This article makes note of the decline in US CD sales in the past four years and highlights figures released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The decline is attributed to Internet downloading because it has dramatically changed the way music is obtained and sold. In addition to acknowledging legal downloading the article spends time discussing illegal downloading of music through peer-to-peer file sharing systems.  Also there is a discussion of the "big box stores" such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart that serve as the most successful music retailers presently.

Tower Records is the music store with the most street buzz and star power.  It is able to call upon the biggest stars to do in-house performances for album oremiers, yet still this power-house retailer has not been able to escape thewrath of the music download. The article attributes the universal death of the record store to :"decreasing CD sales, the hit from online downloads, and growing competition from the likes of Amazon.com, as well as discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target..."