Fun with Yahoo! Yellow Pages

[DavidATX]

Alright, this isnt very scientific...but I found it amusing. I went to Yahoo and looked up in the yellow pages section for my city, Austin "recording Studio" and got 80 hits! there are roughly 600,000 people in Austin.

Then just to see what other cities in Texas were like I checked out:

Houston: 131 (largest city in Texas, 4th in the nation...and only 50 more studios than Austin has!)
Dallas: 69 (second largest city in Texas)
El Paso: 11!!! (this is the 5th largest city in Texas, about 50,000 less than Austin)

I realize there are a bunch of studios that are listed no longer around, or are not really commercial studios...but I thought it was amusing to see how completely saturated certain markets, ie Austin, Texas, is!

[signorMars]

yeah... the turnover seems to be ridiculous too, in austin. i shopped studios a few years ago for a fairly low budget project (which eventually fell through anyways), and just about every other studio i tried to contact no longer existed. i was using the governor's site, though, not yahoo yellow pages.

[dirty]

The Governor is a complete tool. That was probably the problem.

[DavidATX]

yeah, there is a big turnover here in Austin for studios. Even larger more established ones have been closing their doors. I just cant believe that Austin has more studios than say Dallas! I guess everyone buys into that Austin is a big music city shit.

[hollywood_steve]

amateurs........, try Burbank, CA. A town that recently dipped under 100,000 inhabitants. Austin would need close to 400 studios to have a similar level of "saturation"!

[DavidATX]

Haha, that is insane! However, I would argue that since Burbank is little more than a suburb of LA, you would have to consider the surrouding population. Comparing it to Houston would be much more accurate since Houston is like LA in its HUGE urban sprawl. But even then, you win haha...

[nacho459]

Burbank IS LA! well, at least Hollywood.

[BrianK]

Well, yes and no - for most cities the drive to Burbank IS "out of town" distance.

I'll hit "North Hollywood" and see what I find - my block has FOUR studios on it!

Wow - it says there are 57 studios, 14 of them on my same street.

[DavidATX]

That is just completely insane!

A few days ago there was an ad on craigslist from a guy in San Diego saying that he has a bunch of equipment and wanted to move to Austin and partner up with someone that already has a studio but needs more gear. He mentioned in the ad that things were really bad in San Diego for music. Haha, I e-mailed him and warned him about Austin...but I dont think that is going to change his mind.

[hollywood_steve]

my block has FOUR studios on it!

That is just completely insane!


Its a whole 'nother level out here. I have my studio in a studio "complex" (14 studios in a building the size of a supermarket) Directly across the street is another complex with another 15 or 20 studios. A one mile stretch of this street (near the border of North Hollywood and Burbank) has easily 100 plus studios on it, including some of the world's largest. Burbank Blvd, two blocks north of us, has a similar amount of studios. The Yahoo Yellow Pages only picks up a fraction of those (many are private artist / producer studios, or label related and not open to the public)

Folks in other cities can't grasp just how many studios there are around here. The studio complexes are just one big difference; imagine a large rehearsal complex, only behind every door is a high end, seriously pro recording studio, not some beer soaked band practice space. Opening a studio around here has got to be one of the worst business decisions possible. Many of them turn to the film/TV/advertising markets to earn some cash. Those studios make enough cash that they still have "staff engineers" - what a concept! Guys get paid to show up 9 to 5 whether there are sessions booked or not - almost like a real job!

[DavidATX]

Hahaha, man that is so f*cked up. Although, the population of SoCal is pretty damn big!

However, how in the hell do all those stay open? I mean, I am sure rent or property isnt cheap!

[nacho459]

how in the hell do all those stay open? I mean, I am sure rent or property isnt cheap!

There are ALOT of bands in SoCal. I know a guy that was in 5 bands at once. These were real bands that he was giging with and writing for. Also a lot of the studios do Movie, TV, Infomercial, Radio, etc. There is a reason why Hollywood (AKA Burbank) is the entertainment capital of the world. I think it is hilarious that all the classic Hollywood music studios: United Western, Capitol, Goldstar, A&M, etc, were/are all walking distance from each other.

[japmn]

Chicago lists 137 but five of my most prefered are not on the list.
Also, any jackass with a digi 001 and a MPC calls it a studio these days.

[tkheadroom]

It would be cool to search old Yellow Pages, say 60's and 70's. I'd say there were exponentially less back then but they were real studios, not the aformentioned mpc and 001, which is pretty much about what my "studio" is...

Ted