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It's terrible here in LA. Every single brick-and-mortar record store that I've frequented over the last 30 years is gone. Most recently, Aron's Records closed their doors because a big, bad Amoeba Record store opened its doors just 1/2 mile away. That added insult to injury after a humungous Virgin Megastore made its home about 5 miles from Aron's. I won't even go into what the Internet has done to indie record stores. I'm not a happy man.

What are music stores? We have the Internet!

When I lived in Detroit, a bunch of audio buddies would do breakfast and jabber on about the latest electronic boys toys, includng digital cameras (not my cuppa, but...). Last year we followed one of the group to a local camera shop. Inside, a five-ish girl was asking her father "Daddy, what's film?" Same for music stores. What there are offer ever slimmer pickins'. Oh, the the musty, dusty smell of a good used LP emporium!

The local music stores are all but gone. But, it is not just the music stores. None of the small specialty stores can stand up to Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

No DVD-A, no SACD, no DVD-DTS.

Not that many here, but those that remain are selling considerable numbers. Of course, they are also diversifying to DVD (pictures) etc, to survive. But great music can still be bought in shops here. [ Netherlands, Apeldoorn ]

I do most of buying off the Internet. I know that doesn't help the local business much, but in my area the selection is poor, at best.

Badly. But then they are run by morons, only stock the obvious, and charge too much. I have been buying all my CDs on the Internet for years.

They gave up being music only and just deliver whatever joy toys we will buy ;)

I live in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I don't think there are any music stores here. (Check out Sound Tracks on Seventh Ave, near President St. It's worth the walk to Park Slope. Ed.)

Minneapolis still has a number of very good independent music stores. There aren't as many as there used to be, but the ones still around are generally very good. The ones that have survived either offer great CD selections and prices, or deal in new and used vinyl. The Internet and the big boxe stores have killed off some of the lesser stores, but the strong truly have survived. It seems that there has been a split in the buying audience: the very mainstream and casual listeners don't seem to care where they buy their music and the serious music buyers make the effort to buy from specific retailers. In the long run I think this will work out well for both sides.

Most of the retail outlets in metro Buffalo NY "stock safe", that is , they only stock what they think will sell quickly. If you want to buy the latest from say, Kanye West or Faith Hill... no problem. But if your looking for something by Jools Holland or Barbara Morrison, you'll have to special order, drive to Toronnto, drive to Rochester or use the internet. In metro Buffalo NY, the adult music market is pretty much ignored in the areas of retail and radio.

They sold a lot of goods last Christmas, so they're still in business.

If you can sell your always doing good. Starbucks is proof of that. How's thier music sales going?

They seem to carry less and less of the titles I am interested in. I think if you are over 45, software availablity will be limited. Borders' stock is less and less. The future of hard copies of software will be bought off the web. Inventory "turns" will slow and continue to erode shelf space. Buying on line is just too easy now. The fact that you can often listen to sound samples helps.

There are no LP sellers anymore. The CD small retailers are closing down Borders took over, our small retailers could not compete with the amount of the stock and the prices.Previously, you knew the retailer by his first name and they knew what you liked. Today, either you know what you want or you don't. Reading reviews has changed from what it used to be, there were also more reviewers being published.

In a word: grim.

The stores in central NJ are not doing well, although they are probably doing a bit better than other places. Music stores are going the way of hardware stores. With the Internet for sample listening, obscure titles and low prices this is one of the less painful losses in local commerce. I will still miss hanging out and learning about interesting stuff from knowledgeable clerks though.

Two great shops have opened in my city these last eight months! I wish them both good luck, but I hope they don't drive the old/small shops out of business.

If you mean independent record and CD stores, they are mostly all gone from Texas. Received word from a friend of mine in Houston last week that Cactus records, a very fine store in that city, is closing at the end of the month. Austin still has a few, including the excellent Waterloo records, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

It's all chains, and the really big ones like Best Buy. They make a big spash when they open a new one but within a year the selection is zero. If it weren't for Ohio State, I'd say the independent store was done.

The only record store I have in my immediate area is a Wherehouse music store. This place is a joke; they are overpriced, overstocked in crap (ie, "My Humps" and "Laffytaffy"), and understocked on anything with any redeeming value. I have to drive 20-30 minutes to get to a Tower Records store that actually has decent music.

What few are left in Oregon are devoting increasing amounts of space to (bleeech) movies.

I have to say okay, because we still have mall-based music shops that charge list price for almost all back catalog and just off the best seller list selections. There are people in these places buying and I don't get it. More power to 'em I guess. Our second-hand shops are always packed. The independents have their specialized crowds that keep them going.

Here in central Ohio, very few independent "record" shops remain in business, and those are located mainly near OSU's main campus, where used CDs and vinyl are often more prevalent than new stock. I buy most of my CDs online from Amazon.com, and if I buy any CDs locally, it's either at Borders or Barnes & Noble.

The Tower in San Diego is still in business, but to tell you the truth I haven't bought anything there in a long while. Their prices are just too high (full list price generally), compared to stores that are closer to where I live. And there is really no adult-oriented popular music anymore. Where are the great rock groups of years gone by that had the great classic albums? It's all pre-teen and teen music. You can't go looking to buy a CD if you have no interest in whats on the radio today. XM Radio is looking better all the time.

They're doing so-so—and it is all due to the endless stream of crap and non-original "classics" that they carry and has nothing to do with online sales in my opinion. Heaven forbid you might have musical tastes that extend beyond Britteny Spears, Louis Armstrong, eminem, Miles Davis, Gwen Stefani et al. They've all got a catalogue of about 200 discs (Top 40 and about 160 others) and nothing more.

The used record stores in the KC area are closing their doors and very few independent record stores survive in the KC, Lawrence, KS, and Columbia, MO areas. The big box stores are mowing them down and forcing homogenized tastes (The Clear Channelization of music sales) down the throats of the area. Unfortunately, this will eliminate local outlets for the sales of albums by local artists and groups. The Big Box stores are sowing the seeds for their own falling album sales in the future.

For a classical music fan, the music store is a thing of the past. Many of my early purchases were the result of wandering throught record racks. Now 95% of my purchases are on the internet as a result of record reviews in speciality magazines. This month for the first time I purchased two CD from Europe. Recordings I wanted never became available in the US. The price will be one deterent to future international purchases and we will see how the service will compare. I am in the middle of a listening review of my entire collection and as a retiree, my future as an audiophile and music collector wil be far more selective. Now I have the time for live performances. I heard a live Mahler symphony in September. WoW

rhino and arons gone, still a few others left.