Introduction

Largely acting as an independent service within the contemporary recorded music industry, recording studios form the direct link between the record companies and artists and the creation of a final recorded musical product. As such, they form a key component in the networks of creativity and reproduction (see Leyshon 2001) of what is now a highly globalised music industry, and an economically important one. In 2012, global recorded music sales totaled US$16.5 billion (https://www.ifpi.org/facts-and-stats.php" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.ifpi.org/facts-and-stats.php; accessed 21/02/14). Whilst only estimates exist for the economic value of the recording studio sector, it is the case that, compared to record companies and publishing companies, the value and level of profitability of the recording studio sector in itself is relatively low (Leyshon 2009). However, the sector does act as a “crucial part of the overall value chain of the musical economy, producing commodities upon which large parts of the industry depend” (ibid. 2009, 1315). However, it is not the case that the importance of recording studios lies only in the production of music as an economic commodity. Recording studios also play a central role in the creating the “sound” of particular music scenes, and act as a focal point for networks of musicians and musical creativity. As such, recording studios and the skilled engineers and producers who work within them have played a central role in shaping the production of music as both an economic and cultural commodity, and as such, in shaping both local cultural production and global popular culture.