AN EXCITING NEW APPROACH*

* to shoplift a slogan from Arlee Bird…

According to most sources, the death of compact discs is nigh.

Sales of CDs have slumped annually for almost a decade, and most of the large music retailers have gone or are going out of business, with other stores like Barnes And Noble, Best Buy and WalMart either discontinuing CD sales or dramatically reducingthe floor space devoted to CD's.

Since the whole reason I started this blog was to stimulate discussion of music and spark people's interest in seeking out new music, hopefully on records and compact discs, reader comments expressing their opinion of the music I present on the blog are important.

I am, therefore, appreciative of the readers who do leave comments.

But I like to see more participation, more readers.

So, I'll tell ya what I'm gonna do.

I'm upping the ante.

I'm going to throw a little prizes into the mix.

My collection...but this is only the half of the room you can see in the picture

You see, with a collection the size of mine, I often end up with a CD I already owned because I simply forgot I had it. I also frequently get sampler CD's from stores, labels and magazines. These go into a pile, and every few months I trade them in at Zia Records, my home away from home.

I have a decent pile now, and it's stacked with some pretty neat gems like a brand new (still in shrink wrap) copy of the first CD by Slavin' David, the rare Sandole Brothers disc I reviewed last week, some great rock titles from the last few decades, and lots of nifty compilations.

Slavin David

And I'm gonna give them away.

At the end of July, I'm going to pick a comment from the posts in July.

Totally at random.

No favoritism, here.

All you ladies who were just now thinking you'd ply me with your feminine wiles, it ain't gonna help.

Anyway I haven't seen a wile in…well, in a while!

And while I'd love to wile away the hours,  I'm not really sure what ply means.
To that jazz guy out there, a new membership in the Journey fan club ain't gonna fool me!

This is gonna be random, I tell ya!

As ironclad as Powerball!

Then I'm going to e-mail the lucky commenter for their snail mail info, and I'm gonna send them a brand-spanking new (okay, maybe used) CD absolutely free.

The cost to you? Nada. Nothing. Nil. I'll even spring for the postage to any US address.

Why you ask?

Why indeed...

You see, I still remember the first song I fell in love with.


I was sitting in the room I shared with my older brother’s room and he was playing “Build Me Up Buttercup” by the Foundations and I thought it was pretty cool.

A lot of the music I love comes from being force fed it by my older siblings, but my favorite musician, Todd Rundgren, is all my own doing.

Oh sure, those of you who actually read this know about the high school English teacher who introduced me to Todd, but he just played one song for the whole class. I went out and looked for the records.

How I loved records. There was something about going to Critters or Plastic Fantastic, starting to search through the A’s and somehow getting lost in the alphabet, usually spending a lot of time looking at the O’s.

Why the O’s?

Hello? Teenage boy? Ohio Player’s album covers?

And I get that record home and lie and listen to it in the dark with the headphones on and the volume cranked up, or on a lazy afternoon staring at the album cover, memorizing every lyric, ever word of the liner notes.

Music was always magic to me-I never needed TV.

In fact, throughout the years, I have grown to love CDs. I resisted at first, due to their cost, but the incredible portability and accessibility won me over, in spite of the miniature artwork that has to this day never lived up to the beauty of a 12” long player packaging.

However, with music pirating and alternate music sources on the rise, the production of CDs is rapidly decreasing. And downloads from iTunes are only making up a fraction of the loss.

Albums are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

So how can we bring back the age of CD’s?

Keep buying them.

Or steal them. If they vanish from the retailer’s shelf (assuming you can FIND a retailer) it still gets counted as a sale.

(just kidding about the stealing part)

But that's the beauty of my new approach.

Tell your friends to drop by and leave a comment. In fact, leave one yourself while you're thinking of it.


Together, we'll learn and spread the word about new music, and you'll have a chance to get some free music at the same time.

It'll be just as exciting as if you shoplifted it, but without the handcuffs and the embarassing call to your spouse to pick you up at the precinct.