The Ghanaian music industry can be an interesting puzzle.
There are established music labels and management teams in the country who do break in artists and groom them to be the best. Some labels and management do the opposite.
Upcoming artists don’t always know the pathways to get their content and profile in the spotlight. For them, radio seems to be the best option.
So how does an artist find the right management to break into the industry? On Wednesday, 21st June, Top Charts had a music conference at the Tulip Inn hotel to try and answer some of these questions.
Event Highlights
Panelists at the event included George Quaye (Head of Communications For Charter House), Ibukun Abidoye (Chocolate City Group), Richie Mensah (Lynx Entertainment) and Jay Foley (LIVE FM). The event was later joined by Bice Osei Kuffour aka Obour (Current president of MUSIGA) and John Armah (CEO of Orios Group)
One of the main things touched was the fact during the panel discussions is that there isn’t much education or information for emerging artists and current artists about certain intricacies in the industry. Some of that information includes loyalties, publishing and song credits for TV/Radio/Movies. The panel also touched on getting the right management for artists. The panel stressed that artists need to get the right management in place and that management team needs to be professional and not take their job as an easy 9 – 5 job but rather a lifestyle job.
After the panel, John Armah and Obour had a short discussion about the business side of the music industry.
John Armah touched upon the business side of selling music, including the royalties and publishing avenues musicians should be looking at. Obour talked about how musicians need to look at other business ventures other than music for getting paid. Merchandising and Branding were discussion. John and Obour lamented on how music artists don’t branch into other areas and made comparisons to how Jay-Z makes money from other business ventures than music.
John Armah touched on how using Design Thinking could be applied to the music industry for artists to get more spotlight and exposure. (See the Tech Nova post about the first Design Thinking conference to know more about Design Thinking)
At the backend of the event, Ibukun Abidoye of the Chocolate City Group had a presentation about the state of the music industry and highlighted some data about the current state of music in Nigeria.
Some of the highlights included how physical sales were still dominated but a projection from 2017 to 2020 showed that digital sales were on the rise and music streaming in Nigeria will go up to 40%
Our Nigeria counterparts are definitely ahead in the game when it comes to standards in the music industry.
The event was small but lengthy. There is definitely a lot to learn about the Ghanaian music industry. There is a lot of opportunities that many artists in Ghana are not exploring. The music industry is very dynamic and keeps changing as more advancements in technology keep improving. At what point will digital sales become a monster in Ghana and will streaming ever become popular? How long till our music industry catches up with the latest trends and standards?
There’s a lot of questions to be answered. Hopefully, down the line, there will be more events to showcase what the Ghanaian music industry can do to evolve.
To learn more about the event, check out the Top Charts website for more details
