Richard Osborne is Associate Professor in Music and Creative Industries at Middlesex University, UK. Prior to working in academia he was employed in music retail, held various posts at collecting societies and co-managed a pub. He is the author of Vinyl: A History of the Analogue Record (2012), and co-editor of Mute Records (2019) and Music by Numbers (2021).
Copyright is a tool used by record labels to extract value from recording artists, but it is also the mechanism that allows artists to profit from their music. In Owning the Masters, Richard Osborne deftly threads a historical narrative between these two positions. This book is indispensable reading for anyone trying to understand the role of copyright in the world today. * David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA, and author of Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians and Power in Society *