FLOOD WARNING Click county for more information: Ottawa, Rogers, Tulsa, Washington         FIRE WARNING Click county for more information: Woodward        

That death rattle you hear has a bad beat, and you cannot dance to it.

This week, Nielsen SoundScan made it official: The music industry cratered in 2007. Total compact disc sales fell 19 percent over the past year, and while digital downloads were on the upswing, the rise in online sales was not enough to make up for the CD shortfall. The total drop in album sales — digital or old-school plastic — was 15 percent.

And the biggest-selling album of 2007 was Josh Groban's "Noel,” which moved 3.7 million copies during the final three months of the year. That figure should feel like cold steel through the music industry's gut; seven years ago, 3.7 million would not have gotten Groban into the Top 10, and after Jan. 1, the desire to hear Groban's sonorous baritone moaning "I'll Be Home for Christmas” falls precipitously.

Bad news does not stop there. The second-place finisher was the "High School Musical 2” sound track, an album without a radio hit. And third place went to the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden,” a recording only available through Wal-Mart stores and the band's Web site.

By the way, those shrinking CD sections at retail stores are not mirages. Major retailers are taking away floor space from music and redistributing square footage to video games, an industry that officially became more lucrative than music in 2006.

The industry's efforts to stem this foul tide look prepackaged for the dustbin of history. In an effort to maintain presence at brick-and-mortar retail, Sony BMG is selling a retrograde odd duck called a Platinum Music Pass. This is essentially a gift card that allows the purchaser to buy exactly one album from Sony's download site.

This means purchasing a card that allows the buyer or the lucky gift recipient to download only Carrie Underwood's "Carnival Ride” or only Jennifer Lopez' "Brave.” On the plus side, the files are digital rights management-free mp3s, but still: an iTunes gift card allows the customer to download, well, just about anything. This is a lot better than having a crazy aunt buy you the latest J.Lo album, which would soon be landing in a cut-out bin near you anyway except that cutout bins barely exist these days.

This all sounds perfectly awful and depressing, and the worst part is that there is no easy solution. Yes, we all need the industry to champion better music and stop trying to shove Fergie and OneRepublic into our ear canals, but it will take more than just a good season of releases to turn this around.

We need a sustained improvement in the industry's celebration and promotion of great talent. Excellent music was made in 2007, and most of it was barely heard. I'm not even talking about the music that is difficult to absorb, such as M.I.A.'s "Kala.” Instead, let's talk about the best R&B record that U.S. audiences could not hear in 2007 without paying $30 for an import: Amerie's "Because I Love It.”

For those who loved the singer's 2005 hit, "1 Thing,” a song that evoked classic "go-go” dance rave-ups while riding a Supremes-style melody on top of a drum sample from the Meters, "Because I Love It” was pure manna from heaven. The horns were wilder, the rhythms were organic, Amerie sings her heart out on the disc, and her overseas single, "Gotta Work,” was a killer. Furthermore, and not to be crass about it, but Amerie is, shall we say, extremely marketable?

But her label, Sony, delayed the stateside release of "Because I Love It.” Then it was delayed some more. Then EW.com released a list last week of artists who were either dropped from major labels or jumped willingly. Amerie was near the top of the list.

If you cannot market Amerie, you probably couldn't sell ice in Ecuador. I don't want to dump unduly on Sony — there is plenty of blame to go around. But the funny thing is, I might have even bought a Platinum Music Pass for that one.

Read George Lang's Staticblog online at NewsOK.com.