Ghana: Musicians Attend Music Publishing Seminar

Ghana: Musicians Attend Music Publishing Seminar

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)

April 20, 2007
Posted to the web April 20, 2007

Jacquiline Afua Bondzi

ANOTHER SEMINAR has been held in Accra to lecture Ghanaian Musicians on the role of music publishing, mechanical rights and royalties to the music industry and the Musician especially.

Mr. Carlos Sakyi, a Researcher and Consultant to the project lectured at the seminar, which forms part of the 'Comparative study of the music industries of Ghana and South Africa', a project sponsored by Metro TV/BUSA.

Present at the seminar were some of Ghana's prominent Music artistes including Mac Tontoh and Teddy Osei of Osibisa fame, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Martin Luther Owusu, Faisal Helwani and Naana Frimpong.

In the address of Mr. Sakyi, he explained the importance of music publishing to the Musicians and hammered on the fact that, lack of administrative structures in the industry was the cause of the inability of Ghanaian Musicians to claim their royalties.

He explained mechanical rights and royalties of a Musician as a kind of compensation that should be paid to a Composer for using his or her work, thus radio stations, television stations and advertising houses must pay Musicians for using their songs at all times.

According to him, the Copyright Law states clearly that it is only the Composer of a song that has the legal right to copy his song to anybody or for any use, hence it is wrong to use a Composer's song for several functions without their permission.

Though Ghana can boast of very good composers who have composed good songs that still linger on the lips of generations, these same Composers die paupers, because of their dependence on the sale of records; thus no records no money, which he said should not be the case.

The time for action, he said, was now and not tomorrow and noted that it is time the music industry sat up to review its policies to administer the right systems of checks and balances, so the future of the Ghanaian Musician could be secured.

Mr. Gyedu Blay Ambolley also did not mince words in saying that, he together with his colleagues were willing to go the extra mile to achieve their goals. To him, celebrating fifty years of independence also called for the liberation of the pockets of Ghanaian Musicians and it is now or never.

Mac Tontoh said that it is always easy for Musicians abroad to excel because the royalty monitoring systems are in place so a Musician is glad to always go on tour and hear his music on air because at the end of the day, you will be paid.

"The absence of these mechanisms in our music industry, is what is causing the fall of Musicians", adding that whatever money he has, he made it out of music, not from only record sales but also from royalties.

The atmosphere at the seminar was that of determination on the part of the Musicians to retrieve what they believed belonged to them but of which they had been deprived.

With a strong pillar like Mr. Carlos Sakyi backing the Musicians, their dreams seem not too far-fetched.