Stakeholders in the creative arts industry have hailed the policies of the Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
This was after Dr. Bawumia has revealed that Ghana’s first local music streaming app was set to launch in November.
The Vice President made this announcement during an engagement with stakeholders from the creative arts industry on Wednesday, expressing the need for an indigenous solution to better support local musicians and filmmakers.
Addressing a crowd of enthusiastic creative artistes, Dr. Bawumia proudly stated, “I’m very happy to let you know that the work has been completed.”
He underscored the importance of a local platform to ensure fair compensation for Ghanaian artistes, adding that current international streaming services fail to provide sufficient financial returns to local talent.
“Spotify and other platforms are externally owned, so it’s not surprising that the payments to our musicians are very little,” he remarked.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the new platform is worth every investment and will address this imbalance by creating a space dedicated to Ghanaian content creators.
“The issue for us has been to ensure we have a local streaming platform where we can put all the catalogues from A to Z that we can find in Ghana,” he explained.
“If I put $100 million worth of investment in the creative arts sector, I’m telling you that the returns will be high,” Dr. Bawumia stressed.
The app’s primary goal, the NPP presidential candidate highlighted, is to help content creators maximise their earnings, accurately track royalties, and provide a framework for better revenue management.
“We are ready to launch the first local streaming platform for Ghanaian musicians and film producers next month, in November,” he reiterated, receiving cheers from the audience.
The initiative has been well-received by industry stakeholders, who have long called for a more equitable model for content monetisation.
With this new platform, musicians and filmmakers are expected to benefit from an improved revenue structure and greater control over their works, contributing to the sustainable growth of the creative arts industry in Ghana.
This development marks a significant step forward in supporting Ghanaian talent and empowering local creatives to reap greater financial rewards from their hard work and creativity, a leading industry player stated.