Is it........tion? 

What a week it's been.....from the fallout of the theft of Auntie Cecilia Dapaah's cash to her resignation and the spins et al on the saga/scandal.

For me, it's a matter of where do you stand in this whole brouhaha. Can you believe some folks are justifying the theft by saying if thief man thief a man, nothing is wrong. What we have to bear in mind is that the source of the cash hasn't been determined yet although there are all sorts of stories in the public domain. What I know for a fact is that the A.G. has said there will be an investigation to determine the source of the cash. Whether it's a late brother's cash or otherwise.

At the end of the day, this matter must be handled well to send the right signals to all and sundry. That like His Excellency the President said, his government won't be an avenue for wealth creation through unwholesome means. There's too much steam from the kitchen and I believe President Akufo-Addo will do well to normalize the temperature in the kitchen.

Beyond the sway of politics, I had the fortune of participating in Panafest this year. There's so much to say about Panafest and Emancipation Day. 

All I will say for now is that, these two events must be linked to the Beyond the Return campaign and anchored in the December in Gh activities so that visitors in December will be aware of Panafest/Emancipation and that would be the spiritual component to the fun and excitement of the December in Gh vibe.

See you soon!

 KUMAWU ELECTIONS

There's been is it jokes or sayings that, for development, your MP must die to attract the government's attention for them to bring development to your constituency.

For me I believe those thoughts will disappear sooner or later as Ghanaians wake up and smell the coffee, realizing that politicians will want to take them for a ride whenever possible.

As we await the results from Kumawu, although it's most likely that the NPP candidate will carry the day. The question then is what will be the margin of victory. I saw some information which indicated that from 1996 when the NPP votes were in the 70s and 80%, the votes dwindled to a low of 51% in 2020.

What pundits are closely watching is whether the NPPs vote will increase from the 51% two years ago or if it will remain the same or dip. This is based largely on the performance of the independent candidate, Kweku Duah who gave the party a run for their money resulting in the dip in votes.

As we move towards 2024, Ghanaians will be watching closely the outcome of Kumawu to see if it has any bearings on Election 2024.

God bless our Homeland Ghana and make us great and strong!

LEVERAGING DIGITAL TOOLS FOR CAREER ENHANCEMENT #music #business

Musings of Gbefalor 

It's been awhile since I blogged here....anyways it's a new year and I also just turned 59 yesterday so I reckon blogging today aint a bad idea.

There are a few thoughts on my mind today from the creative arts through politics to sports.

Let me start off with sports. The ongoing AFCON hasn't brought much love to Ghanaians with pundits describing the performance of the Black Stars as the worst ever in the history of Ghana's participation in AFCON. Truth be told, many experts had predicted an ignoble participation in the AFCON considering the lackadaisical preparations the Black Stars went through.

I mean initially I was swept by the wave of the 'Bring Back The Love' euphoria, getting myself a Black Stars replica jersey with 'Daddy Bosco' boldly printed on the back. However the enthusiasm of a million well meaning supporters is hardly enough to compliment the woeful performance of an oblivious team.

Anyway now that Milo has been dumped, we all look forward to the decision of the GFA, whether they gonna go for an interim coach to handle the two leg clash with Nigeria or to take a substantive coach to handle the Black Stars over the next two years. We all wait with excitement, the decision of the GFA.

With regards to the politics of the land.....the least said the better. A friend of mine once bemoaned the apparent disappointment of the masses with the political class who seem to know how to criticize but don't seem to know how to handle the wheel when given the opportunity.

This morning I was watching TV 3 and the panelists were doing what has been termed equalization in Ghanaian politics today.....oh you are doing worse, or you did worse.

Massa it's time for the good people of Ghana to get a good deal for our sweat and I urge our current political leaders to restore hope in our politicians by simply upping their game.

in less than 800 days, Ghanaians will be casting their ballots for the next set of leaders. The decision of the masses will certainly rest on what happens this year. This year, both parties will be electing their leaders who will lead them into the polls in 2024 and their fortunes will depend on the leadership they elect.

