Since Records Began tells the story of how sound was transforrned from the Washington, D.C. laboratory experiments of Charles Sumner Tainter and Emile Berliner over a century ago into the vast international entertainment industry of today.

EMl is the company that signed the Beatles. It was in the forefront of the 1960s revolution in popular music. EMI's various labels now include acts as diverse as Garth Brooks, Pink Floyd, Tina Turner, Blur, and Roberto Alagna. Over the past 100 years, the company has owned or been connected with almost every record label in the world, including Columbia, RCA Victor, Capitol, Liberty, Virgin, Angel, Imperial, MGM and Mercury.

The basis of this book, lavishly illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents and recording memorabilia, is the previously untapped archive of EMI, which contains more than eight million documents and over half a million records, covering almost every conceivable recording artist - from Caruso to the Beach Boys.

The author has also had access to Sony Music archives in New York, Capitol Records Archives in Los Angeles, and rare documents in the Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.