Afrobeats artiste Iyanya Mbuk aka Iyanya has called for the regulation of the Nigerian music industry.
Iyanya said the music industry needs the intervention of the government for growth.
The ‘Kukere’ singer said this in a chat with The Nation.
He said the government should see Afrobeats as a business to help stabilise the industry and ensure growth.
“What I mean is for the government to manage them, have rules regulating them. The way you’re regulating oil, regulate Afrobeats. Every month they send us tax letters, but we’re using our money to do everything for ourselves, government is not helping,” he said.
Continuing, Iyanya said: “Once the government starts seeing music as a business, Afrobeats would make sense and it’ll stabilise.”
Iyanya further opined that record label owners must be wary of the advice they take which in turn has an impact in the music industry.
“The CEOs have their friends, the artists also have friends, we have to also talk about those people. The CEOs have the responsibility to be careful and watchful of whom they get advice from, because the CEOs have mentors. The artists either benefit from the good advice their CEOs get from their mentors or suffer. The artists also have the responsibility to be sure that the person they run to when they have issues with their CEOs doesn’t have a secret agenda. So, after the government, this is the next. So, if I was in the room with label CEOs and artists this is what I would say.”
