How to setup a music studio with as little as N150, 000.00 in Nigeria 2019.

Due to the high cost of musical equipment both in stores and online, setting up a musical studio can be very challenging most especially when you do not have much money to invest. But in this article I will show you the way out, how you can actually manipulate your way through the storms of investment.

When I left St. Hills music studio back in 2013, I faced this kind of hardship trying to setup my studio with the little cash I had at that time. I made series of enquiries both at home in Nigeria and from my few friends in Canada and Malaysia how I will be able to purchase studio gadgets with the little money I had, because I had just N150, 000.00 which is the equivalent of $416.66 so how am I going to buy at least the primary studio equipments with this little sum and also pay shop rent from that same amount.

Now the things I needed to enable me start at least something like a home studio were these:-

1. Desktop system

2. Condenser microphone

3. Monitor speakers

4. Sound interface (sound card)

5. MIDI controller keyboard

7. Shop rent.

These are actually the primary equipments in the studio, so I needed all of these but the money I had wasn’t enough for me because where I was living (Makurdi) these equipments cost almost twice their prices in Lagos.

So I made so many enquiries from Israel who resides in Toronto, Canada. So I discovered from Israel that I could buy fairly used of all these equipments in Lagos at cheaper prices, I did my calculations based on the information I gathered from him and found out that the little cash I had could actually buy those equipments and I will also have something left to pay my shop rent.

Israel is into such business, shipping fairly used electronics from Toronto to ladipo, illesha and alaba international market all in Lagos, and also to Banex plaza in Abuja, one of his shop is located beside empire suite along David mark by-pass in Makurdi.

I did not only get the prices of those fairly used equipments from Israel but I also collected the seller’s phone numbers from him and because I was afraid of scammer in Lagos I had to look for transport fare in order to enable me travel to Lagos myself so I can meet with those sellers one on one.

When I arrived in Lagos, I went to Ibafon, Westminster bus stop along Oshodi- Apapa express way.

There is a warehouse there called Ibru Merchandise Warehouse, now you need to be wise here because some boys may drag you even though to a shop selling those things you are looking for but the moment the seller sees you with them he will increase the prices of those things and if you pay for any equipment the increase will enable him pay certain commission to the person that brought you to his shop.

So if you want to buy your stuffs at low prices, avoid the by-force referrers by pretending you are a worker in any of the shops there.

The success tip to overcome these agents is this; don’t look into any of those first shops, just go straight into any shop down the lane and sit there, even if the shop does not contain those things you are looking for, just sit there and don’t even bargain for anything but only make enquiry for the things you do not even need, though your target should be to spy the shops around.

So as you are there in that shop look outside and see the shops around, check if they are selling what you need, then go there straight and buy it very cheap.

What did I come to Ibafon to buy? Instead of going to computer village, I went to Ibru Warehouse and purchased my complete desktop system for just #20,000, very cheap right? Next, I headed straight to Alaba international market in Ojo area of Lagos.

Here, I bought a used sound card for just #25,000 and a used Berhinger truth B2030A monitors for just #45,000. I bought a used C3 condenser microphone for just #15,000 and MIDI controller keyboard for #15,000 (five octave) then I returned back to Makurdi the next day.

I came back with a balance of about #30,000 and I had to pay like #25,000 to the shop owner as advance payment for the shop.

If you don’t want to go to Alaba, you can go to Ladipo market and purchase all you need at even lower prices but non-tested which means you will take the risk of not testing those things at the point of sell to know their working state.

So I actually bought my studio equipments for just #120,000, therefore it is very possible to setup a digital music studio in Nigeria with as little as one hundred and fifty thousand naira.

T.I Ukende

T.I Ukende is a professional writer and ICT consultant. He has written many evergreen articles for Benuecast blog, classicgist, ellabase and many others before birthing the newsway blog. Newsway delivers well researched and undiluted information on business, employment opportunities, personal finance and government empowerments.