Ghanaian prolific gospel singer, Diana Hamilton has noted that laid down structures that have been put in place in Ghana’s music system must work to benefit artists.
Speaking in an interview, the reigning artiste of the year stated that she received some meager amount of money as royalty five years ago and further noted that she hadn’t bothered to check if she has received subsequent ones because it is meager.
“I was given GHS1000 as royalties five years ago. I cannot say I have gotten anymore but I haven’t checked because it is so meager. If it was a huge sum of money, I would have seen it and spoken about it. All I will say is guys, let’s make the system work. I am sure there are laws and so many things put in place in our systems, we make it work”.
Diana Hamilton
Comparing Ghana’s music management system to ones abroad, Diana mentioned that she receives liable information on her music from music management companies outside Ghana who as well provide a breakdown of how her music is disseminated.
“When I release a song and I hand it over to cedi baby, all I do is sit back and every two weeks I get a cheque through the mail. There is a breakdown of who played your song, which club or church played my song, which radio and tv station played my song. There’s a breakdown of how much it costs them to play my song”.
Diana Hamilton
Diana further posited that “I know what every outlet is bringing me. I know what my biggest shop is; whether it’s iTunes, boom play, or Amazon. There is also the royalty’s side. There are systems that are here, can we make them work here too?”
Diana Hamilton is not the only industry player who has bemoaned the inconsistencies in the Ghana Music Industry especially with the distribution and dissemination of music as well as payment of royalties.
It can be recalled that artists like D-Black, Kwaw Kese, King Promise, Stonebwoy, and other artists vented similar concerns as industry players are clamoring for a change soon.
GHAMRO enhances royalty collection system
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), Rex Omar, recently revealed that his outfit has revamped its royalty collection system.
According to Rex, GHAMRO has collaborated with an Irish company that helps to identify the songs being played on all radio and TV stations across the country and also come up with a new payment system.
In an interview, Mr. Omar explained that, unlike previous years when an artiste’s album among others, influenced how much he or she got paid, the new system will indicate which song was played from which artiste, the time it was played, how long the song was played, the radio station that played the song and every other detail.
Mr. Omar also mentioned that now, the number of songs from an artist that is played will determine how much money they will earn as royalties.
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