Ghana as a developing country stands out when it comes to talented artists and musicians who work tirelessly in order to succeed. Right from the introduction of music into the country to its current state, the music industry continues to grow in diverse genres.
The Ghana Music Industry is experiencing new waves in this era, stemming from the rich and amazing talents breaking onto the music scene. The bar for African music has been set high by previous generations, and the new generations seem to take it even higher, all due to the fact that Africa is endowed with great and talented music starlets within all the genres of music like:
- Art Music
- Popular Music
- Religious music
- Traditional Music
- Folk Music
The Ghana Music just like other industries has its highs and lows since it’s managed by humans. As we know humans are fallible and to err, they say, is always human.
Who is the president of the Ghanaian Music Industry?
This industry is headed by the talented musician, Bessa Simons. This celebrated highlife musician emerged the head and leader of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) for 2023 to 2027. He won Ras Caleb, a contestant for the same position, hands down with 324 votes against 66 votes.
The Ghana’s Music Industry is facing a number of challenges which renders it ineffective in various aspects of the music industry. These serve as a disruption to the daily movements made by the industry as a whole and sometimes inevitable concerns are raised to ensure the efficacy of its plans and projects. These main problems include piracy, low investment and promotion, the inability to protect the Ghanaian identity, inadequate legislative support, inadequate artist support and many more. Although there are other hindrances to the development of the music industry, these are the ones that need to be addressed urgently to prevent this industry from slagging back.
Piracy is the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at substantially lower prices. It is also described as the copying and distribution of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners or copyright holding record company did not give any consent. This includes most musicians having no streaming site, downloading an app that allows you to strip videos from any YouTube music video and permanently keep the video in your music collection.
Federal laws bar any copyright infringement that was perpetrated for commercial advantage or private gain. It also inhibits the reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works with a total retail value over an estimated $1000 during a 180-day period prevention.
This would help by educating proponents or fans on the negative effects of piracy on the artist as it takes away money that could be earned from releasing the song.
- Inadequate investment and promotion
Why invest in the music industry?
Research has it that the global music industry is experiencing a positive wave which makes it an attractive investment opportunity for individuals. Investing in the music industry would be a very great gain for investors.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Ghana through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC), on June 27, for a project aimed at supporting the expansion of the music industry in Ghana, with Expertise France (EF), a French Public Agency, which designs and implements projects in order to sustainably strengthen public policies in areas such as governance, security, climate, health, education, alongside its partners in developing and emerging countries.
MoTAC, with a division known as the Creative Arts Agency, has it as its mission to promote the creative industries, including music, by being the body corporate responsible for the institutional framework for the development and the management of the Creative Arts Industry.
The Creative Arts Industry is funded by the French government through the French development Agency and the French Ministry of Economy to assist the development projects in the Creative Arts Industry.
Inefficient Promotion of music:
Promotion involves the utilization of social media in advertisement to reach a wider audience in order to benefit the music industry at large. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and the like help gain the attention of social media users. These platforms offer advertising options that allows you to promote your music to specific demographics.
In an interview, the president of MUSIGA, Bessa Simons, emphasized on the need to support artists. During the session, he brought light to the benefits of supporting artists, precisely musicians, or singers by taking great interest in artist management. He pointed on the need for a more proficient talent manager to turn its fortune around. This could be done by staying current on trends and building artist public images. Since artists may have little knowledge on the management of their finances, they need business-minded managers to help them gain financial stability.
Laws on copyright and its infringement should be implemented as this would go a long way in helping to boost the income of the artist ant the team as a whole. This should include the meting out of penalties on culprits which may be banning, imprisonment, compensation and the like in order to serve a as deterrence to others, hence helping to maintain law and order in the music artistry.
Identity refers to the traits that makes an individual or entity distinct from all others. Protecting our identity helps us keep track of our history in music and helps us fuse other genres while staying current without forsaking the backbone of our Indigenous industry, the backbone, the bedrock of all other music styles in Ghana. Protecting our identity makes us unique and helps us stand out as Ghanaians though as blacks, it differs us from ‘all other blacks’.
All these point to a fact that the music industry in Ghana would greatly improve if the hindrances above including other petit ones which were not pointed out are taken into consideration in order to bring about tremendous improvement in the dissipation of music and all other procedures and bodies involved are given thoughts about and restructured.
