If you have sound but there is still no music in the game you probably chose the wrong midi soundcard in the setup.exe.
under win xp "General Midi (Roland MPU-401 interface or 100% compatible)" worked for me and will hopefully for you
Im playing level 4 currently and now have couple of ships .. maybe 8 or 9. they are doing well so far although they sometimes do empty shippings ^^
beer is not necessary to get soldiers. just adjust the setting at the top of the MILITARY MENU. if you push it up more settlers are used to recruit new soldiers. i always found this setting useless, because you always have enough unemployed settlers in the base or in storage houses. so turning this setting to max doesnt really harm anything.