For anyone who ever had the opportunity to shop for music in Toronto, one of the landmarks for records (or tapes, or CD's) was Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street.  Not too long ago, Yonge and Dundas was the centre of record sales, with Sam's, HMV and A&A Records all within walking distance and competing for your music dollar.  In fact, rumour has it that the "late night record shop" mentioned in the Barenaked Ladies' smash hit Brian Wilson was actually Sam's flagship location.

When I heard the news today that Sam The Record Man was closing its flagship store once and for all, it signalled a death blow to the record shop as it once was in Canada.  While many will chalk this up as "just another casualty" of the digital age, it is more than just that.  At its peak Sam's was a national chain, and when you walked into the flagship store, it was wall-to-wall albums and memorabilia.  All three floors were filled with the current hits, catalogue albums and hard to find imports regardless of your preferred genre.  And to top it all off, the staff in each section were knowledgeable about music.

It was a Toronto tradition to line up on Boxing Day and stock up on CD's for as little as a dollar or two, and chat with fellow music fans.  It's experiences like that you just can't get with digital downloads.

With the digital age, Sam's fell on hard times even though they attempted their own presence in the "clicks and mortar" world without much success.  Several years ago, as a graduate student, I walked into the downtown Toronto store many times as they were liquidating, only for them to emerge from bankruptcy.  Earlier this year they closed their store in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and at that point I realized the end was near.

Even though the Internet makes it much easier (and quicker) to download music, I'm still old fashioned and prefer browsing through the racks of music, sifting through an artist's catalogue and the cover art.  Again, these are things that you just can't replicate online. 

The Globe and Mail reports that the store will close on June 30th, and I will definitely make a point to visit the landmark at least one more time, to kill an hour by browsing and buying (and probably pick up a copy of High Fidelity at the same time).