Ghanaian musician Kwaku Nsia Boama, also known as Flowking Stone, has detailed how music producers in Ghana ‘abandoned’ artists for the Kumawood industry.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based 3FM, he explained how music producers usually handled the financial aspects of music promotion, including paying for radio slots and DJs.
However, the decline in CD sales and the rise of Kumawood influenced many of these producers to shift from music production to movie production.
“Those days when we used to come to radio, there were producers who used to release our songs and fund them. They would take the songs to DJs and pay them.
Now, there came a time when the producers left to pursue movies when Kumawood was at its peak, and music was not thriving like before,” he mentioned.
Flowking Stone highlighted that artists were now left to bear the financial burden of promoting their music, including paying for dancers, radio and TV promotions, and digital ads.
“There was a significant change. They were unable to sell CDs, the internet was emerging, and artists were clashing with producers and facing various challenges. For a long time, artists had to fund themselves; only recently have record labels started to come in,” the rapper stated.
He noted that platforms like TikTok have helped with music promotion, but they also come with high costs.
“Now TikTok has emerged, and artists started gaining popularity. Even before TikTok, there was Facebook. There was a time when posting a video on Facebook would reach all your fans, but that changed.
They restricted the audience to only 5% of your fans unless you paid for an ad. We started tipping club DJs, radio DJs, and TV stations.
The funny thing is that TikTok is the latest trend, and they charge more than others. So now, the process is challenging. You can go viral on TikTok, but without support from radio friends, it may not go far,” he said.
Flowking Stone is currently promoting his ‘Decision’ album, which features collaborations with artists like King Paluta, Mr Drew, and Morphty.