I believe Best Buy and Circuit City undercutting the costs of CDs are to blame for 'real record stores' going out of business. Who'd pay $18.99 when they could get the same thing for $12.99? The only thing 'real' record stores are good for now is rarer stuff the chains don't carry, but that market is being cut into by second hand shops, and, yes, the internet (ebay, amazon, etc)
I HATE to see reports that online file sharing is running 'real record stores' out of business and giving the RIAA more excuses to crack down on ordinary people. The real culprit is Best Buy and CC. You don't see their CD sales slacking, do you? It's not the internet!!
The reason they can sell for less is of course that they sell a lot more stuff, computers, appliances, cameras, etc., while the 'real record store' has to make all their money from CDs, maybe DVDs and posters too. Also, they are usually in malls which charge a very high rent. So you do see Tower, Fye and Sam Goodys, as well as privately owned places, going down but it's the superstore chains killing them, not file sharing. Anyone else agree?