Christmas is coming early for one Austin, Texas, middle school thanks to Spotify and South by Southwest. The streaming service is building it a world-class recording studio with leftover materials from its annual Spotify House.
“We believe everyone should have access to music and this project will allow students to use their creative skills with a studio,” Kerry Steib, Spotify’s director of social impact, told the Daily Dot.
Every year, the streaming service’s pop-up venue attracts headlining bands who perform in intimate, downtown Austin settings. This year’s crop includes the likes of Hannibal Buress, Kacey Musgraves, Miguel, Charles Bradley, Vince Staples, and Chvrches,
The project will create a studio specifically for Kealing Middle School’s music production class. Spotify is working with a handful of sponsors and a creative agency, mindPOP, on the venture. For its part, Kealing expressed enthusiasm on Twitter.
Three recording studios coming to Kealing in March 2016! @SpotifyHouse @AISDSupt @AISDTech @Mindpop @RebldgTogthr https://t.co/QIZ33Si4g1
— Kealing (KMS) (@KTXHornets) February 22, 2016
“There are always grant opportunities, but I’ve never experienced a company coming to campus and doing something of this scope. Usually you have to ask and beg and write,” Kealing Principal Kenisha Coburn told the Austin Chronicle.
Kealing is a magnet school located in the historically working class but increasingly gentrified and “eclectic” East Austin. The school has 1,189 students.
Keib said the company looks forward to doing similar service projects in the future. “Keeling Middle School uses music to bring together a really diverse group of kids,” Keib said.
The studio will be assembled the week after SXSW.
Photo via Sascha Kohlmann/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman
