NEW YORK (Billboard) - In the space of five days, two major recording facilities in two of the largest markets -- New York and Los Angeles -- have closed or announced imminent closure.
The Hit Factory in New York -- a seven-room facility that long occupied the pinnacle of the commercial recording industry with its reputation for state-of-the-art equipment, luxurious environment and a staff that catered to elite artists' every whim -- will shut its doors by the end of the month. The company will relocate its headquarters to its Miami facility, the former Criteria Recording, which it acquired in 1999. The move was announced Feb. 2.
Since Edward Germano purchased the Hit Factory from producer Jerry Ragavoy in 1975, it has been one of the world's celebrated studios, hosting artists that included John Lennon (news), Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson (news), Tony Bennett (news) and U2. Germano died in 2003.
The Hit Factory building at 421 W. 54th St. has been sold. In a statement, owner Janice Germano, Edward's widow, said, "The Hit Factory paved the way for how recording studios approached the artistic process of making music. In doing so, it forever changed the way artists thought about creating records and raised the art form to a new level of innovation."
ANOTHER BLOW
Meanwhile, Hollywood's Cello Studios -- formerly Western Recorders and later part of Ocean Way Studios -- suddenly closed Jan. 28, simultaneous with a bankruptcy filing. Staff and tenants were given virtually no warning, according to audio professionals familiar with the situation. The studio's employees, all of whom were dismissed, have not received payment for the last pay period. The future of the company and building at 6000 Sunset Blvd. is uncertain.
The multiroom facility, which engineer/equipment manufacturer Bill Putnam built in the early 1950s, was the site of historic recordings by Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby (news), Nat "King" Cole and the Beach Boys.
The news of both closings was not wholly unexpected but nonetheless stunned many audio professionals. Several engineers and producers blame the Hit Factory closure on the slashed rates that have become common at many facilities in recent years, as industry consolidation and the rise of inexpensive digital audio workstation-based recording have forced the alteration of what was once an enduring business model.
"There was a certain point last year where they had to cut rates in a serious way," says engineer/producer Tony Maserati, a regular client at the Hit Factory. "Then they sort of leveled off, (but) not to where they used to be."
"It's really sad," producer Phil Ramone says of the Hit Factory's imminent closing. "The paradigm has changed. It doesn't mean that big studios are not needed; they certainly are. The style in which they'll work and what's going to change is happening as we speak."
NEW PARADIGM
Today, Ramone adds, "you can record and produce in a lot of places you could never do before. That changes the paradigm completely."
Many commercial recording studios -- particularly large rooms that can accommodate orchestras -- remain vital. New York facilities with unique assets, such as Right Track Recording's massive scoring room and the revered Studio A at Avatar Studios, remain busy, according to their owners.
But the value of Manhattan real estate has outpaced that of a multiroom facility with high fixed costs. Rent increases and fewer sessions -- with reduced budgets -- have forced many studios to close, downsize or relocate during the last five years. For others, Chapter 11 reorganization has been necessary.
"I think what happened was that the real estate became more valuable than the business," Right Track Recording owner Simon Andrews says. "There's a shakeout going on. I can't say business is great (or) that we're getting the dollars we used to get, but we're holding our own."