Good Kwame Appau, you have a good and tangible point. Its my hope your message will be understood and interpreted properly to all. God bless you!!
Good Kwame Appau, you have a good and tangible point. Its my hope your message will be understood and interpreted properly to all. God bless you!!
ELINAN 9 years ago
Togo our next door neighbor has in place all that the article talked about. Yes, royalty is paid in Togo.
What we need to understand is Ghana has become a country where every good thing is corrupted. We took religion, trade, ... read full comment
Togo our next door neighbor has in place all that the article talked about. Yes, royalty is paid in Togo.
What we need to understand is Ghana has become a country where every good thing is corrupted. We took religion, trade, education, sports,politics,broadcasting, city/town planning and even love and corrupted it to fit our underdeveloped mind set.
Ogya Koo 9 years ago
The premise that musicians are the source of music is a narrow view of the human race. Every single human being makes music whether they are in the shower or singing "happy birthday". Formalised musicians who make music for a ... read full comment
The premise that musicians are the source of music is a narrow view of the human race. Every single human being makes music whether they are in the shower or singing "happy birthday". Formalised musicians who make music for a living and depend on copyright and licenses are living in the wrong country. To begin with, copyright in its entirerity is a great disruption to the local systems of Ghanaian music popularisation and sharing. Any piece of music is solely popularised by the Ghanaian people when they choose to share it at a funeral or party. It is the Ghanaian power of word (konkonsa) that is able to make an artist popular. To give you an example, AB Crenstil's Adam and Eve was very popular but not a commercial success. This made AB Crenstil a valuable commodity and he could perform at any function for a fee. This is what is called "branding". The music is only a tiny part of it. Unfortunately, people like you, Okyeame Kwame, fail to understand how to manage yourself as a brand and to capitlise on it; without damaging the social systems of folklore sharing which is "Ubuntu - I exist because the community exists". The Ghanaian populace is what embraces and accords a certian "respect" to an arist. Yet artists have total disrespect of the Ghanaian because of their fixation on monetary gains. The university professor John Collins collected, created and collated music at his bokoor records at Taifa for more than 30 years. Did he become rich in terms of money? No, he did not! He bacame rich in knowledge and resources. Today, he has become the first point of call in Ghana when BBC, Aljazeera or CNN wants to speak to any authority. Professor Nketia is another composer. The composer of the Ghana National Anthem...etcetera. The wolome popularised "Wayeloo" through community social engagements and remained to this day a major force. Their power lies in their ability to tune into the core social systems of sharing which you and your team at MUSIGA have failed to understand.
Let me help you understand that the reason why musicians and performers do not achieve such success and recognition because they "import" Western intepretations of music enjoyment. Ghanaians and Africans for that matter are rooted in social networks which tie a piece of music to historical points in order to tell a story. This is why so many Ananse stories have music in it. If copyright was to be applied in its entireity, you and me and everyone else would have violated it. How many times have you sang someone else's song in the bathroom or at a birthday. Have you sang the "happy birthday" song lately? Well it is owned by Warner Music. You owe them some money! That is how stupid the law is.
Am I against copyright. Yes! In how it is now. If the law was adjusted to suit the society, then it will make sense to pay you for your so called Intellectual Property.
Everything you and I have learned have been from someone else who charged you nothing for it. Even the music you make is recorded alongside instruments played from a keyboard. The sounds like drums, hihats, cymbals, gongs and etcetera are all naturally occuring sounds who have not received their copyright. If you use any such instruments in your music then you owe nature some money. Musicians are entitled, in some form, to make some money from assembling pieces of sounds together with their creativity to make a piece of music. But to use such a platform to hold the nation and communities to hostage is a gross selfish and narrow view of property. You are a Ghanaian and part of your contribution to the society is music. Think of UBUNTU...
The argument that creativity will die because of copying is condecending and childish. Go to mokola and here the blind beggars (onipa nua) who make some of the most awesome songs ever.
Break down the amount of money which the radio stations make on a radio ad and you will see how unthruthful and wrong your ascertion is. The average radio ad is about $30, then the VAT people deduct theirs, electrictity, radio djs, rents...etcetera.
Think differently...cut your recording costs, cut your showmanship costs, drive an energy efficient car, stop wasting money on mobile phones...it all helps...
ELINAN 9 years ago
You raised some important points but failed to mentioned the gate keepers/ the radio DJs who extort money - PAYOLA from artists before play their music or most time defraud them.
It is only in Ghana that a radio DJ is more i ... read full comment
You raised some important points but failed to mentioned the gate keepers/ the radio DJs who extort money - PAYOLA from artists before play their music or most time defraud them.
It is only in Ghana that a radio DJ is more important and popular in stature than a creative artist and just as pastors are important in stature than scientists ans educators.
We need to build an industry and we have to build it right and not corrupt it.
