MCSN now pays only on registered works, which means a song played 500 times on Nigerian radio earns its writer nothing if nobody filed it.
That rule landed in December 2025 and changed the arithmetic quietly. The society moved off general distribution, which spread money around using market estimates, onto a log-based model built from actual usage records.
Radio and television stations submit track-by-track playlists. Streaming platforms submit play counts and durations. Venues and event organizers submit performance logs. Only registered works can be matched against any of it.
A Federal High Court in Lagos ruled in December 2021 that COSON's operating licence had lapsed on 19 May 2019, and refused to stop the Copyright Commission from revoking it. The Commission then advised the public to treat COSON as an unapproved collective management organization.
MCSN is currently the only body the Nigerian Copyright Commission approves for musical works and sound recordings. Under the Copyright Act 2022, only one organization can be approved per class of works, so there is no second option waiting in the wings.
Which matters for anyone still holding an old membership card and assuming money is quietly stacking up somewhere on their behalf. It is not.
The society asks for complete metadata on every composition and recording. Ownership splits, composer and songwriter details, official work identification codes, the international identifiers, current banking details, and a signed deed of assignment authorizing collection on your behalf.
Miss any of that and your track appears in a broadcaster's log as an unmatched line. The play happened. The money exists. It simply cannot find you.
It helps to know which money you are actually chasing. Performing rights attach to the composition, meaning melody, lyrics and harmony, so a writer earns whenever the song is played in public regardless of who performs it. A cover act in a hotel lobby generates a claim for whoever wrote the thing.
The licensees are also broader than most artists picture. Broadcasters, event organizers, digital platforms, commercial venues and transport operators all sit inside the licensing net, which is why the usage logs arrive from so many directions at once.
Co-writes are where this collapses most often, because splits have to agree across every party's filing. One producer who never registered their share is enough to stall the entire work.
The enforcement behind that is real now. The commission has pointed to fines of at least one million naira, five years' imprisonment, or both, for communicating works to the public commercially without consent, and venues carry joint liability for what happens on their floor.
DJs have already been pulled in, negotiating reduced blanket rates through their association rather than paying individually. When licensing pressure lands on the people actually playing the music, the pool of collected money grows.
Growing pool, fixed distribution rule. Money gets matched to registered works and nothing else, so the artists who filed absorb the share belonging to artists who did not.
The law does leave a door open for artists standing outside all of this. Commission approval is required only for bodies representing more than 50 rights holders before they can bring infringement proceedings, and the Supreme Court has held that copyright owners retain proprietary rights independent of any society's status. You can enforce your own work yourself. Almost nobody does, because the litigation costs more than the royalty.
None of this replaces income, and nobody has ever paid rent from a first distribution statement. It sits alongside work that pays while a catalogue matures rather than removing the need for it.
There is one further trap for artists who have signed with international publishing administrators. Several of the larger ones hold no reciprocal relationship with Nigerian societies at all, meaning a writer relying on one collects abroad and collects nothing at home unless they also register domestically. The catalogue looks administered. Half of it is not.
That rule landed in December 2025 and changed the arithmetic quietly. The society moved off general distribution, which spread money around using market estimates, onto a log-based model built from actual usage records.
Radio and television stations submit track-by-track playlists. Streaming platforms submit play counts and durations. Venues and event organizers submit performance logs. Only registered works can be matched against any of it.
One society collects now, and it is not the famous one
Ask an average Nigerian artist who handles their royalties, and plenty still answer COSON. That has not been accurate for years.A Federal High Court in Lagos ruled in December 2021 that COSON's operating licence had lapsed on 19 May 2019, and refused to stop the Copyright Commission from revoking it. The Commission then advised the public to treat COSON as an unapproved collective management organization.
MCSN is currently the only body the Nigerian Copyright Commission approves for musical works and sound recordings. Under the Copyright Act 2022, only one organization can be approved per class of works, so there is no second option waiting in the wings.
Which matters for anyone still holding an old membership card and assuming money is quietly stacking up somewhere on their behalf. It is not.
Registration is the difference between logged and paid
Joining is not the same as registering your catalogue, and this is where most of collecting what your songs already earned falls apart. Membership gets you into the system. Works registration gets you into the match.The society asks for complete metadata on every composition and recording. Ownership splits, composer and songwriter details, official work identification codes, the international identifiers, current banking details, and a signed deed of assignment authorizing collection on your behalf.
Miss any of that and your track appears in a broadcaster's log as an unmatched line. The play happened. The money exists. It simply cannot find you.
It helps to know which money you are actually chasing. Performing rights attach to the composition, meaning melody, lyrics and harmony, so a writer earns whenever the song is played in public regardless of who performs it. A cover act in a hotel lobby generates a claim for whoever wrote the thing.
The licensees are also broader than most artists picture. Broadcasters, event organizers, digital platforms, commercial venues and transport operators all sit inside the licensing net, which is why the usage logs arrive from so many directions at once.
Co-writes are where this collapses most often, because splits have to agree across every party's filing. One producer who never registered their share is enough to stall the entire work.
Your song can be licensed without you ever joining
Section 88 of the Copyright Act 2022 lets the approved society license works belonging to non-members, provided the owner has not opted out in writing. So a venue can be fully covered to play your record while you have no relationship with anybody collecting for it.The enforcement behind that is real now. The commission has pointed to fines of at least one million naira, five years' imprisonment, or both, for communicating works to the public commercially without consent, and venues carry joint liability for what happens on their floor.
DJs have already been pulled in, negotiating reduced blanket rates through their association rather than paying individually. When licensing pressure lands on the people actually playing the music, the pool of collected money grows.
Growing pool, fixed distribution rule. Money gets matched to registered works and nothing else, so the artists who filed absorb the share belonging to artists who did not.
The law does leave a door open for artists standing outside all of this. Commission approval is required only for bodies representing more than 50 rights holders before they can bring infringement proceedings, and the Supreme Court has held that copyright owners retain proprietary rights independent of any society's status. You can enforce your own work yourself. Almost nobody does, because the litigation costs more than the royalty.
None of this replaces income, and nobody has ever paid rent from a first distribution statement. It sits alongside work that pays while a catalogue matures rather than removing the need for it.
There is one further trap for artists who have signed with international publishing administrators. Several of the larger ones hold no reciprocal relationship with Nigerian societies at all, meaning a writer relying on one collects abroad and collects nothing at home unless they also register domestically. The catalogue looks administered. Half of it is not.
