Not a good time to be in the GOLD RECORD business. The Wall Street Journal profiled Darryl Sage who owns a company in NJ that makes awards for gold and platinum records. Small businesses like Ill-Eagle Enterprises and Jewel Box Platinum, a supplier of gold-record awards in Los Angeles, are some of the victims of the massive downturn in record sales.

With sales slowing, the RIAAÂ last year certified just 407 albums and singles as gold or platinum — down from 976 in 1999.

“We only work four days a week now,” says Michael Goldstein, a partner in Dejay Products. “We used to do 50% of the business in the ’80s with MCA Records,” he says, making awards for records by Bobby Brown, Tom Petty, Elton John, Boston and others. “I was walking in the office twice a week to deliver or pick up stuff.”

The record sale slump has caused the GOLD record making business to venture into NEW businesses.

“We had to learn how to make money again,” he says. “If you told me eight years ago when I was partying backstage that I would be making art prints, I would have laughed.”

In other news……………….

UPDATE: Concerns Emerge Over iTunes User Data…

New Study claims that physical product revenue will drop 61% by 2009……

Legitimate physical sales of music (LPs, cassettes, CDs, DVD audio, and so on) have been falling or remaining stagnant this decade and the $29.3 billion in worldwide sales the industry raked in last year is expected to fall 61% to $18 billion by 2009, according to a joint study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Canadian metal act Arise and Ruin has signed to Victory Records.