Crap.

I'm no fan of the $18.95 cd, but this is sad. (Besides, Tower shares the blame for inflated prices with the rest of the industry).

Maybe downloading is stealing after all. Maybe Best Buy and Wal Mart are squeezing everyone out after all.

Crap is my reluctant decision. I guess I have some sympathy for the devil. I actually enjoy going into a store to buy music.

Little picture, NOT CRAP. Tower always was one of my least favourite stores to visit. They tend not to hire people who know anything about music and their selection pretty much sucks.

Big picture, CRAP. One less music store, more room for stores like WalMart and Target, which carry only the biggest selling acts and nothing else. As all media comes under the control of a select few companies, the discounts get bigger, therefore enabling these mega-stores to undercut the little stores even more than they do already.

So, CRAP it is.

Just like the saying "People get the government they deserve", so it goes that "People get the economy they deserve" - hence the Walmart and Target helping to put music retailers out of business.

The same fucking excuse, "I know they're bad, but I shop there 'cause they're so cheap". As long as citizens refuse to take responsibility for the 'real' impact of their economic decisions we will only see more Wal-marts, more Hummers, and a fucking Walgreens on each corner (and I really want to know what the Walgreens corporate overseers consider market saturation - becuase here it seems to be one store per 1/4 square mile). Few people seem to grasp the big picture nowdays - even so called 'activist' types.

I'd like to see individuals start accepting a modicum of accountability for where they decide to spend their money rather than giving it to the lowest bidder a-la federal contract.

You know it's gotten to be a sad state when you're lamenting the loss of Tower Records for Christsakes!

I think the answer is more like Who Cares? I would never shop there to begin with, everything is too expensive, and it seems like they have about the same selection of mainstream shit as WalMart and Target.

Not crap.

[quote="Barry Phipps"]Crap.

I'm no fan of the $18.95 cd, but this is sad. (Besides, Tower shares ....quote]

Crap. The Tower on Clark in Chicago had a magazine selection second to none as far as record stores go. As far as CDs go, they had a lot of real estate and used it to the best effect of any chain record store. Not a terrible loss, but a loss.

-r

Little picture, crap, as they had good magazine selection (with plenty of porn). And they would get rid of vinyl box sets for amazingly cheap.

Big picture, not crap. Any problems with Wal Mart and Best Buy are not ameliorated by the existence of a slightly better but still mega chain like Tower. I will hold that the world of music is too diverse to be entirely co-opted in the marketplace by discount retailers (unlike, say, the world of mattress manufacturers). What did Tower really offer? If you wanted a top 40 CD, maybe you burn it off the internet, maybe you buy a bootleg copy, maybe you source the cheapest and most convenient place to get it. In this case, Tower didn't offer any advantage, especially in a changing marketplace.

If, on the other hand, you want some very select type of music, you would probably go to a retailer that specialized in that kind of stuff (such as an Aquarius) or maybe you order it from the record label itself. Tower was did not consistently carry any type of specialization in music that someone who was really into that music could count on Tower to have it.

Think about it - in a world of Best Buy (popular music at a loss-leader price), Amazon (a wide variety of many different types of titles) and Aquarius (if you like that, maybe you'd like these 3 of 4 other things that you've never heard of) - who needs Tower Records? Virgin seems to be doing slightly better, but they've been much more aggressive about staying on the radar screens of current trends. Tower always seems like it's waiting for a new Guns and Roses record to come out so that assholes and their idiot younger brothers will have a place to line up before the midnight release.

Still, as United Airlines can tell you, there's a big difference between filing for bankruptcy and going out of business. Tower is a recognized brand name and 4th & B'way is valuable real estate. They're not gone, but they'll have to face some new realities of how music is sold these days.

Anyway, I'm with the who cares.

= Justin

Things are getting worse. From Digital Music News:

Tower Records Edging Closer to Disaster, Possible Liquidation
Date: august, 2006 (81406)

The once-proud Tower Records is now edging closer to the rocks, according to continued reports. The chain has been struggling with mounting debt, and major labels were recently forced to freeze shipments following various non-payments. Last week, the dire financial situation failed to thaw, part of a quickly worsening situation. The beleaguered retailer is now headed by chief executive Joe D'Amico, recruited to manage the current crisis and possible bankruptcy. Other possibilities include a straight liquidation, depending largely on decision of chief banking lender CIT Financial.

Labels want to get paid, but they are also disinterested in witnessing the fall of such an important retailer. Just recently, attendees at the annual NARM convention in Kissimmee, FL, were supportive of Tower, and crowned the retailer with a top award. But financial realities will probably spell a rough period ahead, despite the symbolic nod. If Tower Records folds, it would represent a critical loss for the dedicated, brick-n-mortar music retail segment. Other players in the landscape include big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, which offer deeply discounted loss-leading CDs, and smaller niche outlets, which are also facing heavy financial pressures.

I actually like making a late-night run to Tower on Clark once in a while. This is kind of a drag.

It's inevitable.

And it's good news for those who want to see an economy that supports lots of alternatives rather than just hits.

(I remember telling Steve (and this is before the web) that someday musicians will use the internet to distrubute their music directly to consumers. I remember his response was something like "the internet is for guys with thick glasses who masturbate too much". Well, here we are, and it looks like the EA board is a self-fulfilling prophecy. < JOKE!>)

I'm not sure I'd credit this guy with the idea, as many many others have aired it before, but Chris Anderson captures this well in his notion of "the long tail".

http://www.thelongtail.com/about.html

The idea, simply enough, is that bricks and mortar stores have finite shelf space, and so their winning strategy is to carry titles that have mass appeal. Titles without mass appeal lose out.

But when you are selling information (in this case music) the equivalent of shelf space is so cheap that you can carry just about every title. And all of those small audience titles add up to a market that is as big as the mainstream audience.

My impression is that Apple/iTunes is selective about who they offer. There is a bunch of money to be made by someone carrying "long tail" titles.

Even better (maybe) would be a sort of DIY online distributer that would allow anyone to upload their music and sell it with the service provider taking a small slice of every sale.

I'm not closely in touch with commercial music right now...maybe this has all already happened. If not...it will soon.

Yeah, but there is fun to be had browsing around a record store. Just like Netflix... I tried it for a while, but didn't like it in the end. I prefer to just look around for what I want in a real store with real people around.

Going to the record store is fun. Clicking around on the internet looking for something can be fun, too, but the experience isn't as rewarding for me.

As long as I can buy CDs and vinyl online I won't be too angry, but if it gets to the point where I have to load inferior-quality digital downloads (for me, vinyl>CD>MP3s) onto a hard drive that requires constant backup, I'll be very annoyed.

In the end, it's a losing battle, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Without getting into a big analog vrs digital who-ha...

iTunes uses AAC rather than MP3 which is, file size being equal, a big improvement.

And there is no reason why downloads couldn't be CD quality or even better.

But yeah, I understand the attraction of music stores. Ditto, perhaps even more so, for book stores. I like them too. Enjoy while we can I guess.