1.   Another friend recently left his job at a direct-marketing music retailer.

2.   Both volumes are available on import through various Internet music retailers.

3.   All these albums are in print and should be available for special order from music retailers.

4.   All this could devastate the business of traditional music retailers, on whom the record companies still depend for most of their sales.

5.   But Soundscan does not cover every music retailer.

6.   CD Now, the largest of the Internet music retailers, has made a major push to sign up partners.

7.   Cockburn, who will join British Telecommunications Plc as managing director, will stay on as head of the British book, stationery and recorded music retailer until October.

8.   Distributors initiated the arrangement to help music retailers who were being undercut by discount stores and electronics chains, such as Target, Circuit City and Best Buy.

9.   For example, Sony developed a server with San Francisco music retailer Hear Music that will let patrons listen to thousands of CDs at listening stations around the store.

10.   For two decades, music retailers prospered as baby boomers snapped up records at ever-higher prices.