The 2023 World Music Day has been marked in an extraordinary way by the biggest award scheme in the country – Vodafone Ghana Music Award (VGMA), with a national music summit to address the challenges in the music industry and prepare a good path for the success of the industry.
Through the summit, some renowned musicians have called for a properly structured music industry that will constantly address challenges and introduce policies that will help in establishing the sector and properly get recognised.
On his part, Musician and Songwriter, Kwame Nsia-Apau – popularly known as Okyeame Kwame, believes that it is important to have an industry structured in a direction that will see massive growth. In doing this, he noted that there should be a better approach through which responsible stakeholders and artistes can take up responsibilities and do the needful.
This, he said, would in turn attract the policy-makers to provide the support for which the industry has been championing. “I think we need to enforce the copyright laws; and once that is done, there is going to be data. And with data, we can forecast; and with that businesses and financial institutions would be interested to work with that and come onboard.
“In terms of the policy that will help the industry, I think Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has to do the right thing by increasing its membership base, encouraging musicians and allowing all genres of music to be in the system and yet have one voice. This will help the political leadership see some sort of seriousness among us by doing the needful to give us the necessary policy. We are doing well, but we must do it together,” he indicated.
Reggae musician and activist, Rocky Dawuni, also highlighting the importance of having a properly structured music industry, mentioned that it will help in nurturing talents that will grow to contribute to the space and add value. This, he said, will call for the introduction of music into the basic education.
“We need to have a bigger plan; and I think the vision is, first of all, to introduce music into our basic education. Secondly, nurturing the artiste through clubs, having a policy that allows radio stations to play 70 percent of local songs as a way of promoting them, and doing so will attract investors to also come onboard to support the artistes and the music industry in general,” he noted.
The summit brought together and engaged experienced musicians, music producers and managers, distributors of music, music promoters, media and other industry players nationally to discuss core industry issues within the industry and share their knowledge on how the industry can be transformed through educating young musicians on steps that can be taken to make them successful in their career.
The Public Relations Officer for Charterhouse, Robert Klah, indicated: “We consider this very critical because we do not have a music business school; so we have a huge deficit when it comes to the business area of managing our music. This platform is set aside to be able to close that gap through conversation like this”.
The summit featured sections like workshops and a dialogue to discuss the business side of music, how artists can promote their music, and how to broaden the ‘A list’ artiste bracket with global appeal. These programmes provide insights into various aspects of the music business, such as royalties, copyrights, and investment tips, helping artists to build sustainable careers.
