There's life in record stores yet

"There are no more good new-music stores in Toronto," Myers laments.
"This is no longer a record town. We never had as many titles available
as the big stores in New York or Chicago, but Sam's was a music
powerhouse in Toronto, and this city had so much great music at very
reasonable prices up to 20 years ago. So much has gone by the wayside,
so much great music is missing."

Myers doesn't believe music
retail will ever fully recover from the Internet effect. For starters,
the ears of downloaders attuned to compressed MP3 files and mini-plug
ear inserts aren't the same as those of the lost hi-fi generation, for
whom the reproduction of the entire sonic spectrum on powerful,
infinitely tweakable audio systems with huge speakers pumping masses of
throbbing air molecules was the listening standard.

"In the last
year or so, eight used-CD stores in Toronto have closed. People aren't
bothering to go out to buy good music any more, even at second-hand
prices."