[white_wolf]

Frankly, the reason that music sales decreased 10% is that there is so little new music worth listening to. The dirty little secret of the modern music industry is that the solid bulk of music was still being purchased by the the folks who were teens in the late 50s through the 70s. They had the money, and music really meant something to them. Now, they are simply getting past the age where a lot of new music is interesting to them, leaving the music industry trying to sell to the Brittany Spears crowd, to whom music means little once they get past the hormones. You can see this is happening when modern "popular" artists resemble Playboy bunnies.

[Tennessee_Bob]

You've got a point there. Anymore these days, the CDs I buy are in the clearance bin because no one wants the music - except for me. None of the new "artists" appeal to me at all.

[TexasRepublic]

I agree with you that our pop culture is a cesspool -- there is little new pop music on the radio that I can even relate to, and I'm more eclectic than anyone else I know. Bad music, protected discs -- I won't buy them. Good analog dubs are almost indistinguishable from digital dubs.