Musicians shouldn't pile all managerial roles on one person - Mike Oquaye Jnr

Deputy Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mike Oquaye Jnr. has advised Ghanaian musicians to employ experts to regulate their activities rather than piling more than one role on a person to mange their brands.

According to him, being successful in music transcends just performing in many shows but rather, playing the business side properly.

In his appearance on the GH One TV weekly personality interview show ‘#RythmzLive One-on-One’, Oquaye Jnr. who is a lawyer by profession revealed leading seminars through the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGHA) to sensitize Ghanaian musicians on how to advance their various careers.

“A lot of people know about the shows but they don’t know about the ‘Show Business’. There is a business aspect to it [music] – how you can make money,” Mike Oquaye Jnr. told Berla Mundi.

He continued: “So if you have a manager for example, that manager is involved in your person but you need an agent who will book you gigs and then a road manager who will take you on those trips whiles your manager is taking care of the stage.

“But a lot of people don’t know this so you could have a deal where a manager is acting as an executive producer, road manager, and then as agent. Then there is confusion because if that’s the case, then the percentage he takes is higher. Usually, you would divide this percentage among a few people and yours may be 40% left. If the manager is doing all of this, then he is entitled to at least 50% so there’s a bit of rancor and misunderstandings in some of those things.

“You need to get the artist on board to explain to them how it works and then how there should be division of labor for efficiency. You can’t have a manager who is acting as an agent. You would hardly get any good gig to perform,” he said.