Play Ghana campaign has become a necessary evil to growth, not only for our musicians but everyone in the creative industry and the nation at large.
Growth occurs when products are patronized,but more growth occur when indigenous people consume and preserve their own.It is one thing to consume and another thing to look out for its value for money and how it affects people outside of your home, by extension the international industry.
Although there should be a balance between local and foreign music aired on our local airwaves, we cannot underestimate the following as consumers and industry players;
- Foreign musicians understand that, it takes a lot of work to break into other markets.Their initial action is to create networks. By this action, they are able to identify those who control and drive the industry. They start from spinners, on air presenters, club and radio DJs. All of this is an attempt to establish connections with those who engineer this field.
- They are not afraid of making massive investments into getting their works broadcast on television and radio. Accept it or not, Nigerian and Ghanaian investors differ significantly in terms of their investments.The former makes huge capital investments without looking back unlike the latter that over depends on generosity of people without any intentions of spending a penny out of their own efforts.
Now to the “Play Ghana campaign”. Given that this would encourage local consumption of our own music, this initiative is fantastic.Personally I feel the concept has been rushed and handled incorrectly. Organizing a press conference to inform the public we need 90% Ghanaian music and 10% foreign music cannot be enough. This should have been the last item to consider as far as this campaign is concerned.
The campaign requires a master plan and blueprint to periodically choose the best path of action.
The press briefing should not have featured any reigning artiste. Reason is that those acts crosses over into the Nigerian market. Undoubtedly, these folks have the biggest market in Africa. Just imagine catching fire and being quenched at the same time.
We can address the core of the issue by conducting a
quick survey into why our Ghanaian music is not getting as much airplay.
Next would’ve been meeting with DJs, radio station owners ,the NCA and spinners, a table could be drawn to gradually cut down on the amount of foreign music.
Our actions could have unintended consequences of restricting the countries with the larger markets to consume our music beyond our bothers, further stunting the growth of our music industry.
MC Mataaya.
(Alhassan Yakubu Sualesu)
