Mark Okraku Mantey
The Deputy Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku Mantey, says local musicians need a domestic digital platform to distribute their music.
According to him, the convention where Ghanaian musicians distributed their music on international digital platforms did not yield the desired results of increased revenue.
The international digital platforms, he reiterated, were designed specifically to serve the countries in which they were made.
He said this during the Africa Music Business Dialogue, which was held in Accra.
According to him, it was imperative that the industry players within the music industry deliberated on how to develop localised distribution platforms for the Ghanaian market.
“I ask myself what percentage our musicians take from international digital platforms. If it is in Ghana that these musicians are getting this meagre money, then we complain, but since it is an international digital platform, we are excited. Even if it is lower, we will still distribute our songs on their platforms. We need our own platforms to distribute our music, and I think we need to have a conversation on how we can develop our own,” he said.
African Music Business Dialogue is a yearly event that brings players in the music industry together to discuss the future of African music.
The event featured many activities, including an exhibition, panel discussions, workshops on the monetary aspect of the industry, and networking sessions.
Mr. Enoch Nana Yaw Oduro-Agyei, Founder of African Music Business Dialogue, in an address, called for a solution-based conversation to develop measures to address the challenges facing the music industry.
He urged the players in the music industry to frequently educate themselves about the industry as trends in the industry kept changing.
GNA