Sarkodie vrs Charter House & the Ignorant Grammys Comparison | Has Sarkodie Gotten the Right to Charge 1.2 Billion Cedis for 15 Minutes Performance? | My Submission

First of all, let me mention that I am not much of a Sarkodie fan but I acknowledge and appreciate his hard work, dedication—and his ability to have succeeded in an ‘industry’ fully soaked in weakness.

When it comes to Charter House, I really don’t like big companies or corporations, because they always screw the small guy up—and over the years, I’ve said the lack of competition and the ‘monopolistic’ status of Charter House is somewhat turning them into an industry demi-god. Going against their flowing current means you should expect to be shunned, banned or marginalised—and that is the definition of TYRANNY.

Now that I have made it clear that I do not necessarily admire Charter House or Sarkodie though I respect their success, let’s dispassionately consider the substantive issue which many have missed in their discussion over the recent Sarkodie-Charter House brouhaha…

It all started when Sarkodie took to social media to rant over the violation of his personality right—using his name or image for a commercial purpose without his consent or agreed compensation. This is both a statutory and common law violation, which means, Charter House did not just erred when they did that to Sarkodie (irrespective of their compelling reasons), they also broke the law…

Sarkodie had every right, be it moral or legal to be upset of this considering how hard he has worked without any industry support to obtain his current musical status. His fans see him as some sort of Hiplife god and to be frank, he is—more like Ghana’s version of Kanye West.

For this, insults, rants and blows went the way of Charter House from the fans and even some established Ghanaian artistes. Legally, I supported Sarkodie for the simple fact that, Ghanaians continue to take the piss out of people’s intellectual property rights and personality rights on every scale.

Charter House knew their actions were wrong and more importantly, they breached Sarkodie’s legal right so they quickly apologised—and followed this with lengthy explanations as to what happened.

Somehow, it leaked or emerged that the failure to come into agreement between Charter House and Sarkodie on performance fee was because Sarkodie exorbitantly asked for 1 billion old Ghana Cedis for 10-15 minutes performance while Charter House was ready to pay him 400 million old Ghana Cedis.

Then when Charter House was willing to compromise by wanting to pay 900 million old Ghana Cedis which Sarkodie had reduced his 1 billion to, he increased his amount to 1.2 billion—and at this stage, there was some sort of a negotiation deadlock.

The figures have gotten a lot of people upset, saying, Sarkodie is greedy and he had no right to quote such high amounts for 10-15 minutes performance, especially at an Industry event—and this is where my problem lies.

Let’s understand that, Sarkodie as an artiste has every right to charge whatever he wants—including wanting an aeroplane in exchange for a minute performance. It may sound unfair and too much but he has that RIGHT.

Charter House on the other hand has every right to reject high charges they deem unfair, even if it’s coming from a top artiste like Sarkodie. This is the hallmark of a laissez faire market.

Now that I have established that Sarkodie has every right to charge whatever amount he sees his performance fit for—and Charter House is not obliged to accept whatever fees an artiste demands, what has Sarkodie really done wrong with his quotation?

Of course Sarkodie’s fees may be high, so is the price of the VIP tickets being sold by Charter House—I know several people who have said, considering the state of the nation, the ticket prices are extensively expensive and they cannot afford it. These are private contracts or negotiations which mostly lack the conscience of fairness, except profits.

If anyone did something wrong throughout the negotiations and thereafter, it’s Charter House who couldn’t meet Sarkodie’s demand—and yet proceeded to use his name or image when they’ve not paid for it.

I’ve also heard radio arguments such as; Ghana Music Awards is an industry award and as such artistes should not really charge much such as the Grammys—and to be frank, this is a loose argument.

Charter House has sponsors for the VGMAs and more also, Charter House is a private company that shares its profits annually or so to its owners (and shareholders if any). Everything such an entity does is business/profit motivated. It’s not the Red Cross or some established industry Charity—and even if it was, artistes cannot be compelled (they will have to do so voluntary) to waive their performance fees for them.

Let me deal with the uneven Grammy and Ghana Music Awards comparison being loosely made. Artistes are not stupid and if they actually receive immense benefits from winning or performing at the Ghana Music Awards, they would be asking to do so for FREE—so maybe they are not getting anything worth comparing to winning the Grammys or performing on the night.

When an artiste wins a Grammy Award, research has shown that that artiste receives “at least 55% in concert ticket sales” and producers receive similar increase in fees for their works during the year following a Grammy win.

According to David Banner, who won in 2009 for his work on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, his “typical producer fee soared from $50,000 before winning the award to $100,000 or more afterwards; fellow producer Jim Jonsin’s jumped 90% in the wake of his win for producing Lil Wayne’s smash single “Lollipop.”

Rihanna’s fees doubled from $150,000 to $300,000 after winning a Grammy in 2008. And it’s not just her; Bruno Mars also saw a 55 percent increase because of his 2011 Grammy win from $130,000 to $202,000. And Taylor Swift saw an even bigger gain of 380 percent with her 2010 Grammy win, from $125,000 to $600,000.

I will call the Grammys an industry award with industry benefits for all winners (artistes and the organisers)—and now tell me about the true benefits of VGMAs to these artistes apart from Charter House cashing in or receiving the annual glory? Saying you have won a VGMA when it does not translate to anything else is not a benefit.

To me and the many other Ghanaian artistes, the VGMA is not an industry event—even if some see it so, it has no real industry benefits to these artistes like the Grammys, therefore, no one should expect them to perform for far less their fees. It’s just another performance to them—and nothing more.

When performing at the VGMA or winning the VGMA begins to have such a huge career benefit for our artistes—they would start treating it as an industry event with industry benefits just as the Grammys.

Until then, it’s a privately organised Award scheme and people have the right to charge whatever for performance.

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