THE YEAR SOCIAL MEDIA RULED GHANAIAN MUSIC - 2012

Before we take you through the journey of how all the major social media platforms ruled and shaped Ghanaian music this year, we at www.nanayaw18.com wish all readers a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. Also we want to say that all RSS feed or copy and paste without proper authorization websites please this is your last take, hopefully 2013 will be different.

In 2012 Ghanaian music saw a massive boost due to the kind courtesy of major social media platforms  such as Facebook, twitter, sound cloud, hulkshare, Google + limelinx, youtube and many more.

These social platforms brought a lot of attention to the artistes both main stream or upcoming as they got the chance to put their music + videos across to their fans faster and quicker than the normal routine of radio / TV air play.

In 2012, many underground artistes became huge stars on twitter, facebook, my space, reverbnation, hulkshare, youtube and sound cloud. Unlike the previous years where underground artiste had to struggle to get someone to listen to them, this time around they upload their music on these platforms and get friends, followers and family members to listen to it for free without paying a dime to any DJ or presenter.

We at nanayaw18.com think that this year, social media threw the spot light on these guys (upcoming artistes) as there are some of them we bumped into due to social media music platforms that are not main stream artistes but are huge stars on these platform with huge following.

Music platforms like reverbnation, Hulkshare, limelinx and sound cloud not forgetting the video platform youtube brought hope to people with the desire to do music but do not have help. They get instant feedback from listeners who either dislike or like the song. They also get the chance to get comments that encourages them to go higher. What is interesting about these music social platforms is, many underground artistes even get shows to perform on. 

Just stay awake one morning and promote your uploaded song on limelinx and you can count your downloads, add your contact to your youtube video slide and there you go, a show is waiting for you somewhere.

Now the big question is ‘how did social media influence the main stream artistes in Ghana’.

Some years ago we will hardly hear a brand new single from a mainstream artiste any where if not radio or a video premier on TV. This year there were not only one, two but countless hit songs that came out from mainstream artistes through the use of social media.

A lot of them, like Jay So, Dblack, Okyeame Kwame Sarkodie, Kwaw Kesse, Raquel, Efya, Edem, Samini, Becca, and a lot more used social media than ever before. These artistes had the chance to interact with their fans on one on one basis.

We noticed that names like Asem, R2bees, Sarkodie, DBlack, Raquel, Efya, Kwaw Kesse, Kesse, Okyeame Kwame always gave their fans on twitter first time listening to any of their new singles before it gets radio.

Social media platforms also brought easy promotions to the music industry. Many artistes did a lot of promotions within the year whether for their events, single or video release party or more.

We at nanayaw18.com saw that a lot of artistes like Paapa of Skillions, FOKN BOIS, M.anifest used twitter a lot to promote their image, music and events than mainstream media hence many might not know some like Paapa but he has massive following on twitter, getting him all the attention he wants for his career, even though there could be more, this is a great start.

The truth is, this year 2012 social media brought more blessing than anything to the Ghanaian musician and our industry than any other year and this is because gradually we are getting to understand as artistic people the essence of the internet and its products it provides.

We are gradually getting to understand the importance of running either a social media page like facebook / twitter/ the rest and not misuse it but wisely use it to promote our brand. Also nanayaw18.com can say that social media even brought more collaboration between Ghanaian artistes and others internationally not to talk about the events and awards that social media brought to many in the music industry.

We hope that the use of these social media platforms will be more eminent next year. As we pray that our musicians will be bold enough to start the character of encouraging their fans to buy songs online since they (fans) are now used to downloading fresh and brand new songs online every single day.

As we end the year 2012, we at nanayaw18.com want to say that, long live social media platforms, long live Ghana music. A year by this time this feature article will be titled: ‘2013 the year social media brought money to Ghanaian music’.

Peace be unto you and enjoy your festive season.

Story: Nana Yaw Wiredu / www.nanayaw18.com