Nkonkonsa Celebrity Gossip From Africa
Ghanaian musician Kwaku Nsia Boama, also known as Flowking Stone explained how music producers in Ghana have neglected artists in favor of the Kumawood industry.
During an interview with Accra-based 3FM, he described how music producers typically manage the financial aspects of music promotion, such as covering costs for radio airtime and DJs.
Nevertheless, the drop in CD sales and the growth of Kumawood led multiple producers to transition from making music to creating movies.
“Those days when we used to come to radio, there were producers who used to release our songs and fund them. They would take the songs to DJs and pay them. Now, there came a time when the producers left to pursue movies when Kumawood was at its peak, and music was not thriving like before,” he mentioned.
Flowking Stone pointed out that musicians are now responsible for covering the costs of promoting their music, such as funding dancers, radio and TV promotions, and digital advertising.
“There was a significant change. They were unable to sell CDs, the internet was emerging, and artists were clashing with producers and facing various challenges. For a long time, artists had to fund themselves; only recently have record labels started to come in,” the rapper stated.
He observed that platforms such as TikTok have contributed to music promotion, yet they also bring about significant expenses.
“Now TikTok has emerged, and artists started gaining popularity. Even before TikTok, there was Facebook. There was a time when posting a video on Facebook would reach all your fans, but that changed. They restricted the audience to only 5% of your fans unless you paid for an ad. We started tipping club DJs, radio DJs, and TV stations. The funny thing is that TikTok is the latest trend, and they charge more than others. So now, the process is challenging. You can go viral on TikTok, but without support from radio friends, it may not go far,” he said.
NKONKONSA.com
