Problematic Practices and New (Digital) Avenues in Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights in African Music

Abstract

Abstract

en This paper focuses on intellectual property rights and copyright in African popular music, and particularly practices associated with it in Ghana and related to Ghanaian music in recent times. It draws on some years of research and direct involvement in arts promotion in Ghana. Based on this I investigate on the ways actors and systems in place have dealt with these rights. Current debates on copyright I reflect on are centred in the fast-changing digital world of music and mainly related to the supposed (mis)management of music rights through the representational national royalty collecting body and copyright society. They help to chart the prevailing issues and concerns in rights matters and reveal a new artist sensibility towards them. An ethnographic perspective on these issues substantiates that music business practices related to copyright and intellectual property as experienced by music-makers in Ghana, are ethically and legally problematic and frequently not beneficial to creative artists. This explains why many musicians get the feeling that rights are not right(s). To them, the digital world of music, that is of online music distribution, streaming, and internet-based consumption patterns, however, seems to promise a change for the better while digital accessibility potentially creates new rights avenues also.