Nigerian filmmaker and music video director Dami Twitch has raised an important point about the changing relationship between Nollywood and Afrobeats.
Speaking on the growing tension between both industries, he said Nollywood producers can no longer freely use Afrobeats songs in films without proper clearance. One major reason is that many artists now have publishing and distribution deals, including deals with foreign companies, which means music rights are more structured and more expensive to access.
On one level, this is necessary.
Artists should be paid. Their music should be protected. Filmmakers should not use songs without permission simply because the artists are African or because both industries operate in the same cultural space.
But there is a bigger issue here.
African filmmakers are already working with limited budgets. If using African music in African films becomes too slow, too expensive or too complicated, then collaboration becomes harder. And that creates a strange problem: the music that best represents the world of a film may become the hardest to access.
Film and music should be helping each other travel. A strong song can make a film scene memorable. A good film placement can introduce a song to a new audience. Both industries benefit when the relationship works.
The answer is not free use. The answer is better systems.
Nollywood and Nigeria's music industry need clearer sync licensing pathways, fair pricing tiers, faster clearance processes and more intentional collaboration between producers, artists, labels and publishers.
Rights matter, but access matters too. If African filmmakers are priced out of African music, the industry has to ask what kind of collaboration it is really building.
Dami Twitch’s comments were reported by Daily Post, AllAfrica and PM News Nigeria, with the issue linked to publishing deals and foreign rights structures.