A column in the latest Billboard ($) by the mag’s retail expert, Ed Christman, has some interesting facts about the Virgin music stores:

1. The Times Square store in Manhattan is going to shut down next year.
2. The 14th Street outlet is going to as well.
3. That will leave the chain with eight left around the country, but …
4. … the two big NYC stores collected half of the chain’s revenue.

The chain is co-owned now by a Manhattan real estate operator named Vornado; a rep from there says, “We bought the Virgin business to wind it down to get a hold of the real estate.”

Christman ties this news in to the departure of Handleman, one of Wal-Mart’s two main distributors, from the music business. He asks whether even solvent retail operations will start to liquidate, figuring the time to get out of the business is now.

He blames the labels, which he says didn’t help land retail operations get out in front of the digital train:

What would have happened if the majors had agreed on a CD evolution or replacement technology three years ago when retail asked them to? What would have happened if the major labels actually took their head out of the sand and heard the consumer tell them—over and over again, louder each time— that the CD is not worth more than $10 retail?