Bessa Simons, President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA)
One of Ghana’s hiplife/afrobeat artistes, Andrews Commey Otoo, known in the music scene as Mr. Drew, has asserted that Ghanaian artistes are suffering the most in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said the ban on social gatherings had affected the important aspect of their craft, therefore, making it difficult for Ghanaian artistes to make ends meet as well as connect with their fan base.
“Artistes are suffering in these times of COVID-19. It’s pretty bad,” he disclosed.
Known for hit songs like ‘Dw3’, ‘Dw3 remix’, ‘Eat’ featuring Stonebwoy, ‘Later’ featuring Kelvynboy, and ‘Let Me Know’ among others, Mr. Drew indicated that the situation would have been better if proper structures were put in place by the Ghana Music Right Organisation (GHAMRO) to address the issue of royalties.
The artiste, who recently said he deserved to be nominated as well as win the new artiste of the year award at the 2021 edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Award (VGMA), in an interview with GHone TV, disclosed that Ghanaian artistes made a lot of money from shows as people don’t buy music online and prefer to download it for free.
“People here don’t buy music, they just download online for free and we are not being paid when our songs are played on radio, we are not getting royalties and this is something we need to fix,” he said.
Some of the artistes, who also spoke with BEATWAVES on the effect of the ban on social gathering, revealed that due to the ban a lot of musical albums to be released have all been put on hold because they were not sure of how best they would make money.
They hinted that currently they are all being forced to put all their activities on the digital space to entertain their fans.
BEATWAVES learnt that daily, a number of a-list Ghanaian artistes go live on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube among others to connect with their fans.
As the country’s entertainment industry continues to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions, the artistes have no option than to host virtual concerts to entertain their fans.
“It will be crucial for musicians to seek other means of gaining a livelihood aside pursuing music because the road to recovery will be a long journey,” they said.
Some music stakeholders were of the view that if social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continues throughout 2021, Ghanaian artistes will be forced to go back to the drawing board, adding that this might lead to a rise in online artistic performances.