The traditions of Africa which you used to explain yourself are not totally alien to the Chinese and the Japanese societies but there is a thriving artistic industry that allow those who practice it a better living condition under a regulated law than we see in Ghana. CHEATING HAS BECOME AN ACCEPTED INDUSTRY IN GHANA AND THIS HAS TO GO!!
We need to have laws to guide us as we become a nation of 25 million and not some 2 million people locked up in some village setting.
Opaning Twumasi 9 years ago
money.howstuffworks.com/intellectual-property.htm
"Think differently...cut your recording costs, cut your showmanship costs, drive an energy efficient car, stop wasting money on mobile phones...it all helps..."
I beg to ... read full comment
money.howstuffworks.com/intellectual-property.htm
"Think differently...cut your recording costs, cut your showmanship costs, drive an energy efficient car, stop wasting money on mobile phones...it all helps..."
I beg to differ but if they do that, you same people will whine and complain that they're village stars. smh
Amoateng 9 years ago
“How will the artists make money” is basically just a distraction from the real and important issues at hand, and this story helps bring them there.
The story of “the letter” deals with just how big and vital civil ... read full comment
“How will the artists make money” is basically just a distraction from the real and important issues at hand, and this story helps bring them there.
The story of “the letter” deals with just how big and vital civil liberties have been sacrificed in the transition from analog to digital at the tenacious insistence of the copyright industry for the sake of their bottom line. The analog letter was the message sent the way our parents sent them: written onto a physical piece of paper, put into an envelope, postaged with an old-fashioned stamp and put into a mailbox for physical delivery to the intended recipient.
That letter had four important characteristics that each embodied vital civil liberties.
That letter, first of all, was anonymous. Everybody had the right to send an anonymous message to somebody. You could identify yourself on the inside of the message, for only the recipient to know, on the envelope, for the postal services to know, or not at all. Or you could write a totally bogus name, organization, and address as the sender of your message, and that was okay, too. Not just okay, it was even fairly common.
Second, it was secret in transit. When we talk of letters being opened and inspected routinely, the thoughts go to scenes of the East German Stasi – the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, the East German National Security Agency (yes, that’s how Stasi’s name translates). Letters being opened and inspected? Seriously? You had to be the primary suspect of an extremely grave crime for that to take place.
Third, the mailman was never ever held responsible for the contents of the letters being carried. The thought was ridiculous. They were not allowed to look at the messages in the first place, so it was unthinkable that they’d be held accountable for what they dutifully delivered.
Fourth, the letter was untracked. Nobody had the means – nor indeed the capability – to map who was communicating with whom.
All of these characteristics, which all embed vital civil liberties, have been lost in the transition to digital at the insistence of the copyright industry – so that they, as a third-party, can prevent people from sending letters with a content they just don’t like to see sent, for business reasons of theirs.
The question of “how will somebody make money” is entirely irrelevant. The job of any entrepreneur is to make money given the current constraints of society and technology.
No industry gets to dismantle civil liberties with the poor excuse that they can’t make money otherwise. They have the simple choice of doing something else or go out of business. And yet, that’s exactly what we have allowed the copyright industry to do: dismantle vital civil liberties. Dismantle the very concept of the private letter. And they’re continuing to do so under pretty but deceptive words.
When I explain the situation like this, the penny drops for an astounding amount of people and they stop asking the learned, but silly, question about how somebody is to get paid if we have the rights we’ve always had – to send anything to anybody anonymously.
That’s the Analog Equivalent Right. To be able send anything to anybody anonymously. And that’s what we need to bring to the digital environment, even if an obsolete industry doesn’t like it because it may or may not hurt the bottom line. That’s completely irrelevant.
Try telling this story and watch the penny drop, almost every single time. It’s remarkable.
Good Kwame Appau, you have a good and tangible point. Its my hope your message will be understood and interpreted properly to all. God bless you!!
Togo our next door neighbor has in place all that the article talked about. Yes, royalty is paid in Togo.
What we need to understand is Ghana has become a country where every good thing is corrupted. We took religion, trade, ...
read full comment
The premise that musicians are the source of music is a narrow view of the human race. Every single human being makes music whether they are in the shower or singing "happy birthday". Formalised musicians who make music for a ...
read full comment
You raised some important points but failed to mentioned the gate keepers/ the radio DJs who extort money - PAYOLA from artists before play their music or most time defraud them.
It is only in Ghana that a radio DJ is more i ...
read full comment
money.howstuffworks.com/intellectual-property.htm
"Think differently...cut your recording costs, cut your showmanship costs, drive an energy efficient car, stop wasting money on mobile phones...it all helps..."
I beg to ...
read full comment
“How will the artists make money” is basically just a distraction from the real and important issues at hand, and this story helps bring them there.
The story of “the letter” deals with just how big and vital civil ...
read full comment