Nigeria 'Celebrates' Its Recording Artists With 'No Music Day'
from the here's-hoping-pirate-radio-drives-them-to-celebrate-'no-radio-day' dept
If you happen to be Nigerian or passing through Nigeria and are looking for a little traveling music or something catchy enough to push the voices in your head out of the way for a few moments, don't bother turning on your radio. September 1st is "No Music Day" in Nigeria, a new tradition (since 2009!) seeking to "draw national attention to the widespread infringement of the rights of composers, song writers, performers, music publishers and other stakeholders in the music industry in Nigeria."As someone who only inadvertently listens to the radio, I can safely state that for many people, a day without a radio broadcast is like Thursday. Or Friday. Or other days of the week. However, for those that do, September 1st will be the day that most will find something else to do rather than listen to an assortment of talking heads speaking loudly about the abuse of the aforementioned traveling music, all the while packing metaphorical 7-piece luggage sets for their listeners' suprise guilt trips. Perhaps, for example, you might listen to music via a computer or personal listening device which isn't subject to the whims of people accusing you of being a criminal. And, let's not get started discussing the possible irony of this effort probably pushing more people to spend their day listening to unlicensed music, rather than licensed music on the radio...
But it's not just the listeners that are due for a long miserable day of self-righteousness. If you happen to be on the "supply" side of the "debate," you'd better eat early and often. In fact, you probably should have started carb loading or whatever a couple of weeks ago. (Apologies for the late notice.)
No Music Day 2009 was preceded by a huge rally of Nigerian artistes held at the National Theatre in Lagos and a weeklong Hunger Strike campaign waged by top Nigerian artistes across the nation.All in all, it sounds like a great day for alleged pirates (yep, that would be everybody listening) and literally starving artists alike. If you can't make it to Nigeria in time for the "festivities," keep in mind that it only happens once a year, which should give you plenty of time to make plans to be elsewhere during "You're-All-A-Bunch-of-Thieves-Fest 2K12."
Call me crazy (or worse), but couldn't this be handled in a much more "fan friendly" way? Instead of spending the day talking about everything that's wrong with the Nigerian music industry, wouldn't it be better to play some songs and invite the artists to talk about their work and what it means to them? This could be a chance to give smaller artists a chance to be heard and grow their fan bases. Maybe musicians connecting with the public would be more productive than artists treating their audiences like selfish children who need a once-a-year time out.
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Filed Under: music, nigeria, no music day, piracy
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Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
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Re: Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
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Free country
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But that's just me. Now on to Nigeria.
It is amusing how they are talking about starving artists in a country where starvation is more than a marginal issue. And as the article puts so well, it's a very wise move to put every1 in the same boat, file sharers and/or (notice it's more and than or) legitimate customers as if all of them were filthy criminals. In the end it might be good since they'll rise awareness that there are other ways to get music. Cheaper and more readily.
But I digress. Show me a big Nigerian musician that is being really affected (with numbers, citations and methodology) by piracy in Nigeria. Thank you.
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Re: Re: Why cant King Mutumbo help them?
OT, the Wall Street Journal is smearing Iran for the same thing the UK was doing with respect to Water Gun Fights. Why didn't they put out a piece on what the UK politicians were doing?
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Translation: Look at us. We are so rich that we can afford to go on hunger strikes while you, the general population, often can't even guarantee a meal per day for yourselves! Yay for us, we are f-king heroes! Buy our CDs you freeloaders!
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No clearer action
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The beatings shall continue until morale improves
Tim, you're crazy.
"If our children don't love us let's beat them until they do." - The Hornet's Nest, Sally Watson
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PS: I'm a bad person.
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Which means you've completely lost me as a listener. More commercials does not equal more income; it means lost audience.
Sorry, bit of a rant there. You know, people just love to hear about how horrible they are, does wonders for their self-respect. I think most of 'em are going to turn the radio off and listed to silence.
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Re: The beatings shall continue until morale improves
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It's been a while since social studies, but I didn't know Nigeria was established to the point where they don't have better things to worry about than who does or doesn't pay for digital copies of entertainment. The RIAA or whoever probably just bought the holiday from some corrupt official.
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