Discussions around music royalties are often framed primarily around performing artists. Royalty conversations can, in some contexts, place disproportionate focus on performers. In Nigeria and across parts of Africa, this has occasionally narrowed public understanding of who is entitled to music royalties.
But music does not start and end with performance.
Behind every record is a songwriter. Someone writes the lyrics. Someone shapes the melody. Someone builds the hook that stays in your head. These creators may never step on stage, but without them, there is no song.
This is exactly why songwriting is formally recognised as a creative profession at the biggest music award platforms in the world and on the continent. The Grammy Awards have a Songwriter of the Year category. So do the Headies. These institutions are not handing out awards for sentiment but are acknowledging that songwriting is skilled, valuable, professional work.
Songwriters are music creators. And by law, are entitled to royalties.
The songwriter is a contributor to a musical work. That contribution is what generates royalties whenever a song is played, streamed, broadcast, or licensed anywhere in the world. It does not matter whether the songwriter is famous. It does not matter whether they perform the song themselves. The right is in the writing.
It is also worth noting that songwriting and performing are not mutually exclusive. Many artists are also songwriters. Some move between both roles at different points in their careers. The identity is fluid. The rights, however, are not.
Nigerian Songwriters Are Creating Billions in Value and Collecting Almost None of It
The gap between creation and compensation in Nigeria’s music industry is not a small one.
A typical Nigerian recording session may involve multiple contributors. One person writes the chorus. Another writes the verses. A producer shapes the instrumental and contributes melodic ideas. A background vocalist adds a hook that becomes the most memorable part of the song. If these contributions shape the composition, they qualify as songwriting and create a legal right to royalties.
In practice, however, songwriting credits are often poorly documented in Nigerian studios. Split sheets are not signed. Publishing rights are ignored or misunderstood. Many writers walk away with a one-time session fee and no long-term ownership stake in the work they created.
The Nigerian music industry was estimated to be worth N901.7 billion in 2024. Live performances made up 65.7% of that figure. Streaming royalties accounted for 30.1%. Publishing, which is the primary income stream for songwriters, accounted for just 0.7%.
That 0.7% is not because publishing royalties are small globally. Globally, music publishing is a billion dollar industry, according to CISAC.
The 0.7% figure exists in Nigeria because we are not collecting what we are owed. Publishing and licensing income is a ‘sleeping giant’ for Nigerian music creators. The money is real. The gap is a systems problem.
Songwriters are losing money not because the industry is too small to pay them, but because the systems that should direct those payments to them are misunderstood, underused, or bypassed entirely. This is precisely the problem Afro Soundtrack exists to solve.
How Do Nigerian Songwriters Make Money?
There are different income streams every songwriter should know about. Most Nigerian songwriters are only touching one, if any.
The problem is administration.
Many songwriters are not properly registered. Others are registered but lack accurate metadata. In some cases, the songwriter’s name is missing entirely from official records. When this happens, royalties cannot flow correctly.
International rights bodies such as CISAC have consistently reported large pools of unclaimed royalties, with developing markets disproportionately affected due to weak registration and metadata systems.
Songwriters are losing money not because the industry is small, but because the systems are misunderstood.
At Afro Soundtrack, we ensure your works are properly registered, rights are accurately documented, splits are clarified, and royalties are tracked across territories and platforms.
We have built the publishing infrastructure that allows you to access global markets, negotiate from a position of strength, and earn what you are legally entitled to.
Here are some income streams you should know:
1. Performance Royalties
Every time your song plays on radio, TV, or a streaming platform, a performance royalty is generated. Industry estimates show that performance royalties account for roughly 35–50% of global music publishing revenue, underscoring their importance as a major income source for songwriters worldwide. Many performance sources, including digital streaming, webcasts, and business or venue playbacks, remain under‑leveraged. Globally, collection is managed by PROs such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS, and in Nigeria, MCSN, but the country is still barely scratching the surface of what it could collect from these diverse performance channels.
Our internal Afro Soundtrack platform data for Q1 also shows where most Performance royalty value is currently generated for African music in global streaming markets. YouTube accounts for 34.1% of mechanical-related reproduction activity, Apple Music 33.9%, Spotify 29.2%, and Audiomack 1.6%. This distribution highlights why global platform registration and publishing administration are essential for songwriters whose music travels internationally.
2. Mechanical Royalties
Mechanical royalties are generated every time a song is reproduced. This includes streaming. For a Nigerian artist whose song is getting millions of streams on Spotify, Apple Music, and Audiomack internationally, there are mechanical royalties due to the songwriter. The problem is that many Nigerian songwriters have not registered their compositions with a publisher so this money sits uncollected.
