Michael Osei Bonsu (Right) with Obaapa Christy
One of Ghana’s seasoned gospel musicians and song writer, Michael Osei Bonsu 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.
In an interview, Osei Bonsu 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 pointed out that as a musician, what he could readily do is to use his youthful energy coupled with his iconic status to drum home unity among the industry players.
On the issue of piracy, Michael Osei Bonsu 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 musicians 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 2010 and 2017.
According to him, 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.
By George Clifford Owusu