It’s nothing new that the state of the music industry, and specifically the punk/emo scene, is in a fragile, slouching state. Records are selling less because kids aren’t walking into record stores and buying CDs; they’re going online and downloading music from iTunes or other MP3 Web stores. Despite that record companies and bands still profit from this new way of record buying, bands are feeling the impact of the slowing economy, compounded with the illegal downloading of their music while on tour.

Recently, The Rockstar Energy Get a Life tour came to San Diego. The tour was originally planned for college campus venues like SDSU’s Rimac Arena, but due to lack of ticket sales, the stops were constantly downgraded throughout the tour to smaller local clubs such as SOMA. The Used, who were headlining the tour, didn’t appear to have let the downgrade affect their performance that night at SOMA. However, the tension was noticeable earlier that day on their tour bus.

As I was waiting to speak with bassist Jeph Howard, he was anxiously waiting for their guitarist, Quinn Allman, to wrap up a heated phone conversation he was having at the back of the bus where we were to conduct our interview. After a few minutes, Howard apologized for the wait but added, “I would tell him to just get off the phone but he’s speaking with a booking agent right now.”

At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to the comment. It was only later that evening when I saw why the show had been downgraded from Rimac Arena to SOMA that it clicked; the place, by most standards, was empty. There was a good crowd there, but nothing like you’d expect from a band whose tour last year nearly sold out the adjacent Sports Arena. And as I later found out, their next and last stop of the tour had just been dropped from the Mesa Amphitheater to some obscure venue.

To The Used’s credit, the list of supporting acts they had was not enough to draw people to the show on its own. Due to scheduling conflicts with other bands and problems with the college campuses, the tour had been pushed back from fall to spring and other bands had to be picked quickly to fill the lineup.

“The state of the industry kind of sucks right now,” Jeph said. “No one’s buying records and no one’s going to shows anymore, worldwide, for any band apparently.” The Used has been keeping up with the trend, however, selling download cards with an additional tour-only song added to their iTunes release, “Shallow Believer,” at the show instead of CDs.

Then again, it seems that the band accomplished so much effortlessly and honestly, that having pioneered the genre itself just sort of happened. “We never set out to create a new genre, we just wrote songs and that’s how it came out,” Jeph said. And as easily as that might have happened for them, the band is learning that staying on top in a waning and fickle scene is harder than breaking into it. “It was a steady rise, but lately it’s just stayed at this peak for a little bit,” Jeph said.

Despite the state of things and the disappointing tour, The Used is going to keep going at it with writing and making the music they love. “We’ve got 24 songs already written and just hope to start recording the new album when we get home,” Jeph said.

While no one can say what’s going to happen with big tours and new record sales, one thing is for sure — the music industry needs a new hero. We’ll just have to wait and see who will survive and rise from the ashes of the oversaturated scene to lead us on to the next big thing.