Patterico's Pontifications

11/26/2006

Tower Records – The Long Goodbye

Filed under: General,Miscellaneous,Movies,Music — Justin Levine @ 11:01 pm



[posted by Justin Levine]

The fact that Tower Records is going out of business represents a sad cultural milestone that has yet to get the kind of press it deserves.

When their “Going Out Of Business Sale” was first announced, everything was listed at 10% off. That was inconsequential, since most previous sales gave larger discounts than that. I went to both the Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey locations. Each felt like a ghost town with empty aisles staring back at me – a sad spectacle for a business that played such an important part of my life (both in Arizona and California).

Now, most items at Tower Records are listed at 40% off or more. I went back to the stores at the same locations this past week. It was packed full of people yanking items off the shelves in every direction (including offers on the shelves themselves).

It’s now finally sinking in – this is the end of the line for Tower Records.

When I was

growing up in Phoenix, Tower Records was the one place in town that you could count on to have, in-stock, virtually every music title you could ever want to purchase. Besides that, they stayed open until midnight every single night of the year (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve. Didn’t matter – they were open.). When I first moved to Los Angeles, Tower Records was still the place to get your music. Who could resist the lure of the unofficial Tower Records headquarters in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard? The huge billboards of new records by the hot artists…personal appearances and record signings by A-list groups…It seemed like ground zero for the whole music industry as far as consumers were concerned.

Then of course there was also Tower Video which managed to replicate the same sort of magic when the home video craze hit. It didn’t really attract as many personal appearances by people in the film business, but it still managed to stock every video title you could ever want. Even when I chucked VHS for a my laserdisc player, Tower Records/Video was the one place where I could always find what I was looking for.

Despite the cultural role that Tower Records has played for many of us throughout our lives, it will soon be gone with the wind. Unfortunately (for obvious reasons), governments can’t save businesses or restaurants by designating them a “cultural landmark” the way it can with buildings on rare occasions. The marketplace is messy at times, and nothing in it can last forever. Still, it’s worth trying to construct how Tower Records got to this point.

Some may point the finger at the Internet and music downloading systems. But that excuse is far too simplistic. Amoeba Music is still thriving in Los Angeles (and I assume at their other locations as well). Amoeba faced the same challenges that Tower Records did. And yet, whenever I go into Amoeba, I have to wait in a line 5 to 10 people deep in order to reach one of the several cash registers that they have lined up for sales. How is it that Amoeba is thriving in the age of the Internet while Tower has not?

I suspect the main problem for Tower was that it tied its fortunes too heavily to the corporate recording industry. When the main record companies held a functional oligopoly on the business, it was a boon to Tower. They benefited from support and promotions from the recording industry that no other chain could match. But when the business began to change, the recording industry was slow to recognize that fact – and Tower Records suffered as a result because it too was hesitant to do what was necessary to adjust to the market. What was once its biggest advantage eventually became a rather large millstone around its neck.

Tower never embraced the used CD or DVD markets. That was one of its biggest mistakes I suspect. Warehouse Records was one of the first big chains to embrace the buying and selling of used CD’s. Many people forget, but the record industry did everything it could at the time to shut down that practice – threatening to withhold promotional support from Warehouse if they didn’t buckle to their demands to stop selling used goods. Garth Brooks also spoke out against the used CD market – even suggesting that it was a form of theft. This was all before the Internet and Ebay, but the claim still seemed silly on its face back then. Warehouse stood firm and ushered in the used CD market, even though the chain became only a shell of its former self. (Are there any locations left in Los Angeles? I seem to recall one in Burbank – but I might be mistaken.)

Why did Tower refuse to embrace the used CD market? I can only speculate, but perhaps its close alliance with the record companies made it too hesitant.

Then there is also the fact that music production and distribution became cheaper, causing other independent record labels to thrive. Tower never really embraced the obscure labels, the local bands, or the real underground music scene. If it was something put out by the major record labels, Tower would be sure to have it. But eventually, it could no longer claim to have all the cutting edge music in stock. To an extent, the same thing happened with their video section. If a movie was made by a major studio and in the theater, Tower would be sure to carry it. But it was often hard to find the obscure cult films put out by independent distributors at Tower.

[There is a scene in Brian DePalma’s “Body Double” where Craig Wasson goes to Tower Video on Sunset Blvd. and asks a worker there if they cary the porn film “Holly Does Hollywood”. The worker leads him right to a copy in their “adult” section. This would never happen in reality at Tower, but the scene is a nice fantasy of what Tower ideally should have been about.]

Eventually Amazon.com beckoned to the consumer. Even retail stores like Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics would boast a collection of music and videos that was as large if not larger than Tower – and often at a cheaper price.

Tower tried to diversify by selling a few video games as well as “hip” books and magazines. However, the selection still wasn’t very large – leaving one with the impression that it was a half-hearted effort to try and pick up a few impulse buys among those making their way to the checkout register. I never knew anyone to go to Tower Records specifically in order to buy a book.

