Kwaw Kese says he has never received any royalties in his 20 years in the music business.
The rapper took to Twitter to lament the state of the music business in the country, revealing how difficult it is for musicians to get their music out there as sole financiers of their crafts.
“20 years of doing music in Ghana and never got paid any royalties. You rather have to pay Djs to play your music, pay tv to show your videos, bloggers to blog your content and press media to give you press. How can you survive this industry by financing all these by urself ?” he tweeted Thursday, December, 15.
In a follow-up tweet, the Madtime Entertainment founder compared doing music in his home country to “elsewhere,” where his “friend produced one song for a musician and has made over 2 million dollars,” out of that single endeavour.
“Down here, you only get paid with insults and disrespect,” he bemoaned. “Release a song today and tomorrow they’ll be asking when are you releasing a new song?”
“Elsewhere somewhere my friend produced one song for a musician and has made over 2 million dollars for producing the song. Down here you only get paid with insults and disrespect,” he added.
He continued; “Release a song today and tomorrow they’ll be asking when are you releasing a new song. Don’t release a song in a year and they’ll say your time pass lol. Release a song and they’ll say it’s not a hit song.”
Kwaw Kese adds that the situation is the same for his colleagues in the industry and has left the bulk of them “broke.”
“I bet a lot of our musicians are not getting paid but social media pressure, they will smile on social media and cry at home. More are broke,” he added.
20 years of doing music in Ghana and never got paid any royalties.
You rather have to pay Djs to play your music, pay tv to show your videos , bloggers to blog your content and press media to give you press.
How can you survive this industry by financing all these by urself ?
— King Kese (@kwawkese) December 15, 2022
Music royalties are the payments collected and distributed to a song’s copyright owners, as members of a collection society, for the use of their creative works.
The issue of music royalties remains a big subject for Ghanaian musicians for years unending
The ineffective systems and structures governing intellectual property is a major headache for musicians in the country.
