What Went Wrong with Tower Records? | A company stuck in the past.
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- Опубліковано 28 бер 2021
- What went wrong with tower records? How did tower records fail? What went wrong?
Whether you use UA-cam music or Spotify premium you are going to agree that music is just a click away, but that was not always the case, in fact some years ago in order to listen to your favourite tracks you had to buy something called a record. and the company that dominated this trade was one Tower Records.
Tower Records was on a high and was a dominant force in the industry
But you don't hear about them nowadays do you? So what actually went wrong with Tower Records?
In today's video, we are going to take a look at the origins of tower records, how tower records got started, and what went horribly wrong that lead to the downfall of Tower Records
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Wdym "What went wrong"? Tower Records is still alive and well in Dublin. Opened in 2003 and they even moved to a bigger store about 6 or 7 years ago moving from 1 floor to 2 floors. They still have live music events and signings in store (well, not since COVID but they're slowly starting it back again).
The international stores, many/most were franchises. Japan stores are STILL thriving
Tower in Dublin opened in 1994.
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I don’t miss the prices but I do miss the social experience.
Wasn’t the first Tower Records on Broadway in Sacramento. The Watt avenue store was the second store. And his father’s pharmacy was Tower Pharmacy named after the Tower Theater next door. There are many inaccuracies in this video.
Every time I visited London, Tower Records would be the first place I would go. I returend to London in 2009 and was SO disappointed to find the store gone.
I know the feeling bro. I fell in love with london because of those music megastores.. virgin, hmv, tower, our price.. oml.
For the best part of 25 years I created and produced most of Tower’s TV advertising campaigns, which were the jumping off point for most of their general marketing and advertising efforts around the world. I had not heard of Tower before moving to Sacramento in the early 1980’s from NYC, and so it was an interesting story to learn about. As I came to discover, there were kids in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco who dreamed of going to work for Tower when they grew up.
I always felt that Tower’s ultimate collapse was due to the same thing that helped them become so great: Russ Solomon’s reliance on long-time employees. Some of these employees rose to high corporate positions but were largely inept at anything other than stocking shelves. I very much believe in loyalty to employees, but that doesn’t mean they’re qualified to become corporate executives.
Tower could have beaten Napster, Music Boulevard and any other new entity in the new marketplace created by the Internet and digital devices. But Russ and his staff made the conscious decision to not engage in this area because they believed they were just fads. In a corporate video I produced for Tower in the early 1990’s to help attract banking support for their growth, Russ acknowledged this on camera, as if it was a positive decision. I shook my head in disbelief, and then shook it again when the decision was made to keep the comment in the final edit. It was like the story of movie executives refusing to believe that the public would want to hear actors speak.
At the time, I was building my own online media company that was a very early adopter of streaming audio and the pioneer in the use of streaming video on the Internet. We gave them every opportunity to make use of our technology and capabilities but Russ and his people kept refusing. By the time they woke up to the fact that this wasn’t a fad, and they finally launched their online efforts it was too late. Moreover they relied on the wrong people to build their online portals, pissed away tremendous amounts of money, and still never adopted any of the Internet’s best technologies to help sales effort (outside of very cursory attempts to use streaming audio).
Russ’ abdication as chief executive to his son was another mistake. While Russ’ experience as a kid growing up to invent his brand of the music business was clearly significant in the success of Tower, that experience isn’t the kind of thing that gets passed down through DNA. Michael Solomon was not the retailer his father was, and the people brought in to replace some aging marketing personnel were just hack “K-Mart” employees who had no feel for music, entertainment, or entrepreneurial marketing - all of which was sorely needed.
However, it’s still a great “folksy” story and the stores were great places to hang out in and shop in. New York had some great music and record shops when I was growing up, but none were as good as Tower Records.
couldn’t have put it better myself! Thank you for sharing!
Sounds like they should have taken your advice. Sometimes CEOs and administrators of various businesses are truly their own worst enemies.
