I hate to do it, but I told you so. A long time ago I started preaching about the down fall of CDs. I preached about how it would be literally impossible to sell someone a CD online when the same purchase could be made on Itunes or another website. The inflated sales of CDs were being boosted by Amazon/CD Now and indie sites, but no one saw that bubble bursting. Sometimes you don't want to be right, but you just are. I've debated it with people, had people tell me I was bugging and I've been proven right. Beyond a shadow of doubt, CDs are dead as a medium.

With the recent closings of Circuit City and Virgin Mega Stores, paired with Coconuts, FYE and Tower Records last year I no longer think this matter is up for debate.

This COULD be the greatest thing that ever happened to the indie artist. The Berlin Wall of the Music Business has always been manufacturing. Major Labels and Distributors could always hold the cost of Manufacturing over your head. Now they can't. There's a level playing field in one aspect of the business where there never was one.

At the same time, the interest in seeking out new music by listeners is higher now and easier to do now then it ever has been in human history. Realistically, Uncommon should be booming right now.

We have a fresh roster of artists and untold amounts of credibility (thank you very much). Two main reasons we are not are illegal downloading of our music and the few fans left on Earth that are stuck on the tangiability of music. I have news for anyone disapointed by the fact that we don't press much on CD, you listen to music with your EARS!

If we were going from Vinyl to MP3, I might feel differently, but CDs have always been a bastardized way of listening to music for me anyway. I cherish the fact that I've been able to press up some of my music on CD, but at the end of the day I've always felt that once we stopped pressing to Vinyl, it wasn't the real thing anyway.

My next big prediction:
For better or worse (no matter your opinion on this), illegal downloading will slow to a crawl in the next 5-8 years- if not sooner. This isn't just wishful thinking on my part, these are the factors I am considering:

1- Major Labels and Governments are cutting deals with High Speed Internet providers to kill people's internet connections for P2P users.
2- Sites like Bit Torrent and Lime Wire are going mainstream, coming up with ways to actually make money. Funny how after all these years, they feel like they need a business model after sinking ours.
3- Sites like Last.FM, Pandora, Slacker, etc. making streaming music and internet radio fun again. They are opening the route of Music Discovery, which will result in more purchasing of music legally (over time).
4- Web sites that are providing illegal downloads have become seedier and seedier. In these days of Spyware and Viruses, you have to be cracked to download anything from half of these two bit operations. This situation will only get worse.
5- CDs are officially being declared dead. Do you expect the Major Labels to do nothing? Will they wither and die? No, they will come very late to the party and kick everyone out. They will have to force a business model of selling downloads to work, or they fold.
6- Artists and Labels coming up with creative ways to counter illegal downloading with smart free legal releases and podcasts.
7- The Ipod/Iphones wide spread popularity reaching a mainstream audience that wouldn't have any idea how to illegally download something and only existing within the Itunes enviornment.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Convince me otherwise if you dare.

In the interest in keeping this light, here are the diamonds I pulled from the rough at the Virgin Mega Store Times Square 50 percent off sale! The place was a shambles, they were selling empty shelves off the walls. They were even selling the damn CD and DVD players that were on 24 hours a day in the store for like 25 bucks each.

The Black Angels- Directions to See A Ghost
Vast Aire- Dueces Wild
Crooked- Movie Soundtrack & DVD (from WordSound)
Illogic- Celestrial Clockwork
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez- Old Money

Saw a lot of personal friends of mines' music looking lonely in an empty store that was over run with tourists. That made me sad. Saw some stuff I was glad was there rotting away too though!

Anyways, remember Nasa knows. I'm rarely wrong on this stuff.