I lived across the street from Tower for three years. They are missed.

The storied Tower Records chain has filed for bankruptcy. Musician and Day to Day contributor David Was says he is saddened by what he sees as the long, slow death of the brick-and-mortar record business in the age of the MP3 download.

In December of last year I decided to sell a bunch of old audio CDs, most from back in my music club days. I tried unsuccessfully to sell them 'locally' at a face-to-face retail outlet; those places are dropping out of the business faster than you can speed dial them.

I called one grizzled retailer, mostly of used vinyl, who offered to take a look at my offering, but said it wouldn't be even worth my time to drive over to his shop. He explained that he was going to close his store in less than a year, because no one was buying music in physical form any more.