Entertainment pundit, Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo has advised gospel musician Ernest Opoku to go to his colleague musician Diana Hamilton for lessons on how to utilize online content-sharing and streaming platforms to reap monetary gains.

Ernest Opoku recently complained bitterly about how gospel artistes, not excluding himself, are not benefiting from the online music sharing platforms.

According to him, digitization and monetization of music and creative contents only benefit secular artistes because gospel musicians do not make much money from streaming platforms.

”The secular artistes benefit a lot from YouTube and other streaming platforms but not gospel musicians. The secular acts get huge monies from there when they upload their songs but the gospel artistes hardly benefit and i am just being real.

”Some of the gospel musicians will say they make money from streaming but trust me it is a lie because i talk to a lot of them. They probably have sponsors who support them”, he is quoted as saying.

He further cited musicians like Shatta Wale and Sarkodie as having strong fan base, hence making huge monies from the streaming outlets unlike the gospel musicians.

“Let Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and Shatta wale release a new song right now, you will see how the DJs and the fans will rush for it and download so they can make money, but we gospel musicians rather have to pay for our songs to be played. Ay Poyoo just got one million views on YouTube for his goat song, and i don’t think any gospel musician would have gotten those views despite their talent. Back in the days when we had producers behind us, we could sell cds and make a lot of money for our next projects.

“Imagine about 800 people buying my cds at GH¢5 in churches, not to talk about my fans, and i was good to go. if i release a song and spend money to shoot a video, pay a sound engineer, and not get close to half of what i put in, then what’s the point? What am i doing with $300 when i spent over $1,000 on that particular song? After uploading on YouTube, i now have to pay DJs and television stations to get the song played. We are not doing well and any gospel musician who will disagree with me probably has a sponsor pushing his or her works”, he argued.

But, according to Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo, Ernest Opoku should figure out what the artistes he’s mentioned are doing right but he is not and fix his situation.

He explained that Ernest Opoku and other gospel artistes are having challenges because they lag behind the new age.

To him, instead of the likes of Opoku complaining, they should take the opportunity to be taught on how to make good use of online platforms.

”In his (Ernest Opoku) commentary, he’s making comparison without actually figuring out what the others are doing right. And I’ve always maintained that we don’t have different rules for gospel artistes and different rules for other artistes or different genres. The rules that bind show business is the same for everybody. So, if you’re not doing something right, it’s your duty to figure it out.”

To Arnold, Ernest Opoku in citing Shatta Wale, Sarkodie, Ay Poyoo, failed to ”mention or realize the fact that there is a plan. There’s actually a certain fanbase that no matter what they will patronize”.

”What fanbase have Ernest Opoku and the gospel colleagues he communicated with built over the years?”, he questioned.

He also made mention of gospel musician Diana Hamilton saying she is making money from the streaming platforms and urged Ernest Opoku to learn from her.

”They (musicians) are not using voodoo. It’s the same rules, the same strategy, the same plan they’re all using. Nothing has changed. So, you have to figure out exactly what you’re doing wrong. If you’re late in catching up, catch up.

”Ernest should learn from somebody like Diana because it’s show business. I keep saying it’s show business. Whether you’re a gospel artiste or traditional artiste, it’s show business. So, embrace the business part of the job and then still reflect the work of God”, he stressed on Peace FM’s Saturday’s ”Entertainment Review”.

Source: Peace FM