Abbey Road Studios launches ‘open innovation department’

Abbey Road Studios officially unveiled its new department focused on music technology and innovation, Abbey Road Red, at a launch event held in the facility’s iconic Studio Two (main picture) last night (21 October 2015).

As the only music tech-specific incubator programme in Europe, the aim of Abbey Road Red is to enable fledgling music tech startups to harness the expertise and facilities at the studios by providing mentorship, advice, a testing ground for products, access to facilities, social media support and a platform that helps companies reach their audience.

Building on a legacy of groundbreaking technological advances at the studios, starting with Alan Blumlein’s invention of stereo, Abbey Road Red is described as ‘an open innovation department designed to support the endeavours of the brightest music tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers.’

Abbey Road Red has pledged to work with a number of experts in music tech R&D, co-producing products and providing companies with ‘a dynamic route to market’ via Abbey Road’s platforms, and is also backed by parent company Universal Music.

As well as introducing attendees to the new department, yesterday’s event also featured a start-up tech fair, enabling visitors to check out new music tech companies such as Jukedeck, which claims to offer automatically-composed music at the touch of a button and Mogees, a product designed to turn everyday objects into unique musical instruments.

(L-R): Abbey Road’s Isabel Garvey and Jon Eades

“Abbey Road Red will look at music-related technology beyond just the production side. The Studios brand has an incredible strength among music fans as well as within the industry. We expect there will be opportunities beyond the Studios’ traditional music production role,” said Abbey Road managing director Isabel Garvey.

Jon Eades, head of technology and innovation at Abbey Road, added: “Abbey Road has been at the forefront of new music technologies for the past 85 years. The team have put an incredible amount of work into Pulse and we think it promises to become a fantastic music creation platform."

Applications for the March 2016 intake are now being accepted until the closing date of 18 December 2015, after which the top three entering companies will be chosen.

For more information on Abbey Road Red, see the website below.

http://www.abbeyroad.com/red