The magnitude at which the dreaded 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected our lives is quiet amazing; to say the least. And the least said about it, the better.
Before Coronavirus, some artistes used to brag about having so much money and not needing advice on how to go about the business aspect of the music industry. Well, the coronavirus period is in to expose you if you were lying.
I can confidently say that any artiste who was only interested in doing music for the passion of it, and was not concerned about returns or building his brand to a certain monetary range is in trouble now.
In other words, any artiste who did not make enough money from his craft is now beginning to feel the effect of how poor he is in his pocket.
And during the 3 weeks lock down period, some artistes and celebrities even came on social media to warn fans to stop sliding into their DMs to demand for money as if they (celebrities) owe them.
The coronavirus pandemic and its resulting effects on life is the first of its kind in this generation. And I believe that the lessons learnt so far should be enough to make us want to change the way we do things in the music industry.
We need a total overhaul and change of mindset if the music industry is going to be able to stand tall to situations like this one.
One major change will have to do with switching from the traditional “live audience concert” way of doing music business to a more aggressive online based marketing strategy. The traditional way is the only way Ghanaian musicians make their money. If you don’t play a show, you don’t get money; but that shouldn’t be the case.
In the past 3 to 4 years, Ghanaian artistes have become more conscious of the concepts of streams, digital sales and online activations; something their counterparts in America and Europe started reaping its’ benefits over a decade ago with the inception of the internet.
A lot is still left to be desired as monies gotten from online streams by Ghanaian artistes are peanuts as compared to their counterparts in neighboring Nigeria.
So when Coronavirus is over, I would love to see Ghanaian musicians revisiting the drawing board to restrategise on how they can build a larger online presence. Building an online presence will automatically mean more engagements, more interactions and more monies.
This will also have to go along with a restructuring of how events are also organized in Ghana. Apart from the large audience live concerts, I think some virtual concerts should also be included once in a while to make them eventually popularly so that when it is not possible to meet at a venue for a concert, we can sit at the comforts of our homes and stream the concert online. Shatta Wale has started it and it’s a laudable idea.
Source || Depunch.com
Ewurama Acheampoma