Despite every major record label’s best efforts to keep the compact disc holy, analysts are predicting 2008 will see the “worst [sales] decline in the history of the CD.” According to The Guardian, Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield has reported CD units sales are down this quarter an estimated 27% from 2007. “Q408 is shaping up to be the worst decline in the history of the CD,” his assessment concludes.

A study from CL King & Associates paints a similarly bleak picture for radio. Analyst Jim Boyle writes that American radio revenue has dropped 7% in 2008, the biggest decline since 1954. Is it time to draw dramatic parallels between McCarthyism and the digital revolution? Perhaps not. Giving little hope for the future, Boyle wrote, “October [2008] was the 18th consecutive negative year-over-year revenue month and 2008 is the eighth straight struggling year.”