How UK's recording studio sector is seeing a downturn

Britain News.Net
Sunday 16th August, 2009

Washington, Aug 16 : Once synonymous with the creative talents of artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Oasis and Coldplay, the UK's recording studio sector is now depleting due to a severe crisis in the music industry, revealed a new research from The University of Nottingham.

Today, the country's recording studio sector is becoming better known for closures and redundancies.

A number of iconic London recording studios, including Olympic Studios, Townhouse Studios, Whitfield Street Studios (formerly Sony and, before that, CBS Studios) and Eden, have closed in recent years.

And the implications of this trend may affect emerging talent, employees, and record companies alike.

Professor Andrew Leyshon's research has uncovered the extent of damage to the sector, brought on by the explosion of digital music formats and the democratisation of musical technology.

Leyshon examined the effects of digital advances on the studio sector, and found the industry to be in a more serious condition than anyone thought.

For the study, he looked at the unintended, but significant role software has played in destabilising the economic viability of the sector.

"We all know that the music industry has been radically transformed by software," said Leyshon.

He added: "We understand the impact that software formats such as MP3 and problems like internet 'piracy' have had on intellectual property rights and distribution. We also understand the knock-on effects for record companies. But the impact on the recording studio sector has passed by with very little comment."

He argues the root of the decay of the music sector lay with the increase in independent studios and equipment suppliers.

But now, with the increase in readily available software the situation, for some, has become untenable.

In his research, he visited studios around the country and found that the days of the record company owned and run studios are well and truly over.

Leyshon pointed to a 'vertical disintegration' of the business, a destruction of the sector's core functions.

He claimed that while the industry had over the years adjusted to the problem, it had never really come to terms with it, which drove the process of disintegration even further.

It is not just the retail and distribution side of the business, but also worryingly, the production side that is affected.

"The sector at the moment is characterised by falling recording budgets, declining demand for studio space/time, worsening employment conditions, the destruction of barriers to entry, runaway production costs and studio closures," said Leyshon.

In fact, the problem has also changed the way new talent is found.

Record companies have withdrawn from the business of discovering and developing new talent (A andR) and instead have left this to the management companies, who some argue are in the business of taking new talent and turning them into marketable artists, who can then be found a recording contract.

The management companies are also increasingly taking on the responsibility and cost of delivering albums.

His study was published in the journal Environment and Planning A.

Have your say on this story