Ghana: Seidu Iddrisu launches independent music publishing firm

The new venture is in line with his commitment to helping artists receive proper representation while promoting transparency and equality in the music publishing industry. His role will involve consulting with songwriters and composers as an independent music publisher, allowing him the opportunity to work more closely with artists he says “would not otherwise receive the representation they deserve.”

According to Seidu, technology has significantly transformed the way music publishing companies do business, inspiring his latest endeavour to help artists with the registration of their works to ensure fair compensation for their performance, mechanical and synchronisation royalties.

“There is a fundamental shift in the way music publishing companies do business and the enormous need for more independent music publishers on the African continent, especially for authors who do not have sufficient knowledge to administer their own publishing,” he said. “This lack of representation is a global problem, but even more so in countries where music publishing infrastructure and collection societies aren’t as advanced as Western markets, resulting in heaps of uncollected royalties. In turn, rights-holders are not being paid for their works.”

Iddrisu previously worked with Downtown-owned Sheer Publishing Africa, where he served as senior copyright administrator and client liaison for 12 years. There, he secured the signatures of top West African acts like Ghana’s Kofi Kinaata, Wanlov the Kubolor, Sister Deborah, Wendy Shay, Bullet and Kaywa, as well as Nigeria’s Iyanya, Eedris Abdulkareem, Ado Gwanja and Tunde, with the goal of expanding the company’s client base in Africa.

He also worked extensively with artists across the globe to ensure musicians are compensated for their works, while also travelling regularly between West African countries to provide music copyright education. He said that he has learnt the values of professionalism, dedication, and integrity from his time at Sheer, and aims to impart the same values through music publishing workshops across Africa.