ABSTRACT The small professional independent recording studio (commonly known as a ‘home recording studio’) has arisen in South Africa as it has in other countries over the past fifteen years. It has become an alternative service to that of major recording studios such as EMI and Gallo. My research discusses the history and development of the home studio with relation to technologic and socio-economic expansion in the commercial industry. I use ten established home studios in Johannesburg and its surrounding areas as case studies, working towards a definition of this phenomenon and exploring its influence on the South African music industry as a whole.