My new book, Owning the Masters: A History of Sound Recording Copyright was published by Bloomsbury yesterday. It tells the story of how this form of copyright was developed and claimed by the recording industry, and how recording artists are now claiming this copyright for themselves. The book also looks at how this copyright has been applied to different forms of distributing music - physical products, radio, downloading, streaming - and how it shapes and is being shaped by our digital age. As the blurb says, 'This is an essential subject for an understanding of the economic, artistic and political value of recorded sound'.
Like recorded music, the book comes in a variety of formats: hardback, paperback, eBook.
