At a time when the 10th Ghana Music Awards has Ghanaian artists and music fans celebrating home-grown music, the outcome from a recent seminar in Accra was concerned with raising awareness of the music industry, and dealing with some of its problems. Some of those problems are infrastructural, whilst others are based on a lack of appreciation of how copyright, the music industry and media industries, work. Most of the problems are surmountable within the short term, and in the long term, there is the potential for significant financial contributions to the music industry and the Ghanaian economy.

Lack of clarity regarding copyright and its enforcement; a need for proper record companies and marketing; and functioning, transparent structures that allow artists and songwriters to be fairly recompensed for their creativity, were some of the issues raised at the Making Money From Music: Intellectual Property, Income Streams, The Media & Marketing seminar held at Accra’s Ghana International Press Centre.

With support from the Press Centre, the free seminar was organised and led by Kwaku, a UK-based music industry tutor, consultant and journalist, and the founder of London-based BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress. It was attended by musicians including Stan Plange and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, composers such as Professor Nketia and Azongo Simpi, former Copyright Administrator Andrew Amegatcher, record label owners, journalists, lawyers and civil servants.

“There certainly seems to be a better understanding of the issues now, compared to when I was here last year for the Music & Business seminar,” says Kwaku. “This fills me with hope that we can overcome most of these infrastructural problems pretty quickly, and hasten the reality of music being an important income earner for those that create and invest in it, and the Ghanaian economy.”

As intellectual property, particularly copyright is a key driver of the music and creative industries, the need for a strong copyright regime is imperative. It is hoped that the new Attorney General and Minister Of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, a former Copyright Administrator and a lawyer well versed in these issues, will help bring about the speedy introduction of the Legislative Instrument (LI), which is needed to direct the way in which the Copyright Act of 2005 will work.

A stumbling block to the passage of the LI has been the strong lobbying by some musicians, industry personnel and academics, who have been petitioning against the LI, until two contentious sections of the Act dealing with folkloric and public domain (PD) works, have been resolved to their satisfaction. They take issue with the in perpetuity protection given to folkloric and PD works and the fact that Ghanaians will to have to pay for the use of these works, which form part of  their “cultural heritage”.

This is a disincentive that will result in young musicians using even more Western influences, rather than relying on their Ghanaian musical heritage, contends one of the lobbyists. In most countries, PD and folkloric works are deemed to be outside of copyright protection, and hence can be freely used without permission or payment. However several developing countries have been trying to develop a protocol for dealing with folkloric works under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). As yet no consensus has been reached.

Copyright Administrator Mr Bernard Bosumprah is a supporter of payment for PD and folkloric works, which he sees as a means of funding development of indigenous Ghanaian culture. He also adds that the reciprocity rules of the international copyright conventions demand that there should not be prejudicial treatment based on nationality. Hence payment will have to be made by Ghanaians and foreign nationals who wish to make use of Ghanaian folkloric and PD works.

Without an LI in place, there is no effective way of dealing with this issue; the high level of piracy, and one of the important areas of concern – collection and payment for public performance of music.

Commercial users of music, such as television and radio broadcasters, mobile phone operators (ringtones), hotels, nightclubs, and even hair salons, are supposed to pay a fee for the public performance of the sound recordings and music. Whilst some broadcasters are known to have paid in the past, most do not, whilst a few have attempted an ad hoc way of paying directly to the musicians.  

Collection and disbursement of public performance royalties are done on a collective basis. Which means a musician cannot go to a broadcaster and request payment for public performance of his or her recording or music. By the same token, broadcasters cannot out of their volition pay artists and songwriters directly. This is because there must be an agreed tariff set by a collection society, which then collects and pays the rights owners.

However the situation has become rather confusing of late. The only collection society, COSGA, is said to have either been dissolved or there’s a petition for its dissolution. And although the new Act, for the first time allows for multiple collection societies to be formed by stakeholders, without the LI in place, no new collection society can take over from COSGA. Which means artists and songwriters are not able to receive their due.

The registration system at the Copyright Office, and COSGA’s logging information of music usage needs to move to an updated computerised framework. At the time of writing, a delegation from Switzerland was meeting with personnel from the Attorney General department and the Copyright Office, with the aim of computerising the copyright administration set-up. The broadcasters, who are the major users of music, will also need to adapt their processes by paying blanket licences for their usage, be it for programmes or advertising, and provide the collection society with computerised logs identifying individual usage.

Although record sales were identified as a major income stream, proper marketing, distribution, and tracking of sales data in order to pay artist royalties, were highlighted as areas that needed to be addressed.

With sales of physical products such as CDs and cassettes falling, partly due to illegal downloading from the internet, Kwaku pointed to the need for artists to develop their live performances. It was however pointed out that Ghana lacked good medium-sized venues for artists to tour the country. However, instead of looking to the Government to build multi-purpose use community centres, it was suggested that an appeal be made to entrepreneurs inside and outside of the music industry to build these venues.

Two income streams that could be developed in Ghana were highlighted. Merchandising allows well-known artists to generate income by licensing the use of their names, images or brands on consumer products such as T-shirts, caps, etc.

Music publishing, which is one of the oldest sectors of the music industry and almost non-existent in Ghana, allows a songwriter to exploit his or her music without necessarily being a performing artist. The music publisher registers the music, seeks ways of commercially exploiting the music, and pays the songwriter a royalty, which is different from the royalties paid to artists for performing the music either live or on a record.