Behind the scenes, these royalties are paid through a data-matching system that tracks song reproductions and links them to the underlying composition. When a song is streamed, platforms log usage data tied to the recording (via identifiers like ISRC) and match it to the composition and songwriter metadata stored in rights databases. Once the composition is properly registered with correct splits and ownership information, the system can allocate the songwriter’s share of the royalty pool and route payments accordingly.
In major music markets, streaming mechanical royalties are regulated to ensure songwriters receive a defined share of platform revenue. In the United States, the Copyright Royalty Board sets the rates in five-year cycles. The current settlement maintains the streaming mechanical royalty rate at 15.1% of platform revenue, with a gradual increase to 15.35% by 2027, the highest level ever set for songwriters. These royalties are collected and distributed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective, but payment depends on proper songwriter registration and accurate metadata.
In February 2026, the Nigerian Copyright Commission disbursed N1.21 billion in private copying levy funds to MCSN for distribution to rights holders. This was the first time Nigeria formally distributed funds under the private copying levy framework. It is a signal that the system is moving forward. But only registered works receive distributions.
3. Sync (Synchronization) Licensing
A sync deal happens when your music is licensed to appear in a film, TV series, advertisement, video game, or online content. The Nigerian songwriter earns an upfront sync fee plus ongoing performance royalties every time that content airs.
Sync licensing is one of the fastest-growing and most valuable revenue streams in music publishing, often accounting for a large share of income for songwriters.
For Nigerian songwriters, sync is one of the most underdeveloped income streams, but it is also one of the fastest-growing opportunities.
Nollywood is expanding. African brands are growing. And global ad agencies are increasingly looking for authentic African music for campaigns that reach African audiences.
How Nigerian Songwriters Can Access Sync Income Right Now
Every Nigerian brand running a TV commercial needs music. Every Nollywood production needs a score. Every bank, telecom company, FMCG brand, and fast food chain running digital ads on YouTube and Instagram needs licensed audio. That is a live, growing licensing market sitting right here in Nigeria, and it is largely being served by generic international production libraries rather than Nigerian composers.
Internationally, a single placement in a major TV ad campaign can deliver more income than months of streaming.
Nigerian brands are actively looking for culturally grounded music. Spotify’s internal insights show that brands are increasingly exploring partnerships with Afrobeats artists to engage younger, diverse audiences and tap into the genre’s rapid global growth. This reflects a broader cultural power of African music in marketing strategies.
Nigerian songwriters who operate within a structured publishing system gain access to global markets that are otherwise out of reach.
Proper rights administration connects compositions to international collaborations, film and advertising placements, and long-term royalty income. Without that infrastructure, even globally successful songs struggle to unlock their full economic value.
For Nigerian songwriters working in advertising, the income arrives in three ways:
- An upfront composition fee for creating the music
- A sync licensing fee paid by the brand
- Ongoing performance royalties every time that ad airs on television or is served to a viewer digitally.
A single well-negotiated advertising placement can deliver all three streams simultaneously.
Songwriting Goes Far Beyond Writing the Lyrics
This is the part of the conversation Nigerian music creators most consistently miss.
Songwriting is split sheet management. Before a song is distributed, every contributor to the composition needs a signed, documented agreement covering ownership percentages.
In Nigerian studio culture, songs are regularly built collaboratively in a single session with no written record of who contributed what. When the song becomes a hit, disputes follow.
MCSN has identified incomplete split sheets as one of the primary causes of delayed and inaccurate royalty distributions in Nigeria.
Beyond this, missing ISRC codes, misspelled songwriter names, or incorrect IPI numbers can route your royalties into an unclaimed pool indefinitely.
International rights bodies including CISAC have consistently reported large pools of unmatched royalties, with developing markets like Nigeria disproportionately affected.
Turn Your Songs into Income with Afro Soundtrack
Afrobeats has already proven itself globally. The cultural achievement is real and historic.
Even as Afrobeats’ global reach continues to soar, Africa remains the lowest royalty-collecting region in the world. Afrobeats scaled globally. The money did not scale back to the people who created it.
At Afro Soundtrack, we are built to close that gap. We maintain active registrations with multiple performing rights organisations and collective management organisations worldwide.
Every work we administer is correctly registered, accurately split, fully matched to stream and broadcast data, and eligible for distributions in every territory that pays.
We are the infrastructure that turns your composition into a working, income-generating asset.
We protect the split. We track the streams. We collect the royalties across borders. We manage the metadata. We make sure your money finds its way home.
Nigeria’s music industry is projected to grow from N901.7 billion to over N1.5 trillion by 2033. Publishing is the sleeping giant in that story. The Nigerian songwriters who register their work, protect their splits, and partner with Afro Soundtrack will be the ones who wake it up.Your song is already traveling the world. Your income should be too. Click here to get started.