May the good people in the NPP and NDC elect noble hearted persons who will have the supreme interest of the people of Ghana at heart instead of building mansions and grabbing wealth at the expense of the good people of the land.

Ghana can be a better place if we so desire and work for.

Finally let me talk abou the creative arts and culture space. There's so much happening in this space. However I can't wait for the inauguration of the Creative Arts Agency which from all indications will be pivotal in growing our creative arts space.

May we all be noble hearted patriots whose daily endeavors are aimed at improving the lives of our people.

God bless our homeland Ghana.

ghana music moves on
imagine a collection of artistes of all genres gathered to elect their regional executives and participate in a seminar on artiste development....the interesting thing with the whole exercise is the fact that the whole elections was devoid of pronounced bickering and animosity.
in his opening remarks, the president of musiga bice osei kuffour aka obour urged the members to vote for the sort of leadership that could help transform musiga into a vibrant organisation.
he highlighted some of the plans underway which include accessing soft loans from midlands loans and savings, training opportunities for musicians and steps to build the institutional capacity of musiga.
obour also spoke about the digital portal musiga is creating to aid musicians in the marketing of their works. this would involve the launch of musiga's website and the creation of pages for interested artistes as well as assistance in the creation of their own exclusive websites.
he also highlighted the union's activities lined up for the rest of the year. these include the ghana music week which will feature musicians from around the country as well as an exhibition of musical works.

other speakers at the forum included cynthia jumu, legal advisor to the union who stressed on the need for musicians to take the law serious and ensure that they have legal agreements covering their work. she reminded the participants of her availability to provide pro bono legal advise to musiga members.

in a brief presentation on the midlands loans and savings offer to musicians, an official of midlands loans and savings indicated that the offer is open to musiga members only.

on his part, carlos sakyi who spoke on copyright issues advised musicians to take their copyright matters assuring them that ghamro is there for their service.

rex omar, head of business and finance at musiga spoke about music union and its members and explained the role of musiga. he advised the members to support musiga unreservedly to also ensure that musiga is in a position to reciprocate when it's necessary.
in the elections that followed, hiplifer tic tac was elected chairman and mildred mac hansen was elected secretary with gospel singer grace ashy elected welfare officer.

the elections and artiste development forum is part of a nationwide tour by musiga executives and the collection of entries for the mtn hitmaker show. the winner of the show will walk away with a prize package worth c 100,000.00 with the runner up clocking half of that value

now with the excitement and fanfare over, it's time to hit the ground running and make sure musiga utilises the goodwill it is currently....in an interview after his election, tic tac spoke of generating domestic revenue and one is excited about the concept and would like to see how that would play out.....
so let's join hands in welcoming the new greater accra regional chairman and his fresh set of executives as the lead musiga in the greater accra to achieve even higher heights.
ship ahoy

