In
September 2015, I wrote an article titled “The Paralysis of Ghana’s Music
Industry.” In the honest piece, I discussed the non-existence of a music
industry in Ghana, and what may be done to create one. Almost five years down
the line, the music scene still faces the same problems, and even probably
worse. I see a lot of talents emerging with gut, passion and naivety, with
little to no direction on how they can make a living off their craft. All
because there’s no appropriate structure in place.
What
I want to establish with this editorial is stated below:
- The
right structure of a working music industry, so the reader can have a good idea
of how things work. We shall look at the creation of music through to
consumption by the public, and activities in between that result in capital
generation.
- The
current state of the Ghana music scene, and the problems challenging it.
- The
solutions that can be put in place to resolve the problems.
The Structure of a
Working Music Industry
Musical Content
Creation
Music
is life; music is our comforter; music is the only friend that walks with us in
every situation we find ourselves. To imagine the world without music is a
nightmare. The creation of music is very essential to humankind. The music
creation phase can be divided into pre-recording, production (which includes
recording) and post-production. Pre-recording comprises of generation of ideas,
songwriting, melody creation, laying the instrumental foundation for a beat,
and so on. The production phase involves laying the beat properly, recording
vocals, etc. Post-production includes arranging, mixing and mastering. Musical
content has two distinct but frequently confused entities. The output which is
put on record (wax), for instance Compact Disc (CD), vinyl or Digital Streaming
Platform (DSP) is a sound recording, whilst the collection of lyrics and
melodies are referred to as musical composition. The creators and professionals
who come together to make this possible may include artistes, musicians,
instrumentalists, producers, and audio engineers. At times, especially in this
modern era, audiovisuals are created to put the song in a graphical
perspective. The people involved in that are stylists, video directors,
producers, editors, colorists, choreographers, cast, etc.
Distribution
After
the song is exported as a product file, it’s ready for release to the
consumers. Although it’s still done, in the past, the regular thing was that the
record had to be burned onto a CD or copied onto a cassette or vinyl, replicated
numerously, packaged, and assembled. In this era, majority of the public
consume music by streaming via a DSP such as Spotify, Apple Music, Audiomack,
SoundCloud, Boomplay, Aftown, Tidal, and the like.
The
process to the get the song on these platforms to be available for the consumer
to listen to is called distribution. Back in the day, the physical copies of
the musical project had to be transported to music and retail shops, so fans
could purchase. Thanks to streaming, this workload has been loosened. Now, the
song just has to be uploaded and/or submitted onto platforms [DSPs] which allow
streaming. Depending on the DSP, the sound recording can be uploaded directly,
or indirectly through a distribution company. These are intermediary companies that
are officially recognised by the DSP companies. They make sure the song and its
details match with the criteria for the DSPs, and secure a spot for the artiste.
If an artiste is signed to a record label, it takes charge of distribution
directly.
Marketing
Spotify,
the leading DSP alone has a catalogue of more than 50 million songs, and an
average of 40,000 new songs are added to the platform each day. So what assures
that every artiste will be heard? That brings in the aspect of marketing.
Marketing is basically the business of promoting and selling products or
services, including market research and advertising. For an artiste to cut
through the clutter and be heard by the right people, marketing is a necessity.
Marketing can be done via radio, television, online platforms such as blogs and
magazines, and the new avenue, digital marketing.
Digital
marketing, although still a young avenue, has enhanced independent artistes who
don’t have the connections to cut out the middlemen and achieve massive result
within a fair budget. It involves website creation and maintenance, online
partnerships, social media strategy, using online advertisements such as social
media ads, Google (including YouTube) ads to reach potential fans.
Publicity/Public
Relations (PR)
Digital
marketing walks side by side with publicity/public relations (PR). This
involves pitching for audio/video premieres, news stories, website placements,
reviews and interviews. In the streaming era, securing playlists placement has
become key. The essence of publicity is to generate buzz and interest for the
musical project and/or artiste.
Monetisation of Music
Summarising
what has been discussed so far, it can be realized that a lot of time, effort
and money are invested into the musical project. Also, there are numerous
professionals who come together to make it work. So it only makes sense that
the investment is recouped and profit is made off the art. There are five major
ways by which artistes can make money i.e. music streaming and sales,
royalties, touring and live performances, sales of merchandise (merch), and
brand endorsements and partnerships.