Traditionally, there has been no distinction in Ghana between the artist or musician as the performer, and the songwriter or composer of the music and lyrics. Most record producers and production companies make an assumption that their recording rights automatically give them rights to the music. Hence, those that pay royalties, do so just to the artist based on rates detailed in the recording contracts. Songwriters seldom receive separate royalties from sales of recordings embodying their music.

However, the 2005 Act recognises the distinction between the artist and songwriter. Section 24 (7) states: “It shall be an infringement of copyright if a manufacturer or publisher deals in a copy of a sound recording made under this section without the mechanical royalty payment.” The mechanical royalty payment is should be at least 7% of the retail price of the record, which should be shared by the songwriter and publisher. Confusingly, the Act uses the word ‘publisher’ to also mean “the person who issues duplicates of the sound recording or audio visual work”.

“I’m hoping the prior knowledge which the new Attorney General and Minister Of Justice brings to her office will mean that there will be a speedy resolution of the folkloric and public domain issues raised by the lobbyists,” says Kwaku. “That should lead to the publication of the LI, which will add much needed teeth for the implementation of the 2005 Copyright Act.

“Once that’s in place, whether it’s through COSGA or specialist collection societies, perhaps one for record companies and recording artists, and another for music publishers and songwriters, tariffs must be agreed with the radio and television broadcasters, who must also supply logs of their usage in order for the collection societies to pay the right recipients.”

With regards to the media and how it interacts with the music industry, the issue of payment for a write-up in the press, known as soli, and for airplay, known as payola, were dealt with. It was suggested that those promoting music or artists have an option to pay for advertising. But should not pay journalists or broadcasters when use of their information or products, provide content for editorial or programming.

Journalists and presenters need to be paid a living wage in order to reduce the dependence on payment before they discharge their duties. This is because an industry where coverage or usage is dependent on payment would mean we read, hear or see not necessarily what was is best or deserving, but what someone can afford to pay for the media to expose.

Those marketing the music must create decent, but not necessarily expensive, press packs consisting of artist biography, press release, and free promotional copies of CDs or DVDs for the media, who hopefully will use it because it fits with their editorial or programming interest. Media showcases, where artists perform some of their new material for the media ahead of the release date, was another useful way of gaining media interest.

Some owners of private broadcasting outlets were under the impression that because their exposure promoted the music and artists, they should not pay for the use of the music. Kwaku pointed out that as part of their obligations for using music, they are supposed to pay a blanket licence, which the collection society then pays to the artists, songwriters and rights owners of the recordings and music, whether the work is publicly performed in a programme or advertising.

Kwaku pointed out that the seminar was not just an opportunity to point out how things work in Britain and much of the western world, but was also an opportunity for dialogue in order to find local solutions. Britain, he added, does not have all the solutions. For example, British black music is not highlighted or exploited as much as it could be. Which is why his organisation, Black Music Congress (BMC), launched the June Is British Black Music Month initiative.

“It’s a way of dealing with industry related issues, and also highlighting and celebrating black music made in Britain,” says the BMC founder. The initiative includes seminars; album anatomies with a panel consisting of an artist, some of the people who played a part in the success of the profiled album, such as a manager, marketing or Artist & Repertoire (A&R) personnel; concerts; club nights; a fair and networking opportunity.”

A suggestion was made that as PANAFEST concentrates on culture and history, stakeholders should consider a festival focused on music performance and music industry talk programmes aimed at the domestic market, but attracting international interests. “That would be one way of spreading awareness of Ghanaian music internationally,” says Kwaku.

“Further down the line, the anti-piracy awareness campaign needs to be revived in order to remind manufacturers and sellers alike that the law requires physical music and audio-visual products such as CDs and DVDs to have security stickers,” adds Kwaku. “I know there are some stakeholders that oppose these stickers. I would suggest a way forward may be a transparent regime whereby the way the income from the sale of these stickers is divided is widely published.”

There was a call for more music industry seminars and courses in order to improve the knowledge and awareness of what is potentially a multi-million dollar industry.

“To move the music industry forward, I think we need to learn the business aspect, because that has eluded us for a long time,” says noted musician Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. “People are just fascinated seeing their faces on the television, and the business aspect of it doesn’t come in. That has contributed to musicians and professional musicians that have contributed to the industry in Ghana becoming so poor, because they did not look at the business aspect.

“So it very important that we have workshops, seminars and all that to be able to train people and infuse into them the business aspect. I thank you very much for this workshop, and for bringing us together. But it cannot be the last, because there has to be a continuation.”


ENDS

Kwaku
BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress
021-774344 (Accra), 020-8450 5987 (London)
editor@britishblackmusic.com
www.britishblackmusic.com

NOTES
The Making Money From Music seminar was held held at Accra’s Ghana International Press Centre on April 2 2009. It was organised by Black Music Congress (BMC) in association with BTWSC, a pan-London voluntary organisation BMC works with to deliver music industry courses and community events.

Kwaku is an NVQ assessor, journalist, music and media industry consultant and facilitator, music industry lecturer at Collage Arts, and former lecturer at City & Islington College, City University London, and University Of Westminster’s BA and MA music industry courses. He’s the founder of the Black Music Congress, holds MA degrees in Media, and Music Business Management, and LLM in Entertainment Law. He has organised, chaired and/or sat on numerous seminars and debates on music, youth, African and community issues.

The Black Music Congress (BMC) is a UK-based forum for discussing black music issues, networking, and a pathway to music industry education. It works with partners such as the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and intellectual property advisory group Own-It; and pan London voluntary organisation BTWSC, through which it delivers community engagement programmes, and courses. For backgrounds, please see www.britishblackmusic.com and www.btwsc.com. BMC is the initiator of the June Is British Black Music Month initiative.