Retail approach to recording

Taiwanese Timestudio (Hua Shi Dai) offers studio recording sessions for everyone. Located in the busiest pedestrian areas in Taipei, Timestudio’s two mini-recording studios let consumers record a professional cd for around USD 30. The studio features a sound booth and a control room manned by a professional audio engineer. A glass wall facing the street means that the ‘artists’ can be seen by passing shoppers, adding an element of momentary fame. With speakers installed outside the studio, performances can also be heard by passersby, luring both audiences and more customers (singing being a wide-spread passion in Taiwan). When they’ve finished recording, the artists have their picture taken for the cd’s cover art, the cd is burned, and that’s it! Timestudio is a fun concept that could take off in shopping malls around the world, and is yet another example of professional grade services becoming available to mass audiences. For more examples of how companies are enabling consumer-generated content, check out trendwatching.com’s generation c.