Jarga Kebba Gigo: How AI Can Transform Music Access and Create Global Stars in The Gambia and Africa

Jarga Kebba Gigo argues that artificial intelligence is a transformative force capable of democrising music production, drastically reducing costs, and opening global opportunities for talented but underprivileged youths across The Gambia and Africa. He contends that strategic investment in AI-powered studios at district level, supported by government, private stakeholders, and communities, could turn music into a multi-billion-dollar industry while promoting education, creativity, and social reform. While acknowledging concerns about AI and artistic integrity, he maintains that embracing innovation, encouraging collaboration, and prioritising meaningful, value-driven music will position African artists to compete globally and uplift society.

His Write-up Below:

How The Gambia and Africa may Maximally Benefit from AI Musically? 

The evolution of music is very complex , but the evolution of commercial music within the last three to four decades is essentially on my fingertips. Meaning, I can write with great authority about the music industry of the recent past. Considering, God has given me a mind far above the average, I can equally write reasonable predictions about the near future of the music industry. I am of the opinion that God is the greatest musician of all, but some claim Satan was also a musician. This dilemma means music can be good or bad, which many secular minds can agree with. I am also of the opinion that the human voice is an amazing musical ‘instrument’ that can evolve or devolve, and complexly controlled by mainly the mind or God. The other sound producing musical equipment are also still evolving in a very complex manner. It is also fair to claim AI music is here to help some more than others, but I think AI will be net positive in respect to things like music. If you doubt my claim, then know that I support access and Lovism,  not unnecessary restrictions and Capitalism. How do we create near equal access to musical opportunities in the Gambia,  Africa,  and beyond? I think reasonable investment in AI and musical studios in every district (county) or big village is feasible and not too much to ask. A serious musician must have a home studio, but how can we help the poor teenagers with talent towards such is a special love that some capitalists may not see.

Although the age of selling millions of copies in music is almost dead or at a serious pause, the music industry is still a multi-billion dollar industry even at the continental level.  No smart country should be indifferent to a potential multi-billion dollar industry to speak the language people understand most,  but music can offer much better than financial wealth.  The live performance aspect is still vibrant up to tax benefits, but indifferent governments and which rich folks may ignore their responsibility for the production sacrifices that are needed to create world stars and the performance they want for money? 

Production Cost: Within the last three decades, the cost of making music was gradually coming down, and AI is bringing it down even more, plus making it much easier. I was doing music in the nineties, and I had to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a mid level studio.  That may be equivalent to over hundred thousand dollars in value today, except the direction of musical equipment for production has shifted. Yes, many spent millions of dollars on equipment alone. So the industry was essentially not for the poor, which contributed to many artists being involved in drugs and other crimes. Connections and limited other options existed. Today, a thousand to two thousand dollars worth of right musical equipment with AI is arguably better than my then studio in respect to musical production and many million dollar studios then. Mind you, I am referring to only the musical production aspect — it does not include vocal aspects. The cost of a great vocal microphone is still about the same, sometimes more; the cost of building a vocal booth may be higher in many places, except ‘makeshift’ tactics exist; the human cost of hiring mixing engineers and others fall on the borderline where AI can pick-up. 

In a nutshell, if the Gambia government or xyz spends about one hundred thousand dollars on AI oriented musical production studio equipment, we will be laying the foundation stones for about 50 studios, or one for every district. Of course, bigger countries like Nigeria or even Ghana can do the maths to invest proportionately. Among the untapped multi-billion dollar industries, it is very rare to find where a one million dollar investment may bring a billion dollar within a few years. Call me an optimist, but even if we make one million dollars from a hundred thousand dollars investment,  that is not bad. Then you add the other non-financial benefits. If  Barrow or xyz refuse to act now,  which opposition leader will work on an example and pledge it as a campaign promise? 

Once every district has a relatively great studio, it opens the door for a poor villager in the Gambia to compete worldwide,  beat a Nigerian inside Nigeria,  beat an American inside America, etc. Pessimistic Barrow or worse than Barrow may advise otherwise on investing or even having hope. The world of music at consumption level is very different for me and countless folks.  Yes, I may wish well for the Gambia or Africa, as evident in my title, but if a Jamaican or xyz artist is much better to my ears and mind, I am likely to ignore the Gambian 50% or more of the time. I essentially mean it is a very competitive world. So may be ten artists from five districts may essentially rule the Gambia per decade; five may go Africa wide; two may be worldwide stars for how many years and by when? 