All of these factors combined to slowly eat away at Tower’s dominance until it finally hollowed out. Too many other outlets had larger selections and cheaper prices.

Amoeba Records is still a great place to shop for music and videos (new and used). The rest of the slack will be taken up by Amazon.com, Fry’s, downloading music, etc. I will still be able to buy whatever I am looking for in terms of music and videos. But all the same, none of these outlets will have the same emotional attachment that I have for Tower Records – a business that has formed a great deal of my life in the two states that I have lived in for significant amounts of time.

I can only hope that someday, somebody in a small corner of America will manage to collect a bunch of memorabilia and photos of the Tower Records chain and perhaps open up one of those small niche museums for people to visit one day.

Adios Tower Records. Thanks for the memories. Rest in peace…and rock on.

[posted by Justin Levine]

12 Responses to “Tower Records – The Long Goodbye”

  1. Don’t overlook the problem Tower always seemed to have with staffing. When you go into most independent record stores, you at least get to deal with record geeks who have rather eclectic tastes and can help you with country, jazz, classical, big band, pop, etc. Tower always seemed to have young clerks, perhaps working their first job, whose musical tastes never veered too far past Green Day or Christina Aguilera or whoever was getting heavy rotation on MTV. I don’t mind spending a few extra bucks to buy at Rhino Records, Cantebury Records, or Amoeba, but without the music expertise there was no sense in shopping at Tower when the same CD was $3 cheaper at Best Buy or on the Internet.

    JVW (255a81)

  2. The one exception, at least in Marina del Rey, was the classical guy. He knew his stuff. But the idiots at the front register, with their nose rings and forehead rings and other facial rings — they always made fun of him. You could hear it in the mocking way they paged him.

    I loved Tower in Austin. But it annoyed me in Marina del Rey.

    And in the end, if you can’t hack it, you can’t hack it.

    Patterico (de0616)

  3. I’d say that the marketplace is always messy to some degree or another. Anyway, it sounds like the market outcome was appropriate.

    Horace (cbe5f9)

  4. Well, consider the number of independent record stores that Tower Records put out of business, I guess this is only fair.

    BigFire (4a4c68)

  5. I thought Ameoba was a Berkeley company. They were the coolest back in the late 80s.

    The Liberal Avenger (c93dac)

  6. They had a model that didn’t change with the times. Given mamanement’s short-sightedness, it was inevitable.

    And, just because they are going Chapter 11 doesn’t mean they have gone the way of the dodo. The Sacramento Bee had a piece recently that this may be the best thing for Tower, and after coming out of bankruptcy they may be stronger than ever.

    I say good riddance.

    greg (de62b5)

  7. They’re not the only one:

    Musicland, the parent company of several music retailing chains, has filed for bankruptcy. Its MediaPlay stores were shuttered last month. Earlier this week, its Sam Goody chain announced the closure of seven CD stores across Colorado and more than 340 similar stores across the nation.

    West Coast indie legends such as Rhino Records and Aron’s recently have shut down. In Denver, Cheapo Discs has closed two stores. (2/4/06 Rocky Mountain News)

    geoff (4a198b)

  8. Hey do you remember CAPITAL RECORDS but just like when LIFE MAGAZINE quit publication it was a real loss

    krazy kagu (5b69ac)

  9. Justin, re Wherehouse, we still have one in here in my hometown of Lakewood. Even more surprising to me, they’ve managed (at least as of about a year ago) to snare some in-store appearances by several cutting-edge acts; Ying Yang Twins was one. But I share your sense of loss; there was just something special, that made you feel hip, purchasing at Tower, rather than anywhere else.

    Ten years ago, my guess would have been that Tower would ride high forever while Wherehouse– which is, even today, still heavy with a mid-70s WKRP-era vibe– would be long gone. Among other reasons, including the used CD/video sections (selling lesser-loved CDs and VHS saved my sorry rear end several times when I would sometimes spend too much at Hawaiian Gardens Casino), Wherehouse survived by closing about, I would guess, 70% of their stores in Southern California.

    qdpsteve (cd214a)

  10. I never really liked the Tower Record stores in Chicago. The one located downtown used to be a Rose Records which was vastly superior in all respects. If I recall, Tower was one of the first chains to start phasing out vinyl and cassette releases, only selling cds. What a pain in the ass. They had a crappy selection of highly commercial garbage. Even their import section sucked.

    Oh, and the “hip” books they sold were all “progressive” leftist liberal tripe (Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky etc).

    I won’t miss Tower.

    simon bar sinister (deecb8)

  11. I used to work at the Tower in Marina Del Rey, but it was in the mid 90s. Back then we had pretty knowledgeable people, and I don’t remember anyone with nose rings (but there were a few that were very stoned)……must’ve changed big time after I left……
    (and I don’t remember who did the classical section)

    K (56a0a8)

  12. My dad Claims to have the original sound system from the Sunset Strip flagship location of Tower Records. That would be a good start for the museum, right? Does anyone know how I could authenticate it? I haven’t seen it but am going to go look at it soon. Any thoughts??

    Ryan (6cec72)


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