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A darkened Mojo Records in Ackerman Union sits closed and empty Monday afternoon.

The retail music industry’s misfortunes have claimed another victim.

Mojo Records, the used and new music store located on the A-level of Ackerman Union, is closing its doors.

The store held a clearance sale last week and was not open for business on Monday.

This closure follows the departure of several music stores from Westwood Village.

Wherehouse Music closed up shop in December and Tower Records moved out this February.

Richard Delia, the director of finance for the Associated Students of UCLA, said Mojo Records was unable to cover its rent and was consequently evicted.

ASUCLA is looking for a replacement to occupy the space but currently has no specific store in mind.

Store owners have attributed the retail music industry’s poor performance to the increased use of free downloaded music and a weak economy overall.

Brian Molina, owner of Mojo Records, said “CDs are far too expensive” compared to the free MP3s people can download off the Internet.

“Everything west of the Mississippi is going out of business,” he said, referring to the poor performance of the retail music industry as a whole.

Another victim of music pirating, Wherehouse Music, which is a national chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.

Anita-Marie Hill, a Wherehouse Music spokesperson, said about a third of the company’s stores closed as a result of the bankruptcy.

The Westwood store was unprofitable and its lease, which expired in December, was not renewed, she said.

Mate Garcia, manager of Penny Lane Music in Westwood, said his store had experienced a sharp decrease in music sales recently.

He attributed the retail music industry’s woes to the poorly performing economy and music pirating.

“Music is seen as more of a luxury,” he said, adding that consumers are less likely to purchase CDs during times of financial constraint.

According to students, traditional music stores do not meet the needs of today’s consumers.

They pointed to several reasons for the retail music industry’s lack of success.

Not only do music listeners download songs for free from the Internet, they also purchase CDs from online merchants such as Amazon.com.

Students said they also shopped at Best Buy because of its lower prices and wide variety of music genres.

Michael Kay, third-year anthropology and geology student, said traditional music stores such as Tower Records carried a narrow selection of music.

“They weren’t looking at what the student population ... wanted,” he said.

Miki Dutt, third-year business economics student, said music stores “need to innovate more” in order to compete.

He pointed to the example of Virgin Megastore, where customers can sample any CD in the store before buying.