Strengthen the country’s digital platform for musicians to eat in this COVID-19 era—Stonebwoy appeals to govt
Strengthen the country’s digital platform for musicians to eat in this COVID-19 era—Stonebwoy appeals to govt
Multi-award winning reggae/dancehall artiste, Stonebwoy has appealed to the government to strengthen the country’s streaming platform to enable musicians earn from their hard work.
According to him, the outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the weak online system and called for a strong monetising digital platform which would make artistes excel through the pandemic.
Speaking to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah through digital means on Sunday, the celebrated artiste bemoaned that musicians were affected more during the pandemic.
He said they were starving and needed urgent solution to monetise their digital platforms to earn in different means.
Stonebwoy noted that during the outbreak various artistes went into their savings to engage in charitable deeds to support the society but it has got to a point that they were running loss, stressing that they could not perform at shows to earn extra to save their wallet and accounts.
He indicated that although he, Shatta Wale, Sarkodie and Samini have tried their best to build international links but could not earn more from the international platform and advocated local digital platform to make them earn.
“We are Ghanaians, the money I will make from outside cannot be better than where I do my music, which is Ghana so we need a help to support us to link the international link with what we have in Ghana to enable us monetise our art,” Stonebwoy added.
He stated that although his Anloga Junction Album was doing well but would have been much better if the country was not fighting with the deadly respiratory ailment.
The “nominate” hitmaker regretted that due to the no social gathering protocol, he could not appropriately launch the album, adding that “if better measures were not adopted to deal with the pandemic, he might even cancel the Bhim concert.”
Mr Nkrumah, who felt the heat burning the creative art industry promised his outfit support to ensure that artistes diversify their revenue portfolio.
He said the only strength the musicians could have in this era was a strong online presence to diversify their means of earning without necessarily playing for shows and concerts.
Mr Nkrumah pledged to dialogue with the necessary ministries and hook the musician with the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi to collectively work together in securing the best means of creating a local giant streaming platform to boost the creative art industry.
The creative art and the tourism industry had been the major industries that were hit hard by the outbreak of the virus.
Musicians, who relied solely on shows, concerts and endorsements have loss their revenue and are confronted with hardship.
Due to that, government was seeking means to help the industry to excel to make artistes survive through the pandemic.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
