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| Music Industry Winding? |
3/13/2007 |
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A survey conducted by ABODWESE CONSULTANCY, a private consultancy firm in Accra has revealed that the music industry is dwindling and if appropriate measures are not taken to arrest the problem facing the industry, it will definitely collapse just the way the film industry collapsed.
The CEO of the consultancy firm Mr. Stanley Simpey Nyame in an interview with a reporter said he gathered the data that was used for the research from Channel ‘R’, a private Christian radio station based in Accra.
According to the Chief Executive Officer the total number of gospel albums received at Channel ‘R’ in the year 2006 is 167, which is less than the 240 albums received in 2005 also by the same station.
Out of the 167 albums, only 27 albums became hits representing 16.2% of success rate. In other countries like the US and South Africa where the music industry is booming, the minimum success rate is between 79 to 80%.
A hit song was defined in this research as an album that sold past 20,000 copies (Twenty thousand copies).
The number of albums received at Channel ‘R’ from Kumasi stood at 35 which according to the CEO is not a true reflection of albums released in Kumasi. A small study conducted in Kumasi revealed that at least five (5) albums are released every week in Kumasi alone, therefore the 35 that came to Accra were those who were bold enough to face the so called "expensive promotion" in Accra.
About 60 albums from Kumasi also went straight to television boycotting radio promotion but that did not help matters.
The figures below also shows the number of albums received at Channel ‘R’ from Ghanaians based overseas: USA-2, UK-2, Canada-3, 1 from Togo, 3 from Nigeria, 2 from Italy, 2 from Holland, I from Germany and 1 from Liberia which is not encouraging looking at the huge number of gospel musicians we have abroad.
According to the survey, out of the total number of 167 albums received, 74 albums were from male artistes representing a percentage of 44.3% whiles the female artistes who released albums were 71 representing 42.2 per cent.
This clearly shows that there were a higher turnout of male gospel musicians than that of the female which has been the normal trend all these years. Meanwhile female musicians easily get producers than the male artistes though they all release wonderful albums.
The CEO further explained that the artistes that came as a group were 22 making 13 per cent. Within this figure the male - male group (MMG) artistes were 3 with a percentage of 13.6%. Female-female group (FFG) albums were 4 with the percentage of 18 per cent. Male-female group (MFG) was 15 also making 68 per cent.
It was also revealed that the number of old artistes whose albums were received at Channel ‘R’ was 63 making 37.7% whiles that of the new artistes was 104 with a percentage of 62.2.
According to ABODWESE CONSULTANCY, in the case of musicians who got producers, Accra topped Kumasi by 50 with a percentage of 51.5 per cent and Kumasi getting 22 producers with a percentage 22.7.
However, the percentage of male artistes who got producers were 33 making 34% and female with producers were 48 representing 49.4%.
It was also revealed that 70 artistes did not get producers making 41.9% and this shows that the female artiste always get producers than that of the male artistes in the country.
Looking at the number of albums from the regions that became hit, Accra ones again took the lead with 16 albums representing 59.3% whiles Kumasi had 9 albums also representing 33.3% and in all the total per cent of albums released in Ghana were 157 representing 89.8% in 2006.
The CEO finally said the data was collected on gospel music, but it is also a reflection of what goes on in the circular sector and the inference can be made out of this research for the Ghanaian music industry.
The producer situation he said is very worrying. Most of them are backing out citing piracy and payola in particular as major reasons among others.
The research clearly demonstrates that if we have more effective producers, we can have more hits since out of the 27 hit albums 25 of them got producers and that is very encouraging.
Abodwese consultancy is conducting a survey into the operations of the governing bodies of the industry and will soon come out with its report. They are also working on another project and will soon come out with a report on the real situation on the ground on payola.
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