There are still some around, just not very many. Right after the American Idol finals, they put out Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken CD singles.
But in any case, this article glosses over - hell, it IGNORES - the elephant in the living room: Most current rock and pop SUCKS. I don't just not want to pay $19 for the CD, I don't want to pay $2 for the single. I don't want the music AT ALL, not even for free. Back in the 80s when I was a teen, I didn't see a lot of kids my age going out of their way to get their hands on music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. (Yes, there were some that, but not a lot.) But today, millions upon millions of teenagers chase after 80s music online like crazy, because corporate pop and rock (and rap/hip-hop) has never been as generic and homogenous as it is today. Everyone in each genre looks the same, sounds the same, acts the same, dresses the same. (Ooh, look, another rap video where chicks are shaking their booties into fisheye lenses while the rappers - all dressed up like pimps - are drinking Courvoisier! Why didn't I think of that?!?) You have to dig deep to find anything that sounds truly fun and original.
I've gone into deep detail in other threads in the past as to why I think this is (one word: SoundScan), but until the record companies decide to start emphasizing originality over the inventory numbers SoundScan spits out every week (hint to record companies: Being #1 doesn't mean all that much when the #1 record is only selling half as many copies as the less-accurately-repored "#1 record" was twenty years ago), they're going to continue losing customers, even if they manage to completely smash all P2P activity, which of course they won't.
People, even teens, will pay for GOOD music. For subpar music, they'll only download it. If it has no value to them, they're not going to give a damn whether a record company tries to claim it does.