Yesterday, I watched on Instagram a video of (inarguably) the greatest footballer on earth, Cristiano Ronaldo playing a Nigerian song “Calm Down” by Rema” in his home. Seeing him vibe along to the song and merrily dance to its tune with his children I can not help but grin from ear to ear. Same yesterday, James Harden, one of the greatest basketball players was caught on camera singing to Burna boy’s “Shayo”. He was singing it word for word as if he was in the studio with Burna Boy when the song was recorded.
After seeing both videos coincidentally almost at the same time, I sat down and imagined how far afro beats and in general, African sounds have come. It grew from a local sound into territorial sound then into a regional tune and now it’s a worldwide tune, globally accepted with Nigerian artistes winning Grammy awards which is the world’s highest award in music honour and recognition; with Nigerian stars featuring and doing live performances for worldwide events; like Davido and Kizz Daniel performing for the World Cup 2022 with the whole world as their audience.
African songs have really travelled across the continents, you may not believe that Nigerian artistes are doing sold-out music concerts in non-English speaking and Caribbean countries, that is how deep African sounds have penetrated deep down the earth.
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An American client once told me that African sounds are addictive and I think I will have to believe her.
Hollywood movie makers and other International movie producers now acquire copyrights to Nigerian music to be synced as soundtracks into their movie projects. For instance, Last November, I was contacted by Amazon prime through an intermediary about their intention to acquire a license to a song made by a Nigerian Artiste (Keasungs) whom I represent for them to use the music for the launch of the famous Savage x Fenty 2022 edition; Rihana’s popular brand. I could not contain my joy because of the thought that big International brands like Amazon prime and Fenty Fashion now acquire licenses and copyrights and pay good money for it for them to play African sounds in their events.
Also, in January this year, producers of BET reached out to me as well expressing their intention to acquire the rights to at least ten pieces of African music to be synced as a soundtrack into a movie project they are working on which was starred by the famous and beautiful Gabrielle Union.
These and many more are my personal examples and testimonies of how much the African sounds; the euphonious Nigerian Afrobeats, the mellifluous South African Amapiano, the melodious Congolese Makossa etc are doing at the international music market.
This is a wake-up call to Venture capitalist firms, Investment bankers, money individuals and commercial banks to start looking into investing in African music; I’m not talking about investing in discovering and nurturing upcoming artistes or investing in record labels; they are part of it but I’m specifically talking about investing in the acquisition of music rights and music catalogues of some legendary African musicians who have made a name for themselves in music as that is the liquid gold. This I have come to find out through my recent dealings with international Media firms who have shown interest in the usage of African sounds in their projects; I can categorically tell you that African sounds are of high value in the world music market.
The good thing about investing in music is that the music stock will never go low, it is a stable investment; music will always exist till the end of time. Bad economy, war, or government policies will never affect the value of music to drive it down.
As a way of taking the lead, my law firm has been acquiring music copyrights from African upcoming and star artistes and we also act as intermediates between the artistes and international moviemakers who want African music to be synced as a soundtrack for the movie, organization who want to get a copyright on African music they are interested in using for jingle and commercials or for any other purpose.
Therefore, let us partner in taking African music to the nooks and crannies of the earth and let us as well help you get a music licence or copyrights for any African song you may be interested in. Also, as a music maker let us help you project your sound by acquiring the copyrights and subleasing them to big boys of the entertainment industry.
