March 14, 2007

With Tunes and a variety of mp3 players out there, downloading music has become pretty common, but is the practice causing record stores to go out of business?

More and more people are turning to the internet to make music purchases, and while downloaded music sales are going up, CD sales are steadily going down, causing some major and independent record stores across the country to shut down.

The trend has some believing record companies are now geared towards pushing downloads instead of discs.

"I think they're definitely marketing more for music downloads. I watch a lot of tv, and your constantly seeing on like MTV, download this artist first, be the first to download this new track. I think that has a lot to do with it" said Milena Koussa, manager of Plan 9 Music.

In 2006 album sales dropped by 4.9% from 2005 while music downloads were up 65%.

Many are starting to take a closer look at the issue as more than 900 independent record stores have closed down and since the collapse of the corporate record store Tower Records. But despite the numbers some independent record stores aren't throwing in the towel just yet.

"I think we're definitely going to stick around for a while. People love to have that album with the artwork. They love to by LP's, vinyl records are making a big comeback, and I think that's going to help us a lot" said Koussa.