Revolutionising the music industry – Obour’s way

By Bernard Yaw ASHIADEY

I love music, you love music, we all love music. Ghanaians have been enjoying music since time immemorial. In their homes and farms, on the streets, even at sea, in the classrooms, the office, the clubs, bars and stadiums, Ghanaians have been singing and dancing to hit after hit released in the country.

But it is an open secret that most musicians in Ghana still do not get the revenue that they deserve from their works. Most music patrons feel that Ghanaian musicians do not come out with quality music worth purchasing, so they instead prefer pirated music which is mostly free.

But the President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice Osei Kuffour, believes the challenges are beyond just the production of quality music.

“The music industry in Ghana is challenged but has a very bright future. We have legislation but there is the challenge of enforcement. For instance, there is legislation that everybody who uses music must pay for the music but the challenge is that taxi drivers play music but they do not understand why they have to pay for the music.

“In the field of marketing, too, there are challenges: for instance the changing face of marketing music. There is technology. Our system is still used to the traditional ways of marketing music—getting DJs to play it on radio, selling through music shops or cars. 

“Now there is a new wave of marketing music which our system has not fully been integrated into yet; so music does not get the required sales it must get.”

The field of policy is also a challenge. The country in itself has not given music the required position it deserves. “In the past music was part of the school curriculum but it is no longer there. It has therefore reduced the respect people have for artistes,” he bemoans.

But countries which value the contribution of music to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) do everything possible to make musicians very comfortable through policy formulation, implementation and enforcement.

Specifically, the United Kingdom’s music industry generates around £4 billion per annum, contributes significantly to exports and provides more than 130,000 UK jobs.

In 2011, UK Music, the umbrella organisation which represents the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry, published that large-scale live music across all regions of the UK attracts at least 7.7million attendances by domestic and overseas music tourists, and collectively they spend £1.4billion during the course of their trip

This represented a positive contribution of £864million to the national economy and 19,700 full-time jobs. Although 5 percent of all music tourists come from overseas, they contribute 18 percent of total music tourist spending.

The 2010 Cape Town International Jazz Festival contributed more than R475 million to the economies of Cape Town and the Western Cape, according to a recent research.

Along with this substantial boost to the Western Cape, South Africa’s GDP as a whole derived benefits to the tune of R685 million. As a direct spin-off of the festival, over 2,000 jobs were created.

The research also found that loyal “festinos” travelled to Cape Town mainly to attend the festival and spent most of their money on accommodation, food, restaurants and transport.

For the music industry, the impact of the festival on production is approximately R112 million, representing the value of the festival to the economy of the Western Cape. Using labour-income multipliers, the impact increases to approximately R461 million.

Total music industry revenue is about US$40 billion worldwide and about $12 billion in the United States alone.

In Australia, the live music industry generated gross revenues of US$1.21 billion during the 2009/10 financial year. This was driven by patrons’ spending at live music performances, which included ticket sales and food and drink.

These revenues were generated from an estimated 41.97 million patrons attending approximately 328,000 venue-based live music performances at 3,904 live music venues across Australia. The venue-based live music industry supports employment of over full time jobs.

But similar facts and figures cannot be found – even if they are, they are very scanty – in Ghana to support the claims of the musicians. Obour says however that there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

“The industry is still growing and there is more revenue been generated in the industry. Music together with its entertainment component is still a key revenue generator.”

He says as a leader and a musician himself, his main vision is to create wealth for musicians. “That informs every action that I do. That is the underlining goal. To achieve that I must first and foremost make MUSIGA attractive to both musicians and stakeholders such as producers, fans, the media, DJs and everybody who plays a key role in the industry.

“As we do all this we ensure that music contributes to the development of Ghana. They don’t do it to get money and go and live abroad but become key voices in the country’s growth. When it comes to advocacy they will be heard, when it comes to paying taxes, they will pay. I want to reach that stage where musicians contribute to Ghana’s growth.”

Currently, MUSIGA is undertaking a thorough research to put together a database for the industry. This research will come with a needs-assessment that will show what is lacking in the industry.

“The report that will come out will be the voice of the industry and not just Obour’s voice,” he says.

“The report will become a key advocacy tool for me to speak to government, international organisations, and agencies about investing in music and educating Ghanaian music lovers to respect laws that govern the industry.

“We could for instance invest in establishing a special police force to enforce the copyright law. That will in itself solve a chunk of the problem.”