"Forget Royalties If You Want to be Rich" - Kwaisey Pee to Ghanaian Artists

Photo: Kwaisey Pee/Instagram

By Kinyua Mwangi

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Ghanaian highlife musician Kwaisey Pee has asked musicians to forget about royalties and strive to do better for themselves. He is of the opinion that musicians are more likely to be financially liberated when they focus on making more money in other ways besides royalties.

Speaking to Akua Sika on the Happy Evening Drive on Happy FM, Kwaisey Pee said that he has never received any royalties and he is sure that whatever the amount is; it is nothing much to make him wealthy. He also cites that top artists in Ghana never depended on royalties because if they did, they would never have accomplished the great things they have so far.

"I haven't received any royalties from the industry yet, and even if I have, it's nothing to write home about. I don't think if our top musicians like Kojo Antwi and the others had depended on royalties they would've achieved everything they have today,” he notes. 

His clarion call is for every artist to do their part and break borders in revenue streams other than just waiting for royalties. He believes royalties have no benefit and are not worth all the waiting time. Overlooking the royalties issue, the ‘Ayele’ singer says he has made a lot of money through music and opened many other doors in life. What’s surprising is that he never planned on becoming an artist and his focus was on becoming an electronics engineer. His father wanted him to become a footballer and then music came in a natural way.