Streaming services and brokerage in the music industry crisis in Nigeria

Abstract

Following the development of digital technology, the music industry experienced a severe crisis in Nigeria, as elsewhere. This technology made the copying of music easy and enabled artistes and users to produce and share music and video content on social media and other internet platforms. The emergence of streaming services changed this dynamic again and provided new opportunities for artistes and later also for the music industry. In Nigeria, several local entrepreneurs created streaming platforms, offering Nigerian and/or African music, and soon after also global platforms and producers began to launch their services in the country. Based on digital ethnography and field research in Nigeria, this article examines the developments in the music sector and its copyright institutions and discusses the broker characteristics of the streaming platform owners. It explores how far internet platforms, or rather their owners, particularly in the field of music, can be considered brokers or mediators of the music industry crisis, and how their affordances have changed the perception of this crisis over time. The article also examines how these platforms have transformed and mitigated the piracy crisis more recently, raising hopes among the music industry and a new generation of artistes in Nigeria for a sustainable music market.