Nigerian film director and photographer, Oluwadamilola Owolabi, popularly known as Dammy Twitch has opened up on the challenges filmmakers encounter when trying to secure Afrobeats songs for movie projects.

Speaking during an appearance on the Afropolitan podcast, he said the problem largely stems from publishing and distribution deals that place ownership of songs in the hands of third-party companies.

According to him, these agreements make it hard for filmmakers to negotiate directly with artistes, even when they share personal relationships with them.

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Twitch said the lack of ownership by many musicians has created a disconnect between the music and film industries, making collaborations more complicated than before.

He also pointed out that the high licensing costs attached to popular Afrobeats records are beyond the reach of most independent filmmakers.

“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.

“So that is a major factor in our problems because these artists don’t own the songs. So that collaboration for now is at a very weird place,” he said.

Twitch further explained that only filmmakers working with major studios are often able to meet the financial demands required to license mainstream songs for their productions.

“Not until a big studio comes to support your film, you might be able to afford these songs, but if you’re mostly independent filmmakers, the independent scene won’t let us afford this thing,” he added.