Gareth Murphey covers the early days of music and how corporatists used outlet to make themselves rich and performers overly important

Dream Money
Martin Manziel
   
  Gareth Murphey covers the dream money industry of recording and music playing in a definitive history of the music recording industry and the boom and bust periods of music. From the beginning o the talking machine there were "entrepreneurs' seeking to make money for themselves form the work and sound of others. Mr Murphey takes the reader on the historical reaches of profiteering of sound from various characters and companies both sides of the Atlantic and how its far -reaching affect shaped future generations. This industry offered plenty of dream money for insiders and players who were in the right position at the right time for the explosion and mass media coverage of anything related to it.\ as plenty of money and outside cultural forces demanded that someone like Michael Jackson and a Elvis become larger than light.

The dawn of the radio age and real money into this new industry is detailed in exemplary form give the reader a sense of the technological change and major role mass communication played in the developing world. The depths record producers searched rural backwaters for country singers and rural blues singers is amazing as they desperately sought out avenues for dream money and a way to make great incomes through their musical discoveries in the twenties. Music was used to enforce and create social change and how society was manipulated by this dirty industry can not be overestimated.

The pre-rock era of music has always fascinated me and this book covers the time period extensively as the author illustrates how these record label founders and owners made some easy money producing popular records. Even back then though the music industry was in constant flux wit many companies going bust and being bought off by rivals and the evolution of the industry mirrors the tech industry in many ways as many of these companies were money losing ventures and more of a nightmare of loss than dream. The over-valuation of record companies and to be used as assets tot be traded by the wealthy plutocrats in records and creation of product was another by product other industries would emulate. This is an amazing book for those wishing to get an inside and knowledge of the growth and rise of the music industry up to the modern age and decline of it.