I really was sad to see places like Tower Records, Blockbusters and other companies go out of business. I hope they make a comeback one day.
Great insight. Some learnings businessmen could use in your comment. Thanks. :)
@Marc Rauch . . . interesting take you had about Tower. I worked for Tower in 1978 ~ '79 and what you said about loyal employees not necessarily being competent when rising in the ranks I saw first-hand at my store. In as much as I loved recorded music, the lack of competency and lacking a firm hand with running the store was one of several reason why I left.
The industry including Tower switched to cds around 1990 not 2001. By the mid 90's, there were very few vinyl records in their store or being issued by the majors or indie labels. By 1998, Napster was becoming a force taking away billions in industry revenue.
Part of the problem was also greed within the music industry. It was getting so expensive to buy a cd. Every time they switched to newer technology it forced people to buy the same music over and over again and the prices went up each time..
Also a lot of record labels were unwilling to use or create their own online platforms to allow customers to download individual songs. Their own egos got in the way. I remember when Napster was trying to work with record companies so that they could make money from the downloads, but they refused to do that.
Since that time it has become really popular to download music online. A lot of people don't even buy cds anymore. They just download their favorite songs and create their own Playlists.
I have no doubt that the music industry lost some profits due to people downloading free music, but I don't think it's as high as the numbers they gave. The reality is that a lot of people downloaded free music because they couldn't afford to go out and buy cd's on a regular basis. I think probably the majority of people using Napster were just people who wanted to create Playlists of their favorite songs which you couldn't do prior to that. Sometimes you might buy a record and only like 2 or 3 songs on the album, but most record stores wouldn't allow you to return it.
I think they should have worked with Napster because that's the direction that things were headed in anyway. It was inevitable. My daughter doesn't even buy cd's. She downloads most of her music on her Ipod and UA-cam.
Trip down memory lane.
Definitely is!
they're still huge in japan!
I miss Tower
The last CD I bought from Tower was "First Impressions of the Earth" by The Strokes. What's yours?
Worked the london one in the 90s. Was asked to stay on late one night. Put up paper on the windows and at about 11pm in walk M.J with an army of guards no lie.
That's so cool. I've always loved MJ's music. I'm still sad that I never got a chance to see him or Prince in concert.
I was so sad when Tower Records closed. Their prices were a bit high, but it was a fun atmosphere. It used to be fun to go in music stores and browse through the records and tapes etc, and also using the listening stations.
I feel the same way about all the video stores closing. It might be more easy/convenient to watch movies online without having to leave the house, but it's definitely not as fun. I wish we still had the option to walk inside the store if we wanted to. I think it's making us lazier as a society in many ways.
Part of the fun of buying a music album or renting/buying a movie is the social aspect. It used to be a whole event and a reason to get out of the house for a bit.
While I do appreciate modern technology and having the convenience to order things at home I also long for the way things were. It makes me sad at times seeing how much has changed, and it's not necessarily all for the better.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
Tower went the same way Blockbuster did. Digital access and technology killed it.
If you weren't there, you would not understand what a major part of our youth Tower was. Growing up I purchased at least 2 cassettes (then CDs) every payday throughout the 70s, 80s and most of the 90s. My wife even worked at the Concord CA. location in the mid 90s. The atmosphere was always a great community of music lovers...of all types. Today's generation will never know what that experience was like.
I bought a VERY rare John fruscante single back in '04-'05 that ONLY tower records had. They're sorely missed. But i BELIEVE they'll get back to the power they once held back in the 20th century. Because as time passes the love for nostalgia ONLY gets stronger...
Yes the nostalgia might actually save them!
Greed. They thought the good times would never end and got what they deserved. The mark up on CDs was ridiculous. It cost fuck all to manufacture a CD
Yep
Solid mini documentary. A shame you referred to records as “vinyls” though. The plural is “vinyl”.
