Radio Stations Refuse To Pay Royalties - Former MUSIGA President

Alhaji Sidiku Buari has advised GHAMRO to increase its efforts at collecting royalties in Ghana.

The former Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) president noted that a well-organised system and efficient technology is needed to collect royalties from every sector that uses music in Ghana.

He noted that the lack of technology is allowing most outfits, especially radio stations to get away with not paying royalties.

This in turn will mean that Ghanaian artists will not be able to get what they are entitled to in terms of royalties.

The veteran music/movie producer proposed that the industry provides an efficient logging system for the collection of royalties in Ghana.

“Our logging system is not efficient because we do not have the right machinery and technology. It was a challenge he also suffered as MUSIGA president. But I thought it would’ve been resolved by now. We tried to resolve this problem in the beginning and thought it would’ve been no more by now but it is still around."

"If the musician’s intellectual property is being played, it must be logged on a centralized machine. But we’ve still been unable to acquire the technology after all these years because it is expensive. And that is why we need gov’t to support us here,”

He said this in an interview with YFM while also adding that the appointment of Mark Okraku Mantey as Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, such an issue could be resolved since they now have a representative in the government. 

“Mark has been in the music industry for a while and can now advise on the issue because of his position as Deputy Minister.”

“Some radio stations also refuse to pay royalties to the copyright office and that is not helping. If this is not done, we will keep guessing popular songs are played more than some unpopular songs which may not be the case. With an efficient logging system, our music industry will be made profitable,”he concluded.