“Abbey Road, the London recording studios immortalised by the Beatles album of the same name, has been put on the market by EMI as the music group looks to extricate itself from the debt burden of Terra Firma’s 2007 leveraged buy-out,” Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson reports for The Financial Times.
“EMI would not comment but five people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times it had been courting bidders for the property in St John’s Wood. A sale could raise tens of millions of pounds,” Edgecliffe-Johnson reports. “It was not immediately clear whether EMI would sell the Abbey Road brand name along with the property, but one media lawyer said: ‘The brand is worth more than the building… anybody who wants the studios will want the brand.'”
Edgecliffe-Johnson reports, “EMI bought the house at number 3 Abbey Road for £100,000 in 1929 and transformed it into the world’s first custom-built recording studios.”
“The Beatles put the studios on the map, using it for 90 per cent of their recordings between 1962 and 1969 and naming their final album Abbey Road. EMI used the studios for last year’s release of remastered Beatles albums,” Edgecliffe-Johnson reports. “Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon at the studios, which have also been used by Radiohead, the Manic Street Preachers, Travis and Blur.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps if they had worked harder to bring The Beatles to iTunes Store in a timely manner, EMI wouldn’t have been forced into trying to unload Abbey Road today.
Too late! I just bought it.
Damn! I was just reaching for my wallet…
Apple should buy it and put a store on the property….
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nothing is forever. the record companies could have created a different format instead of cds. but they never did…
As The Rutles once sang “All you need is cash…”
Does George Martin come with it?
Bargain bin
Interesting news… but other than the childish MDN take, I’m trying to figure out how this constitutes Mac news???
Ironically, Glenn Miller’s last recording session was also at Abbey Road.
Sir Paul should buy it and turn it into a Beatles museum.
Who are the Beatles?
Macdailynews word: ironically enough: place, as in the Beatles Song “There’s a Place” or some such.
This is Mac News why?
@Macanatic: Well said. I’m surprised we didn’t hear any of the usual blather about music cartels and “albums as artificial construct.”
FTA: “However, the studios have faced cheaper competition from recording facilities in other countries, and technological advances allowing artists to record using only a laptop computer have made it harder for labels to justify owning expensive recording infrastructure.”
Which underlines precisely what so much music is lacking nowadays: top-notch engineering and a fabulous acoustic space like Abbey Road Studio Two; no DAW or plugin has yet to replicate those qualities.
Well…it’s NOT Apple or Mac news clearly (but since when has that mattered on this site?)
But rather obviously the site should be purchased, retrofitted and turned into a tourist attraction, a recording studio museum if you will for fans of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and many others. It would make money for a long time to come.
EMI needs a lot of cash soon. Hence this development.
Ray beat me to it but definately would be a great Apple Store or UK HQ location for what it would represents but also as a small stab in the eye to McCartny and EMI.
EMI didn’t exist in 1929, so I imagine it was bought by HMV (The Gramophone Co) to replace their studios in Hayes. Future partners Columbia had studios in Petty France at that time; and Parlophone’s were in an old church building in St Johns Wood. They all combined forces in 1931 to avoid going bust, like most of the other record labels did around that time! Poor old Edison-Bell, Piccadiily, Broadcast, Sterno, Dominion, World Echo, Panachord and even British Brunswick went bust.
Not Apple news, but glad I saw this. Love the Beatles. Got into the reissues. The Beatles’ camp (Apple Corp. not Apple) missed an opportunity not going onto iTunes. It doesn’t really matter to Apple at this point.
An Apple store in its place would be interesting irony. Record stores have closed, now the old guard recording studios.
Museum. Please.
To my tastes, the fact that The Floyd ™ recorded there is more important than the Rutles…
“..An Apple store in its place would be interesting irony..”
Abbey Road is out in a residential area (St John’s Wood) miles from central London. Next to no-one would trek out there to an Apple Store. That’s be daft. ..Like putting an Apple Store out at Uluru/Ayers Rock, just in case some tourists turned up. Take a look on Google Maps..
The absence of The Beatles music catalog from the iTune Store is one of the most baffling business decisions ever. Somebody over there has got a screw loose, or worse.
Ooooh, Ayers Rock, that’d be a mecca of an Apple Store. Pilgrimages galore! That’d be like putting a store at Stonehenge.
