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THE METROPOLIS ACADEMY EDUCATING THE MASSES


Another arm to Ian Brenchley’s empire, the Metropolis Academy will fully launch in January 2013. With an initial focus on vocational courses, the educational enterprise will give students the chance to learn disciplines such as Music Business and Music Production, with initial courses lasting two days. Brenchley says that the aim is to offer full degree courses in a year’s time. The academy is run by Ian Ramage, who has


worked for the likes of Sony, EMI and BMG – and with artists including Coldplay, Keane and Pink Floyd – in a 25-year career.


“This isn’t a new model at all. This is Chess, it’s Motown, it’s Stax, it’s Island – it’s housing creativity and participating in that process from start to finish” IAN BRENCHLEY, METROPOLIS


It’s just one of a swathe of diversification


measures Brenchley has introduced to ensure that none of Metropolis’ iconic space is going to waste - and that the company is not longer merely reliant on recording legendary audio performances. Metropolis Group 2012 offers an impressive


portfolio of services to an even more impressive breadth of clients. Take a stroll around the company’s listed building in Chiswick and you’ll come across a fully-functioning record label, Metropolis Recordings – which is behind the upcoming Hillsborough Charity single bidding for the Christmas No.1 spot. Elsewhere, you’ll find a state-of-the-art


production division, headed up by Ramy Dance, where a scalable video creations service can be suited to TV ads, music videos, documentaries, live shoots and EPKs. Recent clients have included teams looking after Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, James Morrison, Skunk Anansie and The Wanted. Downstairs, you might bump into a familiar face


from Bucks beavering away on Metropolis’ publishing JV with the Brit company, Metro Bucks. Bucks is supporting development of Metropolis’ new writers and catalogues, as well as providing administration services for current and future repertoire. Two new rooms, dubbed ‘The Lab’ are being created to incubate songwriting sessions, as well as Metropolis’ own artist management and publishing activities.


Central to all of these internal expansions is


Brenchley’s philosophy that Metropolis can’t rest on its laurels as a fabled recording studio. Like any other smart company in the modern music industry, it has begun to start taking control of its own rights - whether they’re purely musical, or the four TV formats that Metropolis has created and produced, which have been snapped up by the likes of the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. “This isn’t a new model at all,” explains


Brenchley. “This is Chess, it’s Motown, it’s Stax, it’s Island – it’s housing creativity and participating in that process from start to finish. Previously, solely as a studio, we were creating content for people paying us a 5% or 10% margin while they were making a 30% margin. So why wouldn’t we make our own content? Our studio rates have been the same since we opened in 1989. By creating our own content at least we’re controlling a little bit. We want to become a serious player with serious growth here; and that can only come when we own rights which we can exploit ourselves.” Which isn’t to say Metropolis’ traditional business


is falling away: Brenchley says the complex’s four large recording studios – found amongst the complex’s 19 creative suites – are still doing a roaring trade. In terms of occupancy they are filled an “unprecedented” 93% of the time. The issue, he forlornly admits, is “that there’s just not that much money in that kind of business anymore”.


THE VIEW FROM THE TOP CARLA MAROUSSAS MOVES UP TO MD ROLE


BOLSTERING IAN BRENCHLEY’s new team, Carla Maroussas joined Metropolis as general manager in February 2012. An experienced expert in the world of


broadcast media, she has taken the lead in maximising new revenues for the core Metropolis business. Her impact at the group has been significant and was recognised this month by her appointment to the role of MD. Prior to Metropolis she worked at


Stream Digital Media, a division of Ascent Media. As sales director for the firm’s media services group she was responsible for clients including BBC Worldwide, Disney, Warner Bros,


Momentum Pictures, Universal Pictures and Universal Music. “I’m aware that there needs to be a


bit of myth-busting around Metropolis, and I’m confident we are addressing this,” she tells Music Week. “I worked in Soho for a long time and I


know that Metropolis’s reputation has perhaps stayed for too long as being ‘the most decadent place on the planet to record’ and too expensive. That’s really, truly not the case anymore – we have a service for most budgets and we accommodate most people’s work. Our reputation has been stuck in a bit of a time warp, but that’s all changing.”


LEFT In charge: Metropolis MD Carla Maroussas and CEO Ian Brenchley


TV TIMES EIGHTIES ICONS


The studios at the Metropolis complex were home to the recording of forthcoming TV series, Eighties. In a joint venture with BBC Worldwide- owned label Demon, Metropolis Music Mastering created a series focused on Eighties icons such as Belinda Carlisle, Level 42, Heaven 17 and Tony Hadley. Each played a live set to an exclusive audience of just 120 guests. The series created, filmed and edited by the


team at Metropolis has sold internationally and will TX in the UK next year – a prime example of how the expansion of the Metropolis Group’s operation continues to bring exciting non-traditional projects to the Power House.


That matters little to the worldwide superstars


who return to Metropolis year in, year out to record or master their latest joints. Will.i.am and Rihanna have both flown in recently, whilst Brenchley believes that at least half of the top 10 mastering engineers in the world can be found in-house at Metropolis. Impressive names working within the complex include Tim Young (The Beatles, Madonna), Ian Cooper (Noel Gallagher, David Bowie), Tony Cousins (Adele, Peter Gabriel) and John Davis (U2, Snow Patrol). “Our guys are always on top of new audio technologies and fresh techniques – we were the first studio to introduce Mastered for iTunes, for example – but they’re also willing to follow the client’s request to the letter,” says Brenchley. As we stroll through Metropolis’ giant complex,


we see what he means. We witness Vangelis’ temporary, custom-made mixing suite in one room, whilst in another, we meet one of Metropolis’ supremo master engineers, Miles Showell, working on a special request for one Eric Clapton. If this elite level of workmanship helps explain


why some of the world’s brightest stars hand-pick Metropolis for studio, mixing and mastering work, other entertainment giants are sure to be drawn to the complex’s reputation for being at the bleeding edge of technology. When the towering Metropolis building was


erected in 1989 after four years of labour, it arrived complete with the world’s first million-pound acoustic treatment. Everyone from Lauryn Hill to The Verve, Amy Winehouse, The Stone Roses and The Libertines has taken advantage of this premier setup over the years. Meanwhile, Metropolis’ Studio E was the first room anywhere to boast 5.1 Surround Sound mixing capabilities - probably why West Coast rap stars from Interscope personally request to work in there quite so often. However, Brenchley’s Metropolis isn’t just for the


biggest stars on the planet; his team’s philosophy is to provide “service excellence for every kind of artist and company”. That means new additions such as a mastering service for unsigned artists, which sees Metropolis’ engineers giving submitted demos their top-drawer treatment, at a snip of the usual price. “That service is massively popular and another


growing part of the business,” says Brenchley. “It’s never going to make millions, but it’s a robust revenue source that wasn’t there before.” A monthly live night, PowerDown, offers up-


and-coming artists the chance to get in front of the UK record industry’s leading luminaries: most of them, of course, work down the road in Kensington.


23.11.12 Music Week 21


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