So crazy how vinyl is now back in fashion. I miss tower. I used to go there every week !
When you buy a vinyl record you actually own something as opposed to being "licensed" to listen to it. Trust me; when you get older like me it will be much more gratifying to go back through and old record collection than an old phone.
@Martin Murphy oh yeah. trust me you don't have to explain that to me . I always prefer the physical copy and the gratification of browsing for hours and finding a gem. I used to work at Tower when I was a teenager and have had the pleasure of having plenty of independent music stores around. Even when things went digital I never stopped buying the hardcopy
You might as well start forbidding war with your own industry. I wanted to watch this video before I watch the documentary on Tower Records. Thank you so much.
🎵Please ‼Bring Tower Records back‼🎵📀📀📀
There was also Tower Video, a video store that sold new and used VHS, Beta videocassettes and laserdiscs.
Man I used to spend hours at Tower Records every Saturday night. Just reading the magazines, and combing through endless rows of CDs and LPs. I’d guess 50% of my income from 20-24 was spent at Tower.
Simple. Tower charged $18.99 to $21.99 for EVERY DAMNED CD regardless as to what it was. Don’t fall for that garbage about “Oh big bad internet killed the innocent record store boo hoo hoo” garbage. We know the TRUTH.
Now…since this is factually incorrect, we’ll start there. Next, NON-SALE, TOPLINE releases were topped out at $18 in 2005, but that was less than 8-9% of a store’s stock. Cost on those topline Cds was $12-14, so they had to be marked up to $17.99 in order to make $0 after expenses. Now imagine those brand new $12-14 COST CDs on sale for $13.99 (which was the entire Top 25 in pop, 3-400 marketed titles, top 10’s in jazz, classical, and ancillary section, etc). Each sale lost money.
Make sure to know your facts about pricing before spouting off.
@@miketausig4205 How is he wrong though? The prices of cds was getting crazy back then. I realize that the stores have overhead costs as well. But the record labels also charged a lot which made the stores have to raise prices. Whatever their reasons were for having such high pricing it's still part of the reason a lot of people couldn't afford to shop there regularly. I used to go there once in awhile as a rare treat to myself, but I couldn't afford to go often.
@@eggnog9090 their prices were a joke
Nothing went wrong, they were a wildly successful company. Then came the internet and cell phones. You no longer needed to buy records, etc.
How, why and who owns the Tower Records in Shibuya, Japan?
The original owner of Tower records opened up the stores in Japan and they were very successful but when the stores in the US started to have financial troubles The original owner wes forced to sell off the Japanese stores in order to raise cash.
@@jeffmpvd7689 There are now (as of 2022) 76 Tower Records store in Japan, up from 15 when Tower sold their stores in Japan to a Japanese company in the early 2000s in order to pay down their debt in the U.S.
When I visit hk.the first place I visit was hmv.now its gone.
This video has some misinformation and sounds like it was made by a high school kid with limited knowledge. Watch "All things Must Pass" for a more thorough video on Tower Records.
People switched to CDs in the 80s not 2000. Tower made a killing switching to CDs. They had nothing to do with its demise.
Dublin IE also has a Tower and you cna you tube their instores
Contaminant USD350
mp3 went wrong for them
$20 CDs perhaps?
I couldn’t get past the clueless intro to this. So not at all how it was. Tower dictated public music taste? Really. Actually have to go to a record store to buy music? Oh, the horror.
Tower has TWO stores in Dublin, Ireland as of 2022. This video is inaccurate and pretty shoddy
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@@BehindTheBusiness Looks like people are pretty fussy.
I guess:( but nevertheless, will try my best to improve! 😔
FINGER'll snow? 7:30?
ur timeline is flawed .....tower started selling cds in the late 90s - 2000s ????..... thats wrong.... that had nothing to do with it... cds had been on the market (and sold by tower ) for 20
+ years by that point ...just saying