In March of 2026, rapper, songwriter, and producer JR launched his newest venture: SERVA. A business move where we witness a musician venture into the tech stream.
SERVA pay is a platform that is designed to bring convenience into food and drink purchases at music festivals and concerts. SERVA allows attendees to order snacks and drinks without their enjoyment of the main event being interrupted. Imagine being at a concert, but you don’t have to lose your position in the crowd or wait in a long line. You can have the order brought to you directly, or if you want, you have the option to collect it yourself. JR just produced a gamechanger. Although, there was another South African musician who has tried to venture into tech prior…
In August of 2025, famed former Skwatta Kamp member Slikour launched SOL Distro. SOL Distro is a platform made to help musicians become as independent as possible, with many complaints from musicians that record labels exploit them and they barely make enough money from their work. The platform promised to give musicians the same benefits provided by a label, and the benefit being that they have full control over their own careers.
Slikour’s goal was for artists to have full ownership of their masters and royalties.
The platform gave artists benefits such as public relations, playlisting, editorial coverage, industry advice, visual services, distribution and studio time, giving the artist an easier navigation of the industry.
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In the age of social media and fast fame, the need for record labels is becoming almost irrelevant. Artists can now start their careers from anywhere with little to no recourses but their front camera. The platform operates on a subscription model, where artists could describe the services that they require.
Technology has seemingly infiltrated the music and entertainment industries beyond autotune.
Man-made technology is also being kept alive in an era where AI is also erasing the efforts of humans. To be able to pioneer genres in your line of work and further these contributions by finding ways to create a better environment for the future is true innovation. The scale at which these platforms are founded creates a path for greater creations to be produced. It’s still a very niche move where artists branch into tech within the South African music landscape, but we need to see more of these moves. This is what their funds should be going into.
It is unfortunate that we still have a long way to go economically, hence the growth of these platforms will take quite some time to develop. However, this creates hope for more innovative moves to be made by young artists in our country.
