/ 18 April 2009

Pallo Jordan launches ‘music hub’ in downtown Jo’burg

South Africa’s first music hub will empower local artists to become a force to be reckoned with in the international market, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Friday.

Jordan was opening the Downtown Music Hub in Newtown, Johannesburg.

He said the idea behind the new studio was to create an inclusive structure to stimulate broad-based participation in the music sector, as well as by corporate and institutional investors.

”The receptiveness of the world community to South African music is testified to by the success of Miriam Makeba and a host of other South African musicians on the international stage,” Jordan said.

”Because they were far from home, the South African musicians who have made a mark internationally have been marketed and promoted by non-South African promoters and record companies.”

Jordan said South Africa aimed to lure these artists back, and the first step was the creation of the new facilities.

”The return home of many of these artists is an important cultural and economic reality we are neglecting to our peril,” he said.

The aim of the new studio, which was bought from Gallo/Avusa in November 2008, was to create a better future for South African musicians and the local music industry by using the success of Makeba and others as the platform for a South Africa musical offensive in Europe, the Americas, South Asia and the Far East.

”I am convinced we can open up these markets to musical products from this country. The range of these has also increased exponentially with the convergence of a number of information and communication technologies.”

Jordan said the greatest single constraint on the launching of a musical career was access to recording facilities.

”This initiative seeks to lower the barrier by making recording facilities, the pressing of records, their distribution and sale, and availability, more accessible to the most talented of our musicians.”

”We envisage a digitally driven multimedia production house that will meet the quality standards required on the music marketplace.”

The studio will be run as a section 21 company through a partnership among state, corporate and community-based entities. Jordan will appoint a board for the company.

Jordan said the possibility of establishing a number of recording studios in South Africa’s musical hot spots should not be ignored.

”The example of this hub, we hope, will be emulated in other parts of the country. Acting with such a company, rural communities could explore setting up a number of mobile studios that can operate in the rural areas of all the provinces.” – Sapa