NCC supports MCSN’S ”GOCREATE APP”….as it ensures accountability in payment of royalties

The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has expressed its unflinching support for the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria’s (MCSN) GOCREATE APP which was created for  monitoring and tracking of  the use and exploitation of musical works and sound Recordings in the country.

The  Director, Regulatory Department of NCC,  Mr.  Augustine  Amodu made the remark during official presentation of the App by MCSN  to NCC  to demonstrate how it works in a Zoom meeting tagged, “GoCreate App Presentation to Nigerian Copyright Commission”

The Chief Technology Officer MSCN, Mr. Onome Ojigbo, took participants through the GoCreate experience in a tour in which he steered them from the Google Play Store at which the App was downloaded to individual’s android phones/ devices, following which the App would prompt the user to either log in or sign up.  

The App simply enables a right owner to upload his works or check if and how his works have been used or played by any particular medium and from which he would have an idea of how much he would be expecting in terms of royalty earnings.  

On the side of music users such as broadcast stations, the app, once installed, would track, monitor and store all the broadcast contents of the station and report accurately.  

This effectively helps a broadcaster using the app to meet its legal obligation of keeping the logs of its broadcasts as required by the National Broadcasting Commission Act and Codes. 

 To the MCSN, the app would help solve the problem of transparency which has for long confronted copyright and royalty administration because with accurate tracking, monitoring, report and analysis of works used, either through broadcast or on any platform, beneficiaries of royalties would get fair and equitable payments for the use of their works. 

During the tour of the GoCreate App, questions such as the benefits to the artists, transparency and enforcement among others were raised and clearly answered to the satisfaction of participants.

Mr. Amodu, on behalf the Director General of the NCC expressed satisfaction about the good prospect which the App would have for the creative industry.  

He commended the MCSN’s team for the development of  the App and assured the management of MCSN that NCC will cooperate with it (MSCN) in a transparent and sincere   manner to ensure the success of the deployment of the App so that the works of creators and authors are monitored effectively to ensure that they are adequately rewarded for the exploitation of their works.

“The NCC will work transparently and sincerely with MCSN to ensure the success of the app so that owners of musical works are adequately rewarded no matter where such works are exploited” Mr. Amodu who spoke on behalf of the Director General of the Commission, said.

The GOCREATE APP, can be downloaded from the Google Play Store ,after which an artiste signs in and uploads his works onto the platform.

 The works are then given an identity  unique to the artiste in question. With this, any where in the world that the works are performed, they are  automatically  monitored, analysed for time and duration of performance and result sent to a dashboard for the artiste. At anytime the artiste can check out how many times his works are played and how much is due to him from his android and IOS phones.

The Deputy Director, Regulatory Department of the NCC, Mrs. Susan Bashorun described the imminent deployment of the App as a positive development for copyright administration.

She called on the management of MCSN to ensure that creators at the grassroots are carried along in the laudable development.