It will not be not be wrong if one describes Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) as a child of circumstances; yes, considering how it came into existance in year …
The idea then was to form one musical collecting society in Nigeria as an answer to the usual of rights users who keep saying that they do not pay for the music they use because they do not know who to pay to. This practice linger on for years and the creative people who make the beautiful music the rights users deploy in promoting their brands and shows die in penury weekly.
And to put an end to this bad situation, a few rights owners/stakeholders including movers of Musical Corpright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) and the then Performing Musical Rights Society (PMRS) came together, notify the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), led then by Prof. Adetokunbo Adebambo of their intention. NCC jumped at the idea hosted several meetings of the stakeholders geared towards the ‘almagamation’.
However, along the line, the meeting deadlocked due to the ‘I no gree, I no gree’ nature of creative people. And the stakeholders went their different ways with majority team up with Chief Tony Okoroji of PMRS then to found COSON leaving Mr. Mayo Ayilaran of MCSN to go it alone. The above in a nutshell is how COSON came about.
COSON which still prides itself as the biggest copyright management organisation, (CMO) has now existed for … years; and in between those years, Okoroji’s midas touch has come to bear with it. He has not only made the commission the issue in the Nigerian entertainment industry, the way he popularise the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association (PMAN) when he presided over the affairs of the Association in his 20s.
COSON has not only in these years of its existence payed musicians who are its members yearly dividend, it has also with those years put up a magnificent and world class building it calls COSON House that serves as its headquarters in the heart of Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State, the Centre of Excellence without obtaining a loan from the bank, a grant from the government at any level or foreign body.
The arrival of COSON on the scene has lead to the formation of other CMOs in movie, litterally works and so on. It has also brought some respect and awarenesxto right owners in the sense that rights users no longer deploy creative peoples work in the promotion of their products/shows recklessly without obtain licence for such work.
And the slogan of COSON says, ‘Let the Music…. ‘ music is indeed paying and musicians are better off for it.
