Music of Tuesday, 2 June 2020
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Musicians unite to fight a broken system responsible for a deteriorating industry
Some members of Alliance for Change in Ghana Music
The burning desire of Ghanaian artistes and copyright owners to see a rapid paradigm shift in the enforcement of payment, collection and distribution of royalties in the manner it should, has stoked an advocacy from some stakeholders.
With the hashtag #AllianceforChange on Instagram, the campaign, known to have been launched by Reggie N Bollie, has courted audience and has seen the likes of Reggie Rockstone, Hammer, Samini, Blakk Rasta, Prince Bright, Jay Q, Edem, Flowking Stone, Magnom, Fredyma, Sarkodie, Trigmatic and Appietus chorus the need for the emulation of global digital royalty collection system.
The Alliance For Change in Ghana Music is demanding total digitization of the royalties collection systems, establishment of radio logging systems, pay per play for music on radio and TV, total restructuring of CMO to conform to the global standards, amongst others.
“It’s long overdue that Africa and Ghana for that matter looked into protecting intellectual property and making sure creative people get what is deserved and what is due them so that their families can benefit from the creative materials that their forefathers did… This is the time to take advantage of the times, because these are digital times. We need to look at how we can get to do things and forget about the archaic mind that can’t do anything for us,” said Samini in a video posted online.
For music producer Jay Q, the narrative has been same because institutions have refused to do the needful.
“People are not getting what rightfully belongs to them. Those that also think they’re getting something are just being cheated. It’s just a failed institution,” he mentioned in a video clip which captured him throw his weight behind the campaign.
Veteran producer Hammer is also calling for the young and new artists to join the fight, emphasizing that they stand to benefit most from these reforms about to happen. He also said the alliance is not only an advocacy group and that they’re in fact helping veteran musicians to upload their works on streaming platforms worldwide to help them enjoy the full benefits of these classics.
“We will fix this industry and rid it of this rot” he told GhanaWeb.
Having been exposed to the mode of operation in the west, Reggie N Bollie drummed home the need for change in Ghana because most of the practices in the Ghanaian industry, they say, leaves much to be desired.
Reggie, a member of the music duo argued that “It is not normal for an artiste to make music and not expect great financial rewards out of their hard work and creativity.”
Over the years, there have been incessant calls on leadership of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation to do things right in order to ensure that right owners do not work in vain. It however appears there has not been a significant change in narrative.
According to members of Alliance or Change, a petition is in progress with the goal of achieving about a thousand signatories made up of veteran musicians, young musicians, up and coming musicians, composers, producers, songwriters etc.
Armed with several international and local lawyers, they are “poised to fight the ignorance that has riddled the industry”.
This, they say, will be executed through intense advocacy and education, workshops and sheer will.
They are bent on ensuring this fight makes it all the way to parliament.
