As part of efforts to bring sanity into the music industry and as well fight corruption, the Professional Musicians Association of Ghana (PROMAG) has been formed by a group of musicians.
The association, which some members of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) see as a threat to MUSIGA was registered two years ago, with certain seasoned Ghanaian musicians as founding members.
The new union which has its headquarters in Accra is working tirelessly to establish regional offices very soon.
The formation of PROMAG was made known at a meeting held on Monday at the North Ridge Hotel to find a lasting solution to the problems facing the music industry in the country.
The meeting attracted a large number of musicians, music producers and some stakeholders in the music industry.
Addressing the musicians at the meeting, Mr. Carlos Sakyi, a copyright advocate told the musicians that in Ghana a number of musicians had died through frustration and poverty, without leaving their creative behind.
He called for a common vision that would enhance unity among those in the music industry as well as the need to halt all forms of interference by the Copyright Office and its administrator in the operations of the music industry.
Another renowned musician, Mac Tontoh of Osibisa fame, told musicians not to let anyone joke with their intellectual property, and advised them to take research seriously, to help them improve on their works.
He said for the past 8 years musicians in Ghana have not seen progress in their lives, blaming the leadership of MUSIGA for the woes of musicians.
“It is time for us to insist that the right thing is done because we musicians cannot continue to suffer,” Mac pointed out.
The formation of PROMAG comes in the wake of recent calls by Ghana’s celebrated and internationally acclaimed divine drummer, Kofi Ghanaba, for the formation of a rival musicians’ association to better serve the interests of musicians and inject sanity into the music industry.
MUSIGA, he observed, had become an albatross around the neck of many musicians because of the absence of an alternative association.
“I’m praying at the age of 84 that Carlos and his group would form the rival society so that we will join them, knowing very well that our interests will be better served,” the divine drummer said in Accra at a forum for musicians.
“We want action! We want change!” he exclaimed. Kofi Ghanaba made the call at forum organised by Metro TV and the BUSAC Fund, on the theme “Comparative study of the music industry of Ghana and South Africa”.
Ghanaba urged well-meaning musicians to sacrifice and change the industry for posterity, stressing if the formation of a rival organisation would bring an improvement in the operations of MUSIGA, all the better.
