Philadelphia's three Tower Records stores will soon shut down due to lack of revenue, but students say they won't notice the absence of the once-landmark stores.

Tower Records stores across the country, about 100 locations listed on the chain's Web site, are closing due to bankruptcy, a probable byproduct, experts say, of increased online music sales.

"The recording industry was upping the ante to a point where it was not worth it for a teenager. They didn't want to buy a CD," according to Mary Kay Duggan, professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley.

She added that pirating music is so common and easy to do, there is no need for students to get music any other way.

"Everyone is walking around with an iPod - heaven knows where they get their music samples - transfer on the Internet is just so easy for students," Duggan said.

Students' habits tend to back that view up. Laura Gross, a Criminology graduate student, says she prefers online music shopping, especially because of her busy schedule.

All the music "is at my fingertips. I would rather not take a bus downtown to thumb through everything," said Gross. "It fits my student schedule better."

Annie Friedman, a College sophomore, agreed for similar reasons.

"Time constraints," Friedman said. "And you get to pick and choose what you want, you don't have to buy the whole album."

The manager of the Broad Street Tower Records, who wouldn't give his full name, refused to give any comment on the situation.

"All Tower stores are closing, Tower is bankrupt," he said. He wouldn't give a precise date for the store's closing.

Fred Scales, a Philadelphia resident, says he comes to Tower to buy the CDs of the music he downloads.

"I downloaded these, and now I am buying them for the higher quality," said Scales. "I used to be a musician myself so I can understand the hard work that goes into" music.

However, both shoppers said they will follow low prices and make purchases based largely on cost.

Duggan, however, said she will mourn the loss of the Tower Records store near where she lives.

"I loved to go [to Tower Records] - they had everything," Duggan said. "It was just a warm, friendly place, and now it's gone."