What studios think they do: A study of Australian music recording studio websites

Over a decade has passed since Eliot Bates examined ‘what studios do’. In the meantime, discussions surrounding decline and transformation in music production often depict a grim outlook for the future of large-format recording studios confluent with a burgeoning lower-cost, DAW-based DIY recording sector. This paper conducts a census of commercial recording studios along the east coast of Australia by gathering data from their websites. This approach offers a methodology to study recording studio cultures and explore what studios think they do. It offers insights into how studios present, communicate and promote themselves to prospective clients. The language used, promoted equipment and services offered all convey a particular position in the recording domain, with the goal of future business and stability for the studio. Beyond functional goals a recording studio purports to achieve, this article contends that studios don’t share a standard format of practice, they rely equally on the personnel that own and operate the facility and the technology within, they do not adequately acknowledge structural diversity issues in the sector, they assume that potential clients understand the value of specific technology, and they are diversifying beyond standard modes of practice to remain a viable business.