Music in Ghana is a very tough business both for the upcoming and established stars. However, the underground artistes, without the help of an established star find it twice difficult to break through the glass ceiling and to maintain their relevance (once they break through) in the entertainment industry.
Worse still, only a few musicians are able to make substantial profits from their careers like the Stonebwoys, Sarkodies and the Shatta Wales. The rest have to support themselves through doing other jobs to keep body and soul together.
This is the story of Ghanaian musical act Kiaani. Kiaani, who is known for songs such as ‘Who’s The King?’, ‘For Better For Worse’ and ‘Only You’, told Zionfelix in an interview that he used to sell kenkey to support himself during the early stages of his career.
The ‘Smoke Dem’ crooner said that he is not even shy to sell kenkey now and plans on opening a kenkey factory soon. He even went further to say that he plans on celebrating his next birthday with kenkey.
Making money from music these days is very difficult. This is because patrons do not purchase CDs or cassettes anymore which is the main source of income for musicians. People prefer to download music for free on the internet so the major way an artiste can make money is through performing at shows.
This is the reason why most musicians do not release albums anymore. They prefer to release singles so that when their singles become hit songs, they can reap the benefits through performing at musical shows across the length and breadth of the world. However, artistes who are unable to release hit songs resort to doing other jobs to keep them going whiles they pray for a day that they will also ‘blow’.
