It was on the theme ‘The Bigger Picture, Action Today, Wealthier Tomorrow’, on Friday, March 18.

Trigmatic, who was the brain behind the dialogue, admitted that many artists in Ghana are ignorant about the business aspect of the arts, eventually finding themselves on the losing end of the value chain.

“You can’t take out music from any society, you can’t take out the arts from any society, but the sad thing is that mostly the content providers are underprivileged. They lack the knowledge, the know-how, the skill-base is really low," he lamented.

The ‘Wo Sika Nti’ rapper charged society to protect art makers, as is the case in other fields, citing lawyers’ association as an example.

He mentioned that this necessitated the African Music business Dialogue, an avenue for music creators and all in the field to learn and share knowledge to make the most out of art and contribute to nation-building.

“This is the beginning of knowledge-sharing. This year and the years beyond must be all about that; networking and widening artistes’ scope of understanding [music and the business involved” Trigmatic explained.

The rapper believes artists must be armed with knowledge on all aspects of the discipline.
He also acknowledged the contrast between the current state of African music on a global scale, how far it has come and why it is imperative to protect African music and its creators.