Ghanaian Musician domiciled in the UK, Reggy Zippy says recent donations by food outlets to veteran players in the creative sector is a classical example of how the industry has failed them.
“Aged musicians in Ghana were given bags of rice, tin tomatoes and oil by KFC n Vida Café because our music industry has failed them”.
This was in reaction to a move by KFC Ghana (a member of the Mohinani Group ) and Vida Café to donate items worth ¢15,000 to the aged and the sick in the creative arts industry.
The Items included bags of rice, oil, tin tomatoes, and other foodstuffs, which according to KFC and Vida Café, was their way of giving back to society.
Seemingly unimpressed by the gesture, Reggy Zippy took to facebook to express his displeasure saying “Our institutions have woefully failed them in their youth and also in their old age’.
Reggy, who is Known for hits such as ‘Adoma’ and ‘Virgin’, believes the time for that to change is now “We can’t all sit aside and look without doing anything about it. SOMETHING MUST CHANGE”
This comes on the heels of an online petition he has already drafted in the name of a movement called “Alliance for Change” aimed at improving the lot of Musicians in Ghana.
The Petition among others reads that:
The Alliance For Change In Ghana Music is calling on all music industry stakeholders to come together to fight for a final and lasting solution to our failing music industry.
Creating music or doing anything that contributes to the music industry or music business in Ghana, should be able to sustain any creator during their prime and also retirement but unfortunately this isn’t the case. For far too long, the Ghana Music Industry has seen majority of its stakeholders work very hard but receive very little or no income for their hard work and dedication, through no fault of theirs but due to a failed system which gets worse by the years.
Musicians, song writers, Djs/presenters, backing vocalists ,artist managers, producers, entertainment journalists, etc. struggle to make ends meet or die poor, after several years of dedicating their lives to a trade which should have supported their livelihood. There is also lack of proper education and/or awareness about the business aspect of the music industry across board.
This is why we have come together as an alliance to advocate for, educate and create realistic & pro-active solutions to the challenges in the Music Industry.
We are therefore advocating for/working to:
1. Get Ghana Music Industry plugged into the global music business in order to attract multinational record labels, publishing companies, booking agents, major event promoters, Investors and also educate stakeholders in Ghana music industry.
2. Fully digitise the royalties collection system, including implementation of radio logging/radio monitoring systems, song identification for easy logging, tracking and exploitation as well as, set royalty rate per play for television and radio stations.
3. Seek modern ways of generating income for the music industry i.e. to attract digital service providers such as Spotify, Apple Music etc. to actively and consistently support Ghanaian music on their global platforms.
4. To sanitise the music industry by ensuring transparency and accountability through the establishment of rigorous and robust checks within our professional bodies, to prevent incompetence and corrupt practices.
5. To create a booming music industry economy thereby enabling creative people make most of their income in Ghana, before expanding to other countries in the world.
