You can find them through their MySpace page or jamming on a YouTube video. And if you pick up one of their stickers, it will have Hubcap Halo's e-mail address on it.

Want to know about the next show they'll play? They can e-mail you a schedule.

Want to download a song? No problem.

The Ventura post-punk rock band is adapting to a new world where music is more likely to be discovered online than in the back of a dusty store, more likely to be downloaded for a first listen than purchased on a CD.

It's a shift that offers independent musicians a chance to reach beyond their local clubs and build up a fan base without major label backing. But it's also raising a lot of questions about just how they'll sell their music in the future.

Erik Lemaire, vocals and guitar for the trio, said he's most excited about the immediate access that bands have to listeners.

"That's an incredible resource right there," he said. "It's so important for bands to be heard."

A decade ago, it was more difficult for bands to get noticed or make it into record stores. These days, the Internet provides a way to get music heard, get people out to shows and draw fans from areas where the band never plays.

But Lemaire can't say where things are headed. Just as it's easier to get music out there, it's harder for an artist to protect his music. People can download it, remix it, mash it up or do whatever they want with it.

"It's exciting and alarming at the same time," he said.

As people's music buying habits change, the industry has to adapt.

Devalued CDs

Digital music sales more than doubled to more than $770 million in 2005, according to a report from JupiterResearch. Downloads alone were expected to grow by more than 30 percent in 2006 to more than $800 million, and download purchases could reach $1.7 billion by 2011.

That's just a fraction of the declining CD business, which generated $11.2 billion in sales in 2005.

The JupiterResearch report found that digital music sales will not make up for the loss in CD sales, nor will they return the industry to a growth track.

From 2005 to 2006, total music sales declined 6.1 percent, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Even while digital sales rose 86.6 percent, they could not make up for a 15 percent drop in the much larger traditional sales sector, dominated by CDs.

"I've been predicting this for a long time, and it's just going to get worse and worse," said Peter Amato, a Simi Valley record producer.

People no longer see the value in CDs.

"Nowadays, you're asked to pay $15 to $16 for a CD with 12 songs and you only want one to two songs on it," he said.

People tend to use downloads as a way to cherry pick songs, not usually buying a whole album. That's a challenge because it means that the revenue once anticipated from CD sales is dwindling.

But it's also an opportunity, because musicians can release songs single by single instead of putting out a whole album, which is already starting to happen, Amato said.

Freedom of choice

There's also the freedom that comes with a more democratized system of distributing music.

Music lovers can listen to any kind of music, deciding what they like, said Dan Trinidad, chief executive officer of DEMOMix.com, a Web site for independent musicians.

"They don't have anyone telling them what's popular," he said.

Confessions of a Monster, a psychobilly punk rock band out of Oxnard, offers streaming versions of some its songs on a MySpace page. The band doesn't offer downloads, but slap bass player Favio Montes sees things going in that direction.

"All you can really do is roll with the punches," he said. "If we're going to have to sell our music on the computer, there are plenty of ways to sell online."

CDs still offer more

The JupiterResearch report noted that premium purchases in the future may include not only songs, but videos, ring tones, screen savers, interviews and other add-on features that could be downloaded.

Montes, who loves to collect music, said the thought of only having music and other material downloaded doesn't appeal to him.

"If I listen to a song and like it, I go buy the whole CD," he said. "I want to see the book, what they wrote, the lyrics."

Having those things in a digital form is "boring to me, it doesn't feel real," he said.

He also worries that the download craze will make things tougher for bands.

"They could take the whole album off of MySpace and not pay you a penny for it," he said. "That makes it hard for bands that try to make this their life, their career."

Still, Montes said there are advantages to having music online. People can learn about the band and its shows — where bands usually make their money.

"You pick and choose what you want to listen to," he said. "It's really good someone can kind of test us out."

Taking the show online

Record producer Amato said the Internet opens up new access to fans if artists are willing to do the legwork. He emphasized the importance of artists playing live.

"That's the only part for me that's not going to go away," he said.

One way the Internet can help facilitate that is through online concerts that can introduce an artist to music fans.

Amato is working with Kimberly Jean, a young country artist, to arrange an online concert for her. He's found that whenever he posts some snippets of video from one of her shows, she gets a lot more hits.

Stores go niche

With so much traffic being driven to online sites, whether iTunes or an artist's personal Web page, music stores are making their own adaptations.

Those that serve a niche market, such as some of the independent music stores in downtown Ventura, know what their customers want and stock only that kind of merchandise.

The days of the music store with racks and racks of a wide selection of CDs are on the decline, as evidenced in the closing of Tower Records stores.

The Sam Goody music stores at Pacific View mall in Ventura and The Oaks in Thousand Oaks, as well as locally owned CD City in Thousand Oaks, all closed in the past year.

Part of that has to do with CDs themselves. They still cost about $15, more or less. They also get scratched and damaged.

At Wild Planet in Ventura, most buyers are seeking punk CDs, said Craig Kasamis, the store's music buyer.

"Most of the kids that buy music here are little punk kids that want the CD anyway," he said.

His biggest challenge has been keeping the shelves stocked at decent prices as the major labels buy up smaller independent distributors and then demand large orders.

Kasamis sees the popularity of CDs waning, even as vinyl record sales become more popular.

"It's another media that's going to be phased out eventually," he said of CDs.

At Grady's Record Refuge in Ventura, owner Grady Runyon, said his business is protected from major shifts in CD demand because he mostly sells used CDs. The majority of his business is in vinyl records.

When he does buy and stock new CDs, it's for artists that he knows his customers will buy.

"I have to do it that way," he said.

Stores that would take whatever was new each week are the ones that have gone under, he said.

"You can really run up a big bill really quickly trying to have everything that's new or cool," he said. "But if you don't have the customers for it, you're hurting."

Others are capitalizing on the trend by offering online alternatives.

Online sales

Trinidad started DEMOMix.com to help independent artists get their music directly to the public.

Artists pay $100 to join the site, and a $19 monthly fee to maintain their page and for the networking that comes with the site. They can sell their songs for 99 cents each and keep 75 cents.

Trinidad said the site offers something beyond a MySpace page.

"You're not going to get lost in the shuffle when you come to DEMOMix," he said. "The odds of being seen and heard are a lot better."

Even other industries, such as video gaming companies, are getting into the music game.

Already, some musicians are making their breakthrough hit in video games or through ring tones. Electronic Arts, one of the heavyweights in video gaming, has joined with Nettwerk One Music to form Artwerk, a full-service music company.

The company will bring in artists for deals that could include video game work, movie work and digital and physical distribution.

Online convenience

Trinidad said he believes the success of digital music is closely tied to convenience.

It's all about finding ways to make it simple for the user, which might mean changes to how the industry now approaches digital music sales. Often, digital music is shackled by digital rights management, or DRM, that prevents certain uses. The intent is to prevent piracy, but often DRM is held up as an example of how the music industry is making it more difficult for people to use the music they buy.

Just recently, EMI Group reported it would sell music on iTunes and other sites without DRM. That means users can copy and play the songs on whatever devices they wish.

"I believe 100 percent that digital downloads is absolutely the way of the future," Trinidad said.