Abbey Road. Up for sale.

[PJR]

A sign of the times I guess. But EMI needs the cash..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&am...

[Puggit]

I believe EMI lost over £1bn last year. I'm not sure how they can be so badly in debt, unless they refuse to pander to Simon Cowell's version of the music industry?

[JustinP1]

Puggit said:

I believe EMI lost over £1bn last year. I'm not sure how they can be so badly in debt, unless they refuse to pander to Simon Cowell's version of the music industry?

Yes. In a word.

They moved too slowly to realise you could no longer spend lots of money on new artists when even the one in ten successful artists hardly recoup in the current market.

The other thing worth mentioning is that the £1bn is not a 'true' loss in the sense it is a trading loss, it was a paper loss based upon the reevaluation of the assets. Those of course being long term contracts with artists are not going to get the planned return on investment.

[Plotloss]

Chap who bought EMI is claiming to have been duped into it on the suggestion of another interested party and the sniff of a quick flip.

So he's now asset stripping it to get his cash back.

I think.

[JustinP1]

I hate to say it but I think the sale of Abbey Road will be a let down.

Rumour has it that they need £100m from it to keep going.

Realistically that is never a financial amount for a working studio. To give an idea I worked in an LA studio with an almost as good heritage and that was bought for $4m.

The amount of money is recording music has plummeted and it will never get what EMI need to sell it to someone as a working studio.

Unless some crazy Japanese or UAE based investor buys it on a whim to make it a museum, as a working studio complex I am not even sure it makes much profit, if at all.

[Z06George]

I still can't believe that even with all the film and popular music artists they record that they are that much in debt.

[JustinP1]

Z06George said:

I still can't believe that even with all the film and popular music artists they record that they are that much in debt.

As I said before, a lot of that is a 'paper' loss based upon the depreciation of intangible assets or approximations of their worth.

It is easy to see why it happened. An industry which grew over 50 years was hit with a sledgehammer. Income dropped quickly yet they were still left with the overhead and infrastructure of the way it had ran for 50 years. My mate who was employed in the industry for 8 years was made redundant from a major along with 70% of the staff.

[KB_S1]

Z06George said:

I still can't believe that even with all the film and popular music artists they record that they are that much in debt.

AR is not in that much debt.
The EMI investment from terra firma has lost this amount in value.

It is hard to say but I believe AR is profitable.

If it goes Britain loses one of its global flagship businesses.

[JustinP1]

Abbey Road as a business has a huge value in its name in the recording business.

It really is the pinnacle of recording in this country in terms of equipment and staff.

They have also made a lot of investment in wider musical projects such as mastering and archiving and new media.

[aveyheks]

I see National Trust are looking at buying it.

[pistonlager]

Macca should buy it as he's made so much money from the nation over the years.
He already has a Liverpool based academy so one in London would be superb.

[A911DOM]

Having had the good fortune to use the facilities in Abbey Road a few years sgo, it would be a very sad day to see it get swallowed up and not maintained doing the same as it is now!

Incredible feel to the place - apart from the cafeteria which was a little plasticy and modern

I hope they sort this for the sake of future artists and musicians.