Song writer cautions musicians – Ricky Anokye

Artistes like A Plus have been warne

One of Ghana’s seasoned music producers and song writer, Ricky Anokye has called on Ghanaian musicians to bury their differences, come together and work as a team to move the industry forward.

He said the attitude of most Ghanaian musicians has blocked the forward movement of the industry and also scared investors.

He noted that the music industry in Ghana is a potential revenue earner which when well managed, could create more job opportunities for the youth.

Speaking to BEATWAVES, Ricky Anokye reiterated that the Ghanaian music industry has the potential of earning millions of dollars for the country’s foreign reserves, but there are no good structures put in place for effective administration, promotion and distribution.

He indicated that countries like South Africa, Nigeria among others are making huge economic gains through music and Ghana could learn some lessons from them.

He stated that Ghana’s music industry has failed to achieve success because the players are not focused and as well lack directions as far as music is concerned, adding that in-fighting among the musicians and a section of the stakeholders is driving investors away from investing in the music industry.

He pointed out that as an artiste, what he could readily do is to use his youthful energy coupled with his iconic status to drum home unity among the industry players.
He said many young Ghanaian musicians have lost faith in the industry and would readily leave the shores of Ghana at the least opportunity.

On the issue of piracy, Ricky Anokye said the music industry in Ghana for the past decade has recorded low patronage of musical albums due to the increase in piracy which Ghanaian musicians have so far failed to find a solution to.

Piracy of recorded musical works of Ghanaian artistes cost millions of cedis in lost revenue and profits. The losses represent only music piracy on the Ghanaian economy as a whole, adding that piracy in the Ghanaian music industry cost the music industry over GH¢2 million between 2000 and 2006.

He noted that Ghana currently has a new copyright law which was passed by Parliament in 2005, but it is not being implemented because there is no Legislative Instrument (LI) to show the modalities through which the law can be implemented.

He said if piracy is not checked, the country would continue to lose billions of cedis through tax evasion and royalties to musicians.

The situation, he noted, currently calls for the enforcement of the new Copyright Act 690 to bring fresh hope to the Ghanaian music industry as the stakeholders look at the challenge of enforcing the law.

He called on the stakeholders in the music industry to petition the Attorney General’s office to come out with laws that would empower the National Communication Authority (NCA) and Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) to insist that radio stations and other music users pay royalties to the musicians.