Have you all heard about this? What happened? Is it because most people have Ipods so they are downloading music instead of buying? I'm sad because i've been shopping there for so long and I don't own an Ipod. I'm one of the very few peeps still buying cds. Sorry but I can't get with the Ipod system.

dayummmm

dancerella said:

The iPod works just fine with CDs. I'm sorry you shopped at high-priced Tower. There are better deals out there.
[Edited 10/19/06 17:39pm]

Tower Records is going out of business?


GOOD!!!!!

It sucks for us people who still buy music in bulky media like CDs.

dancerella said:

Its partly that, but its also because labels will not lower their wholesale prices to the stores, its business 101. The reason Best Buy and Walmart can sell you CDS for 9 buck and lose about 3 bucks a CD is because all their other product that they carry makes them such a profit margin. So stores like Tower and also FYE and Musicland/Sam Goody which dont carry washing machines and ovens and entertainment centers, they cannot afford to lose any money on cds/dvd, and really its the only place to make their profit. But by losing Tower alot of people dont realize they are losing a great supplier of Imports, Catalog product and singles and also were a great supplier of indie music. Sam goody was a major supplier for the urban market and also Reggae until they were corporate raided by Best buy a few years back.

lastdecember said:

CinisterCee said:

Try going to look in Best Buy if you are a big fan of Reggae, Good Luck, their idea of it is Sean Paul.

lastdecember said:

Exactly.

I went to tower records like 4 times when i worked in the restaurant that was under it in chicago.

I will say one thing, they had the most musically challanged staff that ive ever come across.

It was like they were hired for their "look" but had no music sense at all.

Let the place burn I say.

R.I.P,Tower Records

I have alot of memories of going to Tower Records on the day that a new Prince CD was released.They opened at 9:00 AM,earlier than all the other record stores,so I always went there so I could hurry up and get the CD.Another cool thing about Tower was their magazine rack...you could find lots of rare magazines that werent' sold anywhere else.For awhile there,you could even find issues of Uptown magazine! They also had a huge import section,although it dwindled in recent years.I'm really gonna miss Tower.I've been going here since I was a kid.I remember going here and buying Donna Summer 45s in the late 70s,lol.

the "Old Schoolers" on this site will be able to relate to this picture:

eventually, with the mainstreaming of music downloads getting more and more commonplace, the only wrecka stows that will be left will be specialty shops that carry stuff that can't be purchased on mp3. which, you know, i kinda don't mind.

but this would open the door for enterprising souls to rip that rare music to mp3 and start rare music download sites, at which point the only enticement specialty shops could have would be to sell really collector-y stuff, and i suppose to cater to the holdouts who still prefer vinyl and CDs.

i know coconuts slashed its number of stores dramatically and now tower's gone under. i'm sure virgin's going to be around for a while because richard branson is richer than god, but will there come a day when there's little point in music/video store chains at all? maybe when the mp3-ization of movies becomes as simple and commonplace as music downloading?

I wonder how much longer Virgin Megastore will last?

I didn't even realize until all this Tower talk that HMV was no longer in the U.S.
[Edited 10/20/06 5:26am]

chuckaducci said:

Yeah, it's really good when one of the last premuim music stores in America goes out of buiness. I'm not saying you have to shop there all the time, but it's always nice to know it's there so you can pick up the stuff that Best Buy doesn't carry, for find interesting stuff. But there's always Wal-Mart....

Anx said:

I'm just hoping those places don't go out of business, too. Are you suggesting that places like that will thrive now that music chains are dying (if not dead).

VinnyM27 said:

tower's new release prices weren't bad. and yeah, they always had the semi-obscure stuff that i wanted to find. you always know what you can and can't expect to find in your neighborhood wrecka stows - you can't get the new britney spears at reckless records, and you can't pick up a limited edition st. etienne import b-sides compilation at best buy - but tower always came close to straddling both extremes. it was always my favorite last resort.

VinnyM27 said:

i think they'll thrive for a while, but i also think online retailers are the cancerous boil on the ass of real-time 'bricks-and-mortar' businesses. i think more casual shoppers will go to indie wrecka stows once the big chains start to disappear, but some smartypants will find a way to offer people the choices online that they currently feel they can only get from specialty mom-and-pop indie wrecka stows. or maybe the indie wrecka stows will set up download shops online.

Tower wasn't the greatest but as mentioned before if you like singles or imports it was the best place to pick everything up in one shot. Sometimes they had decent sale prices but I didn't do my primary shopping there.

As for staff not knowing about music--when I use to work for a certain music retailer you had to take a test and have some pretty decent knowledge of music and genres. You needed to know your stuff and brush up on what you didn't know. When that person left the staff quality and knowledge went downhill.

JackieBlue said:

it is sad to see the veteran record stores go out of business. we have had some in my area that have been around for longer than tower records to suddenly shut down. the mom and pop record stores where all the good stuff could be found are finally having to let it go.

Anx said:

I gotta admit, I love buying music online because I find stuff there that isn't available at even the used record stores. At the very least, the online places like Amazon will probably never die.

VinnyM27 said:

No,I've ordered stuff from Amazon and then get an e-mail saying its not in stock.

This reminds me of something I read yesterday:

My personal feeling is fuck downloads.I like the physical object-the connection between the music & the images/words/art that come along with it.The stacks of vinyl & CDs in my home are what gave me a constant connection to the art path through life.A computer can't give you that.

gypsyfire said:

Though its great to have advancements in technology, u know at some point that someone is going to hack into iTunes and get a virus in there and then people who 100% download music will lose their whole collection in one shot, because some computer geek thought it would be funny. Well just imagine losing 10,000 songs you downloaded and not having the cds to back it up, but of course you paid for it.

dancerella said:

Same here

SoulAlive said:

Your first car!

CinisterCee said:

exactly plus i have fond memories of that place. it's where i bought my first albuim "appetite for destruction". it's also the place i would always meet my friends before going some where else. i agree they are a bit over priced.

by the way, i'm noticing that Virgin Megastores cds have been ptretty cheap lately $10 which is great because that's what it should cost but i wonder if that's a sign they may be going under as well.

JackieBlue said:

I didn't know that about HMV

gypsyfire said:

thank you! that's excatly how i feel. so you don't own an Ipod either?

dancerella said:

I grew up on Tower, was there religously every Tuesday. Though I haven't been there in years - perhaps ten - it's sad to see it go.

I only hope you have some slick independents in your neighborhood...

bc