Copyright Investment Bank to open soon

The Ghana Association of Phonographic Industries (GAPI) in collaboration with Artspages Creative Community Cooperative BA (APCCC) of Norway has finalised arrangements for the establishment of a Copyright Investment Bank (CIB) in Ghana to support Ghanaian musicians with micro-credit facilities.

This was contained in a report from a survey conducted by GAPI with part of the ¢680 million support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) fund for advocacy initiative intended to promote Ghana’s music industry.

The report, titled “Ghana’s Music Industry – Support for the Extension of Long Term Financing”, said the cardinal objective of CIB was to provide long-term financing and enable artistes produce music without handing over their Intellectual Property Right (IPR).

It said the bank would provide credit directly to the individual copyright owner (musicians and song writers) or his/her appointed producer in the form of soft loans, interest-free loans and counter-funding facilities, using only their music works as collateral.

The report said the focus would initially be on musicians with appreciable levels of appeal and marketability on both the local and Diasporan markets through online distribution and mobile phone downloads among others, adding that the package would initially benefit between one and 200 selected musicians from Ghana.

It said for each song the artiste would be provided with at least €1,000 to cover the full production cost, including hiring of studio, backing musicians, technicians, services for cover arts, the license for electronic clearing and web/mobile hosting.

By inference, therefore, the production and online promotion of a full album of 10 songs would benefit from a 10,000-euro credit from the bank.

Mr. Francis Mensah Twum, General Secretary of GAPI said the bank would as well source funds from other local and international investors for on-lending to musicians and artistes.

He confirmed a statement in the report that in order to protect the investments of potential investors, artistes benefiting from the bank would be required to sign their copyright to the bank until the loans given them is paid back with seven per cent interest.

Mr. Twum was quick to point out that to ensure easy and speedy sales of music works and quick CIB loans repayment turn around time, GAPI in collaboration with the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bach Technology AS of Norway for the establishment of an online sales and cyberspace monitoring facility called metadata-store to ensure easy distribution of music works through internet and mobile phone downloads.

Bach AS, he said, had rights to MPEG7 facility that enables it to sell music work through the internet in the form of down loads and also to monitor the public use of such works through cyberspace. Mr. Francis Twum said Bach Technology AS had already received at least €600,000 for the establishment of the metadata-store facility, which would begin from January 2008.

“Beyond making and monitoring online sales, the meta-store technology will also be used to monitor the radio and TV airplay, and the use of songs in bars, discos, restaurants, hotels and other public places and ensure that money accruing from that gets to the artiste,” he said.

He said GAPI had also managed to raise an unspecified amount from its membership as its initial contribution to the establishment of the bank.