Wanna buy Abbey Road Studio?

LONDON—Cash-strapped music company EMI Group Ltd. is seeking a buyer for Abbey Road, the London studio where the Fab Four recorded some of their most famous songs, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday. The person said talks had been going on for several months but a buyer had not yet been found. A spokesman for EMI refused to comment on the sale bid, which could raise tens of millions of dollars for the struggling label. Some analysts say the sale price would be far short of the $165 million EMI needs to survive, and would mean giving up one of its most high-profile assets – not just a recording studio, but a tourist attraction and shrine for Beatles fans. EMI, whose artists include Coldplay, Lily Allen & Robbie Williams, has struggled financially since it was bought in 2007 for 2.4 billion pounds by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners. EMI has fared worse than the other major labels – Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group – amid the decline of CD sales and the rise of digital music downloading. Several big-name acts, including Radiohead and the Rolling Stones, quit the label amid the cutbacks & restructuring that followed the takeover. EMI’s predecessor bought the Georgian town house at 3 Abbey Road in London’s residential St. John’s Wood neighborhood for 100,000 pounds in 1929 and turned it into one of the world’s most sophisticated recording studios. Edward Elgar recorded “Land of Hope and Glory” with the London Symphony Orchestra there in the 1930s. It is still used by orchestras; the soundtracks of the “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” films were recorded at Abbey Road. Since the 1960s it has been one of the world’s most famous rock music studios. Albums recorded there include Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” Wings’ “Band on the Run” and Radiohead’s “OK Computer.” Most familiar to some is the crosswalk in front of the studio which was immortalized on the cover of 1969’s “Abbey Road,” the final studio album The Beatles recorded. “Let it Be” was the band’s final release, in 1970, but it was recorded before “Abbey Road.” Paul McCartney still lives nearby.

Potential buyers beware, however: the famous black-and-white crossing is not included in the deal.