If you are a musician in Nigeria, whether a signed artist on a major label, an independent producer working from your bedroom studio, a live performer, or a gospel songwriter, there is a piece of legislation that affects almost every decision you make in your career. It determines who owns your song, who gets paid when it plays on radio, what happens when someone samples your beat without permission, and whether a streaming platform can legally host your music at all.

That legislation is the Nigerian Copyright Act 2022, signed into law on 17 March 2023. It repeals the old Copyright Act of 2004 and is the most significant overhaul of Nigeria’s intellectual property framework in nearly two decades. It is not an exaggeration to say that most Nigerian musicians have never read it, or even know it exists.

What Is the Nigerian Copyright Act?

Copyright in Nigeria is automatic. The moment you create an original musical work and fix it in any tangible form, a recording, a written score, or a digital file, the law protects it. No registration required, though registering with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) creates valuable legal presumptions in your favour if you ever go to court.

The Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 (signed into law on 17 March 2023) repealed the old Copyright Act Cap C28 of 2004, which had become dangerously outdated in the age of Afrobeats, streaming platforms, and social media. The new Act is Nigeria’s most significant intellectual property reform in decades.

It does not just update old rules. It fundamentally redefines how creators are recognised and protected, covering everything from musical compositions to TikTok videos, from live performances to digital distribution. Nigeria, as a member of the Berne Convention and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), now brings its copyright framework much closer to global best practices.

 

What Does the Nigerian Copyright Act Protect?

Under Section 2 of the Act, works eligible for copyright include literary, musical, artistic, and audiovisual works, as well as sound recordings and broadcasts. For musicians, two separate categories are critically important:

• Musical Works — this covers any musical composition, including the melody, the lyrics, the beat, the chord progression, and the arrangement. Copyright in a musical work belongs to the songwriter, composer, or beat-maker. It lasts for the lifetime of the creator, plus 70 years.
• Sound Recordings — this covers the specific recorded version of a musical work: the actual audio file. Copyright in a sound recording belongs to the artist in whose name the recording was made (unless a contract states otherwise). It lasts 50 years from the date of first publication.

An important distinction: if you write a song and record it, you hold two separate copyrights — one in the composition and one in the sound recording. These can be owned separately, licensed separately, and infringed separately. A work that exists only in your head or as an unrecorded freestyle is NOT protected. The Nigerian Copyright Act requires that a work be fixed in a tangible medium — written down, recorded, or saved digitally — before protection kicks in. Always record your work.

 

Your Key Rights Under the Nigerian Copyright Act

As the copyright owner of a musical work, Section 9 of the Nigerian Copyright Act grants you a bundle of exclusive economic rights. No one can exercise these rights without your permission:

• Reproducing your work in any material form — physical copies, digital downloads, audio files
• Publishing and distributing your work — including streaming, CD sales, and digital distribution
• Performing your work in public — live concerts, DJ sets, background music in commercial spaces
• Broadcasting or communicating your work — radio, television, online streams
• Making an adaptation of your work — remixes, covers, samples, translations, interpolations
• Making your work available by wire or wireless means — a new right specifically introduced by the 2022 Act to cover on-demand streaming
• Distributing for commercial purposes by way of rental, lease, or hire

 

These rights are yours. Nobody can do any of the above with your music without your permission — and in most cases, without compensating you. Every unauthorised use is a potential infringement.

 

DERIVATIVE WORKS: WHO OWNS A REMIX?

Under the Act, if Person A owns a song and grants Person B permission to create a remix, Person B acquires copyright in the remix as a derivative work. Crucially, if Person A then wants to perform that remix, they must seek Person B’s permission — even though they own the original. Rights in derivative works vest in their creators, not in the owners of the underlying work.

 

Moral Rights: The Rights Money Cannot Buy

The Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 formally recognises moral rights under Section 14. These are personal rights that connect you to your work as its creator — and critically, they cannot be sold, transferred, or assigned away during your lifetime.

No matter what a record label pays you, no matter what contract you sign, these rights remain yours:

• Right of Attribution (Paternity): Your name must be credited as the creator of the work, even if you have assigned the copyright to someone else.
• Right of Integrity: You can object if your music is distorted, mutilated, or used in a way that is prejudicial to your honour or reputation — even by the person who owns the copyright.
• Right to Object to False Attribution: If someone else claims authorship of your work, you can legally challenge that claim.

