Music piracy, copyrights and royalties in Ivory Coast

Piracy

Since the early 2000s, the music industry in Abidjan has been in steady decline. Between 2002 and 2014, almost all the record companies have closed: Ivoir Top Music, Canal Ivoir Distribution (CID), Tropic Music, King Production, Yann Productions, and Independence Day. Even Emi Jat Music and Showbiz, both big names of the music industry in Ivory Coast, have folded.

“You put out an album in the morning and by the afternoon the city is flooded with pirated CDs. How do you want us to work if the pirates have taken up the whole market?” protests Claude Bassolé, a famous Ivorian producer, whose work led to the rise of famous bands like Magic System, Poussins Chocs (now called Duo Yodé & Siro), and many others...

For industry professionals, piracy is the main reason for the decline of the music industry. On the ground, the situation is instructive: in Abidjan and other major cities, one sees only pirated CDs, which are sold, without any disturbance, in several areas, sometimes around large arteries, in front of the disturbing silence of security forces. “They even come to buy our CDs,” says one young seller of fraudulent productions with an air of irony at Bassam station in Treichville, Abidjan.

In fact, there are two main piracy networks. The first has an internal source and is essentially informal. Run by locals, it basically involves making copies of original CDs on blank CDs, which are then dumped onto the market. They bother little about the quality of the finished product. For some years under the old regime (FN), this trade was conducted by students, who transformed the University Campus Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Cocody and university towns (Cité Mermoz and Cité Rouge) into hotbeds of piracy.

The second network is much more professional and better organized. It imports counterfeit CDs, packed like the originals with well-printed sleeves, from Asia (China, in particular), passing through other countries in the region (such as Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana) before crossing the Ivorian border. On the market, a counterfeit CD is sold for 500 FCFA, when the original CD costs a buyer 3 000 FCFA. In the mind of the consumer, the choice is quickly made, no matter the quality of the product, especially following a decade of financial crisis in Ivory Coast and widespread poverty.

As a result, original CDs no longer sell. Even to find one is a real obstacle, since the distribution network is failing. “It's an understatement to say that it no longer exists, as there is nothing on the ground,” says Moussa Diaby.

Piracy does not only stifle distribution houses and producers. The entire chain of the music industry is affected. Recording studios no longer generate income, since there are very few albums produced. Musicians are given no contracts to sign. Graphic designers who make the covers of CDs and especially the Ivorian Office for Copyright (BURIDA) are all experiencing the downfall. Since 2006, for example, according to BURIDA figures, the number of musical registrations fell from 870 000 to 320 000. In 2011, according to Mr. Coulibaly Diakité, a cultural expert and civil servant with the Ministry of Culture and Francophonie, only 280 000 CDs were sold, whereas before 2000, between 4 and 6 million cassettes were sold each year. Consequently, the BURIDA saw a number of mechanical reproduction rights fall by 332 621 800 FCFA between 1999 and 2010 to 45 017 159 in 2011 - a huge loss for this office, as well as for artists.

Generally, Sery Sylvain believes the loss caused by piracy to the music industry to be over 2 billion FCFA (approximately US$3.4 million), if one takes into consideration everybody involved in the chain: singers, artists, producers, graphic designers, musicians, arrangers, distributors.

Responses to piracy

What frightens artists, including members of BURIDA, is what they see as a lack of appropriate reaction from the government to fight this phenomenon that plagues the music industry. “I find it surreal that our government remains silent before this poison - and the word is not an exaggeration,” complains Fadal Dey, a well-known reggae artist in Ivory Coast.

Like Fadal Dey, music producers believe that curbing the scourge of piracy requires a strong will from authorities, starting with the Ministry of Culture and Francophonie. “If the minister orders the prohibition of the sale of pirated CDs and calls on the public force for the application of this measure, you will no longer see pirated CDs in the country,” says Claude Bassolé with conviction. Fadal Dey wonders: “Piracy is as dangerous as drug trafficking. Why are pirates not punished the way drug traffickers are?”

At the Ministry of Culture and Francophonie, they prefer the ‘carrot and stick’ approach to handling pirates (focusing on punishment). On the one hand the brigade for the fight against piracy, which has none of its own staff and no means of transportation, initiates sporadic actions on the ground. In fact, these three operations are called targeting, sweep, and scope. If the first two are limited to mere arrests of peddlers of illegal CDs and persons who engage in unlawful reproduction, the latter, however, is a muscular descent on hotspots selling pirated CDs, with between 30 and 50 workers requisitioned from the Abidjan police headquarters.

It often leads to a large amount of seizures of fraudulent materials. Thus, according to statistics obtained from the Cultural Brigade between 2012 and 2014, about 700 000 counterfeit materials were seized. For the single year of 2014, 200 000 illegal CDs fell into the purses of the Cultural Brigade, led by Commissioner Diarrassouba. Already in 2012, the Brigade had led 131 search operations, including eight operations targeting a large-scale operation, to arrest 889 counterfeiters, of which 102 were brought to book, with the seizure of 280 000 counterfeit products.

On the other hand, the said office is trying to convert sellers of fraudulent CDs into legal sellers. They contact some of them and try to resettle them in kiosks for cultural products, called ‘Point Info Culture.’ The aim is to revive the music distribution channels, which have become largely nonexistent. Between 250 and 500 kiosks were to be ready by December 2011. But since the launch of the project, producers are still waiting - and pushing for tougher legislation and an intensification of repressive measures against the pirates.

Copyright protection and royalty payments

Meanwhile, in this difficult context, the BURIDA is trying to protect copyrights and collect royalties related to the use of intellectual works, particularly where a lot of music is played, such as bars, restaurants, hotels and clubs. “We also receive copyright dues from private radio stations and two national radio channels and TV that pay us a yearly fee,” says BURIDA’s cashier, who reveals that public spaces also pay lump sums determined by the size and standing of the place.

Furthermore, the BURIDA also requires the payment of performing rights by concert promoters. “This is at least 8% of forecast revenue. Clearly, if a hall contains3 000 seats and the ticket is sold for 5000 FCFA, the sponsor must pay us the 8% of 15 million before the event. The amount varies depending on the price and size of space because a concert in a stadium and a concert in a closed room do not measure the same,” notes the cashier.

Regarding free concerts, taxation is made on the budget of the event. And again, it is 8%, according to our source. But often the BURIDA compromises after tough discussions, depending on the negotiating skills of the person who is subject to this fee. This is often the case of mobile operators, which through conventions undertake to pay a certain sum to the BURIDA for the use of music used during calls.

Royalties are paid to concerned parties each quarter, the specific amounts being kept secret. “It is software bought in France that makes the distribution. Very few agents (of BURIDA) know how much it is,” said our source, who feels that BURIDA covers fewer copyright issues today than before the piracy crisis, albeit without quoting any figures. Royalty payments to copyright holders are orchestrated by a ceremony and mediated by the BURIDA, playing the card of transparency. For some artists, it is a rather subtle way of distracting the members and the general public from the opacity that surrounds the management of authors’ rights in Ivory Coast.