Best Buy announced Monday it's looking to sell Musicland, a music and video chain it owned for only 15 months.

Declining CD sales and slow customer traffic at its locations were the main reasons for the sale, according to Reuters.com

That's certainly not surprising.

CDs aren't cheap, especially at music stores. You can spend up to $17 when tax is added in for a CD you will probably get sick of after six months.

Instead, many younger people download music off the Internet or burn copies of CDs from friends.

But it might be more than just being able to get music for free that's slowing CD sales.

Just this past weekend, a friend and I were talking about how we never buy CDs anymore. It isn't that we rely on burned copies or the Internet, there are just few groups that we're willing to spend money on.

I used to have a two-song rule before I bought a CD. If I heard two songs I liked from an album, I'd buy it. It worked most of the time.

When I don't use it, grave consequence follow (i.e. Evan and Jaron).

But even the CDs I enjoyed for months, even years, sit on my shelf. I don't think I'll ever listen to Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill again. Part of it is because my interest in that music peaked in high school, the other part is that radio stations played (and still do play) those songs to death.

Radio itself might be adding to the problem of slow CDs sales. There is no need to buy the music of the moment if I hear it every time I'm in my car. The few radio options we have in this area pound the same Top 40 tunes over and over, a result of very few broadcast companies ruling the radio-station roost.

The last CD I bought was John Mayer's No Room for Squares. That was in July. It's a great CD, but I need to skip over "No Such Thing" every time I listen to it because it has had too much play on the radio.

Among today's artists, there are few that would cause a music-buying frenzy. Eminem and the Dixie Chicks probably do pretty well, considering. But while Norah Jones might be Best New Artist now, who knows if anyone will remember what she sang by next year's Grammy's (Hey, it happened to Alicia Keyes).

If the record industry wants to make some bucks, they might want to lower CD prices and give artists that don't fit into some sort of genre a chance. What's next after the singer/songwriter-Avril/Vanessa/Michelle phase. Do we really need any more P. Diddy wanabees?

The way people purchase music has changed. There is no longer a fanatic following of one artist.

An "American Idol" no longer exists. Although I enjoy, the television show, it's the same sort of enjoyment I get out of watching a talent show. It's not possible for one singer or band to encompass the thoughts and feelings of a diverse population.

There is no next big thing, not really. Today's "big things" last for only a few months.

That's not long enough for anyone to make a commitment to a $17 CD when they can get their fix on the radio, Internet or MTV.

Since the mid-90s, there's been talk about lowering the cost of CDs. A settlement for anyone who bought CDs between 1995 and 2000 is even in place because some businesses in the music industry supposedly conspired to raise prices.

It's no guarantee -- there are more flaws with the recording industry than the price of prerecorded music -- but lowering the cost of CDs might be a start to solving a plunge in sales.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com