If you wrote a song and signed over the publishing rights to a label under pressure, you still legally retain the right to be named as the songwriter. A contract clause that strips your moral rights is unenforceable under Nigerian law.

Importantly, the Act states that moral rights last as long as copyright lasts. Once a work enters the public domain, moral rights expire too — a change from the old Act, where they were considered perpetual.

You Deserve to Be Paid: New Economic Rights

Broadcast and Airplay Royalties (Section 15)

For years, Nigerian musicians complained that their songs received massive airplay but earned them little beyond exposure. Radio stations made profits. Hotels streamed their music for ambiance. Advertisers benefited. But the performer often saw nothing unless they had a private arrangement.

Section 15 addresses this directly. It grants performers and producers of sound recordings the right to fair and equitable remuneration whenever their work is broadcast or communicated to the public — on radio, television, or through any public sound system. This means hotels, restaurants, event venues, airlines, and streaming services may owe royalties when your music is played.

This provision strengthens the business side of Afrobeats, gospel, highlife, and every genre of Nigerian music. It also reinforces the critical role of Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) like MCSN, which are empowered under Section 88 of the Act to collect and distribute these royalties on behalf of their members.

The broadcast royalty right only works in practice if it is collected. Individual artists cannot monitor every hotel, bar, and radio station that plays their music. That is what MCSN exists to do. If you are not a registered member of a CMO, you are forfeiting royalties that the law says you are owed. Registration is the bridge between your legal right and your actual payment.

 

Resale Royalties — The Droit de Suite (Section 17)

Section 17 introduces a right that is new to Nigerian law: the resale royalty right, known in international copyright as the droit de suite. Under this provision, a music creator is legally entitled to a share of the proceeds every time their original manuscript or composition is resold through an art dealer, agent, or public auction — even after they previously sold it.

Imagine you sell the rights to a song catalogue for ₦5 million today. Five years later, that catalogue is resold for ₦50 million. Under the old law, you would see nothing from that transaction. Under the new Act, you have a legal claim to a percentage of that resale. This is particularly significant as Nigerian music catalogues grow in global value and acquisition deals become increasingly common.

 

Digital Rights: Your Music in the Streaming Era

The 2004 Act was written before Afrobeats went global, before Boomplay, Apple Music, TikTok, and YouTube became the primary channels for music distribution, and before digital piracy became the industry’s biggest revenue leak. The 2022 Act closes that gap — significantly.

Key digital provisions include:

• Digital copies are protected: The Act now explicitly defines ‘copy’ to include any digital reproduction — downloads, streams, and even cached files. Online infringement is no longer legally ambiguous.
• Wire or wireless availability: You now have the right to control how and where your music is made available electronically — including on-demand streaming platforms. A platform cannot legally host your music without authorisation.
• Technological Protection Measures (TPMs): Circumventing digital locks on your music — such as stripping DRM protection — is now an offence under the Act.
• Notice and takedown: You can issue a written notice to any service provider to take down or disable access to infringing material hosted on their network. Platforms that fail to comply risk liability.
• Repeat infringer accounts: Service providers are now legally obligated to suspend accounts that repeatedly receive infringement notices.

Under the 2022 Act, websites and social media platforms operating in Nigeria can be held liable if they ignore copyright complaints. The days of full Nollywood films and entire music albums being freely distributed on Telegram and Facebook without consequences are legally over. Whether enforcement matches the law in practice is a different matter — but the legal foundation now exists.

 

When Others Can Use Your Music Without Permission

Copyright is not absolute. The Act provides for ‘fair dealing’ — a set of exceptions where someone can use your work without your permission and without paying you. Understanding these is important so you know when your rights have actually been infringed and when they have not.

The 2022 Act introduces a four-factor test — similar to the US ‘fair use’ doctrine — to determine whether a use qualifies as fair dealing. Courts will consider:

• The purpose and character of the use — is it commercial or for education and research?
• The nature of the copyrighted work — is it a published or unpublished work?
• The amount used relative to the whole — was a significant portion of the work taken?
• The effect on the market or value of the original work — does the use undermine your ability to earn from it?

A student analysing your lyrics for academic research is likely protected. A critic reviewing your album and playing a brief clip on air is likely protected. A competing artist interpolating your full chorus for a commercial release without permission is not. Fair dealing is a defence, not a loophole.