The maths is not very hard from the government perspective or even certain business folks.  How do we collect about a dollar from one million Gambians through music to justify how much to invest? Although the main income is through performances, there can be reasonable income through production. First, I will recommend the studio should be in or near a high school. Teenagers consume music and can be musical geniuses, so teaching them basic music is common sense and a way to keep some of them from drugs and other ills.  For a poor country like the Gambia,  I will recommend about D500 ($10) for a term of basic musical production through AI. You justify the cost based on the cost of a laborer per day — tell your dad, mum, or teenager to go for any odd job to learn+ , before they expect laborers+ to pay an arm and a leg to watch you perform.  Let’s say 100 students per district may or may not pay even the teacher, but some districts may help pay off the equipment through just the courses. Second term may or may not be necessary, because some will outperform others to drop, and the top ones may move towards owning a home studio. I will still recommend learning at least ten different musical recording software for different reasons. To accommodate the pessimistic ones, the studio can charge about D1000 per hour or thirty minutes to its ex-students and much more to others.  The reason for the discount to ex-students is to pressure all to go through the ‘hardship’ of what is involved and to speed-up communication towards making a hit or how many hits. There are many important things I am leaving out on why basic musical education matters, because the average ordinary reader may not understand certain terms in our limited time and space. However,  almost everyone can understand tuition fees, studio time for social media or hit songs, and live performances are all feasible through such studios at district level than phone recordings. Quality matters, pioneering matters, so use your mind with love and give the poor an elevation that may help. 

Besides the government using the spark-plug per district,  TV owners like Mr. Muhammed Jah or xyz in your country should seriously consider funding such for our precious Gambia or your country. With or without collaboration, Gambian musicians should be willing to have a tour towards such realisation. Imagine the Gambia government appealing to music loving MBS of Saudi-Arabia or xyz, we want to help produce someone ‘better’ than Sheikh Nourin in Quhr-aahnic recitation and conscientious secular musicians than the Americans and Jamaicans combined,  can you help with how many millions if we can go beyond equipment providing? Whatever you have internationally or through taxes, some rich folks within the country,  the top artists, the diaspora, and even the village or district level crowd funding. You have village development funds, but can we have district development funds? 

Worse case scenarios: If the government can only come up with the equipment cost, which districts can fund the actual cost of the studio? Again,  turning a classroom into an ideal recording studio is still a bit. You will need cameras there too, including how to settle copyright disputes. 

Dismissing the Controversies: I know many people are arguing AI is taking jobs,  but we are in an inevitable moment.  People are already using AI beyond music production, and part of it is very conscientious to the best of my knowledge.  Cost can be calculated in many ways, including time.  In the old days, you had a singer , who may or may not be a song writer.  The heavy task of finding how many band members for years, plus the ‘music writer’ is often one or two. It took hours sometimes to have a piano or guitar player know what you wanted to play. Then came my age: I am yet to know how to play any man made musical instrument, but I made about half of the music of my album, and thanks to now nearly obsolete machines. What took me hours with those machines can now be made within minutes through AI. No! I am not referring to letting AI steal or randomly guess your music, but instructing AI in ways human musicians found hard to comprehend. Once you make the music through AI, the human musician can also learn quicker to perform live with you and still be reasonably paid. I think for vocalists, song writers, and music writers or arrangers (producers), AI is a huge blessing like evolving from a donkey cart to an aircraft that can carry a donkey or much better. If we endlessly debate where AI seems negative,  we will only be consumers, not producers. It may take a while before AI can replace vocalists and who will own such AI robots if we fear unnecessarily or are reluctant to help the poor now?

By setting the standards,  encouraging human creativity,  improving access, etc we can still protect and help people in many ways. 

Gratitude: I do not think many artists will agree to long-term contracts on performance rights from production level. However,  I think grateful artists who sincerely want to be grateful to the production team deserve more help from God. Your about a thousand dalasis for your studio time may be hard to earn, but from me to the government+ may deserve more than thank you… It starts with ideas, and God is the inspirer of every good. I could have privately tried to meet with our minister of Culture, Muhammed Jah, or xyz about the idea. I am fairly certain that the president or minister+ of Ghana or Nigeria may not appreciate me well on the idea contribution, but God may, and a villager in many countries may very well see how such a project can help a country more than even a road infrastructure.  

