to follow the textbook strategy of capturing both local and diaspora audiences of any frontier market: getting in bed with the locals through licensing agreements. 

Last year when it announced its entry into Nollywood, it went into a licensing partnership with Inkblot Productions, a Nigerian film production company, to stream most of its titles that have already aired in cinemas. It also went into a similar partnership with Anthill Studios, an animation production company. 

Licensing agreements can be considered low-hanging fruits since they mostly require buying the rights to display already-made products—films, in this case. But, through this deal, Amazon is demonstrating that it wants to put its back to work and have more skin in the game as it will be financing local films from scratch.

Sasore said even though the deal is signed and delivered and casting for the first film concluded, production will start in July and stretch through the third and fourth quarters of the year. He also said that Breath of Life should hit the screen by the first quarter of next year. 

The streaming wars keep getting interesting. Netflix set up its Nigerian office. Since then, the streaming giant’s offerings  have enjoyed a mixed  run with the Nigerian audience. YouTube, on its end, is serving as an outlet for indie filmmakers to distribute their work. Would Amazon Prime Video’s entry into Nigeria intensify the competition,  and would it dominate the market?  

Sasore agreed that the competition will be more intense, which he says is good for the market. But he believes the road to dominance for any platform is still far. “It’s a big market and, interestingly, an open one. There’s no market leader yet, so there’s still room to play. We are still in the early days of our greatness, and anybody in the film industry ecosystem right now is contributing to the groundwork.” 

Today, the platform opened the doors of its Ivorian offices in Abidjan to enhance music streaming, and help Ivorian artists reach a broader audience within and outside the continent.

Cote D’Ivoire marks the 6th African country with Boomplay’s presence after Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Cameroon. 

Speaking about the launch, Boomplay Côte d’Ivoire General Manager, Paola Audrey Ndengue, said, “We’re particularly proud to establish a presence in Abidjan, a creative and cultural hub in the region. The warm welcome our team has received from artists, local partners and stakeholders is a strong indicator for us moving forward. Boomplay is committed to contributing to the dynamism of the Ivorian music industry’.”

While there is no available data on the growth of the Ivory Coast’s music streaming industry, several of its artists have risen to prominence in the past few years due to an increase in streaming services. For example, French singer-songwriter Kikimoteleba rose in Spotify’s ranks when his hit single Tigini exceeded 15 million streams. Others have also been thrust into the spotlight on social media; the Nigerian remix of Aboutou Roots La Blessure, for instance, have been used in thousands of videos across the internet. 

The role these streaming services play in democratising income for Ivorian artists cannot be understated especially as many artists depend of live performances for their income. Guy-Constant Neza, an Ivorian label manager at Believe Digital told Lemonde that 80% of Ivorian artists’ income comes from live performances. Streaming platforms, according to Neza, provide “a double awareness among our artists, of both the limits of the existing model and the opportunities that streaming offers.”

With the launch of Boomplay, Ivorian artists now have access to 70 million active users on a platform where they’ll be paid per stream/purchase. 

The company has a freemium model similar to YouTube where users can play music for free but with ad intermissions, or pay for an ad-free version. 

According to Director of Artist and Media Relations, Tosin Sorinola, “This physical presence extends Boomplay’s mission to promote local talent by providing them with a platform and resources within and outside of the service, which enables them to reach a wider audience of music lovers across the continent. We are delighted to provide a transparent service which ensures that artists get due revenue from their music streaming.”

Although African music has been global for decades, with the likes of Angélique Kidjo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Youssou N’dour, and Miriam Makeba touring the world, its current global reach has been astronomical. Growing smartphone and internet penetration have led to music from the continent getting hosted on streaming platforms, thus pushing it far beyond Africa’s borders to a global audience. 

“Streaming is one of the best things to happen to African music, in terms of access to a wider audience and tracking of artists’ reach,” Olabode Oyawale, Head of Music at Ultima Limited, told TechCabal. 

The increasing streaming numbers of African artists has fuelled the interest of international record labels, social media companies like TikTok, and digital streaming platforms (DSP) like Spotify in investing in the continent’s music industry. In 2020, Audiomack and YouTube expanded into Nigeria; last year, Spotify did the same when it added 41 more countries to its previously existing 5 African markets. 