Marketing ur brand and music

MARKETING YOUR BRAND & MUSIC tijan sumaa Eti sen hello and welcome to this artistes development forum under the them Harnessing Creative Potentials of Musicians/Artistes for Wealth Creation and National Development...... U guys r d future, the secret go Ghana.....ur branding is unique, keep it up......the number of Ghanaians abroad from Brong Ahafo is incredible...... Where was the last elections won in Ghana? Of course it was Tein when President Obuor was voted, he brought a vision and invited some of us to assist in executing his vision and agenda... I joined the union in 1981 under the presidency of Kofi Ghanaba...we played live music and up until recently was the Programmes Director of Music and Entertainment for Multimedia responsible for Joy and Hitz FMs Currently I am the Director of Music Relations for Musiga For the next 15 minutes or so we'll be discussng our work as artistes and how to make the most from it and become some of the wealthiest Ghanaians around Wallace Wattles in the Science of Getting Rich says its possible to become wealthy this morning as we got to Wa, the first sign President Obuor saw and read was no condition is permanent.........meaning change is the only constant in life if you look at yourself you will see how much you've changed.... if we look at our industry bessa, obuor, hammer dems will tell you much the industry has changed who remembers when music was released on vinyl.......cassettes......cds.... let's show by hands, great story of two boys in accra discussing downloads at 20p each story of security guard listening to music on his fone who's seen folks downloading music from laptops to fones, drivers now listen to their selections on pendrives what all these means is that the traditional distribution systems are suffering and digital downloads are growing.... question is how do we plug in????? so how does all this affect us as musicians and our work Can u imagine the first lady who sang here, her song as a ringtone or the Knust krachi's song as a ringtone n d dough they will make for starters, there's some........ Some GOOD NEWS – IT’S EASIER TO BE A STAR NOW THAN EVER BEFORE because of the technology lower distribution costs n lower coordination costs means its less expensive however technology is like a double edged sword on our way here, Hammer was telling me about how music sales is suffering and the impact of digital downloads okyeame kwame actually released his current album on mtn as downloads..... its in this context that I'll be talking about how to market yourself and in the process, your music. So what is marketing? anyone can expain it for us We live in a global village now, so we will look at marketing ourselves in an international context. Marketing involves finding out what your listeners want and then giving it to them at a profit….. So as artistes how do we do our marketing…. You need to find out what the consumers want and what will excite them All sorts of research can be done –talking to people, monitoring the scene, watching videos, listening to other people’s music, reading etc Then you can create for your fans, knowing what your competitors are doing and knowing that the consumers gonna love it Now having created, gone thru the various stages of your production….doing your first demo of the song or songs, you test them on facebook, twitter, youtube, you go back and work on them then further test (with critics, friends, shows etc) before finishing the actual work then and ready to release…. This is the process marketers call new product development How do you promote it, generate publicity and then reap sales after release or even before Some of you are doing it and some aren’t….question is why not all of us using new media to our advantage.. Now to be a musician in this age you gotta be computer literate… How many of you are computer literate? with facebook presence, MySpace, twitter, linkedin, reverbnation......lts show by hands please Those of us who aren’t should quickly learn how to get on board, Facebook aone has 800million folks there Now, we all know the traditional ways of marketing music I am sure – Do your demo, go to the studio, cut your tracks, press into hard copies, vinyl, tape and CD. Then you release and sell through record shops and play shows and also sell at the shows with some merchandising – supporting all this with airplay on radio and tv and the print media Then you repeat the cycle over and over again Now in comes what we call the New School or New Music Economy And that’s a whole new ball game What it means is that it is now relatively easier to become a star than it ever was in the history of music. The New Music Economy involves the extensive use of the internet and the tools it brings So if you are a musician and you have your website as well, LETS SEE YOUR HAND So we on course then Question is how effectively are we using this……in my final examination for the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing….our case study involved a group that was playing concerts online and had over fifty thousand followers before they even played their first commercial gig…. and also sold their first single, you can imagine when they started performing and selling their music Someone will say ah why should we start looking in the direction of online sales and marketing and then even run things there…. In Ghana Ghana Internet Usage and Population Growth: 2000 - 2009 YEAR2000 2006 2008 2009 2010 User 30,000 401,300 880,000 997,000 1,297,000 Pop 18,881,600 21,801,662 23,382,848 23,887,812 24,339,838 % Pen. 0.2 % 1.8 % 3.8 % 4.2 % 5.3% Facebook 621,000 2.6% of pop like i said earlier, Facebook now has 800million people and if it were a country, it would be the third biggest country after China and India. Considering the recent developments in the Telecommunications industry I can say that in two years time internet penetration in Ghana would be double digits…… Apart from the mobile phone penetration, you also have Glo’s fibre optic investment and you gonna have the other Telcos upping their game so hey the internet is gonna go boom and as musicians we have to be ready to ride the train… For me it’s all about knowing where your core fans are and meeting them there!!! I mean my 13 year old son downloads music from the internet and he’s taught his 7 yr old brother to do same so they always hustling for credit Lady Gaga within a week sold more digital downloads of her single than is imaginable, good old Lionel Ritchie recently did same with his new album So how do we as artistes let’s capitalize on this new frontier – I believe in a year’s time, anyone who isn’t using the internet to do their marketing will be doing themselves a disservice So we refreshed our memories with how music was marketed in the past – from demo to shows…. In the New Music Economy – before you even put out your demo…you have a following of like how many thousand fans – built from your network of friends online across the entire social media spectrum - Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Baddoo, Ning all the networks you know Today’s musicians, both mainstream and indie, are using social media to connect with fans, build anticipation, and generate revenue in new and unique ways. The products range from singles to mix tapes to digital six-packs, even some crazily designed USB sticks, vinyl, and the occasional traditional album. All though there is no clear cut formula for achieving success, I would hazard this formula for marketing our music for either artistes, managers, event organizers and possibly the first wale star, we have d volta regime and d dagarti star....so some: Be a Brand – from appearance in all forms through to interaction – you should be describable....it's all about branding Be IT literate Know the marketing tools available and how to use them – there are a million and one tools out there but I will list just a handful Your Website which should be linked to Myspace, Facebook with Rootmusic, Twitter where u can share your music using Twiturm ( Snoop doggs joke about running for governor since he has more followers than President Obama on twitter, Youtube, Reverbnation, Livestream, Skype, Linked in for those on the business end of the Dancehall runnings….if you can’t afford your own website, you can start off with the others then as you grow in the business, you build your own website Choose at most 3 social media channels and maintain a presence if you are a beginner so you can manage them well or get someone to do that for you increase your visibility, discoverability and sales online Build a network of fans, followers, bloggers – they say the show with the most friends wins, so little wonder that Lady Gaga with her 30 million little monsters worldwide is the ish now with over 20 million digital downloads, also Lil Wayne’s online presence is worth studying Constantly update and interact with your fans – share information, show dates, run contests for them, give them discounts and offer freebies eg share music and videos – Asem’s Pigaro was blue toothed at the Accra Mall even before it started playing on radio, sell your music and do free shows Get your music on the portals of the Telcos for digital downloads, use as ringtones etc Use BB services, emails and text blasts to publicise your events, activities etc Build a network of Brick and Mortar links – for print media, radio and tv and internet radio Market your self vigorously – know how to do your proposals to the corporate world and exceed their expectations eg Samini and MTN, Ayigbe Edem and Glo In summary I’ll say brand yourself well, master IT, establish an online presence and interact well with your fans and sell to them and make a gooooood living. MONETISING YOUR MUSIC using digital avenues 2 WAYS.....BECOME POPULAR BY SHARING YOUR MUSIC online like asem did AND DO SHOWS DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ON TELCO PORTALs, caller tunes also build the network, develop the links with media persons and the power brokers ITUNES, OTHER DIGITAL ONLINE SELLING SERVICES LIKE AMAZON.COM AND THE SHORT LIVED ZONGOJUNCTION.COM

