SA: Vth Season sets up mobile studio for its artists

The initiative aims to provide its musicians with the necessary skills to record. The music company will dispatch the mobile studio and an engineer to each artist’s place of residence to get them started. It will also provide the artists with training on setting up equipment, recording vocals, mixing and exporting audio.

“We feel Testing 1-2-3 will assist our artists in doing what they love most, and empower them to become tech savvy,” Vth Season co-founder Raphael Benza told Music In Africa. “It will also keep them active and prepare them for online live shows for when we are back to touring and concerts again, keeping them sharp and having more control of their craft and creative process. This is just the start, we’ll evolve and enhance the offering as we deem it necessary to do so.”

The studio will remain with a musician for a week. It will then move on to the next creator. Additional equipment will be hired and sent to the artists in situations where two or more of them would like to work at the same time.

Speaking during an online discussion organised by non-profit organisation Bandustry on Wednesday last week, Vth Season director Ninel Musson also commented on the initiative. “We introduced the mobile studios to keep the momentum going with the equipment moving from one place to the next to whichever artist is feeling inspired to do some work,” she said.

The panel discussion was hosted by media strategist and journalist Shiba Melissa Mazaza and featured industry experts who discussed strategies that musicians could employ to forge authentic relationships with their audiences.

Ditto Africa regional manager Wendy Verwey Bekker said artists had to make use of the analytics available on platforms such as Spotify for Artists and social media platforms to define their strategies and establish themselves.

Vth Season musician Benny Afroe agreed with Bekker and said he had used analytics for a video he had made when he was an independent artist, which had helped him expand the range of content in his music.

“Using the information from video analytics, I now knew that my music was being widely consumed by listeners aged 16 to 35 years old. Then I started creating music with that in mind,” he said, adding that artists should use their own resources and the information available on platforms before approaching labels.

Ninel added: “My job is not to launch your [an artist's] career. It’s to take it to the next level once you’ve exhausted all of your resources. Create content and put it on SoundCloud. It will only cost you time and creativity. Only then can we work together. I get a lot of messages from new artists who have never put out any material before. You need to test what you’re doing first before you come us."

Watch the full Bandustry Live discussion on Skyroom Live.