As EMI Are Strapped For Cash...

and looking for ways of raising finances by possibly selling off the famous Abbey Road Studios where many performers, musicians, engineers and producers have for something like 100 years have produced and recorded some of the most iconic albums known.

I assume it has managed to adapt to modern digital recording techniques(We all by now know)the history and stories of how a group like The Beatles pushed the boundaries and embraced the changes in equipment often to the annoyance of the engineers who said certain things had to be done a certain way or certain things could not be done. That like so many professions it was very much a case of "You" are the artist/performer so "You" stay behind the microphone and "We" in the Control Room do the rest.

So we move on and decades later thanks to computers, software and the internet many performers can produce the complete package in their own bedrooms. Do they need a recording studio? I would still say yes but virtually every large city or town could have one. You don't have to travel to London. Many other studios have already closed. I suspect in time if it is saved it may actually become a kind of museum.

We must not forget that even the way that we buy our music has changed greatly...We have kept adapting from wax cylinders to flat records of various widths and speeds to CD's to digitally stored files on a computer or mp3 player. In reality something that you cannot actually hold in your hand.

And we haven't got around to what it meant often buying the complete package which might include a book with photographs, artwork and/or lyrics of all the songs you were listening to.

I am happy to have my music in any form but I still do and always will like to have it burned onto a physical disc so that if the hard drive crashes you do not lose all your files.

And what of those who are unable to afford an internet connection or do not have access to a computer? Before you buy your music you have to pay for a company to connect you to the net, usually a phone rental charge so you already have to find £300-£500 a year before you do anything(though there will always be deals that keep costs down)

I also would welcome the digital way of collecting music if it means that many songs and tunes that have long since been deleted and have not been released become available and they make the music available at a price that is good value for money.

But of course we must also remember though it is still called EMI it is run by some kind of private consortium run for and by shareholders so it is probably not run with the music being first and foremost in it's mind. Then again was it ever so? We know in general music has to be good otherwise it doesn't sell so you hope that loving care will be lavished on the completed works but we could probably all(depending on our personal taste in music)argue what is great music.

On the night this story has come to light where British Music has celebrated 30 years of the Brit awards and supposedly the great state it finds itself, I downloaded my first piece of digital music and what was it? How old is it? It was recorded by Sol K Bright And His Hollywaiians. It is called Hawaiian Cowboy. It is 74years old!

Update:I hear talk of the Abbey Road Studios becoming classed as a National Treasure run by the National Trust so my idea of it being run as a kind of a museum isn't too far out.

Now there is a story breaking that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber may be stepping in to save the studios...but not sure if that is as a going concern or again as a kind of shrine.

More news it has been awarded special status which protects it from developement and probably means that it will not be sold off. Now it is said that EMI consider it special and so they have no plans to let it go either.