June 14, 2007
Sony BMG Needs A Miracle On 54th Street
It's not just venues closing down these days, the latest real estate casualty is still music-related, however. AMNY reports that Sony BMG is closing its Hell's Kitchen studios.
Not surprisingly, the company alluded to difficult times in the recording industry when internally annoucing the five-story brick building (which resides on West 54th St and 10th Ave) will be shutting its doors this August. Employees received the memo on June 8th, also letting them know all jobs held in the building would be terminated. Yikes! It's possible that some will be offered transfers, however.
The building is pretty historic, prior to Sony's purchase of it in 1993, this is where Fox Movietone studios were once housed - meaning it was one of the first places to combine sound and film in the 1920s. "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Shaft" were even filmed there! More recently it was used for the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" bi-coastal telethon raising money for families of September 11th victims.
The building was mainly used for recording music after Sony purchased it (Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West and Christina Aguilera are amongst those who recorded there). In a 2001 interview, the studios' VP, Andy Kadison, told Mix magazine "We're like the millennium's version of an old-time Hollywood studio. We can do virtually every aspect of an entertainment project under one roof, ranging from audio recording, mixing, mastering, archive restoration and plant production, to television production and satellite broadcasts, to audio and video post-production."
AMNY reports that Kaslan declined to comment on this story, and that "the music-industry giant is being hush-hush on the deal, only saying that Sony BMG, the studios' parent company, signed a purchase and sale agreement with a New York developer called HSAC Corp. Efforts to contact the developer were unsuccessful. It was unclear what will happen to the building."
Guess this news will raise the bidding on this eBay auction to be a "Rock Star for a Day at the Sony Music Studios in NYC". Could a disgruntled future ex-employee be making some money on the side?
Photo via TooTallToddHK's Flickr.
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"It was unclear what will happen to the building."
Survey says. . . . . . Condos!
Is this the place that filmed "Sessions at West 54th" If it is, this place will be greatly missed. I used to tune in religiously back in the day to channel thirteen to see all sorts of great artists.
Sebastien
"Sessions at West 54th" was a great show.
That's funny Sebastien. It was the first thing I thought of too. I think you're right. I somehow got on an email list to go to tapings of Sessions. I got to see Neil Finn, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Beck with a crowd of like 100 people for free. Amazing TV show. Wish it were still going, and I still got those emails.
NYC needs to do a much better job of acknowledging and preserving the sites where vital contributions to popular music have been made. Be they venues, studios, or homes of the musicians.
So much history happened there. *sigh* They could first the Hit Factory, now this? And on the same block, and probably the same culprit (more condos!)
Actually, I have a hard time seeing how this is "history" worthy of preservation. What would be gained by keeping the studio? Would you visit it? Probably not. Would scholars study it? No.
The SUNY optometry building on 42nd St. (across from Bryant Park) once housed the concert hall where "Rhapsody in Blue" was premiered. Am I sad that they didn't preserve it exactly the way it was, so I can go in there and pretend I'm hearing a Gershwin premiere? Not really.
"What would be gained by keeping the studio?" It's a fully functioning state-of-the-art recording facility and the largest of it's kind on the East Coast. Music, film, tv and concerts have all been done at this facility and the music industry (esp in NY) is going to lose a lot by not having it around.
Sessions at West 54th was a great example (and a great series). Remember the live benefit concert broadcast on all networks after 9/11? The only place in NYC that could link in LA and London to do that show was West 54th. Oh, and don't forget the 100+ people who work there and are now unemployed.
havensofmanhattan, they already tried selling it to a company that wanted to keep it as a studio. The problem is that place is just too expensive to run for it to be profitable. This wasn't an issue when Sony was doing well; however, now they simply can't afford to maintain a studio that was destined to be a money pit, albeit a really cool money pit.
Lots of talent in that place, people very dedicated to their craft. We can only hope the majority of them will be able to continue their work in the field. There is no shortage of work to be done, but the industry is such that a studio like this is no longer sustainable.
This is a direct result of illegal downloading - people not paying for the music they listen to and 9-11. There was a one year waiting list of top artists begging to get into Studio A at Sony until 9-11. Income from music sales has declined and as a result recording budgets are way down. Most of those who have survived in the music industry, even the top engineers and producers, are working many more hours to make the same or less money. Sony Studios is the only facility of its kind in the world. It's going to be a huge loss to NYC and the music industry.