The Chief Executive Office (CEO) of 3 Media Network has disclosed that the award scheme had hoped to gift the recipient of the 'Artist of the Year' with a car.

Joining JoyNews' Kojo Yankson on the Super Morning Show Monday, Sadiq Abdulai Abu revealed that the reason why that was not possible was that "conversations didn't quite pick up with the car company".

He further shared that the highly respected award show involved a huge financial investment, terming it as "crazy".

"Obviously in future, once we have the necessary sponsorship for it (a car) we’d be able to do it. These things come with a lot of money."

Without disclosing the name of the company involved, Mr Abu said that the company raised the hopes of the organizers really high but were not responsive as time went by.

"So we just had to move on, for this. But obviously next year, it’s something that we’re looking towards. For this year, it’s just a plug and opportunities," he said.

According to him, although monetary prizes were not awarded to the winners of the various categories, there are other benefits the artists get from winning an award on the prestigious show.

"For some of the categories like the Breakthrough Singer of the Year, which is sponsored by Boomplay for instance, the winner of the category gets all these marketing opportunities and support across Africa and the world through Boomplay.

"Then the Most Streamed Act and Most Streamed Song of the year, TuneCore which is the biggest digital music distributor. One of the biggest in fact is sponsoring it. The winner also gets the opportunity to earn marketing support, free distribution globally, and all these things that come with the now of music to enable them unlock some value for themselves."

Aside from the huge investment that went into the production of the live performances of selected artistes, Mr Abu said the investment will also go a long way to promote the artistes on their social media platforms as well as various streaming sites such as YouTube.

"In the ways we think about awards and how it should have an industrial and social impact, this is the lines along which we think of it. The fact that it should have that level of impact on the talent. A lot of these young talents.

"Not necessarily shining the spotlight on them and bringing them up there, but most importantly creating that much-needed networks with the likes of Boomplay, TuneCore, and all those international partners to enable them a lot more value for themselves in their careers," he said.