Capitol Studios Mastering Closed

One of the most recognizable symbols of the Los Angeles music industry, the 13-story Capitol Records Building, has turned off the lights on a prominent department: The Capitol Studios mastering division. Alongside mastering, Capitol Studios has also closed its tape restoration department.

Capitol Studios has closed its mastering and tape restoration departments.

With the department closings also come layoffs and reassignments. According to a comprehensive article by Variety’s Chris Willman on the divisions’ shutdown, 30-year Capitol Studios veteran Paula Salvatore is thought to be taking on a new role with the company. Capitol Records and Capitol Studios are part of Universal Music Group (UMG).

While a disappointing development for the pro audio community, the closing of these two divisions is not entirely surprising. The Capitol Studios mastering department probably required considerable overhead, making it difficult for the facility to remain competitive with a growing number of people mastering from smaller spaces and with less expensive, more easily available hardware and software. Capitol’s mastering department had two Neumann lathes for mastering vinyl, which should prove highly desirable on the open market if Capitol Studios chooses to part with them.

On the tape archival and restoration side, as an ever-greater percentage of UMG catalog legacy recordings complete the digitization process, with any remaining digitization work being farmed out as noted in Variety, it was foreseeable that that facility’s operations would eventually be wound down.

Capitol’s recording studios, which have been in operation since 1956, remain open for business.

Take a video tour of Capitol Studios, co-hosted by Salvatore, here:

— David Weiss with Justin Colletti

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