Music Scene

Todd: So Abedemi, we were talking about the music scene in your country. How do people consume music?

Abidemi: A lot of times ... in the past it was more you went to ... they had, how do I say ... a parties. They would invite well known artists, the more money your family had the bigger the artist could be because then they could pay a person. But these days a lot of artists come and they play. We’ve had like people like Chris Brown and Rihanna, even Jay-z go to Nigeria and play in the big cities and people pay for concerts. So there are more and more concerts happening that people go to. A lot more people have access to computers now so people listen on YouTube. CDs are very cheap, you could get a CD usually pirated but you could get something for like 100 yen or 100 ... I don't know, one dollar, so it’s really cheap. Lots of people buy music, they watch video clips, on TV even they have music channels too where people listen to music. So music is a part of everyday life and wherever you go on the streets constantly music is playing from cars, from windows, everywhere. It’s very loud and noisy.

Todd: So do you have like a music scene, like is there, you know, like local musicians play in like small venues?

Abidemi: Sometimes, yes, especially clubs, for clubs, well known clubs in big cities, musicians do play there to make money but I think for the most part where musicians try to make money ... they make most of their money from playing either private parties or playing ... from making CDs. So those are the two main ways that I think they make money. We don’t have quite as developed music scene where you have concerts happening every night as maybe in other countries like the States or England. But I think it is getting better, as more and more people get more money, so surely, economically as people become more ... they have access to money they're able to go out and listen to music and play. Some ... how do I say ... some eateries, they call them bukas, they're like bars, basically bars, but some bars do have bands playing every night. Yeah. So yeah, we have that as well.

Todd: Oh, that sounds great, so it’s definitely a developing music scene but it’s kind of unique in its own way.

Abidemi: Yes, it's so very traditional - it's so very traditional, where in the past a lot of musicians played for private parties to make most of their money but now it’s moving away from that and more towards the American side of things where we’re having concerts - regular concerts. Yeah.

Todd: Oh wow, sounds cool.