Legal Guide For Mastering Licensing And Royalties In Nigeria's Entertainment Industry.

• Published date: 27 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Licensing & Syndication, Media & Entertainment Law, Music and the Arts
• Law Firm: The Trusted Advisors
• Author: Elizabeth Olalekan

Creative works produced by entertainers are largely protected by copyright. They have exclusive control over their work. The copyright owner is granted the sole right to record music, produce, sell, or distribute copies of the music in various formats (hardware and software), stream the music, stage a public performance of the music, reproduce, or create new work from the original work (for example, modifying one's music to create a new song).

In some instances, the copyright owner (the licensor) may decide to license the exploitation of one or more of these rights to another person (the licensee) in return for royalties, which can be a lump-sum payment or some form of compensation (either monetary or non-monetary).

Licensing

Licensing is a crucial aspect of the entertainment industry, particularly for Nigerian artists. According to the Black's Law Dictionary, the granting of a license is defined as

"The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would

be illegal, a trespass, a tort, or otherwise would not allowable."¹

Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music Licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certain uses of their work

Types of Music License

There are various types of Music License and they are listed below:

1. Master Recording License
2. Mechanical License
3. Synchronisation License
4. Theatrical License
5. Public Performance License
6. Blanket License
7. Print License

Royalties

Royalties are payments that one party makes to another party that is the owner of an intellectual property or real property asset. Royalties are the payments generated from the usage of your songs. When recordings get played and streamed - or performed or covered - a song's rights holders receive payments.²

Types of Royalties

1. Neighboring Rights and Royalties
2. Digital performance Royalties
3. Sync Licensing Fees
4. Public Performance Royalties
5. Mechanical Royalties

Legal Framework for Nigerian Entertainment Professionals

There is no definite legal framework regulating entertainment in Nigeria. However, there are other laws related to entertainment because it is intellectual property-related. The laws that regulate and govern intellectual property in Nigeria form the foundation of the legal framework for the media and entertainment industry because the majority of the media and entertainment activities are intellectual property related.

Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020

Before the...