Dying A Slow Death: Whats dying, why and how?

Hi
I runa small US record label. Every day I see news reports about how the record industry is in trouble. http://www.Coolfer.com, http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
But hey, we do alright. This is a hobby for me. I don;t make money, every cent I do rake in I put back into releasing new stuff.

This is going to be my record as I try to navigate the tricky waters that are the new industry.

Frankly it all went to hell for us after 9/11. I mean, it did for a lot of people, but for some strange reason people stopped buying music right then. I mean no sales at all for a month, fine. I understod that there was some serious crap going down and people didn;t want to buy warmed over D Mode tribute bands.

But sales never recovered. It's hard to fathom today when i get $100 from Amazon for a month's worth of sales that Amazon used to pop $600 a month without fail. [yeah, those are real number, if you're looking for big time keep clicking...]
And digital has not replaced those sales at all. Just got Jan 07 sales, down 20% from December 06. And December sales were down from Nov, so it's not the gift certificate effect.

I've tried the distro route. We use Super D. God bless em, they try- but who would want to dick around with a label that sells 10 Cds a months?

So- This is what we have ahead of us- Monthly sales of about $500, not $1500 like even three years ago (and that's post 9/11 even).

The good- Konami, licensing to indie movies and once (!) a Fox Tv show (alan Replica showed up in Reunion, remember that show?)

The Bad- retail. Ugh. Radio- no way ever, impossible, Clubs? Well, thought it was easy but' it's damn hard. I don;t go to clubs (and what sort of tasetmaking clubs are in San Antonio anyway) and won;t play that game.

Here's what is happening this week:
I sent 4 releases to actually get pressed (not just popped up on iTunes)-
Garland Cult (uh, already up on iTunes)
Sonic Hub (new single, but the track is up on iTunes)
HEaven 17 (new single, should pop on iTunes soon, it's on Emusic)
Space March - Already up on iTunes but Craig wnet back and remixed and redid some tracks, so this is a new version.

Why so much already up? It's easy- very easy- to pop stuff up on iTunes. But it does just sit there unless you work it.

So next step after I make sure the art is at the presssing plant is to start promo...

That's next week.