Inside the new home for Boston bands
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Most of the rehearsal rooms on Morrissey Boulevard will have windows. Photo: Mike Deehan/Axios.
Up to a thousand Boston-area musicians will begin unloading their gear into a former radio station in Dorchester next week, settling into a massive new rehearsal space.
Driving the news: March 1 marks the opening of a new rehearsal studio at 55 Morrissey Blvd. to replace the closing Sound Museum in Allston-Brighton that housed practicing acts for decades.
- The new "swing space" is meant to provide a temporary home for the displaced musicians while city officials and art advocates work on finding something more permanent with the company that bought the Sound Museum's building.
Why it matters: Expanding life science companies, developments and sky-high real estate costs across town are driving artists from areas like Allston-Brighton in search of affordable practice space.
What’s happening: The Morrissey Boulevard building, formerly home to Beasley Broadcast Group radio stations like Hot 96.9, is being redeveloped by music nonprofit the Record Co. into a 35,000-square-foot musicians’ hub.
Zoom in: The Record Co. wants to build out an artists' community in the building, which will have communal lounges and a kitchen, so acts can mingle, jam and share ideas.
- The new space will have two floors, with 88 practice rooms big enough to easily accommodate multi-piece acts.
- Former radio studios are being converted into recording space and online streaming studios that will be available to tenants this spring.
Artists will pay between $374 a month for a solo room and $638 for the largest rooms, with additional fees for more sound-proofing.
- The building will be open daily from 8am to 2am.
What they're saying: "There's no way to meet the need" for more practice space in Boston, The Record Co.'s Matt McArthur tells Axios
- More affordable facilities, like the Morrissey building and whatever eventually replaces the Sound Museum in Allston-Brighton, will also be necessary to maintain a vibrant Boston music scene, McArthur added.
What's next: The Record Co. is contracted to operate the new rehearsal space for two years while a permanent home is found for the musicians.
- IQHQ, the development firm that bought the building the Sound Museum occupied, is in talks with the city to outfit a new space in Allston for music practice space.
What we’re watching: The newly renovated Morrissey Boulevard property could face the same fate as the Allston-Brighton space.
- Developers have had their eye on the parcels surrounding the building for years.