Last month’s closure of Tower Records in the French Quarter was certainly a huge blow to the local music retailing business. However, it was not quite a death blow. In fact, some enterprising New Orleans music retailers are doing quite well, thank you.

Uptown on Magazine Street, business has never been better at Musica Latina, thanks largely to the influx of Mexican and Central American workers into the New Orleans area since Katrina.

“There’s no compariso...