Dammy Twitch: Why Filmmakers Struggle To Use Afrobeats Songs

Film director and photographer Dammy Twitch has raised concerns over the difficulty filmmakers face in securing rights to use Afrobeats songs, attributing the challenge to complex ownership structures within the music industry.

Speaking on the Afropolitan podcast, Twitch explained that many artistes no longer retain control of their music due to publishing and distribution agreements that transfer rights to third-party companies, making direct licensing negotiations difficult or impossible.

According to Ireporter Online, he noted that even when filmmakers have personal relationships with artistes, they are often unable to bypass contractual obligations tied to record labels and publishing firms.

He described the current relationship between the film and music industries as strained, adding that the loss of ownership by artistes has created barriers to creative collaboration.

Twitch further stated that licensing popular Afrobeats tracks is often financially out of reach for independent filmmakers, leaving only major studio-backed productions with the capacity to afford such usage.

He said, “I think because people have sold their song already, so it gets to a point where I want to use this song for my film, for example, I can’t afford it because they’ve signed some distribution deal or some publishing deal with some company somewhere, and you can’t even have a conversation, even if the person is my friend.”

He added that the situation has limited collaboration opportunities, noting that “these artists don’t own the songs,” which has placed the industry in what he described as a “weird place.”

Twitch also emphasized that without major studio support, independent filmmakers are effectively priced out of using mainstream Afrobeats music, further widening the gap between large-scale productions and independent projects.