NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Written by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-nominated author and historian, Sean Wilentz, 360 Sound illustrates sweeping cultural and business changes in music over more than a century. 

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120730/NY48261-a )

19 videos and 23 sound samples are included in the book so readers can listen to—and watch—Columbia's artists through the years in unprecedented interactive format.

Celebrated music journalist Dave Marsh's book, 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story: Legends and Legacy, is also available. There are 263 audio samples in this book.

Columbia Records is celebrating its 125th anniversary with the release of a book entitled 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story about the great American label and its role in initiating recorded music, cultivating great artists, and igniting cultural change. Written by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-nominated author and historian Sean Wilentz, the book provides a journey through Columbia Records' storied past and its contributions to entertainment from the invention of commercial recording through the present day. The Columbia Records Story is available for purchase exclusively on the iBookstore for $14.99.

The second book is available for free and is also exclusive to Apple's iBookstore. It includes over 300 photos and 263 audio clips to enhance celebrated music journalist Dave Marsh's 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story: Legends and Legacy. Readers can tap to watch videos of artists including Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Simon & Garfunkel, and Adele. Audio clips of all 263 songs in the Marsh book are playable from each song listing in the book. This innovative multi-media offering brings the artists and their music to life in an unprecedented way.

360 Sound includes 300 rare and intimate photographs from the Columbia archives and sidebar discussions of crucial developments and performers written by eminent music historians Dave Marsh and Colin Escott. The book offers a virtual history of the music industry from its infancy, tracing Columbia's pivotal technological as well as business innovations, not least its invention of the LP. It also reflects on the connection between Columbia's artists and music and sweeping cultural and political changes, from the emergence of mass commercial culture to the rise of the civil rights movement and beyond. 

Download both 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story and 360 Sound: Legends and Legacy from the iBookstore on iPad or at www.iTunes.com/iBookstore.

SOURCE Columbia Records