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Still, it's been rough. Some weeks, he doesn't collect a salary because the 50-year-old chain isn't throwing off enough cash. I'm struggling personally to keep up, says Scotti.

That's just the way it is. Who does he blame for his troubles? Lots of people.

There are the kids who come to his stores and tell each other not to buy a new CD because someone can burn them a copy. Adults are just as bad. Someone buys a CD, and they pass it around the neighborhood, Scotti says.

With all that burning going on, it's hardly surprising that his CD sales have fallen by 50% in recent years. Scotti grudgingly accepts that the public's music consumption habits aren't what they used to be. He's more furious with the big record companies.

As far as Scotti is concerned, the major labels never bothered to package CDs in a way that would make them attractive to customers. I almost got thrown out of some meetings at BMG, he says. This was back in the day of 'N Sync and the boy bands.

I said, 'You guys are just promoting trash. You are not doing enough to get people to buy music. You're putting it out in these plastic jewel cases that are just crap.

They fall apart right away.' These days, Scotti says, the labels spend all their time kowtowing to iTunes. Never mind that their vast majority of their revenues still come from CD sales.

It galls Scotti that the labels give iTunes exclusive tracks and allow the digital download site to sell albums before stores like his. Then they give me a hard time about breaking street date? he fumes, referring to when stores start selling a new CD before its scheduled release.

Does anybody in this industry have a brain?