Songwriters need more visibility – Egbe Pax

For Egbe Pax, CEO of BTS Entertainment/Bubbly Empire, the Nigerian music industry needs to be restructured in terms of recognition for songwriters. Buttressing his point, he maintained that most hit tracks were usually not written by the artistes, thus writers were entitled to royalties.
“In the western world, songwriters always get a percentage of the music sold and, also, if the song is remade by another artist. I’m sure it’s not the same here in Nigeria. Some don’t even acknowledge the true writers of their songs, not to mention paying them or giving royalties. Songwriters should be guaranteed a royalty from every unit sold.”
Speaking further, Egbe Pax, an artiste and talent management guru, cited the instance of Paul McCartney being one of the richest songwriters in the world with a net worth of $1.2 billion.
He said, “Songwriting in Nigeria has been a very sensitive topic in the Nigerian music industry, which its unstructured copyright laws and lack of publishing does not encourage. Songwriting is one of the important parts of the music business. We need more visibility and award recognition going to songwriters.”