Record Stores Becoming A Relic Of The Past

With the arrival of the digital music age, record stores are disappearing at an alarming rate.

1 minute read

July 20, 2006, 8:00 AM PDT

By Matt Baumann


"The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers, a place to escape parents, burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music. But these days it is fast becoming a temple of nostalgia for shoppers old enough to remember 'Frampton Comes Alive!'

In the era of iTunes and MySpace, the customer base that still thinks of recorded music as a physical commodity (that is, a CD), as opposed to a digital file to be downloaded, is shrinking and aging, further imperiling record stores already under pressure from mass-market discounters like Best Buy and Wal-Mart."

Sunday, July 16, 2006 in The New York Times

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