Highlights:
1. Reduce the number of international artists performing in Nigeria.
2. Producers should receive credit for their work.
3. Changes need to happen in music publishing, and distribution.
4. A more structured industry is necessary.
5. Nigeria’s entertainment industry cannot sustain itself so technically it is not an industry.
-Uduak
AFRICA MUSIC LAW™ (AML) is a pioneering music business and entertainment law blog and podcast show by Fashion and Entertainment Lawyer Ms. Uduak Oduok empowering the African artist and Africa's rapidly evolving entertainment industry through brilliant music business and entertainment law commentary and analysis, industry news, and exclusive interviews.
Credited for several firsts in the fashion and entertainment industry, Ms. Uduak is also a Partner and Co-Founder of Ebitu Law Group, P.C. where she handles her law firm’s intellectual property law, media, business, fashion, and entertainment law practice areas. She has litigated a wide variety of cases in California courts and handled a variety of entertainment deals for clients in the USA, Africa, and Asia.
Her work and contributions to the creative industry have been recognized by numerous organizations including the National Bar Association, The American University School of Law and featured in prestigious legal publications in the USA including ABA Journal and The California Lawyer Magazine. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the prestigious Academy of Arts University in San Francisco.
For legal representation inquiries, please email (uduak@ebitulawgrp.com). For blog related inquiries i.e. advertising, licensing, or guest interview requests, please email (africamusiclaw@gmail.com). Thank you for visiting Africa Music Law™.
Thanks for pointing out these important things, Ms. Oduok. It's very important that this latest generation of African musicians is not taken advantage of.
One thing I would like to see addressed on your site is the need for African musicians to protect their art online. There isn't much that can be done about bootleggers who traffic in physical copies of pirated material. However, online, through US-based merchants like iTunes and Amazon, there is a growing problem of outside parties selling the music of African artists as "compilation" albums. Music that has been uploaded by musicians for their fans to download for free is being sold for profit. Just imagine the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been lost already by this unscrupulous practice. This is the precise reason why African musicians need legal experts, like yourself, to advise them on how they can protect themselves and take back ownership of the artistry in which they have invested blood, sweat, tears, money, and time.