The Alliance For Change In Ghana Music calls on stakeholders to join hands to fight for musicians’ royalties, creative benefits

The Alliance For Change In Ghana Music, is a collection of creative arts stakeholders who believe in creating a thriving and prosperous music industry, which will fairly reward all individuals and entities engaged in the music business in Ghana. We are a charity and a pressure group fighting for a positive change and a proper restructuring of the Ghana music industry, in order to attract global and local investment, by creating a sustainable music business economy. We want to ensure that all music industry stakeholders are fairly and properly compensated for their contributions to the growth of the music industry.

For far too long, the Ghana music industry has seen majority of its stakeholders work very hard but receive very little or NO income for their hard work and dedication through no fault of theirs but due to a failed system which gets worse by the years. A lot of Ghanaian musicians, songwriters, producers, instrumentalists, sound engineers, etc., have died poor or struggle to make ends meet, after several years of dedicating their lives to a trade which should have supported their livelihood during their prime and also in their retirement. These creative people do not receive the right amount of royalties for the use of their creative works and intellectual properties, thereby rendering most of them poor and desolate when they fall on hard times. There is also lack of proper education and/or awareness about the business aspect of the music industry across board.

We as a group strongly believe these unacceptable situations occur as a result of the lack of proper systems and efficient structures, which has equally rendered administrations seemingly incompetent in governing the affairs of music business in Ghana. The sad and shambolic situation has left a hole in the pockets of many creative people and also had a ripple effect on other music industry stakeholders like investors, managers, labels, bloggers, promoters, event organizers, video directors, video models, production assistants, dancers, DJs, entertainment journalists, poets, etc. We are therefore advocating for systems that will ensure transparency and promote accountability.

Music industries all over the world are significantly contributing to the economies of their countries such as the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, America etc. but the same cannot be said about the music industry in Ghana. Although we appear to have a vibrant industry, this does not reflect or translate into proper income generation. This is why we have come together with one common agenda to fight for a better Ghana Music Industry, by bringing realistic and proactive solutions to totally overhaul the way and manner music business is done in Ghana.

Our fight is against decades of unacceptable mediocrity, institutional corruption due to lack of transparency and perceived incompetent leadership, which stifles the growth of the industry. Our fight is against ineffective systems and any group of persons who have been given the power to serve in the Ghana Music Industry but deliberately or non-deliberately under-performing. It is also to promote education of stakeholders to ensure they have a better understanding of the music business, know the other available venues to generate income, as well what their rights are in terms of contracts and agreements.

We want to;

• seek modern ways of generating income for the music industry and Ghana as a whole through the creative arts.
• make the Ghana music industry attractive for investors again.
• recreate an industry which will significantly contribute to the economy of Ghana by restructuring

how music business is done in Ghana.

• ensure creative people are able to pay their fair share of taxes in Ghana and also contribute to

national or private pension schemes.

• create a booming music industry economy which will not only create more employment locally, but

also able to compete globally.

• get the Ghana music industry plugged into the Global music industry in order to attract multinational

record labels, publishing companies, booking agencies, tour companies, media houses, royalty

collection companies and investment companies.

• fully digitize the royalty collection system in Ghana and set standard royalty rates per play by radio

and television stations.

• end the payment of payola in Ghana because the new system should ensure all DJs and presenters

are paid well, thereby negating the need to collect payola.

• we want to end a system that forces musicians to pay television stations before their videos are

aired as content on television (except for clear promotional slots), without getting due royalties.

• create a system that will make multi-millionaires of chart-topping artists and reward hardworking

contributors with great wealth. Free music downloads must become a thing of the past.

We are therefore calling on all Ghana music industry stakeholders to join us in fighting for our rights and a prosperous future by reasoning together and taking the necessary steps towards a better Ghana Music Industry. It is incumbent on us to enforce this change during our lifetime otherwise the next generation will suffer more severe consequences.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic, it takes sweat, education, determination and hard work. We can do it. It is possible.

Welcome to a new dawn, a new era of change and sagacity. Welcome to the Alliance For Change In Ghana Music Business.

Sincerely yours,

MARK DARLINGTON OSAE
(Interim Chair, Steering Committee) Alliance For Change in Ghana Music