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The government of Ghana has laid down plans to build an ultra-modern music recording studio for musicians in the country, Citi Showbiz has learnt.

According to the President of the Creative Arts Council, Mark Okraku Mantey, the government is concerned about the low quality of music production in the country, hence the decision to set up a studio that meets international standards.

“The government will set up an ultra-modern music studio so that after individual producers have done the basic programming, they can go to there to master them,” he said.

He said in tandem with this, the government will take some Ghanaian music producers abroad for training to broaden their scope in music production.

“One of the things this government has for the musician is that we’ve realized the standards in the music industry is continuously falling. This is made manifest when you play a Ghanaian song after songs produced from Nigeria or South Africa you realize a drop in the quality and this is because we are recording below standards so we want to move a notch higher,” he said.

He made this revelation at the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO) which took place on Thursday, 27th July, 2017 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The 2016 NPP Manifesto on creative arts

The New Patriotic Party prior to assuming office laid down these items for the arts sector in its 2016 Manifesto:

1. establish a Creative Arts Fund to make available funds to modernise and develop the sector

2. create a Division of the High Court, focusing on the Creative Arts to deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights, complete with a dedicated enforcement unit

3. establish a Creative Arts Council to coordinate and harmonise the various interests and fragmented associations into a well-functioning body to protect the interests of members.

4. collaborate with private sector interests to acquire the technology and equipment needed to log creative works, in order to determine true and deserved royalties.

5. promote regional and district literature, music, dance and drama competitions, particularly in schools and colleges, and

6. pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi, as well as setting up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for the northern sector in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi.