Dancehall musician, Shatta Wale, has taken a swipe at 3 Music Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sadiq Abdulai Abu, after the latter accused him of being ignorant of how funds are generated on music-streaming platforms.
In an interview on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, Shatta Wale said he doesn’t know how much money was generated from his Megye Wo Girl song with Sarkodie that was a big hit in the country.
But Mr Abu, who felt uneasy with the statement, said Shatta Wale likes making “hollow arguments and running in circles.”
According to him, he cannot comprehend how a big music star like Shatta Wale cannot figure out how musicians are paid via streams.
Wale is always making hollow arguments and running in circles… Who says that today one can’t know exactly how much is made for a song or a video? How such narrative is allowed to fester is shocking? Isn’t payment per the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Boomplay and YouTube among others depending on the number of subscribing act, jurisdiction and operation expenses?… How one of our big talents doesn’t know this is shocking…, he told Shatta Wale.
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But Shatta Wale didn’t take the matter lightly as he felt disrespected by his utterances.
According to the dancehall musician, Mr Abu ought to have shown him some respect by recognising his feats in the music industry.
He added that he wants upcoming musicians to kill the idea that whenever they put their songs on YouTube, Apple Music and Boomplay among other streams they will become rich.
According to Shatta Wale, Ghana’s music royalty system is in a mess, hence until things are put in their rightful places, revenues from music streams would not be enough.
We think what the Americans are doing we can do the same thing which is a lie. Their system is structured… I have been in the Ghana Music Industry and I know what I am saying…
Sadiq should give me respect… He should bring out the numbers of the money people make on social media, what is he talking about? Does he know how much people make? Even 80,000 dollars they won’t get.
People are not making money… we should stop making people feel they are making huge money from YouTube…the mechanisms and structures are not right. It’s a solution we need not problems, he said.