Entertainment of Friday, 22 November 2013

Source: Afia Amankwaah –Tamakloe/Adom fm

Music industry may collapse in two years if... - Producer

Chairman for Media Excel Music Production and Artiste Manager, Ernest Kwesi Ennin says the Music Industry in Ghana will collapse in two years if piracy is not arrested in two years.

“Musicians are suffering too much. People are not investing; the Industry is the cheapest commodity in the Ghanaian market," Kwesi Enning stated.

Speaking to Adom Fm, the music producer stressed that people are no longer buying CDs as they used to do and are rather downloading on the internet.

Kwesi Ennin noted that Ghanaian artistes go through so much hard work and invest lots of money in promoting the songs on television and on radio only for pirates to download it for free.

"Very few people buy CDs these days" Kwesi Ennin said, warning, that the music industry could perish if the trend continues.

He said royalties paid to musicians in Ghana is nothing to write home about as compared to their counterparts in other countries, citing the late Bob Maley’s wife as an example who now rely on his husband’s royalty for a living.

Ennin is asking that proper infrastructure should be put in place to revamp the music industry in Ghana as it used to be some years back.

He says Ghana has over 4, 000 musicians some of whom cannot even pay hospital bills and for other social amenities.

He expressed worry that due to the bad state of Ghana Music, banks in the country are not willing to give loans to musicians because they don’t have trust in the music industry anymore.

He said if nothing is done in the next two years, the industry would sink.