Ghanaian private legal practitioner with interest in the Ghanaian creative arts space, lawyer Bobby Banson, has advised creative artists to form and join active associations if they want to know and enjoy their real market value.
Just like employees have the Workers’ Union, he argues the era of creative artists being under paid or taken advantage of by clients, and event organizers will be a thing of the past if this goal is realized.
Speaking on how players in the creative arts space can determine their worth, he stated, “the first thing you need to do in know your worth as a creative is by association. For example we have the actors’ guild and they are supposed to negotiate with producers on behalf of any member of the guild, because they are well aware of their individual skills set and pedigree. If there is unity in terms of the unionization of creative artists, they will be better off and earn more as they are aware of their value.”
He made this known in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.
Lawyer Bobby Banson added that with the Christmas season fast approaching, the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) could have used such an idea to protect its members. “Event organizers and many others will seek out artistes for their events and if this existed, they would’ve gone through MUISGA. With MUSIGA being the collective, they would have assessed artistes and placed value on them based on the airplay they (artistes) had enjoyed in a given year. Based on the airplay and other factors, the artistes will have a standard value which every event organizer will be well aware of before contracting them. This is what most musicians have been advocating for but they’ve never had the right platform to do so.”
He championed for this proposal to be considered as artiste knowing their value will determine how much they charge per show, “and if this is done, clients will not always find a way to beat down the value of the artistes.”
The 2nd Law for Society Public Seminar Series on the theme; ‘How to Maximize Benefits for Creative Artists’ will take place at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra on Friday, December 3, 2021. The seminar will focus on how creatives can protect their income and survive especially in their old age.
