Michaël Zumstein

Reportage, 2015

Africa Upload

Mali, Bamako, 22 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications). 
Customers and

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 21 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications).
On the Fankélé Diarra street, mobile phone reparers and battery

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 21 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications).
A customer (right) talking with files traders after she has entrusted them with her mobile phone to download music videos.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 22 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications).
Mr. Maïga, 35,

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 22 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. Two young men having a break while watching files they have just bought.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 23 May 2015 In the Bankoni quarter, a woman filming a Balani Show. A few hours later the video will be shared on the social networks. In the Bankoni quarter, DJ of a Balani Show starting their set. Few hours later, the video of Balani Show will be shared on the social networks. A Balani Show is a small concert organized by friends of the same quarter who after a whip-round let traditional musicians come or hire a sound system and its DJ.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 21 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications). 
Adama Moukoro, 28, downloading music tracks on the pin card of a customer.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 22 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications). A taxi of Bamako passing in front of the store of a

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 23 May 2015 Near the city center, in the Fankélé Diarra street, shops providing digital file exchange have multiplied. A music track or a music video cost 50 CFA francs (0.08 US$), a movie 100 CFA francs (0.016 US$). Customers come with their own USB flash drive or mobile phone and make illegaly download hundreds files (music, movies, applications).
A customer showing on her mobile phone a music video of singer Faty Kouyaté she has just bought.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Mali, Bamako, 23 May 2015 Malian guitarist Baba Salah performing a concert in Janjo venue in Bamako. Malian artists of whose albums are quickly pirated give many concerts in order to get money they cannot earn anymore through CD's sales. A man filming Baba Salah's concert. The video will be quickly shared on the social networks. Social networks are at the same time marketing tools and spaces encouraging pirating.

michael zumstein / agence vu

Projektbeschrieb

Since two decades, cellphone has created a little revolution in Mali, overcoming the lack of landlines. Its capital, Bamako, has seen come into being new sellers who download popular music as much as diversified.

Called downloaders, these new music merchants took their place in Fankélé Diarra Street that attracts also musicians who want to share their productions. Then music transfers are made very quickly : music tracks and video clips are downloaded on USB flash drive or memory stick and shared via bluetooth signals speeding up new artists discovery. Consequently, without a real network connection, users can reach all coveted music but especially the experienced and shared one.
Yet, multiplication of these new share and illegal transfer shops has changed musicians' professional practices because of CD sales fall that force them to perform more frequently, such as in Balani Shows, small concerts organized by inhabitants of the same quarter. Social networks are at the same time marketing tools and out of control pirated spaces.

Publikationsinformationen

Titel der Arbeit
Africa Upload
Agentur
Agence Vu'
Kunde
New York Times Magazine
Publikation
New York Times Magazine