US company sitting with unclaimed Nigerian royalties

“I'm not going to name names but they don’t know about music publishing,” Amy Oraefo said.

The US-based Oraefo, who runs music publishing company Replete, was speaking about industry professionals she met in person. But she could have been speaking about a recent report concerning some Nigerian artists and unclaimed royalties in the US. The discovery was made by Winning Jah, a Nigerian artist based in Italy. The reggae act saw a list with the names of Nigerian musicians who had not collected royalties held by SoundExchange, a non-profit organisation in the US.

Established in 2000 as a division of the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange signed an agreement that allows it to pay royalties directly to labels and individual artists. The service, which requires music owners to register with it, collects royalties from sources including satellite and cable music services.

Last year, the company spoke to American publication Fast Company. The resulting article, titled Artists: SoundExchange Has Free Money For You, No Nigerian Princes Involved, explains that SoundExchange deducts only administrative and operating fees. “For many labels, it’s the No 2 source of digital revenue only behind iTunes,” the article said.

Despite SoundExchange saying its registration process to collect royalties is a simple one, several artists are yet to collect royalties.

“You wouldn’t believe what we do to find artists,” the company’s president and CEO, Michael Huppe, said. “And there are a lot of folks we have found, and for whatever reason, they haven’t registered. I can’t tell you why you wouldn’t register to get free money. We see people, call them up and say: ‘Hey, we have money for you!’ Maybe we sound like a Nigerian bank scam.”

The statement about 419 scams might not endear SoundExchange to Nigerian artists on its list, but the company has reached out. “When we went to retrieve royalties, the company asked me whether as a Nigerian I knew anyone on this list,” Winning Jah told Music In Africa.

Following his exchange with SoundExchange, Winning Jah was interviewed by a Nigerian publication that later listed Wande Coal and 2Baba as artists with unclaimed royalties held by SoundExchange. But there are other artists on SoundExchange's list. “Majek Fashek, Victor Uwaifo, Lagbaja, Brymo and many others,” Winning Jah said.

The presence of acts like Fashek and Uwaifo, both of whom were successful in the past, is perhaps a testament to SoundExchange’s non-commercial motivations, as the company is mandated to keep uncollected royalties for only three years. After that time elapses the company has the right to release the funds to offset its costs. "But we’ve repeatedly put that ability off to give artists extra time," Huppe said.

It is now up to the affected Nigerian artists to claim their royalties. Should it become necessary, some help would be provided by their Italy-based compatriot. “If they are still ignorant about collecting royalties, I can voluntarily assist. I am not an enemy of progress,” Winning Jah said.