Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

Not that long ago, if you wanted to make an album, you needed to rent a big, expensive

recording studio. In addition to paying an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly rate, you needed

to pay for a producer, an engineer or two,

all the recording tape you used, and any catering that was required. It could get very expensive

very quickly. But that was okay because back then the music industry was a wash in money.

Your label would happily advance you the money to cover your recording costs because they were

just going to take it out of the profits derived from the future sales of that album. Because there was so much

money to be made, a lot of big, expensive recording studios were built. Some were in big centers

like New York or Los Angeles and London. Others were chateaus out in the countryside or

maybe even on an exotic island.

Even a medium-sized city could boast half a dozen solid studios.

These days, though, it's possible to make a very good sounding album on a laptop in your bedroom.

Heck, I know if some people have made credible sounding records on their smartphones.

But this doesn't mean that

big-time recording studios are now irrelevant. There are some things, some sounds, and some needs

that require a dedicated recording studio environment. But then there were those facilities that

have been forced to shut down, killed by the massive changes to the music industry and the high cost of maintaining a studio when bookings are down.

Still, there's something really, really cool about recording studios.

Places where legendary songs and iconic albums were created.

And I'd like to take you on a tour of some of these studios and listen to some of the music that was made within those walls. Some of these places are still with us, while some are only memories.

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