The last couple of months have been a chicken vs. egg situation as far as Ghana music industry conversations are concerned. Consumers are at the throats of media outlets for not spotlighting Ghanaian talents enough.
At the core of this conversation has been Moliy’s incredible run over the past months with her song “Shake It to the Max.” While the song, both original and remix, continues to dominate the charts, Moliy has been following its direction and making sure she stays in our faces every single time.
However, anytime she has done something, the feedback on X (Twitter) music has been that Ghanaian media is not spotlighting and amplifying her enough.
In an earlier article by our editorial desk at Ghana Music, we highlighted how this statement is untrue and not a true reflection of what is happening. At the end of the day, Moliy has gotten local media support at every point in her successful journey so far. While consumers continue pointing fingers at the media, this writer believes consumers also deserve some smoke.
Artists and media are both aiming for the attention of consumers, which has been the reality since the days of Adam. They became obsolete without a market to consume what both groups put out. The consumers have always been the target. As such, it falls on anyone aiming for a market share of the consumer base to feed into what consumers like. It’s why their numbers keep rising despite some backlash some media outlets get. That is because they have an active and thriving consumer market that will always eat up anything they put out. The same can be said for artists.
A perfect case study is Shatta Wale. Some years ago, he was faced with a heavy media blackout for various reasons. However, he managed to stay relevant and in high demand because he had a large, active consumer base that directly consumed his art without needing the media. Despite not having significant support from the media, Shatta is one of many artists who have managed to stay active because of their consumer base.
In today’s world, where access to consumers is easier and more direct, it has become more evident that consumers wield a lot of power. Anyone who can capture a chunk of that market will remain afloat and have a thriving career. This does not invalidate the role the media play.
The media will always remain a strong institution because of how enshrined they have become in our lives as people. The media shapes our thoughts, interests, and likes and even, to some extent, influences some decisions we make. The opposite is that the media is also at the mercy of consumers. A drop in consumer market share will influence what the media does.
As such, consumers also have the power to influence what the media amplifies. A few years back, when consumers became heavily invested in Twi-dubbed telenovelas, we saw many media outlets pick up that model of content. This goes to show that, as long as the consumers want it, the media will amplify it. The same can be said for our artists.
In all this Moliy conversation, one thing that has become clear is that, while consumers may want to accuse the media of not amplifying her enough, we, as consumers, have also not amplified her enough. A post by Amplify Ghana on Twitter shows Moliy’s biggest listenership base, with Ghana missing out on the top five. Anytime issues of the top five streaming cities have come up, the same consumers argue that we do not have a large streaming market on Spotify.
Again, this is untrue. A quick search on artists like King Promise, King Paluta, KiDi, Sarkodie, and Shatta Wale has all shown that part of their top five listener base is actually from Ghana. Sarkodie has 125K+ listeners from Accra, King Promise has 93K+ and King Paluta has 63K+, all from Accra. This goes to show that Ghana’s not having active listeners on some of these streaming platforms is untrue. If anything at all, it shows that consumers just do not stream some of these artists. We claim the media is not supporting enough. Maybe the media may not be amplifying these artists enough, but what are the people with the power to change the conversation doing?
If we look inward as consumers, we might realise that while the media has a role to play, we, as consumers, also have an even larger role to play. Instead of pointing accusing fingers and always coming at the media online, let us channel that energy into amplifying our artists. In turn, we can push the media to pick it up from there.
Another case study is Safo Newman, who went viral last year amidst mixed reactions from the general public. The truth is that the media only latched on to what consumers were amplifying on social media. As social media becomes more powerful, we keep seeing how it makes people famous overnight. Over the last few years, consumers have consciously or unconsciously embraced artists more than the media.
Mind you, each social platform has a different consumer market. It is why we see terminologies like this person is a TikTok artist or that person is a Twitter artist, which is an indication of where the said artist has their consumer base. Kwesi Arthur and Black Sherif are also examples of artists whose careers were driven by consumers before the media caught on.
In all this, one other piece of the puzzle is consumer taste. Some people may not want to accept it, but Ghanaians enjoy a type of music, so some artists will always have a larger Ghanaian consumer market than others. However, one thing is certain: the Ghanaian consumer can amplify its talents. They either choose not to support them or do not like the songs or the artist enough.
At the end of the day, consumers can choose to blame the media all they want, but the truth is that consumers drive both media and artists. What we consume is what the media will amplify the most. The stats show that conversations will differ if we consume and amplify our artists. Consumers need to start walking the talk. The stats have shown that if consumers want to? They will do it.
