Investor confidence in Showbiz is no more – Entertainment Critic

Reminiscing some few years down the lane, one of Chinua Achebe’s novels, entitled, ‘Things Fall Apart’, perfectly suits the creative arts industry in Ghana.

The fulcrum is rigid; more effort is needed to power the loads of talent development. The gusto which stirred the few investors that brought hope to some hopeless talents has now coiled back into its shells. Not long ago, a musician could be spotted and sent to the studio, booked and recorded to the master level with all expenses paid.

‘Front money’ as it was popularly known, was given to the artiste whilst logistics like clothing, transportation and feeding were fabulously taken care of. In a flash, a new dawn of talent abandoning has erupted in the industry and bad songs have taken over from some ‘self-sponsored’ artistes.

In the beginning, lack of proper contracts were missing hence the rebellion attitudes which kept the feuds between artistes and the executive producers. Some fortunate veteran musicians whose songs couldn’t have made hit today but benefited from some of these benevolent entrepreneurs should be blamed in the matters of showbiz investor-confidence-declination.

The migration of analogue to the digital audiovisual productions have doubled the rate of piracy; a sinister which has been one of the major causes of the investor-confidence-declination. In arguing this issue of piracy as a major threat globally, the advanced countries, although are facing similar challenge, but have adopted stringent measures to reduce the effect. But in Ghana, the issue of piracy is out of hands.

Luring the investors back into the business, our authorities in charge of copyright, piracy, royalty collection and distribution should invent proactive measures to revamp the dwindling creative arts industry as more talents are yet to be discovered.

Nana Agyei Boateng 0244-079-390