As the elevator doors opened to the 39th floor of the downtown San Francisco Marriott we were immediately greeted by security, clipboards in hand, and we were not even being allowed to exit the elevator unless our names were on the list.

From there we had to check in at the entrance to the View Lounge atop the greenest hotel in the U.S. and relinquish all the electronic devices in our possession – cell phones, PDAs, iPods, digital cameras and any metal jewelry.

Each item was bagged in plastic and we received check tags for our baggage only to follow up with a head-to-toe frisking and a short journey through a metal detector just to enter the bar to enjoy a listening party for the new Coldplay CD!

Difficult to say if all of this nonsense was necessary precautionary efforts or designed to help build a buzz for the June release since so many journalists were in attendance for the 50th Anniversary NARM Convention.

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers was in the Bay Area to celebrate 50 years of organized music retailing and today’s convention brings together both physical and digital retailers to discuss the issues pertinent to delivering physical and digital goods to music fans.

Back to the concern about whether someone was going to record the music and load it up to the Internet: most of the music found on the Internet prior to release, a big name act, is caused by the Russian mafia bribing some low-paid worker at the CD duplication plant to snatch a copy so the Asian mob can keep fueling the illegal file-sharing sites.

Add the fact that more than a hundred attendees to the party were so busy schmoozing that the volume of conversation eclipsed the music and I’ll chalk this stunt up to clever marketing.

Discussion topics at this year’s convention, the place to get business done, included the massive growth in vinyl and the repressing of many classic rock titles to be released this year and whether they need to be released on high-quality 180-gram vinyl or if the regular plastic will do, the problem with street dates and why digital providers get to release the album first and how that affects physical retailers, the lack of growth in ring-tones and the slowing of growth in content downloaded through mobile carriers. Another big topic was the unanimous agreement that physical will not disappear in the next 10 years and that music sales will likely be split 50-50 between digital and physical by 2012.

There was also lively debate regarding Wal-Mart’s ability to secure exclusive releases from the Eagles, Bryan Adams, Tim McGraw and Journey and whether that’s good for the industry or just good for Wal-Mart and the artists.

I didn’t have any 50 Cent moments this year (see my column from Sept. 2007) but I did enjoy the Watson Twins performing new material in a hotel room for about 10 of us. Or not realizing until about two hours later that I had spent a good 20 minutes discussing the music business with Munky from Korn. He was telling me about his new label and upcoming releases. I hope someone recognizes me and sends me the picture that was snapped of us.

I really enjoyed dinner with Wind-Up Records at world-famous Tommy Toys and their band, progressive rockers People in Planes, from Wales, who performed tunes from their upcoming summer release. Their 2006 album “As Far As The Eye Can See” was one of my top 10 for 2006.

Seeing new artists perform is always a highlight and I saw some good ones: Esperanza Spaulding (think Corinne Bailey Rae playing stand-up bass and singing jazz), Ludo (Weezer meets Cake fronted by serial killer Buddy Holly type), L.A. buzz band the Airborne Toxic Event and the amazing a capella performance of Naturally 7.

Don’t forget bands, submit to perform at the OEA Summer Showcase event set for July 18 in downtown Benson. Details and application are available at OEA-awards.com