George Britton: Music business is 'costly' but 'very lucrative'

Ghanaian music executive and founder of GB Recordz George M. Britton has said that the music business is expensive and tasking but at the same time, it is one of the most lucrative ventures of the day.

Britton said this on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, via Facebook.

"The music industry has evolved into one of the most costly but also most lucrative creative endeavors of our day.

"From creation to consuming cost[s] a fortune," he said.

To illustrate his point, he cited how it took the spending of "over GHS970,000 in a year" to project his artiste Camidoh to "global success as one of Africa's most streamed artists," via the creation and promotion of his 2021 song 'Sugarcane' and its 2022 viral remix.

According to George, it took the effort of "the amazing team behind Camidoh, i.e., Grind Don't Stop, GB Recz, and Crux Global, not forgetting some amazing support from the media, family, and friends," to achieve the said feat.

For promotion, the near-million-cedi budget went into shooting two music videos for the 2021 and 2022 versions. Subsquently, both traditional and social media were engaged for promotion, locally and otherwise.

"JWillz and Rex, two incredible Ghanaian directors, shot and edited two music videos, Sugarcane and Sugarcane Remix, respectively. Promotions were run on both radio and TV in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, the UK, and the US.

"Online ad sponsors, social media influencers, and content creators in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, the UK, the US, Tanzania, etc. were equally engaged. Nightclubs and bars in Africa as well as the UK played a significant role," George indicated.

Aside noting Camidoh and Sugarcane's success thus far, he did not give details about how much was made from the GHS970,000 investment. He rather underscored how: "The music industry has evolved into one of the most costly but also most lucrative creative endeavors of our day."

Finally, Mr Britton argued that the aforementioned citation, is a testament to the profitability of the Ghana music industry if only it had "much stronger enabler[s], i.e., the presence of major record labels, heavy financial support from the government, and angel investors... to help propel the artists to a global stage."

Camidoh's latest project is a new 6-track extended play (EP) titled 'A Lifetime Is Not Enough: ALINE', released on January 19, 2023.