A fast rising musician Akinwande Olugbenga says the negative effect of piracy on the music industry in developing countries like Nigeria is huge.

Olugbenga, whose stage name is Timo (THETIMO) said this in a telephone interview with reporters in Abuja on Saturday.

The singer, who is also a songwriter with about 20 songs, one album and one Extended Play Record (EP) to his credit, said artists never got commensurate reward for their labour.

The singer, who released a power-packed EP with six tracks called “THE PRAYER’ on Sept. 3, said piracy or intellectual property theft was thriving in developing countries due to various factors.

According to him, many people in developing countries face the challenge of not being able to afford data, face epileptic power supply among others, and would prefer to get content from the cheapest means possible.

He said to tackle piracy, artists should explore digital streaming stores like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, and Deezer among others.

He said the stores help to fight theft because they have songs copyrighted on behalf of singers to protect their intellectual property.

The singer said, “If every artist uploads on these platforms and he or she is assured that the people will find their works there, then piracy will be reduced over time.

“However, people, particularly in developing countries would prefer to download songs than stream online due to cost of data and epileptic power supply among other reasons.

“In view of this, uploading songs on these very good and international platforms becomes counterproductive.

“The challenge is that your audience is waiting to download your songs on blogs and then you limit it to streaming platforms.

“So, the people must earn enough to be able to afford to consistently buy data and also subscribe regularly on these streaming platforms,” he said.

Olugbenga said that patronising the likes of Amazon was no mean feat particularly for upcoming artists either.

He said, “artists need to earn enough to be able to patronise streaming platforms because uploading on digital platforms is not so cheap.”

The singer, who came into limelight when he released his first single in September 2016 with a song titled “Mogbéoga (I acknowledge You)”, said another worriesome dimension to piracy, was digital piracy.

According to him, digital piracy is simply the online version of conventional piracy.

He said that this version of piracy involved singers paying to upload songs on blogs while the blogs run advertisements and make money from the traffic from downloading the songs, yet artists get paid nothing.

“In a developing country like Nigeria, this is the order of the day until the artist is big enough to do without blogs.

“Even at that, the people are waiting for songs on blogs, so, many bloggers will go get the adulterated versions of songs to supply to them on blogs.

“For instance, I was on a group created by one of my senior friends called praise and worship group where he daily posted songs to bless the members.

“I had to leave because I get hurt that people’s intellectual properties are being broadcast without prior consent nor remuneration.

“It is a major problem but come to think of the publicity it brings, it appears as a necessary evil,” he said.

He called for adequate sensitisation on the part of the artists, bloggers and the audience at large on the dangers of piracy.

He also said that there was the need to alleviate poverty, saying it was a major factor responsible for intellectual property theft.

Speaking on his genre of music, Olugbenga said he does more of inspirational songs with unique messages to enrich people while making them recognise the blessings of God around them.

“My purpose is to be a blessing to my world.

“I sing as the Spirit of God inspires me and I believe He can inspire me to address issues in our world like politics, war, crime, juvenile delinquency, love, joy and many others.

“I am not stuck with gospel music, so, if He gives me a song that does not fall within gospel classification, I will go ahead and sing it.

“I will not put it aside in the name of “I am a gospel singer”. For instance, He gave me a song titled SISE (Work) some time ago.

“It is a folk song that encourages people to work hard and smart while discouraging competition and hatred.

“For instance in the song I said, “you are your own competition” not others around you.

“I am sure the song is totally in sync with scripture but it is not a gospel song.”

On what inspired him to take to singing, Olugbenga said, “it all started when I was 18 years old in Ibafo, Ogun State.”

He also spoke on how challenging it was for upcoming artists across the globe to get endorsements, record labels and platforms.

He, however, expressed optimism that the industry particularly in Nigeria would continue to impact lives positively.

“We find Nigerian creatives on all platforms within and outside the country doing amazing works.

“We also have young Nigerian singers travelling to Dubai, UK, U.S., Canada and other countries to perform which is mind blowing.