Music Streaming, Sales
and Royalties
Mobile
phones have substituted a lot of devices and culture, and music consumption is
not left out. Currently, the easiest way for one to listen to music is via a
DSP. Once an artiste’s song gets placed on a DSP, the DSP company has an obligation
to pay mechanical royalties to the artiste. Currently, 1 million Spotify
streams equates to approximately 7,000 USD.
Performance
royalties are collected from businesses including radio and TV stations, pubs,
restaurants, clubs, and others that play music publicly to enhance their
businesses. It’s collected by Performing Rights Organisations on behalf of
content copyright owners such as songwriters and publishers and paid to them
for the sole reason of the public broadcast and usage of their music for
commercial purposes.
For
artistes to get royalties on their intellectual property (i.e. music), one has
to be registered to a royalties collection company, which scans for moments
that the artiste’s songs are streamed, purchased or performed publicly. Then
they distribute the money generated from this royalties collection among the
individuals and bodies that own copyright to the said intellectual property.
There
are other types of royalties comprising of synchronisation and print royalties,
but I want us to keep our focus on the two mentioned.
Publishing
Let’s
recall the beginning of this article when we discussed the creation of music.
It was mentioned that the lyrics, melodies, and the like form the musical
composition, whilst the final music product is the sound recording. If songwriters,
musicians and producers sign a publishing deal with a publishing company,
whenever the music is used either as a sound recording or even as a cappella in
a movie, commercial, TV show, etc. the owners of the intellectual property
(which is likely songwriters, producers and musicians) get paid.
Live Performances and
Touring
This
is quite familiar to the Ghanaian populace. When a concert or live show is put
together, and artistes are billed to perform, they are paid an amount of money.
The amount paid varies depending on the negotiations that happen between the
artiste management and promoters of the event. In countries with a strong music
industry, touring is also a goldmine. Basically, touring is whereby a
performing artiste plans out a calendar of different live concerts in various
cities in several countries (sometimes). Attendants of the concerts would have
to purchase tickets to get access to the concert. Hence the artiste gets a cut
of the total of the ticket earnings.
Sales of Merchandise
When
J. Cole’s manager was asked in an interview, the means by which J. Cole himself
(not the label he’s signed to) makes money, he answered “touring and merch.”
Merch which is short for merchandise is basically a product designed and customised
with the brand of an artiste, and sold usually to promote the artiste, a
musical project, a tour, or what have you. This may come in the form of
T-shirt, caps, footwear and even mugs.
Brand Endorsements and
Partnerships
Companies
and brands sometimes sign contracts with artistes to endorse their product or
service. Companies do that for publicity and advertisement purposes, so they
can penetrate into the market that the artiste spearheads. Hence, they usually
contract artistes whose image and brand suit that of the company. The company
pays the artiste an amount of money for fulfilment of the contract. This is a
tried and tested tactic which works for most companies. It’s all business.
Other
aspects of a music industry which deserve a mention are Artistes and Repertoire
(A&R), artiste development, artiste management, and entertainment law. But
I won’t get into the details of that in this session.
The Problems with the
Ghana Music Scene
I
call it the Ghana music scene because we don’t have a music industry. There are
little to no structures in place to handle the monetisation of music. Ghana is
blessed to have abundant talents, but currently the system being run is to make
music, put it out for free [on online platforms], run outdated promotions and
hope the song(s) blow up, so one could be booked for live shows and concerts,
and money can then be made off the art and investment. A few of them get brand
endorsements and partnerships once in a while. Hence, the system favours the
artistes in the upper echelon like Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, Kwesi
Arthur and a few others, who have hit songs. Even B-list artistes struggle to
make a living off their art, not to talk about producers and songwriters. But
in a well-established industry, that’s not usually the case.
The
problem starts with a lack of oversight of the music business, which has
resulted in the lack of foundational elements. Then it follows with ignorance,
on the part of both the artistes and fans. That’s why I took time to write this
lengthy article, so those who are serious about the music business can be
informed. Most artistes have no idea how else to make money apart from the two
means mentioned above. The few A-list artistes who are aware commonly lie to
the public about how rich they are and the major moves they’re making. They
hide their tactics of earning money from the others down the food chain.
The
fans have a false notion that the artistes they support are cashing out, and
that they’re really trying their best by downloading music for free from blogs,
or buying tickets to attend concerts. I can’t count the number of times I’ve
had to explain to people that an artiste gets no money when they download music
for free on blogs. Mostly, they argue that they pay with their internet
subscription bundle, ignoring that the money actually goes to the internet
service provider. This example alone is an indication that the average Ghanaian
fan doesn’t have a digital culture embedded in him/her.
