Kwaw Kese finally receives Royalties from GHAMRO

Ghanaian hiplife artist, Kwaw Kese has finally received his music royalties from the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO).

The rapper in a tweet on Thursday, December 15, 2022, Kwaw Kese lamented that he had been making music for the last 20 years without receiving any royalties.

“20 years of doing music in Ghana and I’ve never gotten paid any royalties,” You rather have to pay Djs to play your music, pay tv to show your videos, bloggers to blog your content and press media to give you press. How can you survive this industry by financing all these by yourself?” he tweeted.

Kwaw also criticized the system, where performers must instead pay the media to promote their work.

In a follow-up tweet, the Madtime Entertainment founder compared doing music in his home country to “elsewhere,” where his “friend produced one song for a musician and has made over 2 million dollars,” out of that single endeavour.

“Down here, you only get paid with insults and disrespect,” he bemoaned. “Release a song today and tomorrow they’ll be asking when are you releasing a new song?”

“Elsewhere somewhere my friend produced one song for a musician and has made over 2 million dollars for producing the song. Down here you only get paid with insults and disrespect,” he added.

However, his rants caught the attention of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO).

Rex Omar, the GHAMRO Interim Chairman disclosed that Kwaw Kese already has GHC 13,000 in their black box but the ‘Abodam’ hitmaker has not updated his records and he will receive payment as soon as he provides details for that.

Kwaw Kese has since acknowledged receiving a GHC 13,000 cheque from GHAMRO and is yet to clear it.

Music royalties are the payments collected and distributed to a song’s copyright owners, as members of a collection society, for the use of their creative works.

The issue of music royalties remains a big subject for Ghanaian musicians for years unending

The ineffective systems and structures governing intellectual property is a major headache for musicians in the country.