Abbey Road up for sale – lend us a tenner,eh?
By Fran Ashcroft
So, Abbey Road is to be sold off against EMI’s massive debts. The story got plenty of media coverage this week, which is guaranteed to attract the wealthiest and most inappropriate buyers.
Let’s see, Macca of course will be sniffing around but won’t cough up enough to win this particular Ebay auction. Neither will the remaining major labels, preoccupied with their own financial black holes. It could be a tax write off for Simon Cowell, perhaps. But most likely will go to some faceless consortium wanting to aquire “the franchise”. It’s more or less certain the next owners will have no interest or experience in the world of recording at all, which begs the question to the studio’s long term future. There just isn’t a lot of profit – if any – in a world class recording facility right now (just look to the USA to see their own extensive casualty list). God forbid Disney will get their hands on it and launch Beatle World…
Of course EMI has been in trouble for decades, and changed ownership several times..Thorn, Virgin, and now Guy Hands. The old 70s joke ran:
“What’s the difference between EMI and the Titanic?”
“The Titanic had a good band”.
But it’s not solely their music division that’s cost them money. EMI was spread too thin for too long in everything from consumer electronics to armaments. However this time the writing seems to be on the wall. No more takeovers or mergers - its assets will be broken up and sold off piecemeal, starting with the studio.
There’s only one thing for it – we’ll have to have a Recordproduction.com whip round.
