Readers: we need to talk. It's nothing bad. The Second Disc isn't going away, isn't reducing its output, nothing like that. We just need to talk about a few things.

Around five months ago, The Second Disc was started with a list of great reissues that were released in 2009. It was a post copied from a Facebook note written some weeks before. A modest beginning, to be sure. It's hard to have high expectations about anything you're just starting out on, particularly a blog. How many blogs must pass through the Internet day after day, never to be updated past a few early bursts of creativity?

It is now five months later, and it is estimated that, within 48 hours, The Second Disc will have accumulated more than 50,000 hits in five months. Again, not a big deal - but in fact, it is. It is a very big deal.

The Second Disc was started with a few goals in mind. First was to get all the news and views I had about back catalogue music out there. It was territory that was all-too-rarely explored, but it was an important place. The catalogue music fan is an interesting breed; while others are content to let music pass them by - in a dorm room, on the street, on terrible earbuds - those who read The Second Disc are the kind of people who listen to music, who let it take them to a particular place, whether it's going back a handful of years, to another era in history, whatever. Some may gripe about how music isn't like it was then, but we can all reflect that the music of "then" still holds up now, and serves to color our memories, our dreams, ourselves.

Another goal was to use the vast range of knowledge about catalogue music for good. We've seen labels treat our old favorites well in some cases, and not so well in others. With the features on The Second Disc like Reissue Theory or Back Tracks, the goal is to make sure all music, regardless of its origins, gets a little bit of respect.

One never knows where the journey of The Second Disc will end up. (In an ideal world, I'd say it'd end up as a reissue label, licensing content from the major labels and doing it up right. But who knows!) In any case, the whole point of this is: thank you. The Internet has been around for so many years, but it's still delightfully crazy to think that from us to you, there are thousands of people who've read these musical ramblings.

Besides that thanks, I shall leave you with a challenge: what would you, the reader, like to see from The Second Disc? There are so many titles getting reissued that may be falling through the cracks. Don't be afraid to speak up if you see one going missing. Think an album desperately needs a new remaster and some bonus tracks? Tell us. The possibilities are endless - lately, for instance, there's been some talk about trying to track down the movers and shakers in this industry and figure out what makes them tick.

But don't hesitate. Let us know. Post a comment. Send an e-mail, even (theseconddisc AT gmail DOT com). You count. Of course you count. You take the time to read this, you deserve nothing less. And a note of thanks for making a blog about old music seem less crazy in practice.