EMI Abbey Road錄音室不賣了（2010/02/23）...

Abbey Road錄音室的Studio One，是全球最大的專業錄音場地。

【最新消息】EMI公司在2月22日發表公開聲明說，Abbey Road Studio不賣了....

在2009年中期，我們（EMI公司）確實收到一些打算購買Abbey Road錄音室買家的詢問，他們出價3000萬英鎊，但我們拒絕了他們，因為我們認為Abbey Road應該始終歸 EMI所有。

重點是，EMI公司並未否認此時此刻很需要金援！

在此之前，英國國家信託(National Trust)公司與前披頭四吉他手保羅麥卡尼（Paul McCartney）與音樂劇大師洛依韋伯(Andrew Lloyd Webber)都曾經表示有意出資購買，而Facebook則有將近一萬名樂迷加入連署搶救Abbey Road Studio行列。

以下是2月15日英國《金融時報》的舊聞～

EMI’s long and winding road leads to Abbey Road sale sign

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.

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.

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.”

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.

In 1931, Sir Edward Elgar used studio one to record Land of Hope and Glory with the London Symphony Orchestra and by World War II Abbey Road was used for propaganda recordings for the British government and BBC radio broadcasts.

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.

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.

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.

“What you have is a very, very expensive piece of heritage. If an artist goes to a label and asks to record at Abbey Road they will be met with maniacal laughter,” the media lawyer said.

Abbey Road is still prized as one of the few venues able to accommodate entire orchestras, which has allowed producers to record scores there for films such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

EMI has worked to exploit the Abbey Road brand name in recent years, launching a service called Abbey Road Live last November that offers fans the chance to buy instant concert recordings at venues.

Depending on the level of offers it attracts, a sale could bolster EMI’s finances at a time when Terra Firma is seeking £120m (€138m) from investors by June to avoid breaching covenants on £3.3bn of loans from Citigroup. However, it is unlikely that the proceeds would arrive in time or be large enough to help significantly with that deadline.

古典音樂專欄作家Norman Lebrecht還特別請12歲時便與曼紐因爵士在該地錄音的中國小提琴家金力（現任新加坡交響樂團小提琴首席）發表感想，對於這座堪稱20世紀古典音樂錄音聖地如此遭遇不勝欷噓...

以下則是中國媒體的翻譯稿件～

北京時間2月17日消息，據國外媒體報道，堪稱搖滾樂聖地的Abbey Road錄音室近日被百代(EMI)公司推向市場，百代將以拍賣的形式對外招標，出售這座具有80年曆史的錄音室。

Abbey Road錄音室位於英國北倫敦Abbey大街3號，這裏曾因披頭四(The Beatles)樂隊以錄音室的名字發行專輯《Abbey Road》而聞名於世。EMI公司並未透露出售Abbey Road的相關細節，不過據《財經時代》雜誌透露，目前已經有三家公司參與了對Abbey Road錄音室的競標。

據評估，Abbey Road錄音室的價值在千萬美元以上。但是這對於如今深陷債務危機的百代公司來說可謂是杯水車薪。如果百代公司希望能夠通過Abbey Road為公司籌集資金，那麼公司則需要利用好Abbey Road這一品牌，利用品牌效應開發周邊産品。去年，百代公司對Abbey Road錄音室進行了擴展，為Abbey Road錄音室增加了一座小型的演出場地。

百代公司於1929年買下了Abbey路三號，並將這裏建造成錄音室。1931年，愛德華-埃爾加公爵(Sir Edward Elgar)成為了首位在Abbey Road錄音室製作專輯的藝人，愛德華-埃爾加同倫敦管弦樂壇合作，錄製了專輯《Land of Hope and Glory》，而讓Abbey Road錄音室成為舉世矚目的音樂聖地則源於披頭四樂隊，披頭四樂隊的大部分專輯與歌曲都出自這座位於北倫敦的錄音室。

1973年，平克-弗洛伊德(Pink Floyd)進入Abbey Road錄音室，製作出了搖滾樂歷史上的不朽專輯《Dark Side of The Moon》。不過如今的Abbey Road錄音室對於大多數藝人來說開銷過高。Abbey Road錄音室中可以容納整支的管弦樂團，目前這座錄音室更多的是為好萊塢電影服務，例如《指環王》(Lord of the Rings)與《哈利·波特》(Harry Potter)的電影原聲均出自Abbey Road錄音室。