MTN Ghana to host digital music conference

The MTN Digital Music Conference seeks to discuss how musicians can harness digital technology and media to generate revenue from their content. The event will run under the theme How to Monetise Your work and the Challenges of Digital Media and aims to explore alternative avenues that entertainers can use to sustain themselves during COVID-19.

Confirmed speakers at the event include Ghana Music Rights Organisation chairman Rex Omar, music producer Richie Mensah, lawyer and Africa 1 Media founder Cynthia Quarcoo, Africori CEO Yoel Kenan and Music Time CEO Gillian Ezra. The speakers will draw from their wealth of industry knowledge to assist patrons with tips on how to better leverage digital opportunities and make more money for their work.

“With the global pandemic and the phenomenal uptake of digital services, there is no better time to discuss this topic,” MTN Ghana chief marketing officer Noel Kojo Ganson said. “Technology is already helping us fix payments, banking, transportation and governance. It is time to take a look at the music business.”

In related news, it emerged at the Sandbox Summit Global online conference in September that Africa has become a preferred destination for digital service providers (DSPs).

“The DSPs were just hungry to get any content, because release calendars were being held back,” Chocolate City executive vice-president Aibee Abidoye, who spoke at the conference, said. “So it gave a lot of independent artists, and I would say artists generally from Africa, an opportunity to really put out content at this time.”

The MTN Digital Music Conference adds to a number of contributions by the telco in Ghana’s music space. Last week, the company announced a partnership with the National Folklore Board to digitise literary, artistic and scientific expressions belonging to the cultural heritage of the country. The telco also started airing Season 9 of the MTN Hitmaker music reality show to unearth Ghanaian undiscovered artists.