You Can Force 80% Ghana Music Airplay On Radio, But Not In My Room – DJ Ashmen
Mainstream Ghanaian disc jockey, DJ Ashmen, recently appeared as a guest on Tru Voice, a program powered by Tru News Report.
During the interview, he delved into various topics, including his personal experiences, his affinity for highlife music (a genre that dominates his playlist), and the Ghanaian music industry as a whole.
One particular subject that DJ Ashmen touched upon was the ongoing debate within the industry regarding the percentage of Ghanaian music that should be played on radio. A group of people, including musicians and stakeholders, have advocated for a minimum of 80% Ghanaian music on air.
However, DJ Ashmen offered an intriguing perspective on this matter. He pointed out that the majority of radio stations in Ghana are privately owned, making it challenging to impose strict regulations on the owners regarding their playlist choices.
DJ Ashmen argued that attempting to dictate the content of these stations could prove to be counterproductive.
He concluded by stating that although he started this agenda in the past, he has his personal music preferences that he enjoys listening to in the comfort of his room. Therefore, even if the 80% propaganda were to be achieved, it would not alter his choice of music.
Overall, DJ Ashmen’s insights shed light on the complexities of the Ghanaian music industry and the challenges associated with implementing such a mandate. He said:
Yeah, my thoughts on 80% Ghanaian music—well, people don’t know I started this whole thing. I started it; you can check my social media platform. I started it almost 14 years ago. Yes, I started saying we should do 80% Ghanian songs on the radio because, at that time, I realized Ghanaians, most of the youth coming up then we didn’t want to like or hear someone doing High Life music.
We see music so people were looking down on highlife because that time was the hip-hop dominance era so I was like, yo hip-hop yes, it’s an African thing but Continental wise it’s not from here, so why not push our high life out there.
So I started I started that thing but somewhere along the line I I got something right which I I think most of the people didn’t give attention to. Playing 80% music on radio but ask yourself most of the radio stations we have our private own stations. Government don’t give them any tax exemptions.
I stand to be corrected but from what I know government doesn’t give anyone tax exemption that’s why any no radio station is mandatory to play even our national anthem. You can’t force the station to play but being patriotic until maybe somebody or a presenter or somebody who play, so telling a radio station to play 80% of your song on radio, what are you also doing for the station?
From the artist from music management team from even from the government what are doing for the radio station? So 80% on our radio not bad but you can’t just wake up and force someone to go hey play this music.
What are you doing for the person, what are you doing for that radio station, what are you doing for that DJ? How are you selling yourself to the world? Right now music is a global village and there is only one standard to music which is World standard. You can’t force 80% in my house or in my room so what are you selling to me?Are you giving me the world standard music
