One of the world’s most iconic places has just received the Google Street View treatment, with iconic Abbey Road studios now visitable by anyone with a computer, smartphone, or tablet.
Launched this week, Google is adding to its virtual destinations by letting anyone take a wander around the famous Abbey Road studios, a place that has recorded artists ranging from The Beatles to Pink Floyd, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Blur, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, Green Day, Nigel Kennedy, Jamiroquai, Kyle Minogue… we could be here forever just listing them, and fortunately, there’s a Wikipedia entry on the artists that have made the trek to England to record there.
In any case, from this week, Google has made it possible to take a virtual walk around the studios, learning about its history, what music has been recorded, with the Google Street View formula applied to a place that sits on a street.
Just like how you explore city streets on Google Street View, the Google’s “Inside Abbey Road” is making it possible to see engineers working on music tracks, people working away at mixing and mastering, and of course musicians in the various recording rooms playing away.
There are stories, a tour with spoken dialogue, and videos of internationally renowned artists playing their music in the building. You’ll even find a couple of interactive elements, with examples of equipment you can play with to see what mixing is, how effects work in recording, and more.
In essence, it’s a history lesson for anyone who has ever loved music and wanted to see how it was created in one of the world’s best recording studios.
Seriously, we could spend so much time in this thing, and if you’re looking for a time waster that doesn’t just waste it, but gives you something to go home with — stories, information, understanding — this could well be it.
Checking out the experience is easy, and only requires you to click a link — this one, specifically — which will take you to Google’s Inside Abbey Road experience, which works on computers, phones, and tablets, and works best if you have a pair of headphones plugged in and handy.
Now all we need is for someone to bring the experience to Samsung’s Gear VR, and then we’ll truly be immersed without being there.
