Stockholm municipality saves ‘legendary’ ABBA recording studio, Baggpipe, from demolition – Music Business Worldwide

The future of Baggpipe Studios, the Stockholm-based studio that once hosted The Beatles and became the unofficial birthplace for ABBA in the early 1970s, is facing a brighter future.

For several years, the fate of the studio’s future, which was established in 1969, has been in limbo.

In 2019, property developers said Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! to the land Baggpipe Studios stood on, with plans drawn up to replace it with a seven story apartment building.

The studio sent out an S.O.S., and now, the city of Stockholm has answered.

The municipality has decided to stop the process due to the “historical and cultural values in the building and its technical prominence as one of the highest valued studios for analog recording in the world,” Baggpipe says in a press release.

The decision was made on December 20, but has only just been publicly announced.

Baggpipe calls its HQ a “sister studio of Abbey Road,” and was built as an acoustic copy of the famed London studio, which was acquired by Universal Music Group as part of its EMI Music takeover in 2012.

Baggpipe is where ABBA made their early recordings, and other artists who have worked there include Roxette, One Direction, Lady Gaga,  Swedish House Mafia, Wyclef Jean and Beyoncé, to name just a few.

According to Bagpipe, five Billboard No.1 songs have been produced there.

The studio’s website also adds that the space was originally built as a 460-seat movie theatre called ”Kaza” in 1939 and was turned into a studio in 1969.

“we are able to keep contributing to the development of Swedish culture and not least keep strengthening the international image of Sweden as a true music nation.”

Mikael Gordon Solfors, Baggpipe Studios

Mikael Gordon Solfors, Chairman of the Board of Baggpipe Studios, said: “We cannot enough show our gratitude and happiness that the decision makers in Stockholm municipality understands the value of the facility that we use and the thousands of work opportunities that we provide worldwide.

“And that apart from the purely cultural values, the unique recording technolgy and history that lives in these walls. Without this place we would not still be producing relevant world hits on a daily basis.

“Now we are able to keep contributing to the development of Swedish culture and not least keep strengthening the international image of Sweden as a true music nation.

In 2017, Abbey Road signed a major licensing deal with China-based streaming service developer Tencent Music.

At the time, the two companies also announced a plan to design, build and develop Abbey Road Studios China, a state-of-the-art recording and mastering facility, but no further plans for the development have been announced.

Last year, Abbey Road Studios acquired Audiomovers, a remote production and music collaboration technology start-up.
“We send our heartfelt regards to everyone that has supported us over the years.”Music Business Worldwide