Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

The acoustic era. The inventors ; A phonograph in every home ; The international industry of recorded sound ; The music ; Recorded sound in the Jazz Age -- The electrical era. The machines ; Competing technologies ; Empires of sound ; Swing and the mass audience ; High fidelity at last ; Rock'n'roll and the revolution in music ; The record ; The studio ; Perfecting studio recording ; The cassette culture -- The digital era. The media conglomerates ; Into the digital era ; Consolidation and connectivity in the digital era.

With Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph, the beautiful music that was the preserve of the wealthy became a mass-produced consumer good, cheap enough to be available to all. In 1877 Edison dreamed that one day there would be a talking machine in every home. America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound, first published in 2006, provides a history of sound recording from the first thin sheet of tinfoil that was manipulated into retaining sound to the home recordings of rappers in the 1980s and the high-tech studios of the 1990s. This book examines the important technical developments of acoustic, electric, and digital sound reproduction while outlining the cultural impact of recorded music and movies. This second edition updates the story, describing the digital revolution of sound recording with the rise of computers, Napster, DVD, MP3, and iPod.