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26.03.2013 General News

GAPI, Phonofile To Boost Online Sales For Ghanaian Music

By Daily Guide
Ken Opoku Asiedu, GAPI chairmanKen Opoku Asiedu, GAPI chairman
26.03.2013 LISTEN

The Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI), the umbrella executive producers association in the country, has started implementing programmes that will see a positive turnaround of the fortunes of the music industry in Ghana.

GAPI, according to its project coordinator, Francis Mensah Twum, is working together with Norwegian-based international digital music distributor, Phonofile, to hold a workshop to educate Ghanaian music label and right owners on how to maximize digital sales.

The workshop will take place tomorrow Tuesday, March 26, 2013, at the Ealbeam Hotel at Dzorwulu in Accra and on March 28 at the Kumasi Cultural Centre in Kumasi.

The project coordinator said the workshop forms part of a grand plan to provide online presence and online promotion for Ghanaian music, and also create a sustainable market for Ghanaian music in the Nordic region through collaborations with musicians from that area.

He noted that the training workshop would focus on selected musicians and right owners as a pilot, and would be expanded to benefit others over time, adding that some attention would also be given to revamping some old popular tunes, by getting some of the young musicians to redo them or collaborate with the original makers of those songs.

Explaining further, Francis Mensah Twum disclosed that the collaboration with Phonofile started in 2007 and through that GAPI has already loaded some 5,000 Ghanaians songs online, which is generating a meagre $10,000 every month for the musicians and right owners of those songs.

The marketing manager of Phonofile, Trond Tornes, has assured Ghanaian musicians that Phonofile would use its strong foothold in the Nordic region to provide the opportunity for Ghanaian music to break into that market.

He disclosed that Phonofile which currently represents music from more than 800 labels and a catalogue of more than 250,000 tracks within a wide variety of music styles and genres has offices in Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen, Finland and Beijing.

By George Clifford Owusu

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