Now, combining the fire power of social media and streaming platforms, how big an artist can get knows no limits. For instance, “No Wahala”, a song by Nigerian artist 1da Banton, blew up on TikTok and Instagram and went on to rack up streaming numbers across various platforms. Similarly, “Love Nwantiti”, a song by CKay, another Nigerian singer, became a global sensation last year. What is remarkable about “Love Nwantiti”’s case is, it went viral 2 years after its initial release. 

Distribution is tough for indie artists

Despite these success stories in African music, the opportunities that make them possible are not accessible to all artists. Only a handful of artists, usually those signed on to record labels, rack up views and sell out shows. Independent (indie) artists, on the other hand—except for a few—struggle to take off and float their careers. 

This is where Melior Africa, a musictech startup founded by seasoned music business executive Ayoola Oni, comes to play. 

“We are building a single platform for independent artists to manage, distribute, and monetise their music,” Oni told TechCabal in an interview. “Think of Melior as a full-stack mobile music management tool.”

Before Melior, Oni had, in 2018, co-founded Ejoya Music—another music distribution company that helps artists to submit their music across DSPs. He ran it as CEO for almost 3 years before resigning in February last year. 

But if Melior is doing what Oni’s previous company does, what is unique this time? Oni told TechCabal that Ejoya’s distribution process was quite manual; artists sent their music to the company via email and the company distributed it on their behalf. 

“It was a stressful process,” Oni said. “I’m usually calling or receiving hundreds of calls from artists daily—there was just too much human contact, and that wasn’t going to scale.” He said he had already started to explore how Ejoya could digitise its process before he and his co-founder began to have “issues over some business decisions”.

When he resigned from Ejoya, he had intended to try his hands on something different from music. But 3 months after his exit, he was dragged back into the music world by a friend, a DJ and producer, who reignited his passion for building solutions for the music industry. 

The Melior platform allows artists to list their music for distribution and monetisation. It allows its users to track performance metrics of their music like the number of views, downloads, likes, and how much revenue it has generated while enabling payment automation. On Melior, artists can choose to withdraw their earnings anytime they want and also split payment with their team members, like producers or managers, without a third party. 

“Making music is already tedious for indie artists; distribution should be at least seamless,” said Oni.

Melior launched its beta version early this year with 5 artists, including gospel singer Lawrence Oyor, and went public last week, with over 100 artists waitlisted. The platform makes money through annual subscriptions and revenue-sharing models. It has 3 subscription models. The first is a free plan, where the company takes 30% of the total revenue made from the music. Then there are 2 paid plans: one costs ₦850 ($2.05) wherein Melior takes 15% from the total revenue the artist makes from the music; the other plan costs ₦2,500 ($6.02), and here, Melior takes 7.5%.

Still, distribution is only one of many problems indie artists face in Africa. There’s a lack of structure, management, and profit-sharing among teams. Record labels are usually in charge of building and structuring artists’ journeys from pre-production to post production while artists focus on their music. In the case of indie artists, they take on these responsibilities themselves—sometimes with friends or family filling managerial roles. Melior said, with its payment automation, it has solved the issue of profit-sharing among artists’ teams. All the artist needs to do is pre-set what amount goes to whom. 

Lack of funding is a major problem indie artists face

But ultimately, lack of readily-available funding is chief among indie artists’ troubles. “If you no get money e dey kill idea (Being broke kills ideas),” sings Bnxn (formerly called Buju), a Nigerian artist Oni worked with in the earliest stage of his career, before he got signed on to Burna Boy’s Spaceship Records. 

When Oni ran Ejoya, many artists often came seeking loans right after Ejoya had paid them their monthly earnings. “Indie artists are mostly broke because there’s no bail money from record labels to fall back on,” he said. “Most of them live solely on the money they make from their music, and that can be hard.” 

To solve this problem, Melior is providing artists on its platform with access to credit. Artists can request for their projects to be financed or for an advance. This way, they can pay for a good studio, run decent marketing and PR efforts, and even shoot videos to help their music go viral. 

How does Melior ensure that artists repay these advances? Oni said Melior is only providing credit to artists on its platform. Based on information gleaned from a Melior artist’s streaming and revenue data, the company decides how much credit to extend to the artist—a method, Oni said, helps them mitigate default rates.

