Who is responsible for the up and coming artiste?

The music sector in Ghana is one of the most vibrant in the creative arts industry and it has the potential to contribute immensely to the country’s economic growth and development.

Even though like any other sectors the music industry faces its fair share of challenges including piracy, limited access to finance, fragmentation, weak enforcement and the likes, we need to look into the career of the up and coming artistes who mature to become the stars.

There are countless number of up and coming artistes in the music scene complaining about how difficult it is to breakthrough. As some artiste blame their managers for not making things easy for them to come up, some managers also blame disc jockeys taking huge sums of money but the highest blame goes to the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) as the body to seek for the welfare of musicians.

Most people in the music industry think that Musicians Union of Ghana is responsible for the breakthrough of the up and coming artistes but others also think otherwise. Since the new entrants have that perception, some are waiting for the union to make things work smoothly for them.

If the blame game continues like this, there wouldn’t be any solution to it since we have not really identified any single person or group that is responsible for the suffering of our musicians coming up. The above are the contributing factors and to help solve the problem, we need to tackle it from all angles.

On a more serious note, we also need the executive producers like those we used to have in the past like Aggiecoat, Big Ben, U Name It, Despite and many others who have helped the music industry in the past, to move the music industry forward. It is also about time the Ghanaian DJ realized that to boost the music industry so he gets more songs for his programme every day, he has to support the up and coming ones because they will grow to replace the older ones when they retire or pass away.

The Musicians Union of Ghana, I know has a membership category for music students and fledgling musicians. Just being a member is not enough. Organizing workshops and advising these young ones is worthwhile but some need links and financial support. It would be right and in order if the union could create such opportunities for these talents.

Aside these, I strongly believe that the modus operandi of marketing music has changed and much of the work now rests with the up and coming artistes. If you position yourself well, you get the necessary recognition and assistance. They also need to brand themselves well so they will be spotted. Sometimes it is not only about money. It is also about repositioning yourself as a showbizer and establishing a rapport with the powers that be. You don’t fold your arms and expect help from heaven.

Music is a big business venture and so I would advise the up and coming artistes to treat it as such. They need to invest in their work. Even if it requires that they go for loan to invest into their trade, they need to do it. They should stop recording demos and dumping them on DJs, and rather spend money to employ experienced music producers to record their songs.

Social media is the new order now and it is very effective. Artistes can even get their social media accounts monetized and without playing any shows they could make some money as well as get their songs across to a wider audience. They should make use of technology but above all, they should never compromise on quality.

Starting anything from the scratch comes with challenges and that means rising to make it in the music industry wouldn’t come on a silver platter but if some of the afore – suggested panaceas would be adhered to, we could alleviate the strife up and coming musicians go through before making it in the music industry.