A group of Ghanaian music producers have appealed to the Copyright Administration and the Anti-Piracy Committee to embark on a massive anti-piracy exercise to curb the growing rate of music piracy in the music industry.
They explained that the activities of music pirates have denied music right owners of the economic benefits of their works because of low patronage of legitimate music sales.
They added that technology platforms have provided users easy access to music without the authorisation from the right owners, therefore making it difficult to protect and regulate the commercial usage of music.
However, they complained about the failure of the government to help weed out the problem which according to them is the number one enemy in the music industry.
In separate interviews, the producers mentioned that music piracy has robbed Ghanaian musicians and producers of their expected revenue, adding that currently the whole country has been plagued by piracy.
According to the music producers, music piracy has prevented some talented Ghanaian musicians from releasing music albums. They, however, declared their readiness to fight music pirates until they are flushed out of the system and brought to justice.
They also indicated that because the pirates do not incur much cost as the producers, they tend to sell their pirated products cheaper in the open market, which affects the sale of the original works.
The music producers revealed that the activities of faceless pirates have affected over 70 per cent of musical works on the local market, adding that the pirates are surviving because they have good working relationship with some of the stakeholders in the industry, which has made it difficult for the security agencies to track them down.
Enock Agyapong, Chief Executive Officer of Speech Production, a record label, told BEATWAVES recently that Ghana’s music industry has been on the decline over the last ten years due to the laxity of laws that has to check pirated musical works on the market.
He was of the view that if severe measures are not taken to curb the current spate of piracy, the music industry will collapse in no time. He, therefore, called for effective legal system in the country to deal with offenders.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Easy Way Productions, Seth Amponsah, who is also a member of the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI), an association of music producers, told BEATWAVES in a telephone chat that GAPI will soon collaborate with the Copyright Administration and the Anti-Piracy Committee to embark on anti-piracy exercises to curb the increased rate of piracy.
He said musicians and key stakeholders in the industry should unanimously declared war on piracy so as to save Ghanaian music.
By George Clifford Owusu