A fast rising musician, Akinwande Timothy Olugbenga, whose stage name is Timo (THETIMO) has expressed worry over negative effects of piracy on the Nigerian music industry.

Olugbenga, who is a singer and songwriter, with about 20 songs, one album and one Extended Play Record(EP) to his credit, said despite hard work and resources invested piracy has been the biggest challenge rubbishing efforts of Nigerians and make them live in frustration and pain as it had largely robbed rising talents with high prospects.

The singer, who released a power-packed EP with six tracks called ‘THE PRAYER’ at the weekend, commended the act as intellectual property theft continues unabated mostly in developing countries and traceable to several factors unaddressed.

According to him, any lot of people in developing countries face the challenge of not being able to afford data and the challenge of incessant power supply among others, and would prefer to get content from the cheapest means possible.

However, he asserted that it is imperative for performing artistes to take advantage of digital streaming stores like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Deezer as a way out to curb the menace of piracy, because these platforms have songs copyrighted on behalf of singers to protect their intellectual property from theft and piracy.

He said: “If every artist uploads on these platforms and he or she is assured that the people will find their works there, then piracy will tangibly reduce over time.

“However, people, particularly in developing countries would prefer to download songs than stream online due to cost of data and epileptic power supply among other reasons.

“In view of this, uploading songs on these very good and international platforms becomes counterproductive.

“The challenge is that your audience is waiting to download your songs on blogs and then you limit it to streaming platforms.

“So, the people must earn enough to be able to afford to consistently buy data and also subscribe regularly on these streaming platforms.”

He said adequate sensitisation is needed for artistes, bloggers and the audience at large about on dangers and effects of piracy.

He also called on the need to alleviate poverty, saying it was a major factor to intellectual property theft.

He (Olugbenga) further noted that patronising the likes of Amazon was no mean feat particularly for upcoming artistes, adding that “artistes need to earn enough to be able to patronise streaming platforms, because uploading on digital platforms is not so cheap.”

The singer, who shot into limelight when he officially released his first single in September 2016 with a song titled Mogbéoga (I acknowledge You) said there was another worrisome dimension to piracy, which is digital piracy.

He said digital piracy was simply the online version of conventional piracy.

He pointed that this version of piracy involved singers paying to upload songs on blogs while the blogs run adverts and make money from the traffic that comes from downloading the songs, yet the artistes get paid nothing.

“In a developing country like Nigeria, this is the order of the day until the artiste is big enough to do without blogs.

“Even at that, the people are waiting for songs on blogs, so, many bloggers will go get the adulterated versions of songs to supply to them on blogs.

“For instance, I was on a group created by one of my senior friends, called praise and worship group where he daily posts songs to bless the members.

“I had to leave because I just get badly hurt that people’s intellectual properties were being broadcast without prior consent nor remuneration.

“It is a major problem but come to think of the publicity it brings, it appears as a necessary evil”, he said.

Speaking on his genre of music, he said he does more of inspirational songs with unique messages to enrich people while making them recognise the blessings of God around them.

“My purpose is to be a blessing to my world.
I sing as the Spirit of God inspires me and I believe He can inspire me to address issues in our world like politics, war, crime, juvenile delinquency, love, joy and many others.

“I am not stuck with gospel music. I am rather stuck with the Holy Spirit.

“If He gives me a song that does not fall within gospel classification, I will go ahead and sing it.

“I will not put it aside in the name of ‘I’m a gospel singer’. For instance, He gave me a song titled SISE (Work) some time ago.

“It is a folk song that encourages people to work hard and work smart while discouraging competition and hatred and in the song I said ‘you are your own competition’ not others around you.

“I am sure the song is totally in sync with scripture but it is not a gospel song.”

On what inspired him into singing and writing songs, he said, “I am one of those who probably started singing from mummy’s womb but in terms of taking to a platform, it all started when I was 18 years old in Ibafo, Ogun State.”

He also spoke on how challenging it is for upcoming artistes across the globe to get endorsements, record labels and platforms to display their talents, saying it is not peculiar to Nigeria.

He expressed optimism that the industry particularly in Nigeria would continue to impact lives positively.

The musician said, “We find Nigerian creatives on all platforms doing amazing works.

“On YouTube, great ministers like Sinach has about 2 million subscribers which is a remarkable feat.

“Mercy Chinwo’s ‘Excess Love’ has about 100 million views on YouTube, Moses Bliss, Ada Ehi, Pastor Nathaniel, Tope Alabi and many others have remarkable presence on YouTube as well.

“Tope Alabi for instance has topped Boomplay charts several times, with over 20 million streams of some of her works.

“We have also had young Nigerian gospel singers traveling to Dubai, UK, US, Canada and other countries to minister or perform which is mind blowing and I believe THETIMO’s music with hardwork and God’s Grace will do great as well.”