Durban - Musicians and singers, who are living in KwaZulu-Natal, will no longer have to travel to Johannesburg to record their music, thanks to the opening of a R15 million recording studio in the province.
The multi-million rand facility, called KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Music House, with top-of-the-range facilities, was opened by provincial MEC for Finance Ina Cronje, on Friday.
"It a known fact that most of the best artists in the country comes from our province. Because we don't have facilities so they were forced to go to other provinces. So we as KZN wanted to do something to keep our artists within the province.
"The opening of KZN Music House will help us in achieving our goals of keeping them in the province. We can also use them to help us as the government to develop other up coming artists," said Cronje.
The studio material at the KZN Music House in Greyville, Durban, competes with M1 studios in Auckland Park, Jozi.
Grammy award-winning group and founding member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala, spoke about how he used to record Grammy award-winning albums in Jozi and had to sleep at friend's houses.
"I used to spend a lot of money just travelling to Johannesburg to record music. With the new recording company, we won't leave the comfort of our homes."
The recording studio is a joint venture between the provincial Departments of Arts and Economic Development.
The departments have also formed a partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal's law department that will be coming on board to teach the artists about contracts and intellectual property, among other things.
Bongeni Ngema, who will be managing the KZN Music House, said they will be recording all types of music as well as developing the up and coming musicians before recording them.
"We will be doing everything in house, such as sales and marketing, distribution, etc. We will also go out within the province to scout for new talent," said Ngema.
