It is very common to hear players in the music industry throwing their hands in frustration and claiming that the Ghanaian music industry is dead. “There is no music industry here”. They say.

To add to the assumed “hopeless” situation, they assign numerous reasons and cast blames on certain personalities and structures that have not been put in place. I will be as straight-forward as possible.

Some are of the school of thought that radio DJs and presenters collecting payola is a major killer of the industry. Producers and artistes’ managers have sometimes been forced to pay huge amounts of money to presenters before their songs would be played on air. Worse of all, some of the young musicians who produce and manage themselves are compelled to squeeze water out of a rock to pay the presenters whereas they never get to make good sales on their albums to compensate for the payola they pay.

On the other hand, some of the presenters have denied knowledge of the term payola in the industry and claim it is a token of appreciation from the heart of the producers. The case then dies out since some producers have come out to state clearly that they don’t pay payola but show their “appreciation” in cash or kind to the DJs for playing their songs. This connotes that payola is non-existent and definitely not the felon.

Another reason assigned is the rate of piracy which has taken an overwhelming trend so much that producers have started complaining bitterly about their constant losses. A producer may invest about hundreds of millions of cedis to work on a single album and expect to make more profit but this never happens because there are “pirates” who dubiously produce their own copies of the album without the copyright owner’s consent and make money at the expense of his benefits.

Things have unfortunately taken a different trend with the introduction of computer technology which allows a person to copy as many music as he can onto his computer, mp3 player, ipods or mobile phone without having to buy a copy of the album leading to low sales or no market for the investor or musician.

This situation continues to persist especially since there has not been any concrete solution arrived at to check piracy. There is also the lack of education on the use of digital distribution or cyber ways of marketing one’s copyrighted products.

Aside silent complaints from most musicians about their unsatisfied feelings with the operations and work of COSGA and MUSIGA concerning the low royalties they are being given, anti-MUSIGA advocates like COCCA’s Carlos Sakyi among others keep propounding their theories in a bid to improve the industry.
The suffering of the Ghanaian musician is normally seen as minimal on the surface and his or her tears are wiped with a plaque for his or her contribution to the country’s music. Though music award schemes like Charter House’s GMA festival exist to boost their morale, these musicians still wallow in constant ignorance and confusion as to who or what is responsible for the demise of the industry.

Other musicians also complain that they are afraid to create new innovations or explore other areas of their talent because music lovers have grown used to one style and would not entertain any dynamism from that musician. The artistes say this kills their dynamism in terms of talent but they have no choice since it is the public who hold the market.

Creativity and talent abound in the country and if given the chance, we would realise that the country has good talents who can hit on any international stage but the problem is lack of knowledge about the business side of the art and its diversities which can fetch them a lot of money. They love the “Show” of showbiz but exhibit complete ignorance about the business aspect which is the most important. Music is a serious money-making business but only a handful knows that.

The dying of Ghana’s music industry is shrouded in mystery and the division being seen among major players and stakeholders, with each one holding his or her own school of thought, fails to help develop a collective solution for the enormous problem. Who or what is killing the industry? From the present look of things, I guess we will never know.