NBC backs MCSN’s GOCREATE APP

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The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has assured the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte (MCSN) of its support and backing in the Society’s deployment of the copyright monitoring App, GOCREATE AFRICA.
The assurance was given last Wednesday, August 26th, by Dr. Onoja, a director, who stood in for the Director General of the commission, when MCSN in continuation of its engagement with stakeholders hosted the NBC and broadcasters in a virtual meeting to introduce and demonstrate the workings of the App in the monitoring of the use of music and sound recordings for the purpose of copyright payment.
The Society had met with stakeholders in the music industry comprising of publishers and creators for the same purpose on Tuesday, August 25th.
The meeting brought together Copyright Legal minds, Publishers of Music, Producers and Artistes in the music industry and MCSN to demonstrate and rob minds on the game changing copyright monitoring App.
The Head of the Technical team of MCSN, Onome Ojigbo took participants through the workings of the easy to use App on both days.
It starts with the downloading of the App from the Google Play store, the user then signs in, and goes to the section of need and is immediately assigned a dash board unique to the user. For example, if an artist, the assigned dashboard is where he or she can upload his or her works and also monitor the details of the use and exploitation of his musical works with duration, time and the number of times such works were exploited from his or her android and IOS phones. The dashboard automatically shows an artiste how much to expect from the exploitation of his works and medium of performance based on the published tariff of MCSN. For the user like a broadcaster, once the App is installed, it will track, monitor and store all broadcast materials and report usage to the minutest details.
Mr. Ojigbo informed the participants that the basic advantage of the App is its transparency as both user and creator can monitor the use of works in real time.
For MCSN, the App helps in solving the twin issue of transparency and fairness in the distribution of royalties as it monitors the use of works, frequency and assign monetary values to each owner. He also explained that it helps an artiste to plan because they see instantly how and where their works are performing in the market.
Copyright Lawyer and Publisher, Justin Ige, sought to know the number of distribution platforms on which the App will be deployed as well as how to monitor the use of music by hotels. He was informed that at the last count there are (were) agreements with about 160 platforms for the deployment of the App to monitor the use of music worldwide. And there is ongoing discussion about the deployment of the App in hotels where it will be deployed using the internet modules in them (hotels).The results from such monitoring will be beyond any doubt because all hotels will be geo-mapped, as explained by Mr. Ojigbo.
The CEO of MCSN, Mayo Ayilaran, added that the App will help report returns on use of music to the Society and for broadcasters; the App will help them in keeping their logs of usage as required by the national broadcasting law and code.
Reacting to a question, Mr. Ayilaran informed the participants that the App will not eliminate general distribution entirely but it puts the emphasis for royalty payment now on the specific frequency and duration of exploitation of works.
“It is amazing”, Mr. Ige reacted to the explanation.
On his part, gospel act, Telemi Orokoya advised MCSN to educate the public massively to ensure that all stakeholders will get to know about it. Mr. Ojigbo assured him that the education of the public is very vital to the acceptance of the App and revealed that a video teacher will soon be available to help in that direction.
On August 26th, it was the turn of the broadcasters and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to be hosted to a virtual demonstration of the App by MCSN.
The broadcasters were taken through how the App works by Mr. Ojigbo at end of which questions were invited from the participants.
Mr. Adamu Tanimu who represented the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), wanted to know how the National television authority, will benefit from the deployment of the App and its relationship with YouTube.
Mr. Ayilaran explained that the national television station stands to benefit in a number of ways.
The first, being the tracking of the use of musical works in their broadcasts accurately and the capture of the use of folklores for which NTA is obliged to pay. And above all the App will help the television station in keeping the logs of its operations as required by the NBC code. Mr. Ayilaran revealed that there is an ongoing discussion with YouTube at the end of which a deal is expected to be signed soon.
In his reaction after the presentation, Dr. Onoja of NBC said the development of the App was a commendable effort and assured MCSN of the commission’s support. He advised MCSN not to forget the creators at the grassroots in the deployment of the App.
“I want to thank you (MCSN) for this great effort. The commission is prepared to work hand in hand with you for its deployment. We are interested in the protection of artistes’ works because we believe musicians are entitled to profit from their intellectual property, which is why we always collaborate with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC). In the NBC code creators of intellectual property are protected. We want to appeal to you that in the deployment of the App don’t forget those at the grassroots” Dr. Onoja said.
In his own contribution, the chairman of the board of MCSN, Orits Williki, urged broadcasters to respect their copyright obligation to creators.
“MCSN has given broadcasters the cheapest copyright tariff deal in the world, yet most broadcasting stations have refused to fulfil their copyright obligations to creators of intellectual property. They better start performing their copyright obligations before MCSN comes after them” He warned.

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