Rastafari Council Celebrates 3rd anniversary with a Grounation

The media has been advised to desist from describing any person in dreadlocks who is involved in a criminal activity a Rastaman.

The advise was given by Ras Antwi Bosiako, Communications Director for the Rastafari Council at a grounation organized by the Council to mark its third anniversary.

According to Ras Bosiako, the situation whereby any dreadlocks is described as a Rastaman is not acceptable by the Council.

The Rastafari Council, Ghana has been in existence for the past three years and has been involved in a number of activities.

One of it’s most significant activities has been the establishment of the Black Star Line Cooperative Credit Union for the economic empowerment of Rastafarians.

In his welcome address, the President of the Rastafari Council, Ghana Ahuma Bosco Ocansey aka Daddy Bosco encouraged all Rastafarians to join the Credit Union to ensure the economic development of the Rastafarian Community.

Ras Nana Aswad Nkrabeah vice President of the Council and Liason Officer with other Diasporan organizations and the rep on the Coalition against Foreign Intervention in Africa recalled the various activities the council has been involved in such as the interventions in the cases of discrimination against Rastafarians.

Other speakers called on government to review the legislation on immigration as far as Africans from the disapora are concerned.

The Rastafari Council, Ghana was established in 2009 with the objective of working towards socio economic and political upliftment of the Rastafarian community in Ghana.