LAist Featured Photos Pool contributor nailmaker shares with us this eerie pic of the empty listening stations inside the Virgin Megastore on Sunset that has now closed its doors forever. Though many people see the big-box music store as a dinosaur in this age of the mp3 download, for Angelenos who frequented this West Hollywood retail cornerstone, the end is still a little bittersweet. Our photographer explains:

West Hollywood, CA / 1.20.08. Music listening station at Virgin Records Megastore on Sunset on the last day of business. The store had decided to close due to escalating rent and was most likely a casualty of the changing music business. Despite its glossiness, it was one of my favorite record stores in LA. I made my first visit three days after I moved to LA. After a whirlwind week of driving alone cross-country, walking through the store was slightly surreal, my first feet on the ground experience with the Strip. I picked up a copy Ben Folds Five's "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner". Almost 9 years later, my last purchase at Virgin was Paul Weller, M. Ward and Charlie Parker. I wanted to take pictures of the mural portraits of Prince, Axl Rose, and Lou Reed in the parking garage, but alas these great works of art had been covered-over with beige paint. Virgin's Hollywood Boulevard store is still in business, but it's not the same.

Photo by nailmaker via the LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr