The site was a decommissioned bank bunker and $155 million was spent transforming it into the library. Amidst the dusty desks abandoned in the 1960s, the architects had found stacks of body bags in preparedness. The building now has 187,000 square feet for audio and video processing and a 208-seat theater. The lowest level has low-humidity refrigerated vaults for storing original recordings, including show tunes, rock, classic films and newsreels, even X-rated flicks. There is a special metal-clad vault for storing highly flammable nitrate film. Among the films are the oldest surviving moving image: Edison’s clip of a man sneezing, and also, fittingly, Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.”
Portable Audio Sales Down – After years of rapid growth, sales of portable audio products will decrease this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The category includes portable and headset MP3, CD and/or tape players as well as MP3 player speaker docks. Although last year the sector grew by 34%, it is estimated to decline this year. The average selling price of portable gear will also decline by $5. Home audio separate components and systems will continue to decline, as they have since 2004.
Inexpensive Software Putting Recording Studios Out of Business – Since the introduction of inexpensive music recording and editing software such as Pro Tools and Calkwalk, more and more musicians are opting to record their albums in a basement or garage rather than pay the high cost-per-hour for a professional recording studio. Major NYC studios The Hit Factory and Sony Music Studios have closed down. Making a living as a musician is difficult enough, and such economy makes the proposition more attractive to many. “Now everyone’s a producer,” said one musician. Experts agree that the fidelity that can be achieved with consumer-level digital hardware and software is now the best it has ever been. Of course a good studio can achieve improved fidelity of the final product, but with so much of the playback now occurring with greatly-compressed digital files on iPods and streaming over the Internet, many musicians feel the expenses of professional studio recording are no longer important. Listeners would not be able to hear the improvement. [In fact, we just received an album for review in which the low fi of the lead instrument – an electric guitar – is touted in the publicity as a positive thing. And another in which the fact that the solo performer recorded himself while on the move in hotel rooms and cars is promoted as an advantage.]