The highest gratitude may be acting on it ASAP. Sometimes people look down on ‘local ideas’, so if president Barrow hears Ghana is doing it, he may very well listen or learn from such than me. As for me, I am looking for a nice high end home studio, so how can I be indifferent to helping my poor villagers having a recording studio at the district level.  To the chiefs and village heads, sacrifice land+ to have it with a nice suite. Many musical inspirations come at night. So after a few stars are identified, you should give further discounts to the top who once paid. So if the day is 24 hrs, let about 5 to 10 hours be to the ones you consider low in talent,  but may rise. Then consider how a package can give the best artists ‘a five class hotel-like suite’ inside the studio for hours or days by turns.  In the middle of the night, an artist who walked or biked between villages may make a hit song to win over the Internet, the TVs, and awards beyond human awards. A discouragement fee is sometimes good to weed out some, but a nice discount package to make world stars is a reasonable appeal to the Lord of the universe. 

National to International Collaborations: Artists like Youssou Ndure enormously benefitted in the Gambia and beyond. How can we work with folks like him beyond crowdfunding and his over expensive studio? By having regional musical competitions after near equal access to a good studio, the top three per district or division (region) may actually have something that may interest folks like Youssou more than the top three the Gambia or xyz may prefer. We all agree music is subjective and the different types of music make it even more complex at times. Digital music production means the Reggae or xyz hit from the Gambian village is as good as the one made in Youssou Ndure’s studio…  Meaning, you can do the final recording of vocals at a fraction of the cost in high end studios in or outside the Gambia.  In return, I think aging Youssou Ndure and other artists should be glad to help the younger ones with access and creating world stars. Access has many levels and my ideas are feasible, and meant to help countless people gain access to opportunities. Local live performances can be reasonable and may be much better than drugs and other ills our generation are tested with. From local tourism to making international stars towards more tourism, humans are tourists on earth or is it our semi-permanent home we should make heavenly? 

There is no question that many black people are heavily gifted Musically,  especially vocal wise. However,  world history tends to reveal a lack of enough collaboration within blacks. Many of our music also was entertainment leaning, mainly praise singing of people.  If we study even the celebrated Youssou Ndure,  his early songs lacked substance.  Thanks to critics or what part of God’s favor immensely improved him towards many underutilised elevating songs. My point is young rising artists must seriously consider critics, not just managers; engage the Lord of conscience, not just money and fame seeking. Like sports, the primary benefactor is you, not the public or money… The world of words is paramount and can arguably be bigger or more impactful than actions depending on levels. I believe in God, believe our words will be judged, but I am a champion of freedom of speech and thus against censoring music… However,  like I often said: respecting faith, freedom of speech,  etc should never mean we cannot criticise where we deem you wrong. So strive for perfection and remember the music industry is one area where ‘ many are called and few are chosen’, and sometimes for a very short time.  So encourage the children to see music as a second job (aspiration), stay in school, and gather many talents God may allow. 

Indifferent or slow speed includes arguing let every village do it on their own. Then it may take a decade while other countries make billions or millions. In contrast, by even announcing it at government level, the best will not wait for you and realising it means the teenager from a bad ‘village head’ may have an opportunity to be a world star or even be more impactful than average presidents on the world stage.  If reincarnation exists, indifference to the poor will warrant coming back poor. We all need opportunities and access to learning and working matters.

If they sing good songs, may God reward them and me even more.  If they sing bad songs,  you call them out and shame them… I am not against entertainment, but I prefer edutainment. So let awards include educational songs too. Head songs come with risks, so do tolerate, but that includes calling out towards perfection.  Teenagers should also look for critics who can help them perfect the words before it is made public. I call on the Lord of conscience to make music like or better than the Quhr-aahn– concurring in spirit and more specific where need be. ‘I WILL always love you’ by Dolly Parton to Whitney Houston does not have to be adulterous leaning.  If Satan was making studio expensive and bad songs,  can God help us with better studios and much better songs? I believe in trying with what is available.  May God bless Showlove Trinity: let’s learn,  let’s work,  let’s have fun.  

By Jarga Kebba Gigo 

An Activist and Transformer 

Author of Juts Quhr-aahn