Author(s): Gareth Murphy

Music Biography

From the invention of the earliest known sound-recording device in 1850s Paris to the CD crash and digital boom today, Cowboys and Indies takes us on a fascinating and wildly entertaining tour of the ever-changing music industry, introducing us to the performers and self-proclaimed 'record men' of the UK and America. Combining colourful behind-the-scenes stories with tales about the business of marketing and selling music, Cowboys and Indies covers all the most important recordings of the past 150 years and the companies that brought them to us. Industry insider Gareth Murphy draws on archival material and over a hundred exclusive interviews with the legends of the music business to bring us the riveting stories of how the industry crashed with the arrival of the radio, the British Invasion, John Hammond's discoveries of Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and much, much more.