Gospel Artistes Pay More Payola — Gifty Osei

There is no denying that the Gospel music industry is experiencing a slump; the release of new music is becoming less frequent and many of the artistes are becoming inactive as the days go by.

Several reasons have been assigned for the present situation but for songstress, Gifty Osei, she believes it is because they spend too much money paying payola.

According to her, they are often not able to recoup the huge amount of money they spend paying DJs and promoters and that makes it difficult for them to come out with new material as often as is expected.

“Ghanaians don’t have any idea what goes on behind the scenes. Gospel musicians spend millions of cedis promoting their albums which people don’t even buy at the end of the day.

“Sarkodie, Stonebwoy or any popular secular artiste will not pay payola to DJs to play their songs but that cannot be said of any popular gospel musician. All a secular musician needs is one hit song and he or she is on shows performing and making money but not Gospel musicians,” she told Showbiz in an interview on Monday.

Apart from payola, Gifty Osei, popularly known as Empress One said Gospel music is serious business which requires a lot of investment.

“Putting together an album is a big task and you know that unlike secular artistes, it is preferred that gospel musicians perform live and you need to spend money on a band if you don’t have your own. All these are financially draining for gospel musicians,” she said.

The award winning musician is currently promoting her latest album, Ebenezer. Songs on the 8-track album, produced by Shai, Emma and Ephraim are Adom, Ebenezer, Worship Medley and Praises Medley.

According to her, the latest album is already doing well and she believes it will be a blessing to anyone who buys it.

Gifty Osei is gearing up for her 10th anniversary concert next month and she says it is going to be a bomb with A- list Gospel musicians expected to perform.

Source: Daily Graphic