Leading Musicians to the Promised Land of international acclaim

Who inherits the leadership of Musiga, the association of musicians in Ghana. To answer that question one should appreciate the challenges such a person is going to face.

Among other challenges, the person should be able to wield the various elements of our music industry together. This spans musicians practicing the various genres as well the various stakeholders to address the vexed issue of the local nature of our music.

It seems after 1966, our music industry came to halt along with our development as a nation. Although some may argue that other aspects of the economy came alive….debatable as that may be, our music suffered and has apparently not made those monumental strides the likes of ET Mensah, the Uhuru Band, Ramblers and those bands of old made.

With the exception of Osibisa and to a certain extent the Hedzolleh Soundz and Basabasa experiments of Faisal Helwani¸ Ghana was virtually without any reputable music ambassadors.

Then came the burgher hilife era when our music assumed a certain international feel with the fusion of the funky grooves of the west and the inimitable Yaa Asantewa rhythm.

Around this same period a group of Ghananaians in Berlin began experimenting with reggae music and some hilife and other indigenous beats to come up with what they described as sunlife music. The result was a hybrid sound that saw Roots Anabo at the heights of their career playing at the famed Reggae Sunsplash in Jamaica as the first African group to represent at that level.

So now our challenge as a nation is how do we get our music to cross borders like the Nigerian and Cote d’voire music have invaded our shores.

Our next President of Musiga should have a plan to ensure that our music reaches the necessary heights so that like our medical doctors and other professionals are able to work internationally, our music will also cross borders and be internationally accepted.

We will therefore look at the various contestants assessing their strengths and weaknesses to determine which of them possesses the vision and experience to lead our musicians to the mecca of accomplishment.

have you ever wondered what drives the hiplifers our time....these cats are sooo cool.....their flow and rhyming is usually impeccable with the likes of obrafuor, okyeame kwame, vip and guru alongside sarkodie, dade opanka, r2bees et al doing some real rhyming with rhythm.

man you wanna check it out so that even if you can't comprehend the language, the rhymes hit u....

so there's this thing that how come hilplifers don't see themselves as musicians to join musiga and help develop this multi million dollar local music industry.

even if obuor doesn't win the musiga elections...then whoever wins should make a concerted effort to rope in these dudes who are spearheading gh music into the coming years and also the effort to transcend our borders

if one notices, another interesting development is the evolving trend of live band backing for their performances.

a couple of weeks ago, okyeame kwame and reggie rockstone were rocking the mic at

okomfo kwaadee

someone asked me where is okomfo kwaadee....i said he's around and has actually cut a tune with the winner of the hitz discovery belbonfly.

the two have cut one heck of tune that's gonna be the next single off belbonfly's forthcoming album. that track is a sure cracker...

however many are awaiting the unbridled return of okomfo kwaadee... so far his return has been pending as they say. i had a chat with him the last time and i guess we have to work on a show to welcome the real okomfo...story teller with style.

i was going thru an earlier blog from two years or so ago when i had watched his much heralded return concert. i'd noted that the speed of a sarkodie may have been absent, the agility of a samini not there nor the smooth choreography of okyeame kwame ze rap dr....but what was there was a keen understanding of dancehall music and the way live bands work.

so what we need to see now is how he handles all the pressures of rising to his former prominence.

for now he's working in the studios and getting into shape as they say. only thing is that his handlers will have to ensure that he stays the course and gets his groove like back in the day...

so now it's gonna require kwik action, abraham's om crew and all his team to deliver us the famed kwaadee magic!!!!

wondering why gh music n movies don't seem to be making any waves beyond here can be mind boggling.

i mean come to think of it, u cant help but compare the work of london based oseikrom folks like ma big brother mac tontoh of blessed memory n good ole teddy osei along with ataa sol amarfio as d core n d various augmentations to the group to what our current crop is doing.

so it appears like d comparison aint fair.

in view of that, what r the lessons we can glean from showbiz in general n possibly the osibisa experience.

food for thought

tbc

ghanaian showbiz

lots of folks have varying views on the future of the music and movie industries here in ghana.....folks have been wondering why our music doesn't appear to be making inroads in other countries even in africa much less the west.