For Ultima’s head of music, Oyawale, while DSP distribution and seed money are a commendable offering, distributing songs to social media platforms like TikTok—a marketing go-to for even big labels like Warner Music—can launch an artist’s career. Some platforms like American Distrokid are already helping artists list their songs on social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. 

Though Melior does not currently distribute music to social media, Oni hinted that that is in view, adding that Melior has many other offerings in the pipeline, such as opening up their credit line to artists outside their platform. 

The platform will allow Nigerian creators commercialise registered intellectual property rights, and enable them to sell or exchange those rights internationally. 

Globally, the intellectual property rights market is worth $8.2 billion and is set to reach $16.1 billion by 2026 with the advent of cloud-based solutions. Nigeria’s deal with DAG is one such cloud-based IP solution.

According to the agreement, the partnership will also see the launch of a nationwide wallet where Nigerians can collect royalties or payments—in form of digital tokens or cryptocurrencies—on any intellectual property rights they upload on the platform. 

The Developing Africa Group (DAG), a UK-based IPR commercialisation group, has also announced that it will build the crypto-based platform on the Algorand Blockchain; while the tokenisation technology—which includes the wallet and a stable coin-pegged token—will be handled by Koibanx, an Argentina-based software company. Both Koibanx and Algorand have been involved in several similar crypto-based projects in Latin America including a national blockchain-based citizens ID and information programme in Colombia, and El Salvador’s National Registration platform. 

Intellectual property in Nigeria

Intellectual property rights (IPR) are the exclusive rights creators have over their works. Under IP laws, creators have the right to sell (assign) their work or permit others (license) to use or re-create their work. Intellectual Property also includes the rights of production, stocking, reproduction, adaptation, translation, and performance. They include the rights to sell (assign) their work or permit others (license) to use their works. They also include the rights of production, stocking, reproduction, adaptation, translation, and performance. 

In Nigeria, intellectual property is divided into copyright, patents, trademarks and industrial designs, all governed by 4 different Acts. The country’s Copyright Act governs the intellectual property rights of literary, artistic, musical works, broadcasting, recorded, and cinematographic works. Its Patent and Designs Act metes out laws guiding inventions, and industrial designs such as product designs. Its Trade Marks Act, and Merchandise Mark Act oversee the registration and regulation of trademarks like logos. 

Just like you have the freedom of movement or the freedom to post freely on social media, creators—photographers, writers, painters, designers, and even scientists—also have the rights to sell or rent out whatever unique things they create, subject to a few conditions. 

This partnership between the Nigerian government and DAG will help Nigerian creators to benefit from their inventions and creators. 

Nigeria’s history with cryptocurrency

The deal brings into question Nigeria’s shaky history with cryptocurrency. 

Its implementation will see crypto used in at least 2 ways: the building of the platform and wallet which will be on a blockchain network, and the use of a digital token—which will be pegged to the naira. It’s also possible that the deal could drive the usage of the CBN-backed e-naira.

These plans conflict with Nigeria’s stance on crypto. In February 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) restricted all commercial banks and crypto exchange platforms from crypto trading and has subsequently sanctioned erring platforms.

It subsequently launched its central bank digital currency (CBDC) months later with over 35,000 transactions recorded since its launch. 

More recently, in May 2022, the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published new rules regulating the issuance, offering platforms, and custody of digital assets A.K.A cryptocurrencies which some experts say fails to address problems facing Nigeria’s crypto industry. 

Commercialised IP rights  for everyday Nigerians

For Nigeria’s blooming creator economy, the partnership means more visibility and income. 

A platform like this would allow anyone who identifies as a digital creator to sell their intellectual properties. Celebrities like Osita Iheme could sell rights to soundbites; photographers like Fati Abubakar could list rights to their photos, and even software engineers and product designers can sell rights to unique processes or designs (including logos) that are registered under Nigeria’s patent law. The Nigerian film industry—Nollywood—could also raise funds by selling some of its features. 

When the deal comes to fruition, Nigeria’s Copyright Commission (NCC) should see a rise in registration from Nigerians looking to make money selling their IP rights.

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