Music executive and artiste manager, George Britton
George Britton has made some striking observations about why Nigerians dominate the music market internationally compared to their West African counterparts.
Speaking on the Class Morning Show (CMS) with Prince Benjamin (PB), he bemoaned that non-Ghanaians overseas support Ghanaian acts more than their compatriots, which consequently impacts the careers of local artistes negatively.
Additionally, the shunning of record labels by Ghanaian artistes, he remarked, continues to work against the projection of Ghana’s music and its makers abroad, depriving the legendary West African country of its fair share of music tourism and its rich revenue.
The UK-based Ghanaian music executive said Nigerians “are pushed [heavily marketed] to us [abroad] as Africans,” creating this image, over time, that “they are the [only] Africans who do music.”
This has resulted in a phenomenon where even non-Nigerians are considered Nigerian by the international community, he intimated.
“People think Camidoh is Nigerian. When they hear the songs of Olivetheboy, they’ll definitely think it’s Nigerian. It’s because, you see, there isn’t a force from Ghana that makes people say, ‘Okay, this is Ghana.’
“It is assumed that Afrobeats comes from West Africa so it’s Nigeria or Ghana, but they know the Nigerian artistes [more] so every song they hear they say it’s a Nigerian song.
“My neighbour is a White guy, he’s always playing Afrobeats. He doesn’t even know [it intimately] but he’s playing Afrobeats. When you ask him for his favourite artistes he says, ‘Oh, Nigeria, Nigeria!’,” George Britton noted.
For a solution, he urged: “We need to get the record labels into our space. Let the labels market us outside our comfort zone. Then our music can be heard in America, Europe, Asia, South America and all that.”
The creative strategist challenged those who may push back, claiming these markets are not necessary to the success of Ghana music and its makers.
“You do [need them], listen,” George Britton retorted.
The GB Records boss identified that to solidify Ghana’s music presence internationally, citizens have to notice their patriotic role, shun plagiarism, and consume music on the right channels.
He admonished: “The streaming habit of Ghanaians is very terrible. We do not stream music. So if you look at all the successful artistes – artistes who are making very good numbers, check their data – you’ll see that Ghana’s probably number four, number five, number six for Ghanaian artistes.
“If we want to be known, we have to cultivate the [streaming] habit,” he recommended.
“We have to have a united front and say we are pushing more Ghanaian artistes internationally, we have to get record labels in our conversation and trust me the rest of the world will come to us,” George Britton assured.
