Abbey Road Studios celebrates 90 years with a festival for future music makers

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – London’s Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Amy Winehouse and Adele made legendary recordings, celebrates its 90th anniversary this week with a festival of events for the next generation of creators of music.

Two days of panels, listens and talks aimed at industry newbies will cover topics ranging from how to become a producer or engineer to understanding music publishing.

The “Amplify” festival, where guest speakers include record producer Steve Mac, composers Steven Price and James Newton Howard, among others, follows other events earlier this week to mark the anniversary, including listening and a panel of photographs.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants, we’ve had so many amazing names through this place, so we have to celebrate that,” Isabel Garvey, managing director of Abbey Road Studios, told Reuters.

“The next two days are about: we know people love coming to the studios, but what does the future hold, how does the recording process evolve, how does the future of an artist evolve, how does technology evolve.”

Although it’s hosted a long list of famous names and produced soundtracks for films such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’, Abbey Road Studios is also known for its innovation in music recording technology.

Studio Three showed off a range of new creative tools on Thursday, including BrainRap, which listens to an artist sing or freestyle and immediately suggests words.

Built as a Georgian townhouse in 1831, no. 3 Abbey Road was converted into studios in 1929. It became EMI Recording Studios two years later.

“How are we going to be this famous in 90 years? We need to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation,” Garvey said.

“We have to be really relevant, we have to know how the technology is changing, how the world outside of us is changing and keep going that way.”

Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Giles Elgood

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