As Afrobeats continues to make ground-breaking exports, globally, with an increase in foreign direct investment as well, most of its musicians have become too expensive for local show organisers to book, show promoters have decried.

Checks by Weekend Beats showed that this new trend, which sees artistes, especially those with major hit songs, charge directly in hundreds of thousands or even millions of American dollars, is prompting a decline in concert and music tour experiences across the country.

Taking to his Instagram platform, renowned show promoter Paul Okoye, better known as Pauloo, decried, “Nigerian artistes now price themselves out of the market in Nigeria. Now that concerts are declining globally, would Nigerian artistes reduce their prices in Nigeria?”

“You have no idea. Ask why there aren’t so many live shows in Nigeria this year? It (The decline) all started two years ago. Now, it is worse. Corporate bodies have cancelled their end of the year parties. Show promoters cannot pay unless you launder money. This ‘Afrobeats’ we all built together, you now charge your own people in dollars,” popular Hypeman and on-air personality Do2tun added.

Recall that the biggest Afrobeats festival, Afronation, was recently cancelled from having its historic debut in Lagos, this December, owing to a number of factors including low patronage from steep prices (from N23,000 to N230,000) set by the organisers – a move influenced by the even steeper prices charged by Nigerian artistes.

Lending his voice to the discourse on the ‘X’ social media platform, renowned music executive and co-founder of The Plug Entertainment, Bizzle Osikoya, further admonished the newer generation of Nigerian artistes to embrace collaboration to help sustain local tours in the country.

Another music executive and entertainment lawyer, Oyinkansola ‘Foza’ Fawehinmi, argued that “it makes no sense that you are a Nigerian performing a service in Nigeria and using entirely Nigerian resources and charging in FX (foreign currency).”