Eric von Radics has seen a lot of changes in the music industry.

As a songwriter and performer — and the owner and operator of Musichead, an independent music store on Riverside Avenue in Medford, for about 15 years — shifts in the music business have kept him on his toes.

Now, as the industry focuses on the Internet, von Radics feels another need to reinvent himself.

He cut his teeth in the business in the '70s and '80s in the San Francisco Bay Area. His early rock bands included future members of Primus, Thin White Rope, the Gregg Allman Band and The Sin Eaters. Back then von Radics and his players shared stages with diverse acts such as singer/songwriter Penelope Houston and her punk band The Avengers, hard rock recording artists Y&T and the renowned Chris Isaak.

"It was a remarkable time," von Radics says. "Rock musicians were paid decently on the West Coast."

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And the music was in demand. Andy Wallace, a Grammy award-winning music studio engineer with a long track record of successful productions, produced a single by von Radics' first band, Virgin Release. Then the group morphed into Marshal Fields, recorded a self-titled LP and began performing on college campuses and in clubs around the country, including Jazmin's in Ashland — a popular rock and jazz venue in its day.

Then von Radics joined a San Francisco band called Carnival Law, and the group was featured on a compilation album produced by an influential radio deejay.

Next came an anti-folk, alternative country band called Buzzard Song that von Radics formed with his brother, drummer Von Radics. Buzzard Song's lineup included John Maxwell on guitar and dobro, Chris Micca on fretless bass and Radim Zenkl on mandolin. The group's music in those days was comparable to Uncle Tupelo's, a country band from Belleville, Ill., that featured songwriting by Grammy award-winner Jeff Tweedy.

Buzzard Song recorded "Jeff" (the title being a private joke between von Radics and his brother), a live to digital two-track recording, in a San Francisco studio. The recording was well received — recently reissued — and the group quickly garnered some coveted billings in the city's burgeoning singer/songwriter scene.

The days that followed were dynamic for von Radics. He opened his first business (Guitarhead), taught music full-time and got married. Like many others, von Radics moved his family to the Rogue Valley for its kid-friendly environment and scenery.

His Medford store provides a resource traditionally used by music enthusiasts to find the newest music and recording artists, but the business has seen a dramatic drop in sales due to the way that music is marketed today.

"A lot of brick and mortar music shops are closing," von Radics says. "It began with the advent of online music downloads, whether legal or illegal, and what's hurting stores now is the fact that producers aren't investing in smaller bands. They want platinum," he says. "And people don't come to us (Musichead) for Britney Spears or Beyoncé."

However, von Radics seems to be up for any new opportunities to promote his music.

"I see this as a good time for independent labels and music," he says. "The industry is focusing on a legal market on the Internet."

So von Radics decided to once again pursue his muse and is now in the finishing stages of a new album, "Buzzard Song," which will be marketed online.

It's a collection of 14 original compositions, and the songs' influences range from Lucinda Williams and her lyrical portraits of profoundly flawed characters and the American amalgam of music to the rural folk blues of Mississippi John Hurt and Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes, von Radics says.

"It could be described as a shot of foolhardiness in the face of oblivion backed with remorse and regret," he says. "Or 'Sunday Morning Coming Down,' parts two through 14. The songs are stories about people who are coming to some kind of personal realization."

The artists who contributed to the recording are Craig Mesco on drums; Michael Brown and Jeff Zundel on vocals and bass; John Maxwell on guitars; Allen Crutcher on piano and organ; Tammy Gallardo, Elizabeth von Radics, and Michelle Zundel on vocals; and von Radics on vocals and guitar.

"A CD like this won't make a lot of money, maybe a few thousand dollars," von Radics says. "Hopefully online marketing will generate interest in my music, and I'll play shows around the Northwest."

The CD will be released in February and will be available online at www.cdbaby.net and www.mp3.com and in local music stores. It will be available for wholesale distribution through AEC Onestop.