For once in a long while, I say kudos to Akwasi Aboagye, host of Entertainment Review on Peace FM, for his take on the on-going controversy about payola being a killer to the music industry which seems to be wearing everybody out.

He proved to be unconvinced about several criticisms levelled against payola-collecting radio presenters and disc jockeys for not contributing to the sound development of the music industry in Ghana.

In as much as I support the crusade against payola, what I find very essential in all that he said was the fact that there are invisible beings out there who are depriving our hard-working musicians the financial rewards they toil day and night for.

I am talking about the so-called computer gurus who download single tracks or a whole album of a musician onto the internet and on mobile phones without the musicians’ consent.

In effect, they dubiously distribute or sell the products of copyright owners via various modern technological gadgets and make good money out of it to the detriment of the musicians who ought to rather benefit from their profession.

In this highly computerised age, movers and shakers in the music industry ought to seek more education about digital distribution of their creative works and how beneficial it is in terms of lucrative diversity and selling their music in the international market without going through the hustle of transporting CDs and tapes from one country to the other.

The era of recording one’s songs on CDs and tapes are becoming outmoded as people outside and even in this country are getting more acquainted with digital ways of dealing in music business.

This is made easier with the use of I-Tunes, I-Pod, Bluetooth, Infrared among others.

I say this because there are people in this country who are experts in aqcuiring all the songs of musicians they need without buying their CDs or tapes.

They either download the songs onto their personal computers or on mobile phones and access them any time they want. Does the musician gain any profit in this light? Certainly not.

If stakeholders in this country’s music industry would unite and take the bold step to find out how they could use these digital methods to gain online market for their creative works, they would rake in more money both locally and internationally.

I can therefore say that the decline of our music industry is mainly caused by total ignorance and disunity among the players involved.