I was at Best Buy the other day, and they had Maroon 5 on sale for 7.99. I had heard some good stuff about them, so for that price I figured what the hell. It is an outstanding disc, with a groovy Motown sound, which doesn't mean a lot for this topic other than for me to recognize that the lower price really did matter.

I would not suggest that there is not any good music out there, but rather there is TOO much to choose from. What's more, I think that much of the new stuff has a better mix, particularly if you happen to have a subwoofer on your system. But now, since radio is a failure at bring the new bands to our attention, it's difficult to keep abreast of what's out there. The main ways I know find out about new bands is through friends, on amateur Internet radio programs, or by seeing the band live.

At a macro level, the reason that sales are down so much is that the youngsters have come to expect music to be free, so they just don't buy it. Nevermind that they are stealing when they pirate it.