Dylan said it first.......

...The times, they are a-changin'

So its the summer of 1984 and I'm inside the Harmony House record store in Sterling Heights and I wander over to this small section labeled, "Compact Discs."  I asked the sales guy, "So, what's the scoop with these things?  Are they here to stay?"  His response was, without hesitation, "In 5 years, this whole store will be CD's and you won't see vinyl records anymore."  I'm thinking, "yeah, right.  CD's are $25 a pop and CD players are $500." (btw, those are 1984 dollars.)  Well, by 1988, CD's were outselling vinyl records and never looked back.  Oops!  I guess I missed on that one.

So its the summer of 1999 and I'm at a friends house.  He invites me into his home office to show me this beta version of a new software that he downloaded on his computer.  "Check this out," he says, as he opens it up.  "It converts music to a new format called MP3 and I can play all my music off the computer.  It's gonna change the way we listen to music."  I'm thinking, "yeah, right.  I can't carry the computer with me everywhere and CD players are in everyone's cars."  Well, by October 2007, downloadable music singles outsold CD singles 2 to 1 and, heck, I even have my own iPod.  CD sales are in rapid decline.  I'm watching new car commercials that have built in MP3 players and the latest, hippest mobile phones have them too.  Oops!  I'm 0 for 2 on the music front.

Right now, my 8 year old daughter's asking me, "What's a vinyl record?"  I can't wait for that time in the far-off future when her children ask her, "What's an iPod?"  As I said in the subject line, Bob Dylan said it first: The times, they are a-changin'.  Of course, he followed up that song with, Everybody must get stoned.  How do I know?  I just downloaded them from iTunes for $.99 a piece.