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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday March 07 2018, @02:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the The-fat-lady-has-sung dept.

The late Russ Solomon radically changed retail music until the arrival of digital music players, streaming, online retailers, and late-stage big box stores all combined to cut deeply into the market. Now he, like music stores in general, has passed on:

A pioneer who was admired by employees and competitors alike, Solomon made Tower a $1 billion-a-year business stretching from Boston to Bogota, Colombia, with major outposts in Tokyo and London. He operated on a philosophy that was obvious to him but extraordinary for its day: Build big stores and pack them with as much music as possible. The company eventually branched into books and video.

The Rolling Stone also had this quote from a 2015 documentary on Solomon and his stores:

"You find the people that get their shit together, who get the job done, regardless of how much fun they have — and you leave 'em alone," Hanks told Rolling Stone of Tower Records' laissez-faire management style. "It's pretty dangerous, but it works for the era and for the music business. Russ kept finding himself in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude."

Over-expansion played a large role in the stores going under.

Sources :
Founder of Tower Records dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars. The Sacramento Bee.
Tower Records Founder Russ Solomon Dead at 92. Rolling Stone.


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  • (Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Wednesday March 07 2018, @04:25AM (1 child)

    by Hawkwind (3531) on Wednesday March 07 2018, @04:25AM (#648872)

    In Sacramento we had all the Towers, records, books, posters, jeans, shoes. The first three made for good times. Last year a Jewish deli opened up downtown that is named after him, Solomon’s Delicatessen.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:59AM (#649254)

    Three things killed tower:
    Their failed attempt to expand into Japan.
    Borders undercutting them 25 percent on all books at stores in regions that competed with Tower, which were quickly removed when Tower started faltering locally in Sacramento.
    The decision to waste money copying the Borders paradigm and massively reduce their inventory rather than focusing on their key strengths: Huge quantities of material rivalling only a library and knowledgable if eccentric staff who knew their stores inside and out. The latter have mostly moved to Dimple Records/Books, which in turn have taken over the majority of former Tower locations in the Sac Metro area (save the Watt Ave store which had already been sold to some grocery chain which folded not long after a second huge remodel of the location, about 5-10 years after the 'Borders-ification' of the old Tower Books/Records stores.)