Abbey Road College – Perhaps with added Tom

Things took an interesting turn recently when Studio 301 in Sydney was sold to ‘Abbey Road Institute’. Studio 301 was owned by mercurial mogul Tom Misner, who ran SAE (formerly School of Audio Education) until selling to Navitas almost five years ago.

This is where strange things seem to come together.

Tom took around 50 million when he sold out and reclined, out of public view. Until the sale in 2010 he was very visible, walking around Audio Engineering Society trade shows and announcing
huge deals inside and outside of SAE. The recording studio college, established in Sydney in the late 1970’s, expanded world wide with an opaque structure centered on Amsterdam and a management team populated by hard men from Europe.

After purchase, Navitas got on with running SAE and ceded some ground in Australia to arch rival Martin Cass at JMC which expanded exponentially. While both SAE and JMC grew enrolments, the advertised job openings for recording engineers and producers hit zero.

Students today can access VET Fee Help which is an Australian Government managed student loans scheme which is rumored to face severe sanctions under the Turnbull government after many private colleges (not any named in this article) outrageously gamed the system. Spruikers would sign up non English speakers or intellectually disabled to Diploma courses, offering an inducement like a laptop. The college was then able to claim up to $18,000 in course fees, which the student didn’t need to start repaying until their taxable income exceeded $54 grand.

Enter Abbey Road with an Australian operation managed by Paul Ledingham and assisted by Gianni Michelini. Ledingham was Misner’s Melbourne manager and then spent four years under Navitas running the Melbourne SAE before decamping back to Misner to run Studio 301.