Lagos – A reggae musician, Edward Inyang, also known as Blackky, has said that the free download of patented material from the internet (or piracy) is robbing artistes of their legitimate income.
Blackky told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that piracy had been largely responsible for the failure of artistes.
He said that the issue had been responsible for his long absence from the music scene.
“I haven’t released an album in like close to seven, eight years; the last album I released was the Reggae Icon album.
“And what I noticed was that our music scene had gone down the drain, music had become worthless to the Nigerian artist because your CDs are going for free.
“Your CD with music in it is even cheaper than a blank CD.
“So in other words, if you have a blank CD,a blank CD is even more expensive than when you put music inside it.
“Now the new scene that we have now, free downloads, the artist does not earn money even from his music even on the internet.
“So I noticed that the income stream for music has become so frustrating, the business side of music, frustrating, no record companies, every artist is just hustling on their own to make some sense of their music.
“So that’s why I took a break from recording and releasing music for some years.’’
NAN reports that Blackky’s number one hit “Rosie’’ attracted rave reviews on the nation’s airwave in the early 1990s.
Some of his other tracks also received rave reviews in the entertainment circle much later. (NAN)