at the dancehall seminar @ alliance francaise on june 11, 2011, panji anoff who manages acts like wanlov kubolor, king ayisoba and yaa pono as well as being one of the most knowledgeable sound engineers and impressarios of our time said it's mainly cos we aren't original enough.

if it is reggae, we wanna sound more jamaican than the jamaicans themselves with no trace of ghanaian vibes, if it's hiplife or hiphop, we wanna sound more nigerian than nigerians or more american than americans.

in his view the likes of lucky dube and alpha blondy made it cos of their clearly african origins eg blondy sings in his native language and dube's use of south african rhythms and drum patterns distinctively southern african.

for our reggae artistes, they gotta take a cue from the music of roots anabo...the first african act to perform at reggae sunsplash..roots anabo played a fusion of reggae and what they called sunlife which is a funked up version of hilife reggae, distinct from the highlife of the 80's burgher hilife...this sound had all the makings of reggae but with a distinctively ghanaian feel to it.

the avantgarde grooves of tunes like brofo nyo bi, teacher tintin, singing in the name of the lord etc are case studies for budding musicians....

on the hiplife front....fusing the grooves of akyeame, obuor early day tunes and what reggie did with kyenkyen biara di ma wuo are all case studies on how to indigenise our hiplife for export...

for our movies, we need to look at what agya koo does and then polish it....humorous and interesting

i'll ask ama abrebese to do a piece on how to internationalise agya koo's movies since she's so in love with the dude's movies. with her experience and exposure, she should be able to indicate how best to pan our productions and then blend her know how with the suave swag of a a shirley frimpong manso and the abilities of a leila djansi blended with the coolness of the likes of akofa, david dontoh etc

more anon

MARKETING DANCEHALL REGGAE IN GHANA

Greetings and blessed love, welcome to this forum to discuss the development of a genre of music that is so dear and entrenched in our lives…reggae dancehall music…

Some GOOD NEWS – IT’S EASIER TO BE A STAR NOW THAN EVER BEFORE because of technology

I will be talking about how to market yourself and in the process, your music. So what is marketing?

Seen as we live in a global village now, we will look at marketing our in an international context zeen?

Marketing involves finding out what your listeners want and then giving it to them at a profit…..

So as dancehall artistes and business people how do we do our marketing….

Need to conduct research to know what the dancehall consumers want and what will excite them

All sorts of research can be done – primary and secondary 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 know that the consumers gonna love it up, zeen

Now having created, gone thru the various stages of your production….doing your first demo of the song or songs and then testing them, going back and working on them then further testing (with critics, friends, shows etc) before doing the actual work then and ready to release….

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

Now to be a musician in this age you gotta be computer literate…

How many of you are computer literate?

Those of us who aren’t should quickly learn, Musiga runs introductory courses in IT and you can also get one in your hood I am sure

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 organize release then 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 relatively easier to become a star that it ever was in the history of music.

Now dancehall has been discussed extensively so what we doing now is looking at how to do the marketing aspect of the runnings

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 LETS SEE YOUR HAND, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, MYSPACE etc

So we on course then

Question is how effectively are we using it?

Someone will say ah why should we start looking in the direction of online and then even run things there….

In Ghana

Ghana Internet Usage and Population Growth: 2000 - 2009

YEAR 2000 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

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 join 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

So how do we as dancehall artistes capitalize on this new frontier – I believe in 2 years anyone who isn’t using the internet to do their marketing will be doing themselves a disservice.

Internet Penetration

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 are no clear cut formula for achieving success, I would hazard this formula for marketing dancehall music for either artistes, managers, event organizers:

1. Be a Brand – from appearance in all forms through to interaction – you should be describable

2. Be IT literate

3. 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

a. 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

4. 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

a. increase your visibility, discoverability and sales online

5. 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

6. 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

7. Get your music on the portals of the Telcos for digital downloads, use as ringtones etc

8. Use BB services, emails and text blasts to publicise your events, activities etc

9. Build a network of Brick and Mortar links – for print media, radio and tv and internet radio

10. 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.