A veteran Ghanaian musician and songwriter based in the United States of America, Victor Tieku, is unhappy about why the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Abraham Adjatey, is still at post.
In an interview with the Daily Guide Network, he said the organisation has not received effective leadership from the CEO for the number of years he has been in charge of the GHAMRO’s operations.
He also doubted the competency of of the interim board.
“The interim board members need to tell the general assembly why they’re holding on to power. It’s heartbreaking to see the CEO still at post,” he indicated.
He said Ghanaian music rights owners are plunged in distress, and monies from the usage of their intellectual properties could have saved the situation.
Unfortunately, the collective society, he said, has always resorted to loud excuses and not addressing the pertinent issues to enable the rights owners have their complaints properly addressed.
According to Victor Tieku, members of the organisation have been taken for granted for far too long and at this point, they deserve full accountability from the managers of their royalties.
“The royalty system at GHAMRO, from collection through disbursement, lacks transparency and one wonders why this secrecy. This is endemic, prior leaders have run GHAMRO with the same faulty model over the years,” he disclosed.
He mentioned that per the global standard, database of a Collective Management Organisation (CMO) should be public knowledge, but it’s a different case in Ghana where the list of registered members is concealed.
“To date, rights owners are kept in the dark of the formula or method through which royalties are distributed,” he added.
“Haziness in our copyright administration gives credence to series of corruption allegations levelled against the leadership of GHAMRO. Their reluctance to migrate monitoring, licensing and distribution of royalties to digital platforms suggest a cover up of rot,” he further stated.
He revealed that in 2014, a host of rights owners dragged a former Board Chairman, Carlos Sakyi, to court for dissipating funds to the disadvantage of rights owners “but today, misappropriation of funds and condition of rights owners under the current leadership is the worst ever.”
After scathing remarks from stakeholders of the music industry about the inequitable distribution of royalties to music rights owners, GHAMRO announced that it had gone into partnership with some digital monitoring companies that will help track music usage by consumers.
On August 31, 2022, Abraham Adjatey, the CEO of GHAMRO said they had contracted CAPASSO, a copyright society in South Africa versed in Digital Rights Licensing, to monitor online digital platforms for Ghanaian musicians.
Abraham also noted that they had a deal with Global Music Monitoring which would e responsible for broadcast monitoring of Ghanaian music.
After this, some musicians later announced they had received astronomical increases in their royalties but music stakeholders Ghana Music Alliance, Akosua Agyepong and Victor Tieku, have asserted that the system still lacks transparency.
Victor Tieku, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Kampsite Music, has worked with a lot of great musicians in Ghana and abroad, including Nigerian Afrobeat giant Fela Kuti.
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By: Kwame Dadzie | Ghana Weekend
