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The woes and hopes
of the Ghanaian music industry
Samuel Dowuona,
Ghanadot
Accra, June 30, Ghanadot -
Statistics available from Ghana Association of Phonographic
Industries (GAPI), estimates that the average production and
promotion cost of a 12 track music album in Ghana today,
June 27, 2007 cost not less almost 300 million cedis or GH
30,000 New Ghana Cedi.
GAPI is essentially made up of music producers and executive
producers or financiers in Ghana , so they can tell what
investment goes into the making of music in the country.
Here is the breakdown – studio production – ¢60million,
session men (musicians and backing vocalists) – ¢30million,
upfront payment to artist - ¢30million, costume for
video/video crew and dancer - ¢15million, two video
production - ¢20million, cassettes/CD jackets/ posters -
¢7million, media promotion (TV) - ¢70million, three months
promotion on 60 out of the 155 radio stations in Ghana -
¢60million. The total of ¢292million, and this does not
include newspapers promotions, internet, payola and other
minor expenses.
In a country like Ghana , where there is general poverty and
the music and arts industry is known to be largely
problematic and neglected in terms of national policy and
state support, it is hard to imagine that some private
individuals could stick out their necks and spend so much on
that industry.
There’s more; beyond the average estimates above, I am
reliably informed that some music producers make upfront
payments of between ¢650million and a billion cedis to some
highlife and hiplife artists just to record and have
exclusive rights to the distribution of their music. That is
understandable, given that one of those relatively highly
paid musicians’ works in a particular year was estimated to
have generated at least 10 billion cedis into the Ghanaian
economy.
If those figures are anything to go by then one would ask,
why the hullabaloo about the neglect and problems facing the
music industry. But come to think of it, those figures
represent what our top range musicians and producers are
making; those figures are nothing in dollar terms; one
billion cedis for instance is only a little over a
US$100,000.
Considering that in other parts of the world, even average
musicians are making close to a million dollars per album,
at best we could describe our situation as a potential that
could, with the right structures and measures, be developed
into a high earning and job creation industry.
At 50 Ghana ’s music industry is still a mere potential yet
to be maximized. Much as it is true that a few individual
musicians are not complaining per se, the industry as a
whole is faced with such grave fundamental challenges that
makes it difficult for instance for internationally
acclaimed players in the industry (producers and record
labels) to have confidence in and therefore invest in our
musicians.
For one the laws are not clear, the structures are simply
not in place, support systems from the state are non
existent. In fact the industry is left to survive on its own
at the mercy of destructive industrial vagaries like piracy,
poor administration of the legal and copyright regimes and
payola.
The copyright administrator has over the years been accused
of working against the copyright owners much more than
working for them. The argument has been that the copyright
administrator and his staff do not understand the dynamics
of the business of music.
The Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) is manned by staff
who could at best be described as some petty minded civil
servants without the motivation, skill and will to protect
intellectual property. Their challenge is that the copyright
regime does not empower them much.
The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), whose members are the
real copyright owners in the music industry, represented by
COSGA, is a house divided against itself. The union has not
been able to reconcile its members over issues of copyright
protection; the use of gammogram, banderoles etc.
There is grave suspicions over who the real beneficiaries of
the gammogram and banderole systems are; whether some
private individuals with vested interest or the musician. As
a result there now exist a rival body to the COSGA, whose
members are still members of MUSIGA.
Whiles all these in-fighting and poor copyright regime
persist, pirates and payola conscious radio DJs and
presenters continue to cash in big time on the division in
the industry.
Individual musicians are virtually left on their own to
survive in the face of high rate of piracy and equally high
demand for payola by radio DJs and presenters.
Piracy for instance was said to have accounted for at least
90 per cent of the total revenue generated from the music
industry in Ghana in 1992. That is kind of crazy.
With regards to payola, the radio DJs are alleged to
conspire against the music industry players with a principle
which says “good music is the one that comes with good
money”. In other words if one gives a CD to a DJ to play
without adding payola, one’s music is considered bad music.
It’s as simple as that.
To address these challenges and more in the industry, GAPI
recently got funding to the tune of 680 million cedis from
the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) to do a
study on the Ghana Music Industry and how to create
conditions for long term financing of the industry.
The study is just the first step in a complete advocacy
initiative, which would include workshops, seminars and
other interactive forums between industry players, policy
makers and the media with the view to collating and
documenting evidence to influence policy makers to make the
development and long term financing of the music industry a
national policy issue.
Already the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRSII, 2006 –
2009) has captured the music and film industry as
development issues. In that light the music industry would
benefit from state support in the areas of legal and
regulatory framework for promotion, ICT and technical
assistance, human capacity building (creativity training)
and commercialization in the global market place.
Speaking of the global market place, Prof. John Collins of
the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana stated in
one of his publications about the Ghanaian music industry
pointed out that Ghana has the potential of earning at least
US$53 million every year from the World Music Market if the
necessary structures are put in place to access existing
long term financing in the international community.
For instance I wonder how many Ghanaian musicians are aware
that the World Bank in collaborations with the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in year
2000 mapped out an initiative that resulted in the World
Bank setting aside some of its US$300million for culture to
specifically support the music industry in six selected
African countries including Ghana. Other countries selected
include Senegal , Mali and Benin . Senegal is reported to
have accessed their share of the fund already.
Seven years down the line not much has been done in Ghana to
access the World Bank’s waiting assistance for the Ghanaian
Music industry.
Meanwhile the world class giants in the industry are keenly
waiting to see the structures put in place locally to give
them some assurance that when they invest in highlife and
hiplife music, they would not be throwing their moneys into
the pockets of some bad copyright administrators, pirates
and some payola conscious radio presenters.
The support from BUSAC could not have come in a better time
that this. In spite of the woes, there is hope for the
industry. The eyes of major music promotions media like
Channel O of South Africa and MTV-base from the states are
on the country’s musicians. The benefits from that could be
far reaching.
GPRSII provides a fantastic policy framework. Now GAPI,
MUSIGA and all other players in the industry would need to
unite and put their weight behind the wheels of advocacy to
ensure that the industry is well developedand marketed on
the international market.
Samuel Dowouna, ACCRA, Ghanadot,
June 30, 2007
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