[Etch-A-Sketch]

In my opinion, I really don't see the old "studio" business model working anymore. These days it seems the studio has to be able to make products for itself as well as acting as a commercial space for others.

EastWest and Oceanway come to mind. I guarantee Oceanway will (or maybe has) make 10 times the money off it's drum sample library than it does off renting out the studios to other clients.

Here at Megatrax, we own a studio which used to be called King Sound. Bruce Hornsby and Don Henley are two of many notable artists that have recorded here back in their heyday. But, since Megatrax purchased the studios, we are no longer a commercial studio. We don't "rent" out the studios except to the occasional friend of the owners. The studio is 100% dedicated to making music that we, in turn, license in TV and Film (and other media).

When I first started working here 8 years ago, I was trying to bring in sessions for artists on Capitol and Blue Note and Universal. Every time I would try to book something, I would get a big "NO! we are way too busy." Eventually I was pulled aside and told, while it's nice that I'm trying to bring in money for the company, If we rented out our studio A 7 days a week for a whole year. No days off, no holidays, clients booked all day every day at a rate of $2,000/day the total WOULD NOT even equal 1/10th the amount of money we make off the music we record for ourselves in the studios. So it's more advantageous for the company to leave the rooms unbooked by outside clients that way we never have to schedule around anyone else.

For people that have an "in demand" product like EastWest... buying Cello is a really smart business move. They now have a "famous" space to record all of their new libraries in. While they are also continuing to rent it out, I would imagine the money they make off their "United Western/Cello" sample libraries are going to generate exponentially more money than the studios themselves from rentals. How many of us would love to have a Jazz orchestra library recorded in EastWest's Studio 1 (where sinatra recorded a lot of his hits) or a drum (or construction kit) rock library from studio 2 where bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and System of a Down recorded? I think EastWest's "Fab Four" plugin is a good example of what I'm talking about. Any of us who have been recording for a while will say, "gear doesn't make 'A Sound', the room does." Having worked in a lot of rooms, the rooms have a signature all their own. If you setup a drumset over at NRG in the same room that Linkin Park records their albums... it will only take you a couple minutes to realize, "wow, even with a different drumset it really sounds similar to the drum sounds they get". But, the same drumset, mics, preamps, EQs and converters setup in a garage will never sound anything like the linkin park albums.

Studio owners who can realize this and capitalize on it, will be the ones that stay successful (in my opinion). Especially these "mega-studios" that are still left. If they aren't booking that many sessions, they should put their staff to work making products for the studio, whether it be a music library or a sample library or whatever...