Music
creation, consumption and business has grown over the years. Presently, we’re
in an era of computerisation and digitisation. Recording artistes and producers
use software like FL Studio, Cubase and ProTools to create music. Distribution
is done digitally using computers. Marketing has switched to digital.
Publishing and royalties collection have also gone digital whereby tracking
software are employed. Even most concert tickets are now sold online. The ready
means by which fans consume music is by using a mobile phone, either by
downloading, streaming or buying it.
This
transformation started happening about ten years ago, but Ghana is still stuck
with archaic means. I’ve realised that the root of the stagnancy is the lack of
a digital culture ingrained in Ghanaians, and the expensive cost of internet
data. I’m a digital marketer, so I base my views and opinions on real life experience
and in-depth observation. When I speak about the deficiency of digital culture,
I’m not referring to just music fans, but businesses, corporations, and even
the government. Ghanaian businesses don’t invest much in digital marketing; the
public barely click on online ads; online payment systems like PayPal have
blacklisted the country; an insignificant fraction of the citizens possess an
online transaction bank card; online businesses are gradually rising, but are
still untrusted and on the low; internet connectivity is poor; big corporations
don’t do hiring and communication with email.
Notwithstanding
all these downsides, internet data is very expensive, hence people aren’t able
to keep up with the new global culture. Considering the poor economy, the
average Ghanaian cannot afford to stream a 10-track album each day for a week.
These
and other reasons have left us behind. No doubt, quality music is been
produced, but structures haven’t been put in place for the average fan to
access music legally with a device that suits this modern era, which in effect
doesn’t allow monetisation of the music, vis-à-vis royalties collection and
distribution. In summary, Ghana is 10 years behind in the music business.
There
are also no active companies and/or record labels to oversee the various
aspects of the music business – distribution, marketing, PR, publishing,
royalties collection and distribution, licensing, touring and bookings,
A&R, and artiste development.
Investors
are not willing to devote their hard earned money into the music business
mostly because there’s no proper data that they can look at to have business
confidence. They don’t see it as a lucrative venture.
Whenever
Ghanaian artistes get hit by the reality of the broken system, they channel
their energies to the government, but they never get results. The government
and Ghana as a whole see entertainment as the last thing on their priority
list. They have the economy, education, health, agriculture and other equally
important sectors to fix. When all that
is done, then they gear their focus towards entertainment. The interesting
thing is, taking a closer look at it, we don’t essentially need government
intervention to fix any of problems raised. This indicates that the creators
and stakeholders who are directly involved and affected have to take it upon
themselves to solve the issues.
Possible Solutions to
the Problems
I’m
optimistic that if internet data is made affordable, in conjunction with
sensitisation and education, Ghanaians would gradually develop a digital
culture. Data affordability is in the hands of internet service providers
(ISPs). These are companies who are in business to make profit. However, the
cost of data is usually a reflection of the infrastructure and expertise
invested into construction of internet connection. To my best of knowledge,
presently, fibre cable technology is the latest system being used in Ghana. If
a low-cost invention as compared to fibre cables is implemented and the ISPs
are generous enough, then data prices can reduce.
DSPs
that operate in the country like Apple Music don’t have a payment subscription
system that is favourable for the average Ghanaian – a lot of people use mobile
money for daily transactions. Aftown is the only DSP I know that has mobile
money integration, but it’s not popular. To fix that, either the existing DSPs
allow mobile money integration or a new app has to be built which factors that;
and it has to be properly promoted and marketed with all hands on deck. Other
payment methods which are easily accessible like scratch cards and third-party
online payment systems like Hubtel should be included. It’d be a good thing for
all the artistes to come together to agree that they release their music on
this platform, disallowing bloggers to upload copies on their websites. This
can be done in collaboration with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
services. When implemented, fans would have no other option than to legally
consume the music by paying for it.
Companies
have to be built to take care of the various aspects of music business. If
record labels are farfetched, it can be started from the ground up by building
digital marketing, PR, distribution, royalties collection, publishing,
licensing, touring and bookings, entertainment law, and artiste management
companies, agencies and firms, with state of the art skills, knowledge and
tools, which are up to the task, and actually achieve results.
There’s
also a necessity for the formation of a data and statistical company which computes
analytics and reports on music released, capital invested, income generated,
and much more, to encourage potential investors to contribute to the music
business.
These
are my observations and contributions, but it may not be exhaustive. If you
have different opinions, suggestions, contributions or corrections, kindly drop
it in the comments section. I believe we’ve done enough of the talking and
complains. Let’s get to work.