CDs are finally going to go the way of cassettes, 8-tracks and vinyl before them. It was only a matter of time, but according to projections reported by Billboard, digital music sales will surpass CDs in 2013. That’s a mere four years away (or one presidential term, if you are currently in that mindset).

Record companies have weathered storms before, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they figure out a way to turn a profit in this whole mess. However, a victim of the digital age might be the distributors–the middlemen between labels and stores. In the same way a label theoretically signs bands of a certain caliber, a distributor will generally have a certain standard when working with labels. But as the lines between artist and store tighten, who needs the additional middleman? A label can still claim it’s useful–paying for promotion, marketing, tour support and so on. But what can a distributor really offer when the world is all digital and ANYONE can upload music to Amazon.com through CreateSpace or onto iTunes via TuneCore?

Despite the ominous date of 2013, the end of CD’s days may not come so quick. Cassettes stuck around in stores long after CDs became the dominant force in the music biz. I also don’t expect any major label or distributor to go down quietly…no matter what the statistics say.

I don’t want to give away my girlfriend’s gift when she reads this blog, so let’s just say it’s entertainment-related-something you could find in any electronics store such as Circuit City, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I checked out the giant red box store to no success. Same with a few local stores. Nothing.

I’ve encountered this problem with specialty items before. I go to a store and they tell me while they don’t have it, they could order it on the internet for me. What’s the point of going to a store if you still have to wait for two days, go BACK to the store, and so on? Really, I can use the internet for myself…at home…in my underwear!

But this year I’m not purchasing a specialty item, I’m actually looking for something that should be fairly common. I sighed and checked online, fully expecting to pay some insanely high shipping fee. However, even Amazon didn’t have it available! I ordered it from Best Buy for in-store pickup, but received an e-mail shortly after ordering that their inventory had screwed up; it was not actually available at the aforementioned store.

I don’t mean to get on an Andy Rooney style rant here, but remember when stores would actually sell stuff? You could go to a store, find what you were looking for and bring it home. Heck, there’s even a store in New York where you can browse the items sold on a website, but you can’t BUY anything in the store; you have to go to their website. What’s the point of having a physical store at all?

(CONTINUE READING FOUR TO SIX WEEKS FOR CHRISTMAS)

Dizzee hits on an obvious point here: that you got to work hard to stay at the top. But with the sinking economy and even worse music sales, “the top” just ain’t what it used to be. Sure, Lil Wayne tore up the charts like no one’s business, but holidays sales are looking dim for recent releases including Dizzee shout-out superstar Kanye West.

Projected hopes for West’s 808s and Heartbreak had expected the album to sell around 800 to 900 thousand in its first week. Ultimately, it ended up selling around half that amount (though still scoring the number one spot on the sales charts), which also way down from first week sales of his previous album. If MC Hammer taught us anything, it’s that even a huge success can be seen by the music industry as a gigantic failure.

However, West has already stated that sales for this album simply aren’t important to him. Though let’s face it, in these economic times, moving 400,000 CDs is huge.

(MORE HEARTBREAK’S HEARTACHES HERE)

It seems like the MP3 revolution will make CDs go the way of the 8-track eventually, and people have already questioned why it hasn’t happened already. A quick glance at the economics reveals that the major label system aren’t about to abandon the CD format any time soon.

iTunes business model is pretty easy to evaluate. Albums cost $9.99; iTunes takes a chunk (probably safe to assume around 50 percent); the rest goes to the label. It’s possible there could be some kind of middle man between the label and iTunes as well, but let’s assume the most a label will get will be around five dollars.

(KEEP READING THE WAY OF THE 8-TRACK HERE)

Recently TheShark was speaking about how he isn’t able to afford health care, and with the coming election, health care is a hot topic. Ellis Paul really gets to the heart of the issue here:

I’m Canadian and grew up with socialized health care.  After hearing yet another person complain about how they can’t afford health care I realized I have never EVER heard someone who has socialized health care wish they didn’t have it. They’ve never said “I wish I could just find some confusing forms to fill out and pay an ass load of money to someone for a service I’ll rarely use.” I have never heard someone complain about having health care and just wish they had insurance.

I mean, we Canadians know how you talk about us. We know you think we’re your dumb, younger brother with a bad case of ADD who still shits his pants once a week, just emptied an entire jar of pickles into mom’s purse and is now sitting under the coffee table wrapped in tin-foil wiping peanut butter on the dog. But if Canadians can get this health care thing figured out, why the F can’t you?

Let’s face it, the insurance companies are the parasites of the medical industry. They’re the equivalent of the major record label finding a decent band, signing them to a shit contract because they are artists and don’t know business law, forcing them to spend thousands of dollars on recording, touring and making videos which will all be recouped (deductible, anyone?) before a band makes a dime and ultimately get dropped unceremoniously when they no longer meet the standards of the label.

I realize right wing Christians think we’ve only been around this planet for 2000 years or so, but how many people have to die before we realize that we’re all going to? The human body is a disgusting organism. It produces foul odors, leaks, it’s prone to infection and disease, it produces children, ages, breaks when you drop it, falls over accidentally, runs with scissors, creates and uses weapons, becomes addicted, is sleep deprived, spills hot coffee and gets bitten by animals.

Call me a pessimist but there is NEVER going to come a day when human beings are not going to require medical attention. Get it? Health care is not an option like “Should I buy the second pair of Nikes?” It’s as essential to every human life as air, water and food. This country needs a better plan.

Let’s face it. The system is faulty. Its time has come. Do something about it. Make a change. It is your responsibility. Go register to vote.

Mudhoney have been around long enough that they can just sit back and laugh at the ridiculousness of the fervor of anger that some people have for the music industry:

It sounds like a stoner/laizze-faire approach to tackling the beast, but you know something? They’re right – who cares what some crappy mainstream band like Good Charlotte or Simple Plan (sorry, I’m getting my own frustrations out here) is making, despite the obvious lack of talent. You’ve just gotta let it slide, laugh at it if it helps you, and enjoy the music that YOU like. There’s always going to be Ashlee Simpsons and Daughtrys in the music business, but no one’s forcing you to listen to them, that’s your own sick little secret pleasure.

Think about it, in what other industry (besides sports, which is a whole other beat) do people get so wrapped up in the business side of things that it affects the pleasure they derive from the product? Do you really think I give a shit that Nabisco pays the head baker for Chips Ahoy more money than the head baker for Fig Newtons? No, I just want me some mother fucking delicious Fig Newtons, regardless of whether the packaging manager signs a more lucrative 360 deal with Pepperidge Farm. I guess in the end, all Mudhoney are really saying, in the simplest terms possible, is Enjoy The Music That You Like, and if I could add one thing to that, Unless It’s Bon Jovi or Nickelback, then maybe consider elective deaf surgery.