 

When Someone Steals Your Music: Your Legal Remedies

Section 36 of the Act outlines the acts that constitute copyright infringement. Any unauthorised person who reproduces, distributes, publicly performs, imports, broadcasts, or adapts your copyrighted work without a licence is an infringer. This includes uploading your music online without permission, selling bootleg recordings, and using your work in advertisements without a sync licence.

As a musician whose copyright has been infringed, you can take action before the Federal High Court — which has exclusive jurisdiction over copyright matters under Section 103 of the Act. The remedies available to you include:

• An injunction to stop the infringement immediately
• Financial damages to compensate your losses
• Account of profits — a court order requiring the infringer to disclose and surrender earnings from your work
• Seizure and destruction of infringing materials
• Border measures — you can work with the NCC to block importation of infringing copies through Nigerian Customs
• Criminal prosecution — which under the 2022 Act carries significantly heavier penalties than under the old law

Enforcement works best when you have clear, timestamped evidence of ownership. Keep version histories of your recordings, studio receipts, collaboration agreements in writing, and your NCC registration certificate. In court, the musician who can prove they created the work first wins. The musician who cannot, struggles — regardless of what they know to be true.

Notable cases have demonstrated what is at stake. In the KCee vs. Sir Jude Nnam case, a Catholic music composer sought N150 million in damages after his composition was allegedly adapted and commercialised without permission. In Danny Young vs. Tiwa Savage, a copyright suit over the musical work ‘ONE’ resulted in an out-of-court settlement. King Sunny Ade’s decades-long battle with African Songs Limited over master tape ownership ultimately resulted in a N500 million judgment in his favour. These cases are not anomalies — they are the reality of what happens when rights are not properly protected from the start.

 

How Long Does Copyright Protection Last?

Understanding the duration of copyright under the Nigerian Copyright Act is critical for planning your legacy:

• Musical Works: Protected for the lifetime of the author, plus 70 years after the end of the calendar year of death. For co-written works, the 70 years runs from the death of the last surviving author.
• Sound Recordings: Protected for 50 years from the end of the year in which the recording was first published.
• Works by Government or Corporate Bodies: Protected for 70 years from the end of the year in which the work was first published.

 

Once copyright expires, a work enters the public domain — meaning anyone can use, adapt, or build on it freely without permission or payment. This is why older works like folk songs from centuries past can be performed and recorded without licensing.

 

Broadcast Royalties: Getting Paid When Your Song Plays

For years, Nigerian musicians watched radio stations and TV channels profit from their music while they earned almost nothing. Section 15 of the Act directly addresses this.

The Act grants performers and producers of sound recordings the right to receive fair and equitable remuneration whenever their work is broadcast. This means if a radio station plays your track, if a hotel streams your music for ambiance, if a restaurant plays your songs — you are entitled to royalties.

Broadcasters, streaming platforms, hotels, restaurants, airlines, nightclubs, gyms, and any commercial establishment using your music must now account for your right to remuneration. The Act also grants copyright owners the right to inspect records and statements related to the broadcast of their sound recordings.

 

This provision is one of the strongest arguments for joining a Collective Management Organisation like MCSN. No single musician can monitor every broadcaster or venue in Nigeria — but a CMO can.

 

Digital Protections in the Nigerian Copyright Act

The 2022 Act is the first Nigerian copyright law written with the internet truly in mind. For a generation of musicians who release primarily on digital platforms, this is transformative.

• Digital copies are covered: The Act extends the definition of reproduction to include digital files. Unauthorised digital distribution, ripping, or file-sharing of your music is copyright infringement.
• Notice and Takedown: You can issue a written notice to an internet service provider or social media platform hosting pirated versions of your music, requiring them to take it down or disable access to it.
• Platform Accountability: Service providers must suspend accounts that repeatedly receive infringement notices. Platforms operating in Nigeria — including YouTube, Facebook, Telegram, Boomplay, and blogs — face legal liability if they ignore legitimate copyright complaints.
• Website Blocking: The Nigerian Copyright Commission now has power to block or disable access to websites it reasonably believes are facilitating infringement of copyright.
• Technological Protection Measures (TPMs): Circumventing digital locks or copy-protection on your music without authorisation is itself an infringement under the new Act.

 

Collective Management Organisations: Your Team on the Ground

No musician can personally monitor every radio station, streaming platform, hotel, and bar using their music. That is precisely what Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) exist to do. Section 88 of the Nigerian Copyright Act formalises and strengthens their role.

MCSN (Musical Copyright Society Nigeria) is the approved CMO for musical works in Nigeria, established in 1984 as successor to the Performing Rights Society (PRS) and Mechanical Copyright Performing Society (MCPS) in the country. MCSN is authorised to:

• Negotiate blanket licences with broadcasters, venues, streaming platforms, and commercial establishments on behalf of rights holders
• Collect broadcast, mechanical, and performance royalties that would otherwise never reach you
• Distribute those royalties directly to registered members
• Extend licensing to rights holders who are not formal members, under the new extended collective licensing provisions of the Act
• Take legal action against infringers on behalf of its members

If you are not registered with MCSN, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table. The royalties are being collected from broadcasters and commercial users — the question is whether they are being distributed to you or sitting unclaimed. Register your works and join today.

 

Can a CMO Collect on Your Behalf Even If You Are Not a Member?

Yes — under the Act’s new extended collective licensing provisions. However, this comes with conditions, including that you have not opted out in writing, and that the CMO does not discriminate against non-members in terms of tariffs and royalty distributions. The safest course is always to formally register.

 

Sampling, Remixes, and Derivative Works

One of the most complex areas of the Nigerian Copyright Act for musicians concerns derivative works — remixes, samples, covers, and adaptations. The Act is clear: any adaptation of a musical work is an exclusive right of the copyright owner.

This means:

• Sampling another artist’s beat or vocals without permission is copyright infringement — for both the musical composition and the sound recording.
• If you create a licensed remix or cover, you become the owner of that derivative work as a separate copyright. Ironically, this means the original artist cannot exploit your remix without your permission.
• Interpolation (re-recording a phrase or melody, rather than lifting the original recording) still requires a licence from the original composition copyright owner.

 

The Act also provides that a musical work is not denied copyright protection merely because its creation involved the infringement of another work. So if someone samples your track without permission and creates a hit song, they still hold copyright in their new work — but you retain the right to sue them for infringement.

Always clear samples and adaptations before releasing. Obtain a written licence from both the composition owner (publisher/songwriter) and the sound recording owner (artist/label). A non-exclusive licence may be oral or inferred from conduct, but written agreements are always safer and more enforceable.

Enforcement: When Your Rights Are Violated

The Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 significantly strengthens enforcement compared to the old Act — a critical upgrade at a time when piracy, unlicensed broadcasting, and social media infringement are widespread. If someone infringes on your copyright, you now have the following options:

• Civil Litigation: Sue for damages in the Federal High Court, including actual losses suffered and an account of profits earned by the infringer.
• Injunction: Obtain a court order immediately stopping the infringing activity — before or after trial.
• Seizure: Have infringing copies, equipment, or materials confiscated and destroyed.
• Criminal Prosecution: Copyright infringement is a criminal offence. The NCC can prosecute infringers, with substantially stiffer penalties than the old Act provided. Individuals and companies face fines and potential imprisonment.
• Import Restriction: Notify the NCC and Customs to block the importation of goods infringing your rights.
• Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Act now provides for arbitration as a mechanism for resolving copyright disputes more quickly and cost-effectively.

While copyright registration is not mandatory under the Nigerian Copyright Act, voluntarily lodging your works with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) creates a legal presumption of ownership in your favour in any infringement proceeding. This can be decisive in court. Visit the NCC at copyright.gov.ng to register your works.

 

Conclusion: The Nigerian Copyright Act Is Finally on Your Side

The Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 is the most important legal development the Nigerian music industry has seen in a generation. It treats creativity as the serious economic activity it has always been. It protects your music from the moment of creation. It entitles you to royalties when your work is broadcast. It gives you moral rights that cannot be bought. It acknowledges the digital world you actually operate in.

But a law only works for those who understand and use it. The Act protects you — the question is whether you are positioned to benefit from that protection. Are you registered with MCSN? Are your works lodged with the NCC? Are your contracts reviewed by a qualified intellectual property lawyer? Are you demanding the royalties you are owed?

The creative economy in Nigeria is worth billions of naira. The Nigerian Copyright Act for musicians finally gives artists the legal foundation to claim their fair share of it.