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| Music Master 1990 |
Long before the Internet and Google search, if you wanted to look up information about a record/song/artist, you had to find out the old fashioned way by looking in a book.
Retail record stores across the country had to subscribe to a music catalogue that was so big it made the bible look like a pamphlet. Imagine a book that listed all formats, all track listings, all catalogue numbers, record labels & release dates for EVERY record that is currently available to buy.
That book was Music Master.
With monthly supplements to keep the information up to date and a full yearly reprint, thIs book was the music bible for the Retail music industry.
If anyone wanted to order a record this was the place to start. To order a title you needed three important pieces of information.
1. Is it still available?. 2. What label is it on? (Or more importantly who's distributing it?) 3. What's the catalogue number.
This book had it all. It cost an absolute fortune to buy and was a pain in the bum to flick through but I spent many happy hours looking though it trying to find classic stuff to purchase for myself never mind customers. You may have needed a magnifying glass to read the writing and the paper was so thin it could tear very easily, but it was an essential part of any proper record shop. I can find very little information on the net about when they started or stopped printing this book, how many editions there were or if anyone else remembers its existence. But, for me, it's a nice bit of nostalgia Just to see it again.
2 comments:
Does anyone have a copy of the 1987 hardback edition - the reference copy that was available in the library?
I have a hardback copy of 1986 that my local record shop had at the time.
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