First Woolworths, now Zavvi: another two retailers of recorded music have disappeared from the high street.

There is no safe haven for independents, either. Sister Ray, Soho's best known alternative music specialist, has gone into administration, while Croydon's long-standing second-hand shop, Beano's, will close in the new year, as collectors switch to sites such as Gemm, Netsounds and the all-consuming eBay. The ease of passing on rarities via the internet has meant that the collectors are now also the dealers, leaving second-hand shops out in the cold.

The era of the independent, high-street record shop has definitely gone; its drawn-out death began with the aggressive expansion of the Our Price chain - garish, bright and heavily discounted - in the early Eighties. Our Price was the record-buying equivalent of McDonald's.

Before that, many independent shops still had listening booths, providing a tactile, cosy atmosphere that encouraged customers to browse and try out records they may have been recommended or simply liked the look of. The generation that bought these records and treasured them, as you would a favourite book, has also gone. The reason for this is changing formats - from shellac to vinyl to CDs to MP3s - which, since the Eighties, has meant a steadily less fetishised format.

The rainy-day browsing part of the experience, and the slightly random element, is hard to replicate online. Woolworth's wall display of the Top 75 singles encouraged pick-and-mix record buying: good artwork, and reliable labels (Bell and RAK in the early Seventies, Stiff and Two Tone a few years on) stood to benefit. Once you could buy Britain's bestselling records at lower prices in supermarkets, though, the days of Woolies being the main supplier of chart music were numbered.

Trusted staff also remain as a barrier between shops and oblivion, something the net simply can't replace. Getting on to first-name terms with someone behind the counter who can pinpoint a new German import or an obscure film soundtrack that suits your taste is an enriching experience - you'll always remember how and where you bought those records. The country's best shops thrive through this inter-dependency.

Since the punk era, Rough Trade has been a way of life for music lovers, stocking fanzines, pooling information, putting on live events, and growing into a record label that signed the Smiths and the Libertines. Last year, while so many shops struggled, Rough Trade expanded from its small premises off Portobello Road into a huge new site in East London.

Pure Groove, which opened last year, takes this notion to an extreme by stocking only a limited number of records and CDs, holding fast to the belief that customers will trust their taste. It has to be hoped that this boutique approach will keep the surviving shops afloat, while customers for Leona Lewis and Razorlight CDs switch from traditional retailers such as HMV to Amazon or Asda. Shops such as Pure Groove in London and Beatin' Rhythm in Manchester continue to believe that if you take care of your customers, your customers will take care of you.

Bob Stanley is a musician, film-maker and journalist, and a member of the pop/dance group Saint Etienne. In the late 1980s he ran a record label called Caff that released early singles by the Manic Street Preachers and Pulp

My best five record shops

Beatin' Rhythm

Tib Street, Manchester. Incredible selection of vintage, largely American, vinyl as well as CDs. Specialises in soul

Rough Trade

Talbot Road, London W11. The original and best home for underground music. Now has a megastore branch on Brick Lane

Piccadilly Records

Manchester. Highly regarded for both dance and alternative music

Monorail Music

12 King's Court, King Street, Glasgow. Set up by the musician Stephen Pastel inside a vegan cafe/bar named Mono in 2002, it also hosts DJs, live bands and film events

Pure Groove

West Smithfield, London. A brave new venture, Pure Groove is a pop boutique that stocks only 100 handpicked titles at any one time

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