Abbey Road sale worth reflecting upon

News that EMI was considering selling Abbey Road Studios triggered gasps from music afficionados this week. The studio, where The Beatles transformed rock music, is indeed something to rally around.

I don't fault EMI for considering the move; smart businesses can't be beholden to legacies that don't fit their future. As many people wrote, the news was proof that fabled recording studios were living on borrowed time in a world of low-fi Mp3s and earbuds.

Someone, possibly the British government or a historic preservation group, will ensure Abbey Road lives -- not as a studio but as a museum to milk like nobody's business. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Stax Studios, Sun Studios, Motown Studios and other studios turned museums generate big bucks while providing fun history lessons into transformative eras of modern music.

Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal -- whose previous gig as drinks columnist for the paper had to be the best journalism job ever -- waxes nostalgic in a column that eloquently captures how the great studios transformed how we listen and why that experience may soon be lost forever. I'm a geek about recording history, and I think Felten's short piece is as good as any in quickly capturing the magic and science of studio sound, and why we need to periodically take the time to treasure the art behind it.