Why Tower Records Closed It's Doors Forever
"The end of an american institution!"
"The music business will never be the same!"
So, unless you've been hiding under a rock, you already know that megastore Tower Records has gone up in smoke. Once a haven for indie musicians and unsigned bands of all sorts, Tower Records has been on a slow and inevitable decline ever since it's founder, Russell Solomon, was gently ousted as the company's Chairman.
Having served a short stint as an employee at Tower Corporate Headquarters, here in Sacramento CA, I'm not sure how much I should say about this. Tower Records had been in and out of boardroom meetings with venture capital firms and investment groups for several years. The details I'll keep it necessarily vague so as not to hurt any interested parties.
What follows is a combination of my own observations and views expressed to me by Tower employees regarding why Tower fell. Major complaints from inside and outside the lobby include:
- Old guard ideas - This is the very first thing I noticed when I started working there. What Tower Records has needed for years is fresh ideas at the executive level. Or for the executive level ot actually TALK to part of the business where fresh ideas come from: the young people at the bottom, closest to the customers.
- Couldn't commit - Tower couldn't decide what business it was in. Books? Magazines? Music? Art? Online distribution? Walking into one of thier stores was equal parts incredible and disorienting. Again, I know more people on one hand than their entire company knew collectively who could have helped Tower make their mark in online retail. No large company should be that disconnected from trends and talent.
- No more street cred - Over time Tower Records has fallen out of touch with it's primary evangelists--their customers. That some of you have no idea what company I'm talking about just proves my point. Tower Record's customers have always been their best form of advertising, until they starting losing ground to retailers who carried the perception of bargain bin prices like Best Buy. They should have organized and sponsored more events to stay relevant to the music community.
- High prices - This, this is a biggie for todays' price sensitive youth like us. Even loyal lifetime customers complained about rising prices at Tower.
So basically, it was time to die. But if necessity is the mother of all invention, then perhaps that's all about to change in the coming months. But more on that later.
Are Brick-and-Mortal Music Stores Doomed to Failure?
What do you think? Is there still a place for brick-and-mortar record stores in this world? I don't know. To me it seems like, outside circles of record collectors and hardcore music afficionados it's cheaper to buy the music you love online. There is something about walking into a store and blissfully browsing their the music selection for hours that you can't experience buying songs online. But why would you pay more for that experience?
Merely Human
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Reader Comments (6)
Synchronicity Live (http://synchronicitylive.com) is a cool new website that lets musicians anywhere in the world upload their concerts LIVE - and fans all around the globe can watch them as they happen!
MySpace has the songs and YouTube has the videos. Synchronicity Live just completes the triangle. Synchronicity Live streams the full concert, whatever the band sends in. And, almost all of what airs will be up to the musicians - no record company bigwig giving orders, the players call the shots.
So how does it work? To put a concert online, a band only needs a digital video camera, a computer and a broadband Internet connection. That's it! There's no limit on how many concerts Synchronicity Live can show at once. Down the road there will be thousands at a time, and once a concert has been played, it's recorded. But it's only archived if the band wants it to be. The players have the power, like never before!
Who can watch and listen? Well, you'll need Adobe Flash 9 installed for the first minute and then you have to register to stay. It's FREE and includes some basic personal information - not for Synchronicity Live, but for the bands. That's so a band can go to a label and say, "Look, I play every Friday night, and I have 15,000 people who listen to me. Here are their demographics."
Synchronicity Live is basically a site that allows unknown bands to be seen and heard. But it can go well past that. If venues get involved, everyone in the country can watch a night's music at the Roxy in Los Angeles, the Bluebird in Nashville or the Apollo in New York. How cool is that??
Here in the UK record store chain FoP have closed down. iTunes sales are up, yet. Its not set in stone.
Look at it this way, would you rather have music, on a pc, that has a change of power failure, crashes, wipes, that lose you everything. The reason i say that is because, stores such as itunes only allow you to download once then its up to you to back it up. You maybe saving £5 in buying online, but not every record label or band is releasing online yet, and if you lose it, it is lost.
Also their is the asthetic view. Do you have any old lps? 12"ers? Its the style, look through this, i brought this cd, got it signed at a gig. You cant do that with music just on a pc or mac.
So ive got to say no, i dont think they will go out of buisness. To many people are interested in owning the cd, the signings, the buying on the release date. Music is more than just listening to the tracks, its getting out there, getting them, putting the new cd on.
Youve mentioned that in short and finished with why pay more? Why pay online at all, p2p it, get it free. Dont go out there, support the bands, show people you like them owning their cd. That you went and brought it. As i mentioned before, its all in the aesthetics.