Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, first established in the late 1890s in Washington DC (District of Columbia) to distribute and sell Edison phonographs and cylinders.

Over the years Columbia Records have released hundreds of thousands of records by an impressive array of world-renowned singers, instrumentalists, bands and groups.

Among their catalogue are Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger and Simon And Garfunkel (amidst a host of other stylists from Burt Bacharach to AC/DC, and Aretha Franklin to Mariah Carey).

But the Columbia studios in New York first put Bob Dylan on vinyl, and for that reason alone, regardless of other artists and musical/recording innovation, there can hardly be a more influential poetic commentator on our cultural history stage than Dylan, hence the studio being included here.