I think Steve might buy Abbey Road studios.
Ayers Rock would be cool, but Steve would want to chip it down to a cube.
I got no major beef against EMI. They stuck by Apple the most, especially as a lone support for a bit during the difficult period when Apple needed credible labels for the iTunes plus model. EMI’s stance helped force the others to ditch DRM and Amazon exclusivity to a decent degree.
They need to sell it to get out of a mountain of debt, not because nobody’s using it. It’s still an active world-class recording studio, the likes of which will always have their place, but operating one is kind of a break-even proposition. It’s dead weight to them.
Botvinnik: you mean coincidentally, not ironically.
Campaign for Real Irony.
I love this show … check it out
Live from Abbey Road is a 12-part, one-hour performance series/documentary that began filming its first season during 2006 at Abbey Road Studios in London. Season 2 was filmed between 2007 and 2008 and season 3 is currently in production due for airing in November. The series features a total of 72 musical artists to date (about 36 per Season) — usually 3 per show, performing up to 3 songs per session.
Live from Abbey Road Wiki
Live from Abbey Road Website
Live from Abbey Road can be found on the
Sundance Channel America
Series 1
1 John Mayer, Richard Ashcroft and Norah Jones
2 Snow Patrol, Madeleine Peyroux and Red Hot Chili Peppers
3 Ray LaMontagne, The Zutons, Shawn Colvin and Nerina Pallot
4 Gipsy Kings, Natasha Bedingfield and Iron Maiden
5 Amos Lee, David Gilmour and Randy Crawford & Joe Sample
6 Dr. John, LeAnn Rimes and Massive Attack
7 Craig David, James Morrison and Dave Matthews
8 Jamiroquai, Damien Rice and The Goo Goo Dolls
9 The Kooks, Wynton Marsalis and Muse
10 Kasabian, Josh Groban and The Good, the Bad & the Queen
11 Paul Simon, Corinne Bailey Rae and Primal Scream
12 The Feeling, Gnarls Barkley and The Killers
Series 2
1 Mary J. Blige, Dashboard Confessional and James Blunt
2 Sheryl Crow, Hard-Fi and Diana Krall
3 Stereophonics, Colbie Caillat and Joan Armatrading
4 Panic at the Disco, David Gray and Suzanne Vega
5 The Hoosiers, The Black Keys and Manu Chao
6 Matchbox Twenty, The Script and Def Leppard
7 Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash, Herbie Hancock
8 The Kills, Sara Bareilles and The Fratellis
9 The Subways, Gnarls Barkley and Herbie Hancock
10 Elbow, MGMT and Alanis Morissette
11 Justin Currie, Ben Harper and Bryan Adams
12 Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright and Brian Wilson
Series 3
1 The Killers, Florence and the Machine and Chairlift
2 Antony & the Johnsons, The Enemy, and Paloma Faith
3 The Gossip, The Mars Volta and Friendly Fires
4 Noisettes, Lyle Lovett and Doves
5 Mika, La Roux and Bloc Party
6 Fleet Foxes, PJ Harvey and John Parish and Manchester Orchestra
7 Seal, Imelda May and Sugarland
8 Counting Crows, Melody Gardot and Hockey
9 Yusuf Islam, The Fray and White Lies
10 Green Day, Bat For Lashes and Starsailor
11 Michael Buble, Paolo Nutini, The Temper Trap and Little Boots
12 A Tribute to the Beatles’ Abbey Road album
A Preservation Trust has been established to raise funds to purchase Abbey Road Studios. Details are at buyabbeyroad.com – donations can be made on the site.
I’d be VERY surprised if Sir Paul didn’t buy it. He has most of the 1960’s era equipment from Abbey Road in his studio and seems to be sentimental about these kind of things…
It’s good to hear there is an effort to preserve Abbey Road. This really is the end of a long and honorable era of music to have EMI in rot mode to the point of selling what was essentially the jewel in their now tarnished crown.
Abbey Road is a huge place with 3 audio studios, one of which holds an entire orchestra, kitchen, lunch room, cutting room, loads of tape storage…. I can’t imagine any other company buying it and repurposing it during the ongoing Bush Depression.