Report: Nigerian music distributors remove contents from Boomplay over ‘exploitation’

Jungle Entertainment Ventures, Free Me Entertainment and MAD Solutions, three music distributors in Nigeria, have reportedly announced withdrawal of their music catalogue from Boomplay Music, a streaming and download service, over alleged exploitation.

David Evans, CEO of Jungle Entertainment Ventures, told The Native that the decision was based on the fact that the Chinese-owned company has refused to support the Nigerian music industry which chalks up a significant part of its users in Africa.

He added that Michael Ugwu, CEO of Free Me Entertainment, and Bugo Arinze of MAD Solutions, have also agreed to remove their contents from the music platform.

Evans alleged that while Boomplay has continued to gain increased prominence in Africa, it has failed to give artistes, whose songs are being used, the needed recognition.

“Boomplay doesn’t provide any value for the music industry. They don’t have any advertising so they’re not getting more users, they also have the lowest per-stream rate around here. We’ve asked them to address some of these issues but they don’t seem to want to budge,” he said.

He also claimed that the company has continued to benefit from the popularity of the works of artistes on its platform but has refused to “pay or offer anything” in return.

“They use our artists’ popularity and numbers to make themselves look good, but they don’t pay us or offer us anything that supports the industry,” he added.

“We produce thousands of songs, hundreds of music video which cost us nothing less than 1 billion Naira altogether a year. If all the music distributors came together to actually calculate how much we’re spending, we can’t have foreigners just come and take this content, put it on their app which they have raised money to operate from investors.

“Not a single dollar has gone towards the advancement of the music industry and speaking for the music industry and for myself, it’s not acceptable. It’s almost like slavery.”

When contacted by TheCable Lifestyle, Tosin Sorinola, Boomplay Music’s director of marketing, however, declined comment on the issue, noting that the company will issue an official statement “when it is time.”

“I won’t be able to react to that now. What l can tell you for sure is that you’ll be hearing back from me soon when it’s time for us to speak. Right now, l can’t tell you anything, no official response from Boomplay yet,” she told